Pages no longer opens Word (.docx) documents

You are right about the issue (found it on "Console")

But not the proper way to fix it.

You should try:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -lint -r -f -v -dump -domain local -domain system -domain user -domain network

 killall Dock

Thank you for a clue

I have the same.

After update all files (xlsx, docx, even .eps) were associated with Skype.

By "open with" -> "Always" couldn't get anywhere.

By "right click" -> Get info -> "Change all" I successfully make xlsx and docx to get opened by excel and word. However icon of Excel changed to Adobe, and icon of Word stayed Skype. But opening worked.

Then I tried

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

and then

rm -rf /Library/Caches/com.apple.iconservices.store

and uninstalled Viber and Skype, because at this point I noticed also "Viber Message Document" on my xlsx files.

and then reboot, word got the word icon back and xlsx got white page empty for icon.

Next I tried opening xslsx with Numbers to no avail. No way I can open that excel with Numbers. So there I am stuck.

To me it seems that Viber/Skype messes something up. But also MacOS allows they to mess up.

I would love to reset everything to default, but it seems it is not easily possible or something is messed up.

Have you ever heard of bug? Do you know that bugs are bugs because they affect only some of the people and not all of them? Have you ever heard of logical reasoning? If this was a problem I would have the same - this is reasoning of 3 years old, my 5 years old do better than this.

Ensure that you have updated Pages to v14.2 from the Mac App Store. I have no issue opening a .docx document with Pages v14.2 in the released Sequoia v15.0. I tried several .docx documents spanning several years with no misbehavior from Pages in opening and displaying them. The one exception was a Word .doc from 1995 which is too old for Pages to process and that produced a dialog.

Reboot your Mac. Then, press and hold the shift key when launching Pages. That prevents it from loading its last saved execution state and may allow you to then open a Word document. Is that document on the local drive, on iCloud, or a third-party cloud solution?

Because Pages will be translating that Word document into Pages own internal document format, if there are too many things in that Word document that Pages cannot translate, it may fail to open the document, though you should receive some dialog and not a hang condition.

I have the same experience. After upgrading to macOS 15 and Pages 14.2, I'm no longer able to open .docx files in Pages. They seem to no longer be associated with Pages, and show up as "Viber Message Document" in the finder.

If I rename the file to .doc (no "x"), Pages has no problems opening it. So it seems to be related to an interpretation of the file type. I have no idea if it's Pages or macOS that's causing this.

Unfortunately this doesn't work. First of all, you have to switch from "Recommended Applications" to "All Applications" in the "Choose an application to open the document…" window, to even be able to select Pages. But the it will rightly open Pages when I double click on a .docx file in the Finder, but it will not load in the document.

And when you're in Pages, and select "Open…", .docx files are disabled in the file list, so you cannot select them.

I might not have been clear in my follow-up, but:

I can change the default app in "Open with:" to Pages, and apply "Change All…". That's all fine and good. Pages will then launch, but still not open the document.

As I also stated, it will open the document if I rename it to .doc instead of .docx, so there's nothing wrong with the documents (it's all .docx documents, not just a single one).

@VikiingOSX Thank you for trying to help, but the way you are trying - I am wondering if your birth year is after 2000?

Opening new document in numbers, putting one letter or keeping it empty, exporting to xlsx, and can not be opened by numbers. It is not the file or content it is extension and data type/Kind that make troubles here.

Same issue : all docx files are programmed to be open with viber (the same issue also for xlsx file but not pptx files) : it is an association/file kind issue and the same is also true on iOS 18 when a docx file is sent via email. I spent quite some time on it and even performed a reset of launchd : it worked but messed up "system settings" and the issue came back upon reboot. I had to reinstall the previous version as I relie a lot on quicklook ...

I am using one drive and Sharepoints, not sure if this makes a difference. Quite bothering ...

I found the right answer to the problem (at least for me). @tinodj has been right, but no proper execution.

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -lint -r -f -v -dump -domain local -domain system -domain user -domain network

 killall Dock

Everything works pretty fine!

You may have misinterpreted my instructions which have been working for decades. In that Finder Get Info panel (not the Finder secondary menu Open With sub-menu) — click on the application shown in the selector, and pick Pages from its list of applications. Then click the Change All… button which by then will be available:

Once you are done with this, I suggest you reboot your Mac so the Launch Services database can be rebuilt and that will then show Pages on the Finder Open With sub-menu.

One you get past the above, if the File Chooser in Pages shows .docx documents as unselectable, those documents have been corrupted by something, and the next step would be to see if they can be opened in a current version of LibreOffice Writer and then resaved as Word 2010 - 365.docx documents. Those should work in Pages.