Pages files gone after iOS 11 update

Interesting addendum to my recent post. On my iPad, I just now selected "copy to Pages," a document I had emailed to myself. I was able to open it from within Pages once. It will not open a second time. Good grief! They broke things badly with this update.

Hi bhludlow. I'm following your posts intently. I have a couple of docs from last year, and one created after the iOS 11 update (and Pages update), all in local storage, that cannot be opened. If I try to delete or rename them, Files says the file "does not exist". Please keep us updated.

Has anyone had a similar problem with Numbers - I have. It appears that iCloud has randomly deleted all of my Numbers files from the last six years, some of which are critical business files.

Perhaps the latest iOS that incorporates the Files app is not very stable?

does anyone have a working solution to retrieve the files?

Do you use a Mac computer? I don’t know if Windows machines work the same, although since they can use iTunes, I expect they have these same capabilities. I’m also not certain what happens if you’ve been using iCloud as your backup. For anyone who syncs their iPads or iPhones through iTunes. It is possible to retrieve all those grayed out, or unopenable, files by connecting to the computer > open iTunes > click on "File Sharing" > scroll to see your apps that can share files > select any files you see there > do one of 2 things. Select those files and drag them into a new folder on your Mac, or select them and select "Save to," a new folder on your computer.

Good luck. Will keep you posted. Because these non-accessible file issues also effect newly created, or newly opened files, I rather doubt a reinstall, or uploading files to the devices will work, but I’ll try that tomorrow. BTW, has anyone noticed the wonkier than usual spell-check behaviors?

Didn’t know it was part of Apple "Keyboard." Thanks for the info. I have updated to iOS 11.1.1. That’s where all the Pages issues came from.

I’ve read that they fixed an issue involving the capital i, —actually, now it doesn’t seem to capitalize the stand alone i at all, some of the time— but what I seem to be getting is that other letters are sometime "corrected" to be either upper or lower case, seemingly at random. Nothing about it is as irritating, however, than the files that won’t open. Spell check issues just means I have to proof read much more carefully.

Can someone out there please try the following so that I can tell Apple that I am not the only person experiencing this problem.

1. Switch your iPad to FLIGHT MODE to take it offline.

2. Open a PAGES or Numbers file that you have stored in iCloud.

3. Once the file opens, close it.

4. Now try opening it again.

When I do this the file will not reopen until I take put my iPad back online. (Occasional it will reopen after about half an hour) This did not happen with IOS 10. I could open and close iCloud files as many times as I wished when offline. I have ‘partially’ resolved the problem by copying my files from iCloud to ON MY IPAD but this is annoying because if I edit these files when offline ( in an aircraft) they will not update the version stored in iCloud which I thought was the whole point of iCloud.

Hey, Apple’s listening. I got an email asking for more information, including a diagnostics tool, and instructions on a possible way to get the files to open. I will send details tomorrow after I’ve run the things to see how it works. I’ve also just read that there is a iOS 11.2 beta upgrade that is supposed to fix some bugs, although this one wasn’t mentioned in the release news.

I have just installed the latest (15 Nov ‘17) app update of Pages on my iPad. My issue is the same. Following the update I cannot open any of the Pages documents located on my iPad. I can see the files, but when I double-click the files they do not open.

I tried creating a new document and this saved and reopened when requested, just as expected. I have tried closing and reopening the Pages app, then shutting down the iPad and restarting it, but I still cannot open files that I had created prior to today’s update. iOS and all other software on the iPad are the current version.

ANY NEWS OF A SOLUTION FROM APPLE?

Hi bhludlow. Thank you for this. It worked for me on a file created Sept. 21, using the "new" Pages. This file displayed a thumbnail, but could not be opened. However, it did not work for files created mid-2016, which were displaying only the Pages icon. Those files came to the PC as folders, containing various JPEG thumbnails, metadata files, but no actual data. We'll see how it works for other users.

OK, ran the diagnostics on my iPad as instructed by the iWork's people. They asked that the file be compressed and sent to them. I can't, however, get it to compress small enough to send, so am waiting for their reply as to how to do this. Tried the drop down, compress file, and tried with DropStuff. Neither would compress small enough to send.

