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Can't Open Existing Pages or Numbers Documents after Reinstalling MacOS

After reinstalling the Mojave OS because of issues after security update 2020-005, and then restoring files from Time Machine backup, I had to reinstall Pages and Numbers from the App Store.


After Pages and Numbers were installed, I received this message "The document "xxxx.pages" ("xxxx.numbers") could not be opened. The file doesn't exist."


It didn't matter whether I opened Pages first or tried to open the file by clicking on it through the Finder window. It is clear that the files do exist.

iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 10.14

Posted on Sep 29, 2020 9:00 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 29, 2020 9:04 AM

The easy solution I found to gain access to the pages or numbers files, which were on my computer, not iCloud, was as follows:

  1. Open Pages or Numbers
  2. Create new test document.
  3. Save test document to location of files that won't open.
  4. Close Pages or Numbers
  5. Select and Open document that previously would not open. SUCCESS!
1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 29, 2020 9:04 AM in response to GospelofJohn14v6

The easy solution I found to gain access to the pages or numbers files, which were on my computer, not iCloud, was as follows:

  1. Open Pages or Numbers
  2. Create new test document.
  3. Save test document to location of files that won't open.
  4. Close Pages or Numbers
  5. Select and Open document that previously would not open. SUCCESS!

Can't Open Existing Pages or Numbers Documents after Reinstalling MacOS

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