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Why doesn't Apple Pages ask to save a revised document upon closing the app?

I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro. I worked on a document, and pressed command/Q to close the app. The app did not ask me if I wanted to save the document! It just closed and automatically saved it. This is odd. I did not setup an auto-save setting. In fact, there is no auto-save setting in any of the apple apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote)


What is wrong?


Art G.

Posted on Jan 28, 2020 1:54 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 28, 2020 2:06 PM

This is actually a system-wide setting. To get the traditional behaviour back, go to System Preferences > General and tick Ask to keep changes when closing documents. It works along with versioning as described in this excerpt from a book on switching to the Mac.

4 replies

Jan 29, 2020 5:12 AM in response to medwds

Thank you for the information. I prefer to save a file manually upon closing it. If I screw up, and close it with an error, I really don’t like the idea of sifting through auto saves to find it and fix it. That is too much work for me.


I appreciate your response, and knowledge of the MacOS.

Jan 28, 2020 2:43 PM in response to ArtTG

By default, once you formally save a Pages document with a proper name, autosave is then activated and every change to the document is saved within 10 seconds. Thus, there would be no need to bother you with a save dialog query.


You can change the default behavior system wide to prevent autosave behavior, and alway receive a prompt on quit — to save or discard changes. This solution is pointed out by martinedwards1248, and you can tell this is enabled as the red traffic light on the title bar will always have a dark dot in it indicating no save has occurred.

Jan 29, 2020 5:17 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thank you for the help. I prefer having the option to manually save a file. If I make a mistake and don’t catch it until days, or weeks have passed, I really don’t want to now go and find the snippet, and correct it. We do tend to forget, then publish our work, complete with any questionable blemishes.

Why doesn't Apple Pages ask to save a revised document upon closing the app?

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