how to repair and recover corrupted pages file?

The .PAGES does not matter, probably just put there by the data recovery software which takes forever to do very little. The file's size and the version of Pages that created them is far more relevant.

The youtube tutorials are probably totally out of date for any current versions of Pages. There were methods that worked most of the time for Pages '09 files, but nothing since.

Changing file extension does nothing.

Your files are almost certainly toast.

Don't dump files on your Desktop. Treat them with respect and keep backups. Use Time Machine as your first line of defense but maintaining a second hard drive with manual duplicates is probably the better solution, so long as you use it.

If your work was so important to you, you should never have used Pages, especially any of the current Pages 5. 6 or 7.

Use whatever professional software applies to your work, because your work is far more valuable than the money you try and save by using the first free software you find sitting in your Dock. I suggest not using any current Apple software for serious work or content, Apple has no regard for your work and has demonstrated that multiple times in recent years.

Peter

It might appear as simple text to you at the user level, but internally to the Pages document, that text is stored as binary, in some mysterious Apple format that they are not sharing, and that no tool on earth can open or repair.

The old Pages '08/'09, and Word .docx files store data in XML files that can be opened with a text editor and give some chance at text recovery.

You are done with that file.

600 - 900kb is meaningless.

What was it? How much text? Pages 7 files are astoundingly inefficient so I am only guessing that that means the file is incomplete and since Pages 7 file formats were designed (deliberately or by incompetence) by Apple to be unparseable and thus unrecoverable, I repeat your file, (from what you say) is toast.

Shed as much tears as you like, but move on with your life and learn valuable lessons. We have all been there.

Just don't get yourself in the same pickle a second time.

If you have important work, look after it and use as solid software as you can to secure it, both in its original form and as backups.

To sum up. Your house burnt down because it was constructed out of petrol soaked cardboard. You are holding the ashes in your hands. When you rebuild, do it in bricks.

We have no idea what your file consisted of. If it was only text, use solid software, there are many Apps available on the Mac from simple to complex, using file formats that can be rescued such as .txt, rtf, .doc or .odf (open file format) and keep spare copies.

Peter

LibreOffice [free] is a solid open source clone of Microsoft Office. It opens and saves in a huge list of file formats but its native format is Open Document Format (odf).

.odf is a file format promoted for long term archiving and to maintain access in the face of the commercial options which are designed purely for the interests of the major publishers of software like Microsoft, and Apple, who do not consider the material produced by their software to be their concern.

Being an open file format, .odf is widely accessible from many different Applications from many different developers on all major computer platforms, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Haiku etc.

Apple typically ignores open standards and only supports .odt (the text version) in TextEdit but not .odf.

Apple has been on an anti-user trajectory for the last 5 years working hard to lock users into its own ecosystem irregardless of the consequences, other than to its own bottom line. Don't fall into the trap, no matter how much Apple sells it and constructs it to be the easy way out.

Be defensive of your own work. Do not put it in anybody else's hands. That includes on other people's servers. Just look at Facebook as a totally unisolated example. Assurances mean nothing. Words are cheap. Don't be a schmuck exploited by others.

Look after yourself. No-one else will.

Peter

Peter,

I'm interested in your comments about not using Pages for anything important. Is this because Apple will likely drop compatibility with that file format in the future - as they did with AppleWorks - or are you saying that Pages is inherently unstable?

I only ask because each year I create a book of my bicycle racing season using Pages 09 which includes lots of text and graphics and photos (not for publication or anything, just for me as a kind of journal). Each one represents hours and hours of work, albeit spread throughout the year, and I don't like the idea of losing it all. That said, when each year's book is finished I save a pdf version and also have a hard copy printed and bound using one of those online book printers. (I have to jump through a few conversion hoops and having one copy printed isn't cheap, but works well).

I've always found Pages 09 to be excellent and stable, although I've heard horror stories of later versions of Pages and iCloud conspiring to destroy people's work - hence I don't use iCloud at all and have no intention of upgrading Pages to one of the dumbed down versions any time soon.

But should I really be looking at something like Word to do these projects in future? Just interested in your take on it.

Thanks in advance.

(And sorry GTis for hijacking your thread).

🙂

1. Apple has changed the .pages file format multiple times, many times since they changed to Pages 5. Without notice.

2. The file format is incompatible with just about everything including itself

3. Apple locks their software to various versions of OSX. Pages 5, 6 & 7 are particularly bad, so far Pages '09 has survived with some caveats in Sierra and High Sierra, but when Apple finally switches to only 64bit probably in the next macOS, it may no longer work on a current Mac

4. It is difficult to parse. Pages '09's file format is much better than Pages 5. 6. 7 but is now dated. There are ways to rescue files if they become corrupted, but it still is more risky than if you use a mainstream format that uses the normal .txt, rtf or xhml.

5. Synching with iCloud may cause a problem on one device to copy itself to all versions on all devices. One of the obviously bad ideas of this "convenience"

6. People have reported file corruption particularly in Pages 5, 6, 7. From this perspective, we are the support site so people do come here with their problems, it is hard to identify the odds but enough to advise caution. Again Pages '09 is far better and is possibly repairable whilst Pages 5, 6, 7 are toast.

7. Pages 5, 6, 7 do not handle multiple objects well. From my tests Pages 7 is the worst yet, going into the spinning beachball of death with only a few hundred objects on the most powerful Mac.

Since you have said you are using Pages '09 I won't say there is no risk, just much less of a risk.

You are taking precautions (converting to pdf is the best) but I'd split the document up, maybe into monthly units or whatever makes sense. Any extremely large document is a risk, making it at least in a standard parseable format helps reduce the risks it becomes total toast.

Using .odf which is an open standard xhtml standard in an application that is widely supported remains the most secure long term solution.

Peter

Many thanks Peter. Good points, all.

Yes I'd heard about the 64 bit thing. It's a real pain as the primary applications I use are all 32 bit (Pages '09, Photoshop Elements 6 and FileMaker Pro12, mainly). Hence my staying with El Capitan, the system my Mac came with.

My plan is to upgrade to Sierra in the autumn (when in theory El Cap support is likely to end) as my main applications, including Pages '09, will work with it. Unfortunately after that, High Sierra will start breaking stuff so I will probably just stop at Sierra and settle for becoming steadily more out of date for as long as the hardware lasts. I was still using my G4 iMac until two years ago, so I'm no stranger to living as a dinosaur. It's just frustrating to have Apple develop and sell a great product and then deliberately break it without providing a proper alternative.

But hey ho - such is life I guess. Thanks again for your thoughts. 🙂

Here is a rule of thumb for Pages v5/6/7 documents. Once corrupted, no recovery other than from a backup. There are NO fix-it tools for these versions of Pages.