I quit pages and didn't save a document - help!!

VikingOSX:

In my Pages ’09 v4.3 and Lion 10.7.5 if I quit Pages with a never-saved file open on the screen, the file will be saved. I can find this file and its associated .plist file in my Home folder > the Library folder > the Autosave Information folder.

The .plist file will be named:

com.apple.iWork.Pages.plist

The .pages file will be named:

Unsaved Pages Document.pages

I can open this .pages file in two ways: either open the Pages program (the file will open automatically) or double-click the filename in the Autosave Information folder.

When using Pages '09 v4.1 or v4.3, or any of the newer, less featured Pages v5 through v7.2, if you never save an Untitled.pages document while you work on it, and quit Pages, the document is gone for good, as Pages cleans up the temporary space it was using for the document. It won't be on a Time Machine backup either.

On the other hand, any of the application versions mentioned above will employ autosave about every 10 seconds when changes are made to a document — provided you have saved the document just once. If you did that, then all of your subsequent editing sessions would also autosave, and if you were using Time Machine, then the document is recoverable.

At some point in our lives, we have all lost work and time because we failed to save a document. Learn early, remember well.

But on Mojave, Pages '09 is dead, and Pages v7.2 does not write anything to the ~/Library/Autosave Information folder on an unsaved exit. It does not write anything to the following folders either:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iWork.Pages/Data/Library/Autosave Information/

$TMPDIR/com.apple.iWork.Pages/TemporaryItems

On current releases of macOS, including High Sierra, unsaved Pages content is vaporized when the application quits. Been this way for quite some time…

On HIgh Sierra, quitting from Pages '09 v4.3 without saving initial content results in a unsaved document vapor trail too.

Use your Time Machine backup to restore the file:

Use Time Machine to restore deleted files or older files - Apple Support