How do I delete 'ghost' Pages documents from iCloud / iPhone?

Today I got back a brand new iPhone 4 from the repair. It was already preinstalled with iOS 5, just updated to 5.0.1 and restored data from backup on iTunes. Enabled iCloud, opened Pages and…after 5-10 seconds iCloud started to sync and I got almost dozen "ghost" files in Pages — inf folders they look like normal Pages documents, but when I open folder, they are grayed out and at the top right corner they have arrow pointing upwards. Can't delete, can't open them.

Completely closed Pages, disabled data backup in iCloud preferences, turned off iCloud sync in Pages settings. Opened Pages, chose to delete all files in Pages. Restarted iPhone, enabled iCloud data backup and enabled iCloud sync in Pages settings, opened Pages, and soon real files appeared in Pages, which I could see also in Safari browser in iCloud/Pages section. However, after one minute all those "ghost" files and folders also appeared back! I can't even drag those "ghost" documents out of "ghost" folders, can't rename, can't delete. And someone not long ago ensured us that iCloud will surely work…

I deleted Pages application form my iPhone, installed from App Store again, enabled iCloud syncing and again after 1 minute all "ghost" files are back in Pages. In Safari browser I see only one "ghost" file, all the other "ghost" files and folders are not visible at all. Any idea what to do?

iPhone 4, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Dec 21, 2011 3:46 PM

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1 reply

Dec 21, 2011 11:56 PM in response to Guntis

Problem solved! I completely quit Pages on my iPhone, then opened ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~Pages/Documents folder on my Mac and deleted all those "ghost" folders and files there, also deleted the same names in iWorkPreviews folder. Opened Pages on iPhone and voila! — all those "ghost" files and folders disappeared for good.

(All ideas thanks to this Macworld article: http://j.mp/vmaQEB)

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How do I delete 'ghost' Pages documents from iCloud / iPhone?

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