Numbers Files (3.2) Files Reformatted to .iwa format. Is there a way to recover?

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Level 1

9 points

Numbers Files (3.2) Files Reformatted to .iwa format. Is there a way to recover?

I have a small handful of Numbers files that I recently worked in, saved, and closed correctly (as far as I know) but upon trying to access them again, they are now in a format I'm not able to re-open. The new format is, basically, a file folder with the following contents, and I can find no corresponding ".numbers" file to go along with it:

I'm wondering if anyone out there has run into this issue, and if there is a way to recover them. I'm hopeful, because it appears there is still data within these files.

I'm not certain if this issue was caused somehow by the Numbers software itself (I've stumbled on some discussions involving folks having trouble after upgrading to 3.2 which is what I'm using) OR if it was caused by malware. I did recently delete Mac Defender from my computer because it was suspect, but I'm coming up clean when I scan for malware.

I'm working on OSX 10.9.4, and Numbers 3.2.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Aug 3, 2014 2:55 PM

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Answer 1

Yellowbox

Level 7

20,383 points

Aug 4, 2014 5:12 AM in response to KristelMesh

Hi Kristel,

This will not answer your question, but it may give some insight into how you got there.

Numbers documents are actually packages of files. Somehow you managed to open the package to see the contents. I don't know how that happened, but you can open a package by right clicking (control clicking) on a document in finder and Show Package Contents:

To see this:

And perhaps you opened index.zip with a double click?

What happens when you close that Finder window? Is the Numbers document where you expect it to be?

What do you get when you do a Spotlight search for your document?

As I said, this may not be of help, but it might lead others to give you a solution.

Regards,

Ian.

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Answer 2

KristelMesh Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 5, 2014 4:30 PM in response to Yellowbox

Hi Ian-

Thanks so much for the info! This definitely matches what my files look like now, though I'm not sure how I could have done this (I typically open my files by double clicking them in the finder). Hmmm...the mystery deepens.

There's no trace of the actual ".numbers" file anywhere that I can find, and when I do a spotlight search, it doesn't show up either. I don't believe I could have accidentally deleted it, as this situation has happened (seemingly arbitrarily) to a handful of different files in completely different locations in my various file folders.

Really appreciate this insight. I'll keep digging around for possible answers. At least now I know what to be very careful NOT to do (LOL) based on what you've described. 😝

Cheers,

Kristel

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Answer 3

Aug 7, 2014 6:10 AM in response to KristelMesh

I'm having the exact same issue with an important document of mine, and I can't get it open. Does anyone have any insight as to how to actually recover this as a Numbers document?

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Answer 4

Aug 7, 2014 6:14 AM in response to KristelMesh

Thankfully, I found a solution! Rename your folder to give it a .zip extension (for example) - it should ask you if you want to change the extension to .zip or keep the long extension it currently has (even though the folder might say DocumentName.numbers, the extension is actually something like .sb-caee80f2-YyE4ar (that was mine). Once its a .zip, just change it back to .numbers and it should show up as a Numbers file that you can open.

Hope this works for you!

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Answer 5

KristelMesh Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 7, 2014 7:20 AM in response to ngagliolo

Yes! This worked for me as well...thank you SO much!!! Hopefully others find this too, it was really challenging to find anything about this issue via web search.

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