Level 8

41,319 points

Pages won't open document

We are getting an increased number of users all with files that refuse to open in Pages 5, particularly Pages 5.1.

I have gone over several of them and been unable to correct the problem, only able to open the Document.iwa sub file in the package to look at the mix of text snippets and I presume .xml.

Apple reportedly has also examined these and been unable to rectify them.

To aid some kind of resolution I ask that users who have had the problem post here, detailing the last things they did with the file and whether there is anything particular to the files that may be leading to the problem.

Particularly relevant would be where and how the files were last saved.

Are they being transferred or backed up to iCloud?

Are you using 3rd party syching or backup solutions like DropBox?

Are they being re-edited on iDevices, iWork for iCloud beta or back and forth from Word .doc?

Were there any preceeding warnings or difficulties of any kind with the document?

Or anything else you can think of.

Thank you,

Peter

Posted on Mar 19, 2014 5:37 PM

181 replies

Csound1

Level 9

60,113 points

Oct 13, 2015 4:30 PM in response to ConfusedToday

Pages has never been called iPages.

caph44

Level 1

8 points

Jan 9, 2016 6:58 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

I was not transferring anything. I pressed revert for a pages document I was working on, and then the sign came up that it was not working.

I am using Imac OSX 10.11.2

Pages 4. with all the updates provided.

May 1, 2016 3:21 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Peter

Two years down from your post and I have been brought to my knees by Pages 5.1.

I have ditched MS Office - it really is cumbersome and started converting all my documents to Pages. Alas, as my documents get larger (50 - 100 pages) the dreaded beachball of death arises more frequently and stays "active" longer finally the document no longer loads.

The other thing that bugs me is the font replacement when Pages encounters a font it doesn't have and replaces this font on the fly. However documents gat changed around. It also takes longer to load up whilst these fonts are being replaced.

Have you worked out any fixes yet? Oh I just opened a 40 page document that took 6.5 minutes. Hope the PC / Office users don't see this one.

Come on Apple - a bloody good product spoilt by lack of support - 2 years and counting....

VikingOSX

Level 10

128,246 points

May 4, 2016 5:59 PM in response to caph44

You need to save a Pages '09 v4.3 document at least once and possibly close the document and quit Pages in order build any version history to revert too.

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,319 points

Sep 11, 2016 3:28 PM in response to lance Hartley

The only fix for Pages 5.x after 3 years is not to use it.

Peter

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,319 points

Sep 11, 2016 4:28 PM in response to lance Hartley

...especially as a Word substitute.

Peter

JoshCham

Level 1

4 points

Oct 3, 2016 10:47 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

I don't know if this ever got fixed but I'm having this problem. I'm using an iPad pro w/ 10.0.2 and an iMac w/ 10.11.6, This problem occurs for me when I create a doc in Pages on the iMac, put it into iCloud, open it on the iPad w/ Pages, then save it again to iCloud, then try to open it again with Pages on the iMac, it doesn't open. Pages on iMac will not read a doc altered or created on iPad Pages via iCloud. I have found that AirDrop works fine both directions in place of iCloud, although locating AirDrop in iPad's Pages was clunky.

Avijja

Level 1

8 points

Oct 7, 2016 2:45 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

Today I tried to open a pages document I originally created on my iPhone. It will not open and I get the following error message: Can't open document. The owner stopped sharing, or you don't have permission to open it.

Out of 22 documents I created in Pages on my iPhone, only 3 will open. As far as I can tell, this behavior just recently happened. I know I have opened some of these documents in the last few months, long after I purchased my current iPhone 6s in Oct 2015. It also appears that the documents that DO open were created on the iPhone 6s. The documents that do not open I believe were all created on my previous iPhone(s). When I purchased my iPhone 6s, I copied the iPhone 5s documents to iCloud, then copied them to the iPhone 6s from the iCloud. Once the documents were transferred to my iPhone 6s, I turned off iCloud sharing for the pages app.

Today after I realized my pages documents were not opening, I looked at settings on my iPhone. I was amazed to see that iCloud sharing was turned on for pages, and when I went to "manage iCloud storage" I found that I had 5MB of files in iCloud. I logged in to iCloud.com, and found that all the pages documents there were the ones I can't open on my iPhone. This same thing is occurring with the numbers app.

I did not myself make any changes to iCloud sharing on my iPhone. I also noticed that iCloud sharing for keychain was turned on. I have NEVER turned that on, and every time i have checked, that setting has always been OFF.

I faithfully update iOS and all my apps whenever updates are available. The only way I noticed this was I wanted to clear out old unneeded documents from my pages app on my iPhone.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,319 points

Oct 7, 2016 4:18 PM in response to Avijja

Most likely you are receiving Pages 6 documents and are trying to open them with older versions of Pages, but it is almost impossible to tell because there is nothing to my knowledge that identifies the actual version of the .pages file other than whether it opens or doesn't.

That this problem is entirely foreseeable speaks volumes of just how Apple operates and writes their software these days.

Last night I spent a couple of hours trying to resolve problems my son is having with his staff scheduling at his restaurant using Numbers spreadsheets. I am not a Numbers user but in those 2 hours I identified a string of bugs and bad design that seems to show that the new versions of Numbers are equally as bad as Pages 5 and 6.

My final advice to him was to get LibreOffice and transfer what was usably left of his schedules to that.

How Apple has determined that crippling its users work with poor software is good for business evades me.

Peter

Csound1

Level 9

60,113 points

Oct 7, 2016 4:19 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

So long as he has to upgraded to Sierra that is the best idea,

Avijja

Level 1

8 points

Oct 7, 2016 9:28 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

Well, I only have used the ios versions of Pages. It appears the documents I can't open were created on my previous iphone 5s. Some of the documents I can't open were created in 2015 with whatever version of ios Pages was current then.

As a workaround to my problem, I can use a computer, log in to icloud.com, and email my Pages documents to myself (they all open correctly on icloud.com).

I never knowingly set my iphone 6s to store Pages documents on icloud, how those settings changed I don't know. Possibly due to the ios 10 upgrade?

Dec 6, 2016 6:34 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

Dec 6, 2016 6:34 PM in response to Becca A C

VikingOSX

Level 10

128,246 points

Dec 6, 2016 8:10 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

I have a Python program that identifies the version of Pages '06, '08, and '09 that created the Pages document. It also identifies any version of Pages v5 and v6 that created the document, and if present, which versions of Pages v5/v6 edited the document too.

Mar 9, 2017 12:45 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

I just received two .doc documents on my Mac running 10.12 sent from a MacBook Air running I don't know what. The files will not open in Pages 6.0.

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Pages won't open document