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Numbers 3 not backwards compatible?

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rexone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 4, 2007
266
57
Lake Weyba on the sub-tropical Sunshine Coast :)
What a joke! Apple has trumpeted how amazingly compatible the new Numbers is but spreadsheets created in V3 or older Numbers documents opened & saved in V3 CANNOT be opened or even read by older versions of Numbers!!!
In our small business we have one computer that has upgraded to Mavericks and Numbers 3 just to test the updates.
The mistake was made of saving an important shared access spreadsheet on the machine with Numbers 3 installed and now no-one else can access that spreadsheet & we will likley be FORCED TO UPDATE all machines to access that spreadsheet.
Apple, this latest suite of updates to iLife & iWork rate as a total FAIL.
So Apple please point me to where you tell users that their documents will no longer be able to be shared with users that do not have V3 installed?
This sort of cr*p is as bad as Micro$oft was in days of old!
 
K

klaxamazoo

macrumors 6502
Sep 8, 2006
438
0
rexone said:
The mistake was made of saving an important shared access spreadsheet on the machine with Numbers 3 installed and now no-one else can access that spreadsheet & we will likley be FORCED TO UPDATE all machines to access that spreadsheet.
Click to expand...

Numbers 3 does suck, but don't you have a backup? If you don't, then you might want to think about getting a Time Machine backup going for each of your machines. I know a small business that lost 4+ years of work/files because they didn't have a backup. Ended up costing them thousands to redo this year's work because they wouldn't spend $80 for an external hard drive.
 
F

FoxFifth

macrumors 6502
Oct 18, 2012
262
2
rexone said:
...The mistake was made of saving an important shared access spreadsheet on the machine with Numbers 3 installed and now no-one else can access that spreadsheet & we will likley be FORCED TO UPDATE all machines to access that spreadsheet. ...
Click to expand...

Have you tried File Menu > Export To > Numbers '09 to get the spreadsheet back to the old format that the others can access?
 
R

Raima

macrumors 6502
Jan 21, 2010
400
11
klaxamazoo said:
don't you have a backup? If you don't, then you might want to think about getting a Time Machine backup going for each of your machines. I know a small business that lost 4+ years of work/files because they didn't have a backup. Ended up costing them thousands to redo this year's work because they wouldn't spend $80 for an external hard drive.
Click to expand...

This! Restore from backup if you can. Mistakes do happen in any business.

If your data is not worth backing up, please don't whinge about it when you have no backup to fall back to. You only have yourself to blame.
 
R

rexone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 4, 2007
266
57
Lake Weyba on the sub-tropical Sunshine Coast :)
Raima said:
This! Restore from backup if you can. Mistakes do happen in any business.

If your data is not worth backing up, please don't whinge about it when you have no backup to fall back to. You only have yourself to blame.
Click to expand...

We have dual back-ups of all of our machines.
The issue is not that the document is now lost forever but the fact that
a) - nowhere does Apple tell you that the documents created in Numbers 3 are not backwards compatible
b) - I had the PITA time-wasting task of having to wind-back the machine in question & then tell the responsible party (wife...) that she had to re-enter all of the data.
So we haven't 'lost' anything unless faith in Apple counts...
 
R

Raima

macrumors 6502
Jan 21, 2010
400
11
rexone said:
We have dual back-ups of all of our machines.
The issue is not that the document is now lost forever but the fact that
a) - nowhere does Apple tell you that the documents created in Numbers 3 are not backwards compatible
b) - I had the PITA time-wasting task of having to wind-back the machine in question & then tell the responsible party (wife...) that she had to re-enter all of the data.
So we haven't 'lost' anything unless faith in Apple counts...
Click to expand...

Good to hear you didn't loose anything. Hope the retyping didn't take too long. Guess you can get back to the important stuff now, running your business.
 
chrono1081

chrono1081

macrumors G3
Jan 26, 2008
8,451
4,149
Isla Nublar
Honestly you should never assume backwards compatibility with apps. Going up usually works just fine but back not so much, especially if an app had a major re-write.

Just look at Microsoft Office, moving up is fine, moving back can cause serious issues especially if you have heavy formatting or a lot of excel formulas.
 
8Apples

8Apples

macrumors member
Nov 1, 2013
66
1
Not being backwards compatible is something that I have always really dis-liked about Microsoft office. They kind of force people to upgrade, or lose compatibility. This is very frustrating. I opened two spreadsheets in the new Numbers, I don't even recall saving them, and presto ... they can't be opened with my beloved previous version of Numbers. That is not a way to impress the client.

8Apples
 
titaniumjones

titaniumjones

macrumors member
Oct 29, 2011
30
4
New features New file format

Generally speaking, when offering new features, you wind up getting a new file format (or at least one which is not 100% compatible.)

To say 'What a joke' is to say the least a little unrealistic. Rather than bitching about the file format changing, I approached the same problem with 'How can I fix this?' and if you took the time to research it FoxFifth has outlined the solution for both you and I. If you follow his solution, there is no retyping no lost data and a file that is compatible with your old version of software.

I have saved a Yosemite file in Mavericks version of Number and it opens and is able to be edited on the Mavericks machine.

Maybe take a happy pill?

Titan
 
S

shaunp

Cancelled
Nov 5, 2010
1,811
1,395
Test on non-critical data before you take the plunge. Ideally have a spare machine, or a VM to test the software on before you start upgrading production machines.

It might sound harsh but I don't have any sympathy for you if you don't test before doing an update if this has the potential to disrupt your business. This isn't Apple's fault, or 'something Microsoft would have done 10 years ago', it's about having an IT strategy, even if it's a very basic one.

My advice for you here is to learn from this an apply those lessons the next time you do an update.
 
R

rexone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 4, 2007
266
57
Lake Weyba on the sub-tropical Sunshine Coast :)
titaniumjones said:
Generally speaking, when offering new features, you wind up getting a new file format (or at least one which is not 100% compatible.)

To say 'What a joke' is to say the least a little unrealistic. Rather than bitching about the file format changing, I approached the same problem with 'How can I fix this?' and if you took the time to research it FoxFifth has outlined the solution for both you and I. If you follow his solution, there is no retyping no lost data and a file that is compatible with your old version of software.

I have saved a Yosemite file in Mavericks version of Number and it opens and is able to be edited on the Mavericks machine.

Maybe take a happy pill?

Titan
Click to expand...

titaniumjones I don't know why you've bothered to resurrect a thread from a year ago. The issue was solved long ago (my post Nov 6, 2013, 03:17 PM). I can only assume that you just felt the urge to be snarky & self-righteous?

If you take the time to read my vent/rant the core-issue was a simple one...
To quote myself "So Apple please point me to where you tell users that their documents will no longer be able to be shared with users that do not have V3 installed?"

Apple have a nasty habit of waxing lyrically about how incredible updates are & explaining breathlessly about new features but they are very short on telling you what they have removed or what you can't do once you've committed yourself to the new software or OS update.
In this case Apple's lack of disclosure cost my small business valuable time & caused unnecessary angst (as witnessed by my posts on the topic).
A simple bit of information from them would have avoided that. Is that to much to ask for?
 
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