"File cannot be opened" error

Question

Level 1

29 points

"File cannot be opened" error

I'm having problems with Pages 5.6.1 on my MBP. Every time I try and open a project, or save a new one, I get a 'File cannot be opened" error.

The files all work fine through iCloud web access and on another Mac and on iPad but not on this one machine. Weirdly, when I close Pages and try to copy a Pages iCloud Drive file to elsewhere on my Mac, I get the following error message that says the file is 'being updated'.
I've not yet disabled & re-enabled Pages in iCloud Drive settings in System Preferences - I'm just wondering if anyone could suggest another solution.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), 17" Early 2011 MBP

Posted on Mar 10, 2016 2:11 AM

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Answer 1

Mati_mat1

Level 2

190 points

Mar 10, 2016 2:54 AM in response to martinr6

right click on the file itself before opening it.

click info

check around to see it you have rights to the document or check if it is locked

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Answer 2

martinr6 Author

Level 1

29 points

Mar 10, 2016 4:08 AM in response to Mati_mat1

Hi Mati_mat1,

Thanks for the thoughts - I've double-checked and have full R/W access for the files on this user account and the files are not locked.clou

My guess is that it's an iCloud sync issue - particularly hinted at by the second error message about the file being modified even when Pages isn't running. Perhaps a sync process is stuck or unable to complete.

Cheers,

Richard

**UPDATE** I don't routinely use either Numbers or Keynote but I have just tested them and they have exactly the same issue.

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Answer 3

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,332 points

Mar 10, 2016 4:26 AM in response to martinr6

Shut your Mac down. When you power on, immediately press and hold the shift key until you have a horizontal progress bar. This will take longer than usual because it is a Safe Boot process.

You will arrive at a full-screen login window, and in the upper right-corner, will be red letters: Safe Boot. After you type in your password, but before you click that right arrow to finish the login, press and hold the shift key again. Release the shift key when your Desktop icons paint.

Try the same Pages document access via Safe Boot mode. Do you still get the same dialogs as you posted? Reboot normally, and try the same process again with that iCloud Drive document to see if the Safe Boot mode process has cleared up any issues for you.

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Answer 4

martinr6 Author

Level 1

29 points

Mar 11, 2016 1:50 AM in response to VikingOSX

Hi Viking,

Thanks for the suggestions. I've done a the full suite of resets (reset PRAM, Safe Booting, Run Disk First Aid in Disk Utility) and that seems to have done the trick. All is working fine again.

It's not the first time I've seen this error & it seems quite a common occurrence - hope the root cause gets fixed!

Thanks for your help!

Richard

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