Pages no longer opening, cause unknown.

Several months ago I finally updated my old iMac to Catalina. I'm now running 10.15.7. This broke a lot of things that I finally fixed, it was a huge headache, and I am still dealing with apps that no longer work, including my password manager. I'm not willing to update further, as it will break more things that are 100% necessary for my job and make my computer even slower than it already is.


But Pages was not something that was a problem since the update. I used the Pages application as recently as Feb 18/19 with no problems, both creating new documents, and opening downloaded word documents from work.


I tried to open several different documents today, both native pages ones that I'm working on, and the downloaded .docx ones, and get this error every time:


The application "Pages" can't be opened.

-10668


I downloaded Libre Office so I can actually open my documents, but what the heck happened? AFAIK there was nothing done on my end to cause this. Is there any way to fix it, or should I just delete pages altogether? I don't care what program I use, I just need it to work, and not hit me with an issue suddenly when I'm trying to get work done.


iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 22, 2024 6:38 PM

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Feb 23, 2024 3:18 AM in response to jdaniel265

Nothing is going to open existing Pages documents except the Pages application itself whether on iOS, iPadOS, or macOS. The last compatible version of Pages for Catalina is 11.1. If you are using an older version, that may be part of your current issues. You can get Pages v11.1 if you previously installed Pages from the Mac App Store.


Launch the Mac App Store and ensure you are signed in with the same Apple ID as you used to previously install it. Press cmd+0 (zero) to open the Purchased panel and if Pages is shown there with a a blue outline cloud with down-arrow, click that. You will receive one or more dialogs with the final dialog offering to install the last compatible version of Pages for Catalina. Do not click Cancel on any dialog that may appear.


That should get you as current with Pages on Catalina as you can get without resorting to Pages for iCloud.


LibreOffice will not open Pages documents unless they are from Pages '09 v4.n and are reasonably simple. Pages translates Word documents that it can successfully open into Pages internal document format, and does not edit Word documents. Any Pages content that you export as a Word document may not appear the same when opened in Word by others.


You should not be using any anti-virus or so-called Mac cleaner applications as they can potentially flag and/or remove parts of legitimate Mac applications or data files. I recommend removing any such applications if you have installed them.


Any 32-bit applications you were using prior to Catalina would not be supported on it as the operating system only supports 64-bit applications. As LibreOffice currently requires Catalina as the minimum operating system version that it supports, that may change in the near future. Staying on Catalina may seem safe, but it is rapidly becoming an island for application and security protocols.

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Feb 23, 2024 4:04 AM in response to VikingOSX

LibreOffice opened the pages documents without issue, the only annoying thing is I have to go to the menu and use "open with" instead of just double clicking the document. I am going to try to set my preferences to open them with LibreOffice by default, and from now on will just work and save everything in .docx. I only used Pages in the first place because it already came on the mac.


I checked the app store before posting here, but I checked again per your instructions, and I have Pages downloaded. All the app store says is "Open". When I click that, it pulls up the same error. I do not use any anti-virus or cleaner applications. I've changed or done nothing since February 18/19 when my last Pages documents were created. This was an issue upon starting my computer this morning, Feb 22. I have no idea why it changed.


"Staying on Catalina may seem safe, but it is rapidly becoming an island for application and security protocols."


Yes. I understand the risks of not updating. The reason I never updated to Catalina previously was that even when I knew a new OS was out, the App Store always said "Your computer is up to date" and never showed an update past what I had, so I assumed my computer was too old to safely update. It was only late last year that I even learned differently, hence finally updating to Catalina. I chose not to go further due to performance reasons.


Anyway, Pages still does not open. I'm thinking of just deleting it and moving on, but it would be nice to know why it happened just in case it happens to another native OS app.


Edit: I looked at the app store again, and after hitting the "..." button saw that you can delete Pages, which I did. I then followed your instructions to try to re-download it. I was successful in getting a "previous version", but got the same exact error message as before. I tried it a second time with the same result. I then just deleted pages and set up LibreOffice to open all .pages documents on default.


If you/anyone has any insight as to why this happened, I'd appreciate it, but at this point I don't need pages to work, so it's fine if it stays deleted. LibreOffice seems fine for my purposes.


Thank you!

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Feb 23, 2024 4:23 AM in response to jdaniel265

One caveat with regard to opening Pages documents in LO 2024.02 is that images in the Pages document will not display in LO. You will see the outline where the image has been repositioned, and only on a Save as to Word 2010 - 365.docx will the images reappear in the wrong position from the original Pages document. This is also true for the command line LO conversion to .docx from the Pages document.


Saving as an .odt completely removes the images shown in the original Pages document.


Although LO is a temptation, you might be better saved opening the Pages documents in Pages for iCloud and exporting as Word documents to have the best chance for original format retention.

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Feb 23, 2024 5:01 AM in response to jdaniel265

You are welcome.


Here is a Shell function that allows to convert (some) Pages documents to Word.


function to_docx () {
for file in "$@" ;
do
    if [ -s $file ]; then
        /Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice --headless --convert-to docx:"MS Word 2007 XML" "${file}"
    else
        printf "\n%s\n\n" ">>> $file not found or zero length."
        continue
    fi
done
}


You can put this in your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zshenv file — based on the Shell in use. Then in the relaunched Terminal:


to_docx foo.pages


and it will write foo.docx in the same document location.

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Pages no longer opening, cause unknown.

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