Pages freezes when I try to save and close documents

Have you done a course at an Apple Store or picked up an introductory book for Macs?

When you open Pages it will open previously open documents, which is why "random documents seem to appear...". If you don't want that to happen close the documents before you quit Pages.

You can look for previous documents in:

All My Files in the Window Sidebar.

Menu > File > Open Recent

They are also under:

Menu > Apple > Recent items

All these lists are finite however and only there to help you get at recent work.

You can search for documents using Spotlight which is the magnifying glass up in the top right of the Menubar.

However I suspect your problem is simple navigation within the Save dialog.

Initially the view is shrunk down to just the name and save location:

Click on the little arrow next to the File name and you see the full Save dialog window:

If you click on the folder name of where you are saving (red rectangle) you can change the location by scrolling down and choosing other destinations. Each level as you go down encloses the one above.

When you get where you want to save, select the folder by clicking on it then hitting Save or Return.

Peter

If this was brand new at Christmas 2017 then you have 90 days of AppleCare support. This is NOT an iCloud issue. This is clearly a malfunction in Pages and the current MacOS.

I also recommend if you are new to Apple and Macs to buy AppleCare. You can get it from Apple or often get it at a slight discount from vendors on ebay (I have bought about 8 copies that way and never had a problem.)

AppleCare is fabuluos and they will walk you through the steps while you are on the phone. If they cannot solve the problem, they will upgrade the case to a senior technical advisor. I have had them walk me through problems with Garageband and Final Cut using Terminal and they have always solved every single problem I have had.

The only time they could not solve a problem was when I got a defective 24" iMac which had numerous parts replaced. Fianlly a level two senior advisor said they would replace my computer which was at that point 1.5 years old, but sadly informed me they no longer made the 24" and would I mind taking a 27" as my replacement (please no sibbing on the keyboard, I know it does sound tragic). They also told me that the standard current video card is 3 times faster than my current video card, but I had the absolutely top of the line video card for its day and to put the top of the line would require I wait 4 entire days. That card would be 10 times faster.

So I had to live with a bigger machine and a faster video processor for free.

AppleCare will walk you through this now and for the next 3 years they will help you solve any number of things that can go wrong. I especially recommend this for the Air and MacBooks/Pro because they are moved around and often develop physical problems.

Best of luck

Doc

In Finder look in the Sidebar in a Window.

Do you see iCloud Drive? Look in there.

Peter

btw You do not need to save to the Desktop and move that to Documents. You should save it directly to Documents or wherever you want. If you have a very short Save dialogue click on the small arrow button next to your destination to expand your view of your Drive(s).

I am on a brand new iMac Pro in the Apple Store.

Have checked Pages 6.3.1 on macOS High Sierra, and it is the same as it was before in Sierra.

Are you possibly talking about Pages '09 on some other macOS?

Peter

Well, I can be sure because I am omniscient! It is from using AppleCare over and over and having them walk me through things, dumping cashes or perferences and any number of things.

It may very well be your 250+ Solitarie is the problem, but I doubt it. I am actually having a similar problem, but not as frequently or with the regularity you are.

So This started with Pages 6.3.1 and MacOS 10.12.3 (10.13. has a problem with some of my older software.

So it is just 30 years and looking at all the different possiblities I would just call Apple.

So often I think the people here are intending to be helpful and some have amazing depth, but....When you say Freeze and someone says iCloud, it is likely that person has no real idea what to do.

Call AppleCare and definitely get it if you have a MacBook Air

Doc

I just purchased a new Macbook Pro also and neither documents I write in Pages or Microsoft word saves. It just continues to load, doesn't save and I need to force quit it and deleted all my work. Not sure where the problem starts and how to fix this???

Don't presume:

Menu > Pages > About Pages

Is your problem exclusively with Pages or occurs with other documents in other Apps.

And where are you saving to?

Peter

Are they possibly saved to iCloud and you are having connection issues?

Peter