.pages file extension keeps being added even with Automatic Extension toggled off

Yes, it happened to me too for the last few months. Can't recall the exact date or version number though. But I have confirmed that this has been fixed.

The version I just checked is Sequoia 15.5 with Pages/Numbers 14.3 (7042.0.76).

Two types of verification done:

1) Creating new document, entering some data and save it.

2) Modifying existing document and save it.

The location of the file doesn't matter, be it locally or residing in iCloud Drive.

Unfortunately, whatever files that had been amended/created during those "problematic" period will still have the extension shown regardless of your settings. For these, you have to manually remove the extension one by one.

Clarification

The file extension has always been there since early days. It is just that it is hidden and behave in line with user's expectation. But somehow, for the last few months (can't recall the exact date range or version number range), there were bugs either at the system level or the app level that causes the inconsistent behaviour. During that period, Pages/Numbers app no longer honoured the settings set at the Finder. Personally, I'm glad that this has been fixed, but kind of annoyed that we have to waste time fixing "the mistakes" made by the developers.

Since Pages v10.2 (macOS Mojave), every Pages document that I have created, updated, or saved has resulted in a displayed extension. This is also true with Pages v14.4 on macOS Sequoia v15.5 too. I see no bug in this behavior. That is how the application is now designed.

The exception to the first paragraph would be when the extension was purposely hidden in an existing document via the Finder's Get Info panel, or via a short script (whether AppleScript, or Swift), then Pages honors the hidden extension when updating and saving the document.

When I wrote AppleScript solutions to batch export from Pages to Word or PDF, those documents would not have a visible extension and in the same script, I would conclude by having Finder to unhide the extension of each exported document. If I do this export manually however, then the extensions remain visible without the need to use the Finder Get Info panel for this purpose.

Some users are misinformed about the Finder Settings > Advanced panel > Show all filename extensions setting believing if it was unchecked, all newly created documents would have their extensions hidden. That is an incorrect assumption as it does nothing when unchecked and reveals extensions on everything when selected.

Read through the threads of this preceding post: .pages and .numbers filename extensions c… - Apple Community

The Finder Settings > Advanced > Show all filename extensions, when not selected, has nothing to do with hiding file extensions.

The Apple product team has designed Pages, Numbers, and Keynote to check if a file extension has been previously suppressed by the Finder Get Info panel, and if so, does not change that extended file attribute when opening and saving that document. New documents, when saved, will always show the file extension as that is how Apple has chosen to code these applications.

There is nothing you can do about this shown file extension when saving new documents other than subsequently using the Finder Get Info panel to deliberately hide the extension.

I just took some time to check Pages 5.6.2 on El Capitan, Pages v7.3 and 8.1 on High Sierra, and Pages v10.1 on Mojave. There was a check box in the Pages Save/Save As Accessory panel to Hide Extension up through High Sierra, and it was removed with Pages v10.1 on Mojave. I didn't check but the same likely is true with the respective Numbers and Keynote applications for those operating systems. It has not occurred with any Pages, Numbers, or Keynote version five years afterward.

As I have state before, this is a long removed application design feature from the Pages application and about 5 lines of Objective-C (then) or Swift (now) to hide the extension. Apple chose to remove it for some design reasoning and would have to re-introduce this code to provide the feature you want. The chances of that happening in 2025 after being absent this long would be close to zero.

This is happening with me too with all of the iWork applications: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. At first, I thought the file would have two extensions on it, such as:

somefile.pages.pages

But, when I open up terminal and do a ls, it shows just .pages on the file and not a duplicate .pages extension. Oddly, when I rename the file in finder to remove the .pages extension, it doesn't seem to affect the filename when I check it in Terminal. If I use the mv command on the terminal to rename the file without .pages, then it does indeed remove the extension and Finder doesn't recognize it as a .pages file. So, I wonder if the name with .pages is being stored in some sort of cache?

It is certainly annoying for me because I have a couple shortcuts that will turn these files into PDFs, but they use the filename they see in Finder (not on the actual filesystem) to create the PDF. So if I have a file called a.pages and in Finder it shows the extension, a.pages, then it becomes a.pages.pdf, which is annoying. I did try clearing the cache in Finder (~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Finder/) but that did not have an impact.

I hope Apple fixes this soon.

Like all of you, this issue is annoying for me. I also observed that the file extension also shows on all other computers connected on the same iCloud account.

