After upgrade to Sonoma, opening of PAGES docs is VERY slow

Pages v14.2 requires macOS Sonoma or later. Verify that the M2 Mac user has updated Pages to v14.2 as running an older version of Pages on a newer operating system may introduce issues including degraded application performance.

If that M2 Mac is slow to open Pages and is also running any anti-virus application, or the user has run any so-called "Mac Cleaning" application, both should be uninstalled entirely per the vendor's instruction followed by a reboot. Some cleaning applications remove valid files with collateral damage.

The M2 Mac should be booted into Safe Boot mode, then determine if the same Pages document load time changes for the better. If it does, then there is some third-party software that is not loaded during Safe Boot, that is interfering with Pages when one reboots that M2 Mac normally.

Last evening, I upgraded my 2021 16-in MBP M1 Pro 32 GB from Ventura 13.7.1 to Sonoma v14.7.1. It appeared to be a normal upgrade. Pages was updated from v14.1 to v14.2. Opening the same 179-page document now took about a minute when it used to open in a fraction of that time in Pages v14.1 on Ventura, or Pages v14.2 with Sonoma v14.7.1 on my older M2 Mini Pro.

Hopefully, there will be a Sonoma v14.7.2, and/or Pages update released this month that corrects this lethargy.

I never select Safari Settings > General > [ ] Open "safe" files after downloading, and yet my double click of the toolbar ↓⃝ downloaded items still opens a PDF in Preview.

With a last Time Machine backup completed, you might consider booting that M2 Mac into Recovery mode, and reinstalling the Sonoma v14.7.1 operating system.

Correction on my last post. Has anyone heard of Pages documents opening slowly on macOS 15.1 or macOS 15.1.1 ?

I upgraded Sonoma to 14.7.3 today. The problem of the Pages is gone. The Pages open instantly.

After a restart, it may take far longer than two minutes for all of the customary (initial) operating system processes to quiet down. Attempting to open a Pages document when competing with the related CPU and Storage demands by other processes certainly can delay opening a Pages document.

I am using an M4 Mac Mini Pro running Sequoia v15.1 and have Pages v14.2 installed. I have a four-page Pages document with two small images mixed in with the text. After 10 minutes from a boot/reboot, I can double-click on that Pages document and it is opened in under 2 seconds. The file is on my Desktop.

Pages is the only application that can open Pages documents in their original formatting, so no need to set any default application for that purpose. Alternatively, the current LibreOffice 24.8.3 can open Pages documents containing only text though it cannot edit them, so of limited usage.

Update to Sonoma v14.7.1. This is on your System Settings > General > Software Update panel. The first entry will likely be the current version of Sequoia v15, but as you scroll down on that panel, you will see a hyperlink stating another update is available… When you click that link, you are presented with entries for the current version of Sonoma 14.7.1 (as of this post date), and probably Safari 18.1 too. Only these will be updated without an upgrade to Sequoia. That process may clear out System caches, update frameworks, and rebuild certain system databases that both the operating system and Pages reference.

Once you have done the first paragraph. Try the same Pages document, and any other random document to determine if slow loading continues.

Quit Pages. Move the /Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iWork.Pages.plist file to your Desktop. Right-click on that same document that has been slow to load, open in Pages and see if there is any improvement.

@Mike.Minh I have tried all of the same solutions that you have posted here with no result. Thanks to you and VikingOSX for stating issues and solutions clearly. Has anyone heard of the same problem with Pages 14.2 running on macOS 18.1 or macOS 18.1.1 ?

Avoid survey questions in the communities as the Terms of Use discourage it.

I have run Pages v14.2 on both Sequoia v15.0, 15.0.1, 15.1, and now v15.1.1 without any appreciable lag in opening documents. It takes under 6 seconds to open a 179-page Pages document from my Desktop, and I find that acceptable. That same document exported to Word and opened in MS Word v16.91 takes about 8 seconds because Word is a much larger application.

I have the same problem with a Mac Mini M1 running Sonoma 14.7.1. Pages and Numbers (14.2 for each) are slow to open and both of them do not show recent documents like they did before this OS upgrade. I have followed all suggestions here to re-populate recent documents in both progs and still get the same results. This problem even occurs when I boot in Safe mode. I'll post an update when I find a solution.

Mike.Minh wrote:

VikingOSX wrote:

One last straw… press and hold the shift key while launching Pages.

No luck, we get the same slow loading time. Taking the container out is yet to come. After that I will have to develop a plan how to move from one user to a new one.

Arrgggh.

Before I do that, there is one other symptom pn birth of these MacBooks of which I initially thought it must be unrelated. I am beginning to think it could be related.

Downloaded documents (PDF) show under Safari’s downloaded documents, you can normally double-click from there to open them. I get a message “Can’t open because none of the available apps can open it.” If I go to the Downloads folder, I can open the very document without problem.

(Safari 17.6, not yet upgraded to 18.1)

On Sequoia v15.1.1 with Safari 18.1.1. when I right-click on a link to a PDF and it downloads, it will remain in the ↓⃝

panel on Safari. When I double-click that downloaded entry on the Safari downloads panel, it opens in Preview.

Verify that you have Safari 18.1.1 installed on Sonoma. Might make a difference…

On that Air, and In Safari Settings > Extensions panel, if you have any extensions enabled, temporarily disable them. Also, verify that you have [√] Show features for web developers selected on the Advanced panel. And, that on the General panel, you do not have Open "safe" files after downloading selected. Quit Safari.

Press and hold the shift key while re-launching Safari. Once opened to a blank screen, press option+cmd+E to clear your cache, and Safari menu > Clear History… > [ All history ] and click Clear History. That disposes of any cookies too.

Now, download a file in Safari and then double-click on the completed download ↓⃝ panel. Does it open in Preview?

As for the console (and log) messages… they are written by the macOS product team for their consumption and deliver very little meaning to the rest of us. A good source of eyestrain, and questions. I no longer bother with them anymore. You might see something from Pages or Safari but it is unlikely.