Michael Graubart

Q: Pages: incompatibility between Mac

I have recently signed up for iCloud and have installed Pages on my iPhone 5s. I have been working on a biography in Pages and — so that I can work on it a little while out and about — uploaded it to iCloud. On my phone a few days later, I made a small change to the document.

 

A day later I tried to open it in my Mac at home and was faced with a message saying that it could not be opened by the version of Pages on my computer (4.3) and that I had to get a new version from the App Store. But 4.3 is the latest version of Pages that will run on my Mac's system, namely Mountain Lion (10.8.5), so I could not update Pages. (Just to explain why I have not, and cannot, upgrade my Mac's OS, I have some very expensive software that would not run on a later OS.)

 

I tried and failed to open the document in Word, LibreOffice, NeoOffice, Mellel and TextEdit. I presume that the reason for this debacle is that the version of Pages on my phone is a later one than the one on my Mac, and also later than anything those other apps (though they are recent versions) can open. Very fortunately I had an earlier version of the document on my Mac, and could manually bring it up to date by comparing it with the new version as shown on my phone. But this situation is in general hopeless. Can anyone offer a suggestion for a way out of the dilemma that if I modify a document on my phone I can no longer open it back at home on my Mac?

Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Mar 20, 2016 8:38 AM

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Q: Pages: incompatibility between Mac

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  • by VikingOSX,

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Mar 24, 2016 4:31 AM in response to Michael Graubart
    Level 7 (20,591 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 24, 2016 4:31 AM in response to Michael Graubart

    In October 2013, Apple brought out Pages v5 for Mac. At the same time, they updated Pages for iOS, and Pages for iCloud to all have the same new document architecture that is not backwards compatible with Pages '09 v4.3. Nothing on the planet, but current versions of Pages across these three platforms will open Pages v5 documents. The current version of Pages in the OS X App Store can only be installed on OS X 10.10.4 or later.

     

    From your iPhone, while using Pages, you will need to Send a Copy : Mail : Word to get a .docx to your Mac. You should also realize that Pages for iOS, and Pages for iCloud are subsets of the functionality found in Pages '09 and may disable, or purge some of your Pages '09 document content that the newer versions do not support. Best to make Word documents your medium of exchange.

  • by Tom Gewecke,Solvedanswer

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Mar 24, 2016 6:14 AM in response to Michael Graubart
    Level 9 (79,035 points)
    Mar 24, 2016 6:14 AM in response to Michael Graubart

    Michael Graubart wrote:

     

    I tried and failed to open the document in Word, LibreOffice, NeoOffice, Mellel and TextEdit.

     

    It's important for you to know that .pages format cannot ever be read by anything other than the Pages app at best.  So if you really need your stuff to be openable by something else, use another app to create it, or export everything to .doc.

  • by Michael Graubart,Helpful

    Michael Graubart Michael Graubart Mar 24, 2016 10:07 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Level 2 (275 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 24, 2016 10:07 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

    Thank you both very much for those clear expositions of the situation. I have, indeed, now exported the two documents I am particularly occupied with to Word, and all is well.