Before I would debate about if the feature of hiding the file extension has been removed or not, I would first first consider these facts:

· with files that we don't modify, it is still possible any time to mask or unmask the file extension

· with files stored on local folders (not on iCloud folders), even modified files still keep their file extension masked

Suggesting that we did not loose any feature, or this "option" has not been removed.

I have also observed these:

· in my case, Pages, Numbers and Keynote do not force me to save with the file extension visible (I guess this is

something I have set up initially), other users should be able to do the same

· the issue also happens with most file types (ie, .png, .pdf, .docx, .xlsx, .rtf, and more), and not only the

iWork series (.pages, .numbers, .key)

· when moving a file from a local folder to an iCloud folder, the file extension appears temporarily, then disappears;

it is like the synchronization process needs to unmask before doing its job; the same happens when renaming

· after saving a file to a iCloud folder, the file is then synchronized to iCloud, like for moving or renaming, the file

extension appears during that time, but it does not re-mask when done

That let me believe that something may not be happening as it should during the synchronization process, and this is why we have this issue.

Excluding Pages '09, versions of Pages in El Capitan, Sierra, and High Sierra provided a check box accessory on the Save/Save As/Export panels. If you checked that, the hidden extension setting may be internalized in those documents preventing them from displaying it.

That check box was eliminated in versions of Pages beginning with Mojave and then only newly created documents would show the extension by default. Existing documents with a hidden extension would remain that way after edits and saves.

mediummac wrote:

Sorry to disagree, @VikingOSX, but there is still something to fix. A bunch of us don't want our documents to be saved with an extension. It never used to be like that.

It was always like that.

Well, maybe not "always". In the really ancient times, back in Mac OS days circa 1984, Macintosh files actually didn't have extensions. Sharing files with PC users was a nightmare. The file type was saved in metadata files that PC users couldn't read.

But since then, Apple migrated to a more compatible typing system based on the file name extension. And technically speaking, they don't even do that anymore. Now they use a "Universal Type", one of whose attributes is the file extension.

This other thread that you helpfully directed me to earlier has several more people patiently waiting for an improvement!

That's always a bad idea. People never wait patiently. Nor should they with a situation like this that 1) isn't going to ever be fixed, and 2) isn't actually broken.

Keeping my fingers crossed over here!

Wouldn't you prefer to use those fingers to just fix the problem? I guess not, better just keep them crossed.

The .pages-tef is an orphan document from either older iCloud or MobileMe (I can't remember) and probably can just be renamed at this point to .pages. You might further check its extended attributes…

Earlier in this thread, I took the time to launch several old versions of Pages from v5.6.2 (El Capitan) thru v10.1 (High Sierra). All of those Pages applications offered an accessory check box on the save or export panel to hide extensions. That feature was removed for Pages versions 10.2 from Mojave through current v14.4 on Sequoia v15.5.

I agree @scottfromlf There is some denial of this issue and a condescending nature to those denials, which is not helpful and I'm not sure what the end goal is. It certainly is an issue and has been recognized in other forums. I'm just hoping it is fixed in short order. I do only experience it with documents stored on iCloud which another poster also has experienced, so hopefully that helps the software engineers over at Apple fix this issue.

Thank you for your response.

I don’t have a specific answer on how the extensions fixed itself.

I would check those settings on all of your Apple devices to verify that they are all the same.

There is nothing to fix. The current versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote automatically save their respective documents with an extension. There is no overriding that issue. That Finder Settings > Advanced panel has nothing to do with removing file extensions from any file. These Apple applications are designed to write extensions on their documents and neither you nor anyone here can change that application design.

The operating system maintains a database of file extensions with the default and preferred applications that can open files with those extensions. Strip the extension from a document and it becomes an orphan that the operating system will not know how to open, and assigns it the black and green Exec Terminal icon. Don't do this.

Stop trying to force Windows Explorer views of extensionless files on macOS Finder or Terminal file names. Use macOS and Apple's applications as they are intended.

The shortcuts that I use to automate the conversion of the first paragraph documents into PDF do not include the original document extension in the naming process. The wrong code in those shortcuts can make you believe the problem lies elsewhere but the author of the shortcut should look closer at their coding practice.

Just to be clear, I was not talking about Windows. I really don't know what that behavior is like since I haven't used Windows in over a decade. I haven't seen anyone argue of getting rid of the extension on the file from the filesystem.

What I have seen though is people looking to have Finder appropriately hide the extension, like it has done in the past, and now there is something obviously wrong with that feature. It is not "wrong code" in the shortcut or people trying to "force Windows Explorer". It is a functionality of the operating system that has changed and @VikingOSX trying to argue with people that they are wrong is not helpful.