Lion and Keynote Problems

Same issues as everyone has shared. Tried all recommendations in this thread - none have worked. Problem exists with all size files. Never had problem with SL. Must be the autosave function. Anytime i attempt to edit a keynote presentation, within 2 minutes i getthe spinning wheel and keynote hands until I have to force quit. I find this problem extremely frustrating and am astonsihed that Apple had not provided a fix. I have been an Apple and iWork fan for years, but am quickly losing my loyalty. Also, i find the tip of zapping and wiping out HD to then reinstall SL to be way too cumbersome - it may absolutely work, but it would cause may other issues beyond getting keynote to work. Come on Apple! Fix this!!!!!!!

No need to reinstall SL. Further up this discussion, fuzzydog outlined the method to recover: just go back to iWork 9.05. To do so, uninstall iWork completely. fuzzydog has a link to a script by Yvan Koenig (THANKS!!!) that can uninstall iWork. Then reinstall iWork 9 from the iWork install DVD. Go to Apple Downloads and get the second to last iWork update (from Jan, IIRC). Don't use the one from June! At that point you'll have an 'autosave-less' iWork suite. Enjoy.

Thanks for this workaround. I too was suffering trying to put together an elaborate Keynote with tons of imbedded video. I couldn't so much as select another slide without the beachball of doom. While this workaround doesn't solve the 10.7 issue with autosave, it does restore Keynote to its prior performance. I checked a number of Keynote files and pushed them hard with every way I know to crash it. Keynote 5.05 works fine in 10.7. It's too bad that iWork can't be updated piecemeal the way iLife is, so that one could avoid updates that aren't ready for prime time.

Thanks again to fuzzydog and Yvan for making these solutions available and helping me get back to work.

Joel thanks for the tip - I was already working in a duplicate of a file as soon as I unchecked the "back up previous version" button all went back to normal - apart from the occasional autosave - no more beachball!

Good man!

This may be potentially a potentially useful datum in this saga. I will leave it to those more knowledgable than I to ponder the implications.

I run two nearly identical iMacs (hereafter denoted iMac I and II), both on OS 10.7. I recently downgraded iWork on iMac I back to Keynote 5.05. Everything runs well as described above, albeit without autosave. In the process, I executed a "Verify Disk" on the startup volum (Macintosh HD) with Disk Utility. It detected disk errors that needed repair. I rebooted iMac I with the alternate partition (Command-R on Restart) and repaired the startup volume using Disk Utility. This seemed to clear up a lot of pesky little issues I've had recently with WiFi connectivity, internet, and network connections to Airport Express, none of which are relevant to this thread but interesting to note.

Now to iMac II. I verified that the startup volume Macintosh HD had no disk errors according to Disk Utility. Keynote 5.1 seems to run perfectly well on OS 10.7 on iMac II. To verify this, I brought over a copy of my most troublesome, crash-prone, beach ball spinning Keynote file, a whopping 512 MB with 7 imbedded videos in various formats. After repeated attempts to either crash, burn and/or volley the endless beach ball of doom, I can attest that Keynote 5.1 does indeed work with OS 10.7 on iMac II. (A friend who did a clean install of OS 10.7 on his laptop corroborates this with his own Keynote experience.)

What remains for me to do, in true Mythbusters fashion, is to update iWork on iMac I and return to Keynote 5.1 now that the startup volume disk errors have been corrected. I will report back the results.

In the meantime, those who are having Keynote 5.1 issues on 10.7 may want to run Disk Utilities on the startup volume (not the hard disk but the volume labeled Macintosh HD). If it detects any errors, run the repair cycle as described above. It's easy, it's foolproof, and you have nothing to lose.

Perhaps the problem was with the Lion upgrade and not the iWork update. But that diagnosis is beyond my knowledge.

I have tried the following to no avail. Disk repair, disk warrior repair, boot from external drive, clean install of Lion. None have solved the problem for me. The only thing I have found that works for me is the downgrade to 5.05.

Your experience does suggest that there may be some hardware issue involved. I have also had a weird problem with Lion in that I am unable to get filevault to install on my system (there is a thread here on that).

Evidence against the hardware hypothesis is that I had the same problems with 5.1 on a 3 year old imac and a 2010 macbook air. 5.05 works flawlessly on those systems.

Presenter-John wrote:

Joel thanks for the tip...

I'm glad it worked for you, and some others too! My system absolutely must work reliably, and that is why I did a lot of testing of the applications I depend upon on an external installation of Lion before "accepting" it on my presentation MBP.

