New TextEdit "Untitled" documents use only odd numbering

Reinstall macOS, perhaps?

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

Don't erase the disk. Just follow the "Reinstall macOS" instructions at the end.

It doesn't usually accomplish anything, but it might be applicable — in odd cases.

That seems like overkill.

It is, and I don't like it any more than you do. However, it's often the most expedient solution, given the limitations of remote troubleshooting imposed by this or any other back-and-forth kind of discussion. It's also completely nondestructive of your User account information or data, so it's harmless.

It might not work anyway.

To be clear, I'm more curious about what could be causing this than actually anxious to find a solution.

So am I. It's not something I have ever experienced or even heard of before. If you were to reinstall macOS the problem will either be resolved, meaning you'll never know what caused it, or it will persist, and you still won't know. Most people on this site just want to fix their Macs and I appreciate your curiosity.

Did you try deleting these files?

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TextEdit.plist
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.TextEdit/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TextEdit.plist

If you use iCloud to store your TextEdit documents, the following is also applicable:

~/Library/Application Support/CloudDocs/session/containers/com.apple.TextEdit

If it doesn't help I may have additional suggestions.

(Pathnames edited to mitigate word-wrap problems with this site)

Oh and one more thing: if you were to create a new, temporary User Account, and the problem is not duplicated in that Account, you will have definitively isolated it to your User space. That would help advance troubleshooting. To learn how to do that read How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac. When you are finished troubleshooting, you can remove the temporary User Account by following these instructions: macOS Sierra: Delete a user or group. Before removing it, confirm you don't need any of the files you might have created in that Account.

The first one should certainly exist. The fact it does not is odd. Nevermind.

It is the only TextEdit .plist that I am quite certain is required. Creating a replacement (using touch for example) might be worthwhile but is not likely to resolve the problem.

Is that Mac's Permissions correctly set? To fix that please read Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder - Apple Support.

thund3r0us wrote:

Problem is not duplicated in test account:

That's good news. In that case the cause is almost certain to be a related file within ~/Library/ including each of its subdirectories. Search for any file with TextEdit in it. Compare its contents (its entire contents) to the test user account.

An app such as EasyFind is likely to be worth the investment, especially since it's free.

Try deleting the com.apple.textedit container in your user Library/Containers.

To get to your user Library if it isn't visible in your home directory, hold down the Option key and select Library from the Go menu in Finder.

Look inside the Containers folder for

com.apple.textedit

Delete that folder and then start TextEdit. Test if it correctly indexes new documents.

All of your preferences will be deleted, so you'll have to fix all of those that you had changed from defaults.

If you want to preserve your preferences in case this doesn't solve the problem, just move the container folder to your Desktop.

The container will be re-created when you start TextEdit.

If recreating the container doesn't fix your problem, you can quit TextEdit and move the old container folder back into the Containers folder, replacing the newer one.

thund3r0us wrote:

Or should I just start deleting things and see what happens? That sounds dangerous... 😝

It is, but that's the risk you take for not electing the more conservative approach – which is to reinstall macOS.

As long as you have a Time Machine or equivalent backup and recovery strategy then there is no risk.

I would even call it odd (double pun very intended).

The only suggestion I have is to open its Preferences... and select Restore All Defaults.

I tried to duplicate what you're seeing... but I can't even.