I did try their instructions for replacing the files in Pages with files that I had earlier saved off to my computer. (Same steps as explained so clearly by GospelOfJohn14v6.) After dragging the files –first one at a time, then several at a time– back into the iTunes window, they seem to open on the ipad as they should. Of course, many weren't replaced, just added a new file. I now have more than one of most files. In fact, I just tried opening a file called "Early Fitness Exercises," and each time I open it, it recreated itself! I now have 5 copies of that file. I then deleted all but one, and it opens as it should.

Some files open fine, some I get the warning that the document may look different, with an option to open a copy. I select to simply open it, and it opens fine.

Diana, can you open the contents of the folders on your computer, and re-import 1 at a time? You've probably tried that, but it never hurts to state the obvious, just in case.

Will post again when I hear back from Apple.

You are my hero! 🙂 I did this and then I opened a document and it was there, so I copied it, (first printed out the darn thing...teach me), then pasted it in an email to myself, then copied that, then pasted that back into pages as a new document. Renamed it. I can now access it in Pages, but can not open up the original. (though I'm not deleting it, even though it "doesn't exist").

However, it is still glitchy. I have to act like I'm renaming it, cancel, then open it, sometimes. It doesn't open right away every time, and acts like the others. Weird.

These were on my iPhone, not saved to the cloud. I do have my old phone (I upgraded in July) and the update for pages was 3.2 (4783) and the same documents opened there with no problems, but they didn't have any revisions since July because they weren't synced.

The new/current version is 3.3.1 (5249) Don't know if this has any bearing on anything.

As I was working on this, Apple did a new update in settings. 11.1.2 It didn't fix pages. (and the same issue is with numbers and keynotes)

Anyway, I was only really, really, really concerned with 2 documents, which I have transferred to a folder on my desktop and printed, so I haven't tried with the rest. I just wanted to tell you THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Yay I've got mine back!

I keep a couple Pages documents on my iPhone6 (iOS 11.1.1).

My Pages documents were still listed including date and file size, but would not open, and would not get an error, sometimes just a white screen with no cursor. Had to close the app if it didn't just crash itself.

When I tried to copy, I got a pop-up error ("Blank" is the name of one of my files):

Can't Copy "Blank"

The file doesn't exist.

<OK>

I thought if I could text or airdrop to another phone, it would work there or help troubleshoot... but could not copy, so could not send.

The Files app listed the files, too, but still would not open.

I could create *new* Pages documents, save, re-open fine.

After reading these posts, I saw one that someone could open their lost files from Mac OS (not iOS).

I just happen to have a Mac Mini with Mac OS (10.12.6),

used iTunes to copy files from phone to desktop,

opened files from my desktop fine. =-)

Then I renamed the desktop copy

and copied back to iTunes (phone)...

that one opened fine on my phone. =-)

I'm good to go again. 😀

Good luck!

-Mike

Hi folks, been following your efforts for the past week. And I have finally retrieved my files (on iPad Pro) after syncing with pc, then copying as set out by ‘gospel of john. Also, updating to iOS 11.1.2.

The files were still only opening randomly and crashing the app, so I emailed them to myself for safety. I then deleted the app totally and saved the spreadsheets back again from the emails.

Happy to have it all back. But am still,worried that they don’t seem to be saving to the iCloud at all. When I check settings/manage storage for iCloud - pages/notes etc all show up, but nothing I do can make ‘numbers’ appear. Any suggestions welcome. Thanks.

I heard back from Apple about the replicating files. Here’s what they say.

"Hello. To stop the population of duplicates, you can open the original file, then open the duplicates. If the duplicate file contains the correct information, you can delete the original file.

Thank you,

The iWork Team"

This made sense, and did work. The single saved "duplicate" files seem to be behaving normally. I I kept one of the first saved, openable files, and this file continued to make a copy of itself, so be sure to keep the copy, delete the first version.

I will continue to sync with iTunes, rather than iCloud, and as a precaution, will save a copy of each new file to a separate folder on my Mac until Apple announces an update for this problem. I’m sorry this doesn’t seem to work with those Numbers files.

hey. I have the exact same issue and was trying your workaround, however when I save the numbers file to my computer, it saves it as a folder (not a file) containing a lot of subfiles with .iwa extension, a rar file and some more stuff. when I try to add them back to my iPad, I go to select that folder but I can't add a folder it needs to be a file so idk what to do. I'm completely lost. I'd be glad if you could reply.