Q: Pages won't open document

This has just happened to me Apple. I have a 40 page child protection document crafted in Pages 5.2.2 over weeks that now will not open. Please help. The situation leading up to the document crashing was that I tried to move a section of three pages to the bottom of the document. I then got the spinning coloured wheel and Pages was 'not responding'. I left it for a few minutes before force quitting and then could not open this document. Others will open fine. I tried to copy the error code but it wouldn't copy and now Pages does not even give an error code, it just quits. Please help Apple – this is not what we expect from you and we are starting to loose faith in your products.

I should add; I can look inside of the document via quick look, there was a copy of the document in trash but after taking it out it won't open either. I tried deleting plists, the document is stored on the cloud and is a shared document although no one else has edited it or commented on it.

Hi, was pages supposed to come built into my macbook?

If you have never previously purchased iWork ’09 and have not bought a new Mac since October 1, 2013, you will have to purchase the applications.

I have the most recent macbook pro retina display that I bought in September 2013 I believe, Also, someone sent me a pages document and I cant seem to open it up. . what can I do to open it?!

You will have to purchase the new Pages from the Mac App Store or try iWork for iCloud.

I am having this problem with a document that was created in Pages on my iMac using Mvericks and the complementary version of Pages.  I have updated my new iPad Air to OS 8 and called up the document via iCloud.  I edited the document using iOS 8 complementary version of Pages and then emailed it to a friend to be able to do more detailed editing than I am able to on iPad.  We tried to open the doc on her iMac Air (running Yosemite and complementary version of Pages) and could not open it.  We had to open it using Google Drive, copy and paste to a new document, and do massive reformatting.  Tried to send it back to my iPad using email.  I could not open the document on my iPad in Pages, only using Safari or Chrome.  The message we got when trying to open on friend

s MacBook Air was "unable to open document--older version of Pages"--or something close to that.

This is SO frustrating as I'm trying to meet a deadline for a job submission today!!!  For whatever it's worth, I'm also having trouble editing what I'm typing HERE on this forum reply

As I just wrote in reply to another thread:

The newest version of Pages is 5.5 & only runs in Yosemite. Your best option would be to open the file in iWork for iCloud. If necessary, you could then save the file as Word that you would then be able to open with any prior version of Pages.

EDIT: sorry, this was meant in response to TheReverendMother

After reading all the post it blows my mind that this billion dollar company continues to put it users in these situations.  I can't open a doc created in Pages 5.5 that I've been working on for over a week. The file shows on iCloud but won't open. What in the HECK is Apple doing. Is it time to dump them after all these years.

Read my previous post. You must have purchased a new Mac on or after October 1, 2013, to get Pages for free. September, 2013, doesn't qualify.

You can try iWork for iCloud to open the file.

For anyone not having success with the solutions mentioned in this thread I have found another solution which I have detailed on my site:

http://osx-sos.com/the-file-pages-couldnt-be-opened/

I'd be interested to know if it works for anyone else

let me know!

Peter

Hey there. I also encounter this problem where my Pages 5.2.2 app suddenly close by itself while I editing my document. When I reopen it says some of my Pages document cannot be open. So I tried to convert my Pages 5.2.2 document to Pages 4 ('09) document using online software, and it works! I use cloudconvert.com to convert those files. I can open the converted files using both Pages 5.2.2 as well as Pages 09. Hope this help. Cheers.

Macbook Pro 13 (2011). Mac OSX Yosemite (10.10)

HI , updated to Pages 5.5.2 (2120).

Now pages will not open a file outside of the program.  i.e.: if I double click on a file name in finder, it won't open. The program reports that "the required index.xml file is missing".

If I go into the program, and through the pull down menu 'File', open the same document, no problem.

This is a basic function that Apple requires of all developers that want to work with the Apple OS, so it doesn't look good that Apple hasn't met the same requirement.

Best Regards -rob

You have Pages '09 v4 running when you attempt to double-click a Pages v5 generation document. That causes this error dialog — because Pages v5 documents contain no index.xml file and Pages '09 documents do. Double-clicks with both applications installed will default to Pages v5 (any version). You must either make certain that Pages '09 has quit, or use the following methods to open its documents:

• Control-click, or two-finger tap, or right-click on document icon
  • Open with Pages (4.3)
• Drag and drop the Pages '09 document on the Pages '09 application icon
• Pages '09 File chooser
• Pages '09 File > Open, or File > Open Recent

Excellent.  Problem solved. Not sure why the old program opened, but it was the problem.

Thanks you -rob