How to I transfer my Pages Custom Templates to a new computer?

Hi pastortom3;

Go > Go To Folder under Finder, and paste:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iWork.Pages/Data/Library/Application Support/User Templates

It opens up the user templates folder.

Paste all your custom templates to this location.

Regards,

Hi j k,

This will work if you have only a few Pages templates to transfer from an old machine to a new machine. If you have many templates, this process will be tedious.

On the old machine, open a Pages template. It will open as an Untitled document. Save (not Save as Template) with a suitable name and a suitable location (new folder).

Repeat with all the templates that you want to transfer to the new machine.

Copy that folder to a portable device such as a USB thumb (memory) stick.

You may need to "eject" that thumb stick with a Finder menu to ensure that all is good.

Insert the thumb stick into the new machine.

Select the folder and drag to a suitable location (Desktop?) on the new machine.

Open each Pages document. The usual warnings apply: beware of which version of Pages is dominant 😉. Or right click (control click) and Open With.

Save as Template to place a document into the Pages Template Chooser.

It is now safe to delete those "transfer" documents.

You wrote:

I'm also wearing black and gray boxer shorts today.

Good one!

Regards,

Ian.

Hi JK,

You wrote:

the OS defaults to the crazy notion that when you open a file you want any change made to be save without the opportunity to cancel the save. Once the document is opened... you're screwed. It just saved it as a new document.

Please reply with details of your operating system and the version of Pages on your old and new machines.

Here is a Pages '09 (Pages 4.3) document opened in Pages 6.0.5 under MacOS Sierra 10.12.1

You have the choice to Edit a Copy, Cancel or Upgrade

More information will lead to a solution 😉.

Regards,

Ian.

Thanks Ian.

The OS version on both machines was updated to 10.12.3 Both machines now have Pages 4.3. The default setting in General Preferences was to not ask for changes when closing the document. That ended up causing Photoshop and Word et al, to similarly not ask for changes to be saved..... it was overwriting any change to a document or file when the file was closed, without the popup of Edit / Cancel / Upgrade. Here's the General preference section... not that It's now checked with "Ask to keep changes when closing documents." Now that checked that box, it does react as your graphic of Pages 6 (?guessing from the graphic) indicates.

So at this point I'm just saving templates to a thumb drive one by one and reserving them as personal templates. At least I can call them up and use the graphics from them to restore old documents that have missing graphics. I'm really just wanting a fix long enough to make the transition to Word. The new pages is just not capable enough and the old pages will continue to be a problem, so I might as well bite the bullet and move to Word.

By transferring the templates - even if just one by one - I'll at least have the source templates to pull the graphics from.

Getting past the clutter of the other issues... migration assistant that didn't work, updating Pages to the new version without telling me, etc... the real issue I had was trying to get my custom/professional templates moved to the new machine. Since Jumsoft used a hidden file location somewhere, I can't find them on the old hard drive. They aren't in the typical Pages/Templates/My Templates locations under Application or Library locations.

I was hoping that someone would know where an alternative location would be so that I could find them and put them in the same location on the new machine in hopes of it finding the templates naturally.

I could go through all your points in detail but feel I am dragging information out of you, you still have not said what MacOS you are referring to, nor why you didn't do your migration over your local network. The problem may have been due to using a Firewire connection, which Apple has superceded.

Jumsoft's templates are available from the App Store, log-in with your Apple ID, but the current versions are for the current iWork Apps not iWork '09.

The iWork '09 v4.3 updater has been posted probably thousands of times here and is still in Apple's knowledgebase. I just searched for it now.

When you opened your old documents, in Pages 6.05 I assume, you did not need to save and you should have had backups if they were important to you. Again that is a warning we have repeated countless times here and it is in most App Store comments as well for the past 3+ years where users have complained about what Apple has done and have marked down the newer iWork Apps.

Lastly I do not understand how you were transferring your "older system" from another Mac when you say they are both running the "newest and same version of the OS" whatever you mean by that. Mac OS 10.12.3?

Maybe the other System does not have iWork '09 either, so nothing to transfer.

Peter

wow... wish that were true..... Migration Assistant didn't work at all when moving from an iMac to a new iMac.... and for the record, it didn't transfer several third party applications. In addition, this wonderful Migration Assistant you speak of, automatically (without telling me) updated to the newest version of pages, leaving me with thousands of documents that would not and could not be opened. Pages 6 is a joke in and of itself but add to that the fact that none of my third party templates migrated correctly.... every document was scrambled eggs by the time I discovered it.

I had to finally get an earlier version of Pages that only partially solved the problem. I will never buy another piece of application software from Apple ever again. They've proven themselves unreliable.

