pages-lost documents

If you are looking for the documents in your iTunes library on your computer, they will not be in there merely by syncing. Launch Pages on your iPad and the documents will still be in there. The documents are saved right in the app.

In order to get them into iTunes on your computer, you must use file sharing when you sync. Read this to learn how to use file sharing.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4094

They have to be on the iPad ... I think??? - unless you deleted them somehow before you quit the app. They have to be there or this is the most bizarre thing I've seen in a while. They will not be in iTunes either unless you copied them via file sharing like I explained. So try these generic fixes. The restart may be all you need so ....

Restart the iPad by holding down on the sleep button until the red slider appears, then slide to the right to power off. Turn the iPad on again by pressing the sleep button until the Apple logo appears. Once the iPad has fully rebooted, launch Pages and look again.

If that doesn't work reset the iPad. Hold down on the sleep and home buttons simultaneously for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple logo appears - ignore the red slider - let go of the buttons. Check the Pages app again.

No matter whether you synced or not, the documents should be in the Pages app. That is how iOS files are saved - right within the apps in which they are created. If you quit typing in the middle of a sentence in a Pages document, go to another app and come back to Pages a week later, that document ahold be saved automatically in Pages and should still be there. There is not a way to save them like on a computer. There is no folder structure on the iPad. This is what has me baffled.

I have only one other suggestion and I don't think it is applicable in this case. Do you have restrictions set on your iPad? You could try disabling restrictions and see if the documents show up then.

AFAIK - the only methods to transfer documents to your computer from the iPad are to email the files, use a cloud service like DropBox or use iOS file sharing - you have to use the Share and Print option from the Tools icon in Pages - Documents within an iPad app are not automatically transferred when you sync.

Maybe someone else has an answer that I haven't thought of. I hope so for your sake. One parting question ... and just to reiterate ... you did create the documents on the iPad and every document that you created has disappeared?

I never gave the de installed any consideration. Whenever I purchase a new app, as soon as I connect my iPad to my Mac - and before I sync with iTunes - I right click on my device name and Transfer Purchases, then I right click on the name again and I backup my iPad, then I sync as step three.

If Pages shows up in the iTunes library under the Apps heading and if Pages is still on your iPad (and it is), I don't see de-installation as the issue and re-installation as a possibility - but who knows?

You said in your first post that likely it is something basic and it might well be, but for the life of me I can't think of what that be at this point. A restore from your backup is unlikely to be a good choice either since if the apps disappeared, I doubt that they would be on the backup.

I've just had the same thing. I have just done two solid weeks of writing in Pages on the iPad2 and when I synced, the ipad copied all the apps across to itunes and then deleted them from the iPad. I then selected the check boxes to install them back onto the iPad, but now all of my Pages documents have vanished!

This is insane! At no point did I tell the Mac to remove pages from my iPad, and I never had an option to do anything with the documents. They're just all gone!

Can anyone help with this??? I have a deadline this Friday and that was two weeks of work!

I have never had this happen and obviously I cannot explain why this happening to you guys. I just tried to replicate this problem again on my own iPad and no matter what I sync from Pages or how I sync, I have no problems at all. I am not losing any files. Of course I am transferring the files back and forth using iOS file sharing which is what you supposed to do. The files will not sync to iTunes without using file sharing, but they should not be removed from the device either.

Here is the link again.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4094

You can try this. Launch iTunes on your computer, then select Preferences in iTunes from the drop down menu. I'm not sure where it is in the Windows version but Preferences is under the bold iTunes heading in the menu at the top. Then click on devices and look and see what the last date of your iPad's backup is. If it is the backup where you just lost your Pages app, the Pages files and data SHOULD be in the backup

You could connect your iPad to your computer and launch iTunes. Right click on your iPad's name on the left side under the devices heading and select backup. Then select the backup that was just created when you synced. Maybe that will restore the files to your iPad.

I wish I had another answer but that is the only thing I can come up with at this point. Maybe posting in the Pages for iPad area of the site would bring better results than I can offer. Here is the link to that site.

https://discussions.apple.com/community/app_store/iwork_for_ios

I went to the Apple Store Genius Bar and they can see the backups of the documents (the preview still shows on each doc so you can trawl down the list) and18 files are there which is about right. But they couldn't find any way to get them back into Pages, and apparently Pages encrypts each document so they can't be read outside the app. I asked if they couldn't send them to Apple for someone to salvage, but they just looked blankly at me. I'm trying frantically to remember all the stuff I've been writing since I bought it on June 15th but I can only remember fragments.

I only synced the iPad to MAKE a safe backup with a deadline approaching. It's crazy. How can a trusted APPLE application delete so many files and SO much work without asking??

It doesn't seem like many people read this, but I'm scouring google for any other clues!

paul2104 wrote:

I went to the Apple Store Genius Bar and they can see the backups of the documents (the preview still shows on each doc so you can trawl down the list) and18 files are there which is about right.

You can see the preview in the Pages app on the iPad but when you tap on the preview it doesn't open??? If that's the case that is more than bizarre. Or where is it exactly that they can see the previews? How do you get into the backup? I know where the backup is stored on the computer but I didn't think there were any files that you can read from the backup.

But they couldn't find any way to get them back into Pages, and apparently Pages encrypts each document so they can't be read outside the app.

One more time so I totally understand ... they can see the previews but they can't open the files? The previews are in the Pages app on the iPad? I am really confused!

I only synced the iPad to MAKE a safe backup with a deadline approaching. It's crazy. How can a trusted APPLE application delete so many files and SO much work without asking??

It doesn't seem like many people read this, but I'm scouring google for any other clues!

I wish someone else would read this - obviously for your sake - but I too am baffled and would love to know what the blazes is going on.

No, sorry, I mean that the iTunes backup files in library/applicationsupport/mobilesync still retain their preview information, so those 18 backup files of my Pages documents are there with their visual previews but unreadable. Try going through yours and you'll see lots of visual previews of what various backup files are..

Meanwhile Pages on the iPad is empty of documents, and the Genius guys weren't able to get the iTunes mobilesync backups back onto the iPad.

PS there are several references on the iWork forum about Pages documents vanishing and apps being deleted. But no answers..

I just looked through a number of the backup documents and ironically enough I could not find a single one that showed a visual Pages doc preview. The document icons that I saw were simple generic "text editor" looking icons. I did see a few photos and graphics from apps that I have that showed "real" visual previews, but I could not pin down a Pages icon in preview. Going by my results, I would have no idea which of these previews are actually Pages document. I assume that pdf backups would show the pdf icon, photos show the actual photo and so on and so on.

"Nonetheless, if the Genius can see the backups in the mobile sync backup should you not be able to restore from that backup to replace the documents on the iPad" ... he asked rhetorically.

I hope you find a solution to this almost as much as you do because the suspense is killing me as to what in the world caused this whole thing in the first place.

The pages docs are 40-100k and you can see pretty clearly it's a word processing file. I can recognise my docs - this one most clearly. The Mac store guys couldn't get them back into pages, and a restore of the backup failed to do so either..