Lion and Keynote Problems

I've spent all day trying all the suggested solutions... Keynote on MBP with 2Gb presentation (lot's of video).

The only solution that has worked is going back to 5.0.5 Keynote whilst retaining Lion. Seems to be working although I'm sure it's slower than it used to be (less responsive when actually running a presentation).

Hope Apple sort this soon!

Note to self and to anyone who hasn't already thought of this: When you have executed the downgrade to iWork 9.0.5 don't forget to disable the automatic download feature of Software Update lest iWork 9.1 reappear at your doorstep announced and you inadvertantly let it and its interminable beachball in with a careless click.

Also, I think it would be wise to keep Yvan's nice little uninstall script and the four iWork downloads in a handy little folder while our dear friends at Apple make iWork ready for prime time.

Thanks to everyone who posted about this. After spending 2 hours today trying to figure out what in the world was wrong with my MBP to cause Keynote to lock up every time I tried to do anything, I finally thought to see if anyone else is having the problem (seems to be my m.o. when I run into problems; futz for a while, and then think to come into the forums; must be a hold-over from my pre-mac days).

I hadn't needed to use Keynote for editing since the Lion upgrade, so I hadn't noticed the problems. I also have large presentations with a lot of videos, typically in the 2-3 Gb range, but a few up around 20 gb. I was still able to play my slideshows just fine. The duplicate-and-delete technique didn't work, so I had to "upgrade" back to 9.0.5, and it seems to be working fine now.

Glad I don't have to go all the way to going back to SL.

dackakarot - did you also uncheck the "back up previous version" box in prefs - that is what fixed it for me (in conjunction with the duplicate/delete manoeuvre.

Yes, I did uncheck that box as well, but it still didn't work until I did the upgrade to 5.0.5

Ok...everyone seems to be recommending to go back to Keynote 5.0.5, but can someone please tell me how to do that? And BTW, all of my presentations are video-heavy. What about presentations that are currently saved in 5.1?

I am still totally incredulous that Apple remains mute on this gigantic issue that affects so many of its customers!

I've gone back and forth and the downgrade works fine. It's still with the Keynote 5 family.

Here is the procedure reproduced from up above. I am reproducing it here with full and due credit to the original author as a convenience. Bear in mind that this procedure downgrades the entire iWork '09 suite: Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. This means that none of these applications will have the autosave/versions feature of 10.7 that is troubling Keynote.

1. Remove iWork 9.1 using the Apple script supplied by Yvan Koenig. <http://public.me.com/koenigyvan>

You can also find the link here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3272551?answerId=15969759022#15969759022.

If this link doesn't work go to the iwork discussions and search for Yvan's name and the word "remove". It will get you to a post of his with the link to the script.

If you do a manual uninstall you will have to do more than simply remove the iwork folder from ~/applications. Try using easyfind to locate all iwork files. There are many spread throughout your system. Make sure that the following folder is uninstalled before you reinstall the earlier version as a reinstall of an earlier version will not overwrite them. ~/library/application Support/iwork '09/Frameworks.

Also check ~/Applications for a residual iWork'09 folder after running Yvan's script and delete it.

2. Reinstall iWork '09 from a valid iWork '09 installer disk.

3. Update iWork to version 9.05. You can get the updates here. http://support.apple.com/downloads/#iwork. There are four update packages: 9.0.1,3,4 and 5. Execute them in order.

4. When you launch Keynote, check the version number to make sure that it has been successful. If you reinstalled without a successful total removal it will still show version 5.1. The script mentioned in #1 above does not remove your personal templates stored in your user/library/application support/iworks folder.

5. The first time you open an iWork app it will ask you to upgrade to 9.1. Do not do this and check the box indicating not to be reminded again.

Be careful that you do not unintentionally update with a hasty click of Software Updater. Deselect the automatic download feature in its preferences and check the list before updating. Also, as #5 indicates, watch for the offer to update the first time you open Keynote or you will quickly find yourself back at square #1. I've done this.

I've done this now several times on two computers. It works quite reproducibly. I am currently working two large Keynote files with several imbedded videos without problems. I wish that Apple would make the autosave/versions a switchable preference option. It works well with Pages, not well at all with Keynote. It wouldn't surprise me if large spreadsheets with calculation fields suffer similarly in Numbers.

Message was edited by: William C.

I agree, Keynote was the presentation software of choice if you wanted to make a good impression - never a death by powerpoint scenario. There must be a huge number of people effected by this problem. I've just wiped my disk and gone back to SL but the Keynote version I had worked on in Lion and kept on a back-up disk just crashed resulting in a lot more work. I cannot afford for this to happen therefore at the moment am sharing all my presentations with MS powerpoint. Not happy Apple!!

Thank you for the instructions. I'm back with 9.05 and I'm no longer continmually interupted by the beachball.

The latest Mac OS X 10.7.2 build 11C62 may solve our issue... among all the fixies there is this one:

Address an issue that causes Keynote to become temporarily unresponsive. 😝

Let's hope they release it soon

I too am having major problems on my macbook pro. I have done clean install with Lion then installed from Apple store a clean version of keynote.

Just building presentations every 2 minutes I am being told ' an unexpected error - please quit and restart' I have to force quit as it will not quit!

Hurry up Apple with the fix....

Any idea when this will happen?

Best guess is that 10.7.2 and all things iCloud will launch alongside iOS5 and iPhone 5. So, early next month? In the mean time William C.'s admirable gathering together of the steps to take to revert to the previous version of Keynote - a few posts above this, should get you up and running again.

My suggestion is to "lock" the file before presenting it and having only it open.. As it is locked it will not autosave.. That will not help with your editing issues, but will help with the presentation issues...