PeterBreis0807

Q: 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

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Q: Pages won't open document

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  • by fruhulda,

    fruhulda fruhulda Apr 1, 2014 6:41 AM in response to Psipook
    Level 6 (15,126 points)
    Apr 1, 2014 6:41 AM in response to Psipook

    Have you tried selecting the document and then hit the space bar. You should be able to scroll in that window too or have they broken this feature in Mavericks?

  • by Zifeiyu0311,

    Zifeiyu0311 Zifeiyu0311 Apr 1, 2014 6:47 AM in response to fruhulda
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 1, 2014 6:47 AM in response to fruhulda

    Hi fruhulda, Thanks. Only one page can be shown by hitting the space bar? What does that mean "have they broken this feature in Mavericks"?

  • by Psipook,

    Psipook Psipook Apr 2, 2014 7:16 AM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 2, 2014 7:16 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

    I got my corrupted files open and recovered the data.

    I updated to Pages 5.2 today and the file just opened as it was supposed to with all data intact.

    24,000 words recovered.

    The file became corrupted and refused to open on Monday morning. It has taken continual efforts since then to get the bugger open without luck but this update fixed it.

    I have immediately made several backups in different file formats and saved them different places.

    No idea what this episode was all about but I am not going to trust the Pages-iCloud combo again. I will go back to making backups at the end of every session.

    I hope this works for all the other folk in this same position.

    Time for a drink.

  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Apr 2, 2014 7:35 AM in response to Psipook
    Level 8 (35,750 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 2, 2014 7:35 AM in response to Psipook

    I was curious if Apple was going to address this problem in Pages 5.2.

     

    Seems like they have. At least in your case.

     

    Here is one that it hasn't:

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5649392?start=15&tstart=0

     

    Peter

  • by Zifeiyu0311,

    Zifeiyu0311 Zifeiyu0311 Apr 2, 2014 8:26 AM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 2, 2014 8:26 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

    I updated to Pages 5.2 too and the file can be opened now.

  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Apr 2, 2014 8:31 AM in response to Zifeiyu0311
    Level 8 (35,750 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 2, 2014 8:31 AM in response to Zifeiyu0311

    Excellent.

     

    Hope everyone else on this list is taking note!

     

    Peter

  • by drsoap,

    drsoap drsoap Apr 4, 2014 5:59 AM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 4, 2014 5:59 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

    I created two files over the last week in Pages 5.1, finally deciding to give 5.1 a try.  And apparently l lost both of those files yesterday. 

     

    The documents were saved in the cloud, not on my mac, so I could access them from multiple devices.

     

    The specific circumstances: When I opened the software yesterday morning for my morning writing session, I was presented with the little window that said I had two versions open and I had to select one.  I probably shouldn't have done anything until I had my coffee...but I selected the previous day's version (April 2nd).  I could SEE my document on screen behind the window.  It was THERE.  Immediately after clicking which version I wanted, the document disappeared. 

     

    When I tried to re-open it, I got a message box that said the document couldn't be opened.  I tried opening it from within my cloud account at the icloud website with no luck.  Transferred a copy of the file from the cloud to the desktop, no luck.  Came here to the support forum, saw a suggestion to download 5.2 which some people were having success with to open 5.1, but no luck for me.  Also tried to open the file on a laptop that only had 5.1 on it, and it would not open.

     

    It dawned on me that I had done my 2nd quarter implementation plan in 5.1 too.  This file is also not openable, and appears to be lost.  That file had not been opened since Saturday, March 30.

     

    I am getting a NEW message this morning when I try to open these files which says 'The file 'xyz' could not be opened because it is empty.' (Yesterday it just said 'the file xyz can't be opened.')

     

    I have had Pages 09 since 09, and will obviously go back to using that, AND not saving work in the Cloud.  I've been storing many Pages documents on the cloud for about a year and a half and never had a single glitch, so sadly, I let my guard down.

     

    I've been a mac user exclusively since 1986, and NEVER had a situation like this come up in 28 years using Word.  No problem using Pages 09 for five years either.  But then again, I wasn't using 'THE CLOUD' back then or software that apparently needs daily fixes.

     

    Karen

  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Apr 4, 2014 7:54 AM in response to drsoap
    Level 8 (35,750 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 4, 2014 7:54 AM in response to drsoap

    Karen

     

    Try opening them with Pages 5.2. Some people have reported they came good.

     

    Peter

  • by drsoap,

    drsoap drsoap Apr 4, 2014 8:11 PM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 4, 2014 8:11 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

    Thanks, Peter.  I've been trying to open both documents with 5.2 every few hours, both yesterday and today.

