Upgrading to the new Numbers, Pages, and Keynote Versions on MacBook Pro 2020 (Intel)

Assuming you can upgrade to the latest non-Creative Studio versions (version 14.5) on an Intel Mac, no user-created files should get corrupted. User files are not updated. Some people seem to have problems locating files stored in iCloud after some updates but I'm not sure any have actually lost any. They often don't report back to let us know.

Before updating, you can copy the application files to somewhere else on your drive then rename them and you'll continue to have the old versions after the update. I put the version number at the end of the name. I wish I'd thought to do this a long time ago. The oldest one I have is 13.1. However, if you open (and save or autosave) a Numbers file in a newer version you won't be able to later open it in a previous version. Numbers usually "upgrades" the documents when they are opened and the older version will no longer open them.

I'd avoid the Creative Studio version of Numbers et. al. for now. If you get a pop up that there is a new version of Numbers available, don't do it. Even though the iWork apps are still free to use (for now anyway), they include some pay-to-play stuff and people are complaining about it being intermixed with the free stuff and they keep getting popup ads to buy Creative Studio. Very much a turn off. If Apple ever decides to make the iWork apps not free, I am out of here (after 18+ years).

You can use your old Numbers files with versions 14.5 or 15.1 or the iCloud version but you probably will no longer be able to use them in older versions (I assume any version before 14.4) so I guess in that way they do get "upgraded" by the new version(s), but only if you open them. Before opening them in 14.5 or 15.1 you can save a copy of your files to wherever you choose on your HD or iCloud Drive or wherever but those will just be copies of the old files, they will not get any new changes you make to them but you can continue to use them separately in an older version.

I wish Apple was more backward compatible friendly. They tend to update Numbers, their other apps, and their OS to eventually not work on older hardware, forcing you to either stick with an old version that is in compatible with everyone else or to upgrade your hardware (which is likely their goal). It becomes very costly to buy all new hardware just to run a consumer-level spreadsheet app, especially if you have more than one Apple device.

Just don't upgrade to keynote 2026. It's bad. They want you to pay for al kinds of upgrades. My old workflow is crap now. All kinds of functions don't work anymore. I hate this!!

> They want you to pay for al kinds of upgrades

Not quite....

Like the rest of the Creator Studio suite, Keynote 15.x (not '2026') adds several AI-based tools to help create and curate your documents. These additions are completely optional. If you don't want to use them, you can use Keynote (and Numbers, and Pages...) in exactly the same way as you used the previous version, and not pay a dime.

What workflows, specifically, are not working in the new version? Granted, some things have moved around a little, but I can't find anything I could do before that isn't available in (non-paid) version 15.

So how (if I cannot move the Numbers files I Have already created to the new Numbers App easily, what or where do I move the olde for safe keeping on my MacBook? thx