Numbers offline

Question

Numbers offline

I have just updated to Numbers 5.2 and I cannot edit my shared documents because it says Numbers is offline.

The green sharing icon has a red exclamation point and upon clicking anything I get the alert: “Numbers is connecting to iCloud. You’ll be able to edit this shared spreadsheet once Numbers is online.”

Needless to say, I am online, iCloud is properly sync’d and the iPad where the shared account receives and sees the docs works flawlessly and is connected.

What is happening?

What can I do?

Thank you

Posted on Sep 21, 2018 7:34 AM

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Answer 1

SGIII

Level 8

35,252 points

Sep 22, 2018 11:26 AM in response to NotationMaster

Is this checked?

This is at System Preferences > iCloud > Options ... button next to iCloud Drive.

Also, sometimes signing out of iCloud and signing back in can also clear up mysterious problems.

SG

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Answer 2

SGIII

Level 8

35,252 points

Sep 22, 2018 2:35 PM in response to NotationMaster

I haven't noticed any problems with any of my documents.

If you don't want to sign out of iCloud and back in (it sounds as if you have 'Optimize Mac Storage' checked under iCloud Drive Options... then perhaps unchecking Numbers, restarting, and checking it again will help?

SG

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Answer 3

chris_g1

Community Specialist

Sep 22, 2018 7:32 AM in response to NotationMaster

Hey Boneslasher,

I understand you're unable to connect to Numbers to access shared content through iCloud. I'd be happy to help.

Since you've already checked your internet connection, I'd suggest force quitting the app and trying again:

How to force an app to quit on your Mac - Apple Support
If that doesn't resolve your issue, test in a new user:
How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support

Cheers!

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Answer 4

SGIII

Level 8

35,252 points

Sep 22, 2018 5:42 PM in response to NotationMaster

I haven't used the collaboration much so I'm not sure whether you can edit while offline. Perhaps you create and share a document just for testing, and experiment with that.

I understand that when 'Optimize Mac Storage' is unchecked a copy of all documents in iCloud Drive are kept locally on the Mac as well. When it is checked a local copy is kept on the Mac only if there is sufficient storage space. More explanation here. I have plenty of storage capacity on my Mac so I leave it unchecked.

SG

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Answer 5

Sep 22, 2018 8:41 AM in response to chris_g1

Hello Chris,

thank you for your help.

I tried what you said, nothing works.

I suspect a problem in the Numbers update because everything was working before the last update.

Now it is either giving me the "Offline" status or it is preventing me for going through the sharing process.

It just never stops spinning ...

What can be done?

Thank you

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Answer 6

Sep 22, 2018 9:20 AM in response to Wayne Contello

Thank you, Wayne, I really appreciate this help.

Tried both of them right now.

No result.

Could you tell me if your documents are being shared for real-time collaboration without any issue?

Just because I have just read of other people having similar issues.

Thank you

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Answer 7

Sep 22, 2018 9:30 AM in response to Wayne Contello

A little update:

I have tried to access my shared document on Numbers for iCloud and ... the collaboration works perfectly.

The same documents, opened on Numbers for iOS (updated to the latest version), work flawlessly.

It really seems an issue isolated to Numbers for Mac.

I really hope those geniuses in California didn't try to make us update iWork apps that will work fine only under Mojave... because if it is so, my Time Machine already knows what to do...

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Answer 8

Sep 22, 2018 12:31 PM in response to SGIII

Everything is checked ... as it was before the latest update.

I would gladly sign out of iCloud but I have 120GB of data on iCloud Drive and macOS will ask me to keep a copy on the disk and all the rest... it will take ages...

I find this process very painful and never clean ... I either have to re-download everything (if I choose not to keep) or end up with a copy of the iCloud Drive folder which I will then have to remove or copy, with duplicates which will (for experience...) appear everywhere on other devices...

Is there any way to just sign out and sign in without all this pain?

Let me know if I can do anything else to solve this.

Remove the app and download it again? Or anything else ...

Could you confirm if your documents are all properly working?

Is it only ... me and my Mac?

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Answer 9

Sep 22, 2018 3:33 PM in response to SGIII

YES!

This did the thing! You're a genius!

Thank you!

Just two questions more:

1) will I still be able to edit my shared documents when my computer is offline (e.g.: without Wi-Fi)? Or is this feature intended only for documents you want to edit while connected?

2) yes I have 'Optimize Mac Storage' checked.

What will happen if I uncheck it? Should I? Why or why not?

Ok, the second question is 3-in-1, sorry, but ...!

Thank you for your help!

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Answer 10

Sep 23, 2018 1:06 AM in response to NotationMaster

Then I think I will turn it off as well, I have 500GB and I can erase other things in case the space gets cramped.

I get so many issues with iCloud Drive these days.

The fact that every edit re-uploads the file from the beginning instead of doing incremental updates makes working with big files almost impossible.

Thank you so much for your help!

Have a great day!

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Answer 11

Sep 24, 2018 12:56 PM in response to SGIII

Tried: shared documents are not editable if the phone is not online.

This is quite an undesirable behaviour.

Notes shared documents are editable offline and then they are updated when a network is found.

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Answer 12

Oct 3, 2018 5:51 PM in response to NotationMaster

I'm having a slightly similar issue with being offline and unable to connect my documents to iCloud for collaborating.

The difference is that I'm on Numbers 5.1 on Sierra, and the Numbers app is giving me a warning to go to the free update to 5.2 in the App Store. The problem here is that it's incompatible with Sierra, so I'm not upgrading my OS just for Numbers, and I primarily use this machine for audio work. I won't be upgrading to Mojave until everything I use is known to be working.

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Answer 13

Barry

Level 9

59,861 points

Oct 3, 2018 10:10 PM in response to Mitch Ryan 912

"the Numbers app is giving me a warning to go to the free update to 5.2 in the App Store."

An actual "warning"? or a notice that an update is available, followed by a note saying you will need to upgrade to the current macOS for the Numbers update to work?

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Answer 14

Oct 4, 2018 7:55 AM in response to Barry

I got on the phone with Apple last night, and this seems to be an uncommon but known bug. The problem isn’t exactly with Numbers itself or even iCloud, but with the ability to collaborate on a document.

When working on a shared document, Numbers shows an warning marker on the collaborate button, and gives me three options:

1. Go to the App Store to update (the update is incompatible with Sierra).

2. “Not now,” which puts the document offline and uneditable.

3. Use Numbers on iCloud.com.

For now, I’m having to work on iOS and iCloud.com, having to bounce back and forth between the two to do certain things that work better on each platform. I’ll have to stick to that until they figure out what the bug in collaboration is.

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Answer 15

SGIII

Level 8

35,252 points

Sep 22, 2018 10:29 AM in response to NotationMaster

In your menu can you go to Share > Collaboration Details > Share Options and click this?

SG

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