Get previous version of Pages, Numbers, etc?

[mzd]

I recently updated my Mac from El Cap to Mojave and have older versions of Pages (5.6!), Numbers, & Keynote. The current version of Pages on the App store needs 10.15, but I don't want to update to Catalina yet. Is there anyway to update Pages to 10.1 (last version compatible with Mojave)?
I was able to get Mojave by following one of those direct links to the OS in the App store, but I haven't found any such link for specific versions of other Apple software. Any ideas?

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Are Pages, Numbers, and Keynote in your purchase history?

If so, this is easy—inside of Mojave, go to your purchase history in the App Store and download these apps from there. The App Store will offer to install the last compatible version.

 

[mzd]

That worked! I had to delete my current Pages in order for it give me the option to re-install, but when I did, it gave me the most current compatible version. Thanks so much!!

 

[allan.nyholm]

Can I hijack this thread and ask how come I can't download eg. Pages from the Mac App Store when I'm now on Mojave and returning from Big Sur and having upgraded to the latest Pages when on Catalina? I can't get a previous Pages to download now on Mojave 10.14.6 - No suggestion to download a previous version compatible with my macOS version.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Can I hijack this thread and ask how come I can't download eg. Pages from the Mac App Store when I'm now on Mojave and returning from Big Sur and having upgraded to the latest Pages when on Catalina? I can't get a previous Pages to download now on Mojave 10.14.6 - No suggestion to download a previous version compatible with my macOS version.

Are you sure you're trying to install from the purchase history screen, specifically? If you try to install from the app's app store page, it won't work.

 

[allan.nyholm]

Are you sure you're trying to install from the purchase history screen, specifically? If you try to install from the app's app store page, it won't work.

I could have sworn on my grandmothers grave that the tactic didn't work when I wrote the comment. I was doing just as you said in an earlier comment to download from the Purchased section. I was simply greeted with a not so similar text to this
"Pages requires 10.15. Goodbye"
I really couldn't download Pages. Now thanks to Apple(unlikely) reading your comment I actually did get an option to download an older version of Pages compatible with Mojave.

edit. I usually use that tactic to get older compatible software when I roll back macOS versions.

Thank you.

 

[feeverte]

Can I hijack this thread too !
I got a new second hand mac book pro, it came with Catalina but I didn't like the way they partionted the drive so I started from scratch and I installed Mojave. I now have the same issue as above and cannot install Pages from the App store.
Has anyone found a rowkaround ?
( I hope its ok to hijack its seems silly to open a new question for same issue)

 

[sparkygr]

Just tried the suggestion saying to try installing/downloading from purchases tab and NOT the individual pages/numbers/etc page.
Launch Mac App store, click on your account on the