     

    And amazingly enough, about a half hour ago, I was actually successful opening one of the two - the one that was onscreen and disappeared.  And there was no loss of data, the file was intact. 

     

    I still cannot open the second file.

     

    I received email tonight from the iWork team following up on my comment here on this thread.  They asked several questions and I responded and provided a copy of one document that I had copied from the cloud.

     

    The other document is also on the cloud but the onscreen message says it can't be copied or converted without a new version of iWork. I thought I had the latest version of Pages with 5.2 so I don't understand that yet.

     

    The only question I couldn't answer for them was whether my iCloud file sync was On for Pages.  I don't know where to find that.

     

    Karen

  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Apr 6, 2014 8:37 AM in response to drsoap
    Level 8 (35,750 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 6, 2014 8:37 AM in response to drsoap

    Menu > Apple > System Preferences > iCloud > Documents & Data > Options

     

    Peter

  • by Seamantha,

    Seamantha Seamantha Aug 26, 2014 5:26 AM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 26, 2014 5:26 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

    Hello Peter,

    I'm working on a MacBookPro with Pages '09 version 4.3(1048).

    Yesterday, when I opened up a document I had been working on the previous day ("Word Processing" format), I continued working on it... but only add additional pages.  I then noticed that the pages I had added were not in the proper location.  I could not bring up the view of all pages to the left of the work to easily move the pages around, so I copied, and "cut" several pages at one time to paste at the end of the document.  When I pasted it, the info appeared as one long page instead of breaking it up into different pages.

    I then started to cut and paste the one long page to make the proper pages, but it was getting complicated.  So, I made a "new" pages file using the "Page Layout" format, and began copying the pages from the original file ("Word Processing" format)... page-by-page... to the new file ("Page Layout" format).

    Somewhere along the way, I tried to edit something in the original file... previous day's writing.   The file would NOT let me add/delete/do anything to the pages written the previous day(s).  It would only let me manage what I had written that same day!

    To make my copying project easier, I then went to the original document and decided to "Edit-Undo" the original cut & paste to eliminate the LONG page.  When I finished with that, the paste did NOT reappear!!!

    At this point, I closed the original file, then tried to reopen it.  (I saved the "new" file with a different name.)  When I try to reopen it, I get a message "The Document "..." could not be opened!!!  When I go to File, Open Recent, Documents, and find the document... it "appears" on the right window, AND I can use the arrow to see all the pages, but just CANNOT open it!!! 

    Can you help me????

  • by timrosemusic,

    timrosemusic timrosemusic Sep 17, 2014 11:02 AM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 17, 2014 11:02 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

    This morning I was editing a pages document that is saved in the cloud while I was offline. It had been open for a number of minutes without problem, when unexpectedly the document showed an error reading "this file cannot be read and must be closed". Now the document is showing in the cloud with a .pages surname to the file, and is showing a file size of zero bytes.

     

    I wish I could just open a previously saved version of this document. Are you guys still unable to rectify these problems?

  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Sep 17, 2014 2:00 PM in response to timrosemusic
    Level 8 (35,750 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 17, 2014 2:00 PM in response to timrosemusic

    Everybody

     

    Whilst we got lucky a couple of times I am warning everybody that using Pages 5 is gambling with your work.

     

    I see a lot of this in this forum and when the complex, incompatible and obscure Pages 5 file format goes belly up there is not nothing much you can do other than pray, then curse, then wish you never opened the thing in the first place.

     

    I recommend you stick with Pages '09 which is largely stable and reliable (not 100% but close) or use software that has parseable file formats like Word, or LibreOffice which has open file formats.

     

    I repeat that Pages 5, almost a year since release, is a hazard to your work.

     

    Peter

  • by tallahasseehart,

    tallahasseehart tallahasseehart Sep 24, 2014 6:07 AM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 24, 2014 6:07 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

    Neither Pages nor Numbers will open for me since yesterday. All documents created and edited on same laptop, without any access through the Cloud. I can open one or two of my older Pages 09 docs from Preview, but not in Pages. Nothing created in the last year will open--the app doesn't even respond or move when double-clicked. Can't force open by dragging document to the app in the dock, either.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  • by i_am_me_,

    i_am_me_ i_am_me_ Oct 14, 2014 8:12 AM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 14, 2014 8:12 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

    Check if the document you are trying to open is in the trash. That's how I solved it.

     

    Sorry if this was repeated.

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