Not leaping to Apple's defence, what it has done in the last few years is inexcusable and frequently demonstrates an egregious ignorance and callous disregard for its users, but what you say is not quite right.

Migration Assistant does work where it can and depending how you have set it up, what you checked to transfer.

We do not know what you have done because you have given us no details on anything.

1. Some 3rd party Apps will not transfer because they do not work on newer versions of OSX.

2. Migration Assistant does not update your software, that is done by the App Store according to how you have set your preferences. I am guessing you have not set anything, it is all on the default of update without notice.

3. Pages 6 will alter documents from older versions of Pages, particularly Pages '08 and '09 because it lacks over 120 features that were used in the older versions.

4. What does "every document was scrambled eggs" actually mean? Altered when you opened and saved them in Pages 6? Pages 5 / 6 are now over 3 years old and we here and many people on other websites and in the App Store reviews have warned against it endlessly. Are you saying "Nobody told me"?

5. I agree that Apple is now unreliable, and actually a health hazard to your work. But again you don't say what your "earlier version of Pages" actually is, so this has essentially been a complaint which would have been better directed to Apple, with specifics.

We sympathise and mostly agree with you but you are preaching to the choir here.

Peter

Well Peter...

Let's start with the fact that the migration program failed multiple times when started. Working with two iMac units side by side attached by firewire. Apple support had me spend the better part of an afternoon updating both units both were running the newest and same version of the OS.

Ultimately we had to bypass migration assistant and use the old unit as an external hard drive backup. Finally it worked. Simply migrating the system took the better part of two days because the migration assistant wouldn't work properly.

As for pages 6 and your point four - implying I was unaware of the fact that pages 4.3 is an older version.... Yes, I knew the version was the older version. But the live human at apple support told me that the new computer would be a perfect mirror of the old system after migration. He failed to mention that the new system would automatically update Pages without telling me and NOT migrate Pages 4. So when I opened my "mirror system" and clicked on a 400 page document, a new version of pages opened without my knowledge. THAT's when a 400 page document was destroyed by the new version.

The fine support team at Apple then sent me a disk version of Pages 4... but then failed to tell me that it needed an update to 4.3 to run on the new OS... I had to find that out from a third party. And yes, I had to find the update dmg from a third party to bring it up to speed. .... no help from Apple.

The third party apps that all failed were Pages templates and Photoshop plugins etc.. that were a part of my old machine that I was told would "mirror perfectly" into the new system.... epic fail there as well.

I agree that Apple has failed to care for it's customers at times - business and adult customers especially.

So at this point, I've finally restored all but one set of templates from jumsoft. Had the migration assistant simply mired the system instead of overwriting the software to what it wanted, I wouldn't have had some of these problems. I was looking at this community thread to see if I could find where Jumsoft had stashed the templates so that I could find a way to migrate them as well.

I'll be moving all of our business documents to Microsoft Word. While I'm no Word fan (Pages 4 seems more functional and easier to use), I also don't want to have this problem again. I won't be purchasing any more Apple software either. While the OS and computers themselves are more stable, the application software is not.

Okay Peter... some of the information you're "dragging out of me" is irrelevant to the issue. The problem wasn't the firewire which was new out of the package, sold to me by the Apple rep as the way to do a migration. Second, while with Apple support, a normal network transfer was also attempted and as I stated earlier, several attempts failed. The Apple support rep by phone, ultimately walked me through turning the old machine into a drive or backup drive and bypass it's operating system.

The Jumsoft templates in question, I've now found out have been renamed and no longer appear on the App Store, meaning, tough luck; all your company documents made with those templates are now no longer usable. Pages uses the data from the template file rather than save all the template graphics and supporting data with the new file... thanks for that little bit of news, would have been nice to know ahead of time.

And Peter, you should remember that the OS defaults to the crazy notion that when you open a file you want any change made to be save without the opportunity to cancel the save. Once the document is opened... you're screwed. It just saved it as a new document.

You kindly remind me that buried deep in the bowels of this forum and layers of App Store comments that some of these issues were noted and discussed. Unlike most mac users, I have this thing called a life. I go to work and I do my job. I don't have time to rummage through thousands of pages of documentation on changes that some random teenager in a spaceship in California decided was good business. Sometimes Apple should consider that they also sell their software to adults who aren't using a cell phone to create 400 page business documents.

And yes.... it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that if I'm discussing current events, the second and third week of May 2017, that I would be Mac OS 10.12.3. And no, why would I want templates RETURNED if they didn't exist on the prior system. So yes, (duh) I did have iWork '09 including Pages 4.3. I use iCal, iMail, and Pages 4.3... the only Apple software I use on a regular basis other than the OS.

I'm also wearing black and gray boxer shorts today... just to offer any additional irrelevant information you might need to continue the discussion.

