pages says couldn't auto-save document

I was freaking out too, but I managed to get around the problem. Here's what I did:

1. Find the original document in Finder.
2. Duplicate it (even though Pages didn't let me duplicate the original document from inside Pages, Finder let me)
3. Open the duplicate
4. Recreate your un-savable changes (This might take a while to do this, sorry! Pages doesn't allow you to copy/paste elements between the two, which really *****.)
5. Save this new document like normal

I don't know if this will work for anyone else, but it solved my problems!

I had the same problem. It wouldn't let me save to a specific location. What I did after reading some posts, is save the file as a TextEdit. It them let me save where I wanted to. I them saved the original file in Pages and it saved just fine. I hope it helps.

GoalieGirl13 🙂

I encountered the same issue this morning, and was easily able to fix it.

I had been saving my "Pages" file to an encrypted folder that I had created months ago on my desktop. Then, seemingly out of the blue, I received the "couldn't auto-save document" message. It turned out that the encrypted folder was maxed out and there was no memory left for further changes/saves. I copied the contents of my encrypted folder (my "Pages" files) and pasted to the desktop. Then, I created a new, larger encrypted folder, and, obviously, copied and pasted back. Problem solved.

I cannot say that is the only reason the specific error will occur, but in my case, this was the cause and solution.

Solved ! There are two solutions. First one is simply create a new user and copy the pages document to the new user. Login as the new user and open the pages document. A better solution is to reset the Pages application. No need to uninstall and reinstall. Using cleanmymac3, select uninstall and within the option you will find the option to reset the application.

I had the same problem. I simply copied and pasted the content of the "Not auto-saving" document into a new, blank document, then saved the new one with no problems. It might not work for everyone, but it worked great for me.

I did the same as crowdingsail and it worked. Try the easiest solution first and then go to all the others. I am not connected to iCloud in any way. I have too much on my computer that is confidential. So it was not an iCloud problem for me.

THANK YOU! I noticed while taking your advice and clicking on "Untitled" or document name and saving to different location one document was set to be saved on the hard drive...once I selected to save in documents instead it saved as did all the other open documents I had that would not save prior.

So glad I was wise enough to look through answers and start with yours before doing back flips into the cloud etc.

Open New document, copy and paste the content from old document in New Document, save new document! hope that helps!

Menu > File > Save As

Which will make a copy, which you might be able to save somewhere else.

Without any details that is about all we can suggest. Put yourself in the shoes of the responders here. We can't see what you are using, nor what is happening when you do whatever it is you are doing.

It helps to tell us what Mac, software version and any messages you have on your screen and exactly what it is you have tried.

Peter

This worked for me (whew) - thanks.

However, there is a caveat: When this worked, I deleted the unsavable copy, then tried to rename the copied document with the name I was using before and encountered the same problem. There are no illegal characters, and the doc had saved under that name successfully previously. A minor inconvenience, but something to keep in mind.

I hope  reads these...