You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

User profile for user: BlackCyb3rKitty
BlackCyb3rKitty Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Can't find an older pages document back

I'm very busy on pages and I lost a document.

Normally I can find it back in pages by going to 'recent documents'. I never payed attention to where my macbook saved the document and continued working on different stuff in pages. But now that I need that file back, I can't seem to find it. Not even in the tab 'recent documents'. I can't seem to find it on my macbook either. not by typing in the documents name, not by checking all documents in pages. I'm pretty sure i did never delete it.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 27, 2021 2:57 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Peggy
Peggy
User level: Level 8
41,655 points

Posted on Jun 27, 2021 4:16 PM

Recent documents lists documents that were opened "recently." That "recently" is limited by the number you have set in System Preferences > General (it's at the bottom of the window). This setting is used by most Apple apps & probably many third-party apps. It works for me in LibreOffice & PDFPen to name two. The list is NOT updated to remove the name of any file that has been deleted. If the deleted file is in the Trash you *might* be able to open it.



I have had apps not be able to open documents that have been moved to another drive. In years past you could move a file from one drive to another & the Mac OS could find it. That no longer works consistently for me. Since you are sure you have not deleted the file, try a search in Finder for the file name. A partial name will do. As you may get many results, let the choice to limit to "Name Matches:" your term & select that. Also, make sure the search is set to "This Mac" if you have more than one drive attached.



FWIW: Kayla is my new dog so it was an easy term for me to search on.


View in context

Similar questions

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Peggy
Peggy
User level: Level 8
41,655 points

Jun 27, 2021 4:16 PM in response to BlackCyb3rKitty

Recent documents lists documents that were opened "recently." That "recently" is limited by the number you have set in System Preferences > General (it's at the bottom of the window). This setting is used by most Apple apps & probably many third-party apps. It works for me in LibreOffice & PDFPen to name two. The list is NOT updated to remove the name of any file that has been deleted. If the deleted file is in the Trash you *might* be able to open it.



I have had apps not be able to open documents that have been moved to another drive. In years past you could move a file from one drive to another & the Mac OS could find it. That no longer works consistently for me. Since you are sure you have not deleted the file, try a search in Finder for the file name. A partial name will do. As you may get many results, let the choice to limit to "Name Matches:" your term & select that. Also, make sure the search is set to "This Mac" if you have more than one drive attached.



FWIW: Kayla is my new dog so it was an easy term for me to search on.


Reply
User profile for user: VikingOSX
VikingOSX
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
116,813 points

Jun 28, 2021 8:05 AM in response to BlackCyb3rKitty

If your startup drive is being indexed by Spotlight and you had in Spotlight Preferences > Search Results, the Documents category selected, then the following may find your missing Pages document:


You can do this search in a new Finder window search field, or by using the menu bar 🔍 Spotlight panel. The following will find any Pages document created since (>) Jan 1, 2021:


kind:pages created:>01/01/2021



Reply

Can't find an older pages document back

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.
Learn more Sign up