Ian

Thank you for your thoughtful repose to the question at hand... I'll give your suggestion a try. It seems like the Jumsoft templates in question are hidden in some other subdirectory than the typical user template folder. This morning I was able to save one of the templates and move it to the user folder on the new machine. It appears in my personal templates but doesn't appear in it's own subset. And when opening a file originally created in that template, all the graphics are missing. A "document warning" pops up listing files that are missing. I just wish I knew what subdirectory to find on the old system that I could copy to the new system. In the merge, it looks like the "New Pages" may have auto updated and disconnected that link. Possibly the single template file I tried this morning isn't the exact file in the set that was used to create the document that is showing errors. There were several dozen templates in the set. I might have to get all of them moved to the user templates before I discover which original template was used for each document.

Oddly enough two other Jumsoft subsets did merge and appear to operate normally.

Needless to say, I think this whole experience with Pages taught me that it's time to move forward with MS Word. The downscaling of Pages has left it nothing more than a text editor. Sadly, some functions of Pages 4.3 were so easy to accomplish and so difficult to accomplish in Word.

Thanks for your suggestion... I'll try merging them all and see if it links up.

JK

ps... thanks for having a sense of humor!

No it is not a given that just because it is the 22 March 2017 that you are using Mac OS 10.12.3 and Pages 6.05, lots of people are not, and it is hardly onerous on you to state what that is if someone asks. Were you this difficult with the Apple rep?

Any time you "waste" answering questions may, or may not draw you closer to a solution, certainly it may or may not put off the person who is trying to help, wasting their time by repeatedly trying to narrow down issues, may come to the conclusion that a solution is not your real objective.

Jumsoft has been forced to move on with their products, particularly those in the App Store, just like everyone else. Pages '09 unfortunately has been gone now almost 3 and a half years. Perhaps you can contact Jumsoft directly to see if they can help you, but please try helping those who help you. We sympathise but can't change what Apple has done.

I also have Jumsoft templates and like with everything else I back up what I pay for. Nothing stays the same and at your beck and call for ever. Also I have not had your experience with Migration Assistant and as part of doing the support here and elsewhere I have a chain of drives with various Systems on them.

That does not mean you have not experienced the problem, but if you want someone to resolve an issue you have to remove as far as possible the guesswork to approach a resolution.

There is a point at which we all will need to move on from Pages, something we have said a thousand times here, when Pages '09 ceases to work at all in the latest Mac OS. I am hanging on for Affinity Publisher but it has dragged out and has not even surfaced as a beta, so we still do not know if it will ever fill Pages '09's shoes.

Peter

PS Pages 6.05 only autosaves a document if you change it, and that also is very old issue now, going back to Mac OSX Lion and Pages '09 of the time. I don't like it but it is what it is. Hard to act surprised now.

btw You have jumped onto another post with different issues from yours.

It would have been better if you had started a new post and laid out what you are using and exactly what happened. You can't mark the responses in someone else's post and it is separately indexed in Apple's "solutions".

Particularly as this one the poster never bothered responding to the answers to say whether they worked, nor clarified what they were using either.

Peter

Yes, Peter, It is a given that it's the latest OS when I mentioned that the Apple rep by phone had me update both machines to the newest operating system in hopes of making the migration program work. No, I wasn't difficult with the Apple rep on the phone because they were knowledgeable and took every step to correct the migration problem. In the grand scheme of things, two dozen missing templates out of the entire transition is not the end of the world. They solved the bad migration program issue and got the new machine up and running. It took a couple of days, but they helped get it done.

Jumsoft renamed the product, and it's no longer available on the App Store rather than leave the prior version available too.

It's nice that you're so intelligent as to back things up... well yes, I have a backup on a network drive and the additional copy on the old system. The problem is that the migration didn't migrate the old version of Pages... it forced an update rather than keep both and therefore the templates aren't connected.

And yes, the OS option of autosaving without permission is an old issue... yet every other option in General Preferences matched my old system after the migration was finally complete... just not the one issue of autosave. The old system (also 10.12.3) did not operate that way. The assumption is that when an Apple rep tells you that Migration will cause the new machine to mirror the old, well... no, it didn't mirror the old setup. thus the problem of Autosave and missing templates...

so while in your perfect world, migration assistant works perfectly... this time it didn't I've used it before and not had a problem. And for the record, the whole apple ID thing was so that I DID have a backup of purchased software ... through Apple and my wonderful Apple ID. They even promoted it as such.

Don't know why you persist in fighting answering sensible questions.

If nothing else you have learnt neither to believe nor trust everything that comes out of Apple.

So something good has come out of this.

Peter

You can also use Migration Assistant to transfer user data, third-party applications etc from the old Mac to the new one.