Pages document won't open in old or new Pages

Without first exporting a Pages v5.2.2 document to Pages ’09 format, these documents cannot be opened in Pages ’09. Pages '08, and RTF documents cannot be opened in Pages v5.2.2. Some MS Word documents prior to 2000 will also appear as too old to open.

Pages v5.2.2 is a brand-new application, that omitted about 110 features/functionality that worked in Pages ’09. The new application also omitted several Pages ’09 templates, and if it encounters a document based on one of these unsupported earlier templates, it may very well refuse to process it. What specific error dialogs are you receiving when you attempt to open these documents?

Due to the deficiencies in Pages v5.2.2, I would recommend that you remain exclusively on Pages ’09 v4.3, the version of Pages ’09 recommended for Mavericks. Apple has an update that will take v4.2 to v4.3.

I have the same problem. My docs are older from 2004 and 2005.

And they will not open new or older versions of Pages.

Any ideas?

You can open and view them with Preview.... then copy-paste into a new Pages document. It's annoying, but at least you can access the old docs.

Since the original Pages was released February 2005 are you sure these are Pages documents and not AppleWorks?

Peter

If you are receiving the “You need a newer version of Pages to open this document” dialog, it is because Pages ’09 is active (with/without document window), and you have attempted to open a document previously saved by Pages v5.2.2. Pages documents created by Pages ’08 will not open in Pages v5.2.2.

If you right-click on these Pages documents that won't open, and then press option > Show Inspector — what creation date shows? Unfortunately, there is no way to track by creating Pages version. Pages ’09 was released on January 6, 2009.

Try right-clicking on the reluctant Pages document, and from the Open With submenu, select Pages v5.2.2. I have had Pages v5.2.2 documents fail to open by double-clicking, but would via the contextual menu.

For the Pages documents that you cannot open, can you open them with Preview, or selecting the document icon, use Quick Look (space bar) to open it?

If these documents have not been opened/damaged by Pages v5.2.2, then there is a recovery approach that may help. At least, it will get you the PDF of the document, and any images used in it — if it remains a Pages ’09 document.

Pick one of these documents that won't open. Right-click on it. Does the contextual menu offer to Show Package Contents?

• Yes, Show Package Contents
  • If there is a metadata folder, then this is a Pages v5 document, and no recovery is possible. Period.
  • If there is a QuickLook folder, then it is a Pages ’09 document
    • Copy the PDF document to your Desktop, or a new folder
    • Copy any image files that may appear at the same level as the QuickLook folder
    • Start a new Pages document.
      • Copy/Paste the PDF text content into it
      • Replace the images into this new document using the PDF as your guide.
      • Export the final result as a Word document for redundancy.
• No, Show Package Contents is not available
  • This is a default, Pages ’09 compressed document (really a compressed folder)
  • Make a new folder, and copy this Pages ’09 document into it.
    • Click twice (not double-click) on the document name, and rename the extension from .pages to .zip. Ignore Finder, and use .zip.
    • Double-click this compressed document, and it will uncompress into a folder.
    • Look in the above folder for the images (if any), and QuickLook folder (PDF)
    • Proceed as above to recover this document.

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 (provide that you have Pages 09 installed on your mac). Hope this help. Cheers.

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