It was funny (or perhaps with the pain some are still feeling, I should say "interesting") that my freezing and crashing problems were fixed by duplicating one of my Keynote documents- since that moment, all documents have worked with no issues at all! Before that, no matter which document, it was all freezes and crashes.

I did this duplication action after turning off "Back up previous version" in Keynote's preferences. Again, all documents have worked without issue since I made the duplicate of the one document. I sure wonder how that worked. ::grin:: But I'd still be running Snow Leopard if it hadn't.

Good luck to all!

Update to my tale of two iMacs:

iMac I (A2210 / 2.66 GHz / 2 GB RAM) - Had initial problems running Keynote 5.1 / OS 10.7. Downgraded to Keynote 5.05 with success. Subsequently discovered disk errors on startup volume. Repaired startup volume with Disk Utility. Upgraded again to Keynote 5.1 . Ran well with benchmark 500 MB Keynote file. There was some initial sluggishness, presumably as it created the backup for autosave, but performed well thereafter. Some lag on Quit.

iMac II (A1311/2308 / 3.06 GHz / 4 GB RAM) - No problems at all with Keynote 5.1 / OS 10.7. I tried the same 500 MB Keynote file that initally bogged down iMac I.

I've just ordered 6 GB of RAM for iMac I, since Lion seems to push 2 GB to the limit. I watched the available memory drop to just 150 MB free memory with Keynote and a few other apps running. It might be helpful if everyone reported their hardware configurations, especially RAM.

I don't claim any solutions here; I just want to add to the body of information.

Correction: iMac II (A1311/2308 / 3.06 GHz / 8 GB RAM) not 4 GB as reported above. This may have some effect on performance.

Let's all be honest and simply state the obvious that everyone who uses large Keynote files (1 G or larger) with video content is up-a-creek with no solution. A week ago I spent over 3 hours with apple support begging them to fix my problem because my job depended on me using Keynote lectures for my class. In short, they acted surprised that people were having problems. All the faculty on my floor are all switching back to Leopard because Keynote does not work well with the Lion Operating System. If you are using large keynote files with video content, you are screwed. You will simply find that every minute change you make to your file will cause the wheel to spin for 2-3 minutes before you can edit or change anything. I cut my files in half, still got the problem. I created new files with the new version of Keynote--still have the problems. I installed Lion again--still have the problem. I reinstalled Keynote. Yes, I still have the problem and I can't edit my files because it takes 3-4 minutes to even correct a mispelled word. Appple support now believes it is a software problem with either Keynote or Lion. In short, many of the faculty in my group are taking 12 hours or more to reinstall Leopard or downgrade their operating system. We make money by using Keynote and can not afford to wait untill Apple sovles the problem. This is really sad. You think fixing this would be a high priority because many of us make a living making presentations. Why did they ever come out with an operating system that has so many bugs? I own 2 iPads, 3 apple computers, and an iPhone. You think they would at least acknowledge the problem and apologize. If anyone figures it out, let me know. Until them, enjoy getting shafted from apple with the rest of us monkeys.

Profent - did you try what Joel suggested? - It worked perfectly for me. My files are not 1GB but they do have lots of video content and I had EXACTLY the same problem, but unchecking the box and making a duplicate fixed it.

Unchecking what box? I can make a duplicate.

Let's all be honest and simply state the obvious that everyone who uses large Keynote files (1 G or larger) with video content is up-a-creek with no solution.

ok, I'll bite. I have no problems whatsoever doing what u describe, so "everyone" is not applicable. But I rarely find a need to have such large video files in a presentation, considering the output is going to a projector. I use compressor or some other tool to make smaller h.264 files from my vids just to save disk space on laptops, as a general rule. But good luck!

Profent wrote:

Unchecking what box? I can make a duplicate.

Uncheck the Back up previous version box under Saving.

Good luck!

I finally found a fix to the problem of using keynote with large video files on Lion. Simply do the following and you will be able to edit and use your large Keynote files with Lion.

Step 1. Go to Keynote preferences and uncheck the box that says, "Back up previous version"

Step 2. Now make a duplicate of your large Keynote file and save it to the desktop

Step 3. Delete your orignial file and start using your Keynote duplicate file and you will see a world of difference.

Enjoy, it worked for me. Evidently, something in the original files is contaminated once you load the Lion operationg system. Once you let the new Keynote make a duplicate, it must strip out all the baggage and the file works faster and the spinning wheel is no longer a big problem.