Anyone having a problem with the latest number software. Docs do not open Invalid. The index .xml file is missing?

I think this can happen when you try to open a new Numbers file with an older version. Take a look at this discussion to see if it applies to you.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5851329?answerId=24721439022#24721439022

What method are you using to open the file?

• With Numbers 3.1 open, use the File/Open menu?
• With Numbers 3.1 open, use the File/Open Recent menu?
• Double click on the file in Finder?
• Drag the file and drop it on the Numbers 3.1 icon on the Dock?
• Right click on the file and Open With Numbers (3.1)?

Is your file a Numbers 3 file (i.e., created in Numbers 3, not converted from Numbers '09) or is it a Numbers '09 file that was already converted to Numbers 3 or is it a Numbers '09 file that has not been converted to version 3 yet?

It would be surprising if Numbers 3.1 were producing this error message, because Numbers 2.3 was the last version that used an index.xml file in its document structure. Since Numbers 3, the new file formats have used an index.zip file, which contains .iwa files, which are the new iWorks format, but there is no longer any xml in there.

Probably occurring in Numbers 3.1 when trying to open a Numbers 2 doc that may have been corrupted somehow.

Presumably when Numbers 3.1 opens a Numbers 2 doc it does need the index.xml until it can convert to the new format.

SG

I think you got that backwards. Numbers 3.1 can recognize both the new files without the index.xml file and the old ones with it, which it imports to the new format.

Numbers 3.1 changed the new format from a simple package back to a zipped package like the one used by the '09 applications, and since then, Numbers '09 doesn't balk outright when it tries to open a new file; it can open the package, but can't find the files it expects.

Jeff Shenk wrote:

Numbers 3.1 can recognize both the new files without the index.xml file and the old ones with it, which it imports to the new format.

Agreed on that part. But take it a step further. If Numbers 3.1 is asked to open an old document that is still in the old Numbers 2 format that relies on an index.xml file but Numbers 3.1 can't find the index.xml file (perhaps the document is corrupted) then how can Numbers 3.1 open the document and interpret it in order to convert it to the new format? My guess is that this a possible trigger for the 'index.xml missing' error message.

Interesting link here on the new document format.

SG

I am just guessing, of course, but I think it likely that the presence of the .xml file is what tells Numbers 3.1 that it is an old file. If there were no index file, Numbers wouldn't know whether that index was supposed to be .xml or .zip.

This error should occur every time a Numbers 3.1 file tries to open in Numbers '09, without any actual file corruption, and we have seen on these forums how easy it is for that to happen, without the user's even noticing.

If you are correct, than there has to be some mechanism that is actually corrupting a lot of files, which seems less likely to me, unless they are being transferred through "the cloud."

If you are correct, than there has to be some mechanism that is actually corrupting a lot of files, which seems less likely to me, unless they are being transferred through "the cloud."

Right. Simply don't know at this point. Also don't know whether this is happening to a lot of users or we're just hearing about a (relatively small) number where corruption of some kind has occurred. There do seem to be problems with opening some, but certainly not all, old Numbers documents. And documents stored in Dropbox and other non-iCloud cloud services seem to develop mysterious problems.

Hope the OP finds a solution. Meanwhile, I'm making sure to backup! backup! backup!

SG

Well, in your second post, you said you had "the new Numbers," but Numbers 2.1 is the old version. In fact, to run reliably on Mavericks, it should probably be updated to version 2.3.

Numbers 2.1 will require an index.xml file in the document package. If you use Numbers 2.x to try to open a document that was saved in Numbers 3.1, or with an iPad running iOS 7 or with the browser version of Numbers, it will likely produce the error you are seeing, because they use a new file format that does not include the index.xml file.

What I can tell you the original problem on my machine is being generated using OSX 10.9.2 and Numbers '09 version 2.1 (436)

Ah, but Numbers '09 is not the "latest Numbers software" as in the title of your post.

And I think Numbers '09 is equivalent to Numbers version 2.3, not to "version 2.1 (436)".

Are you perhaps trying to open a really old Numbers documents in the "latest" version (Numbers 3.1)?

If so, I understand Numbers 3 cannot open those very old documents. They need to be opened first in Numbers '09 (Numbers 2.3) and then opened in Numbers 3.

SG

In Numbers 2.3 when you try to open a document in the new format you usually get this:

Maybe in Numbers 2.1 one gets an "index.xml is missing" message instead?

In any case, very likely as YeOldMacFan and Jeff and others have been suggesting, you need to be opening the files with Numbers 3.1 (the app that is in your main Applications folder, not the one in an iWork '09 subfolder).

SG

SG,

Numbers '09 is the same as Numbers 2.x. Anything newer than version 2.1 is only needed on the Lions and Mavericks; the updates after 2.1 did not add anything that would work in Snow Leopard.

I get the error below when trying to open a Numbers 3.x file using Numbers 1.0.3 (iWork '08). I upgraded from '08 to 3.0 with a new Mac and 10.9 so don't have '09 to play with. Sure seems plausible that it's '09 trying to open a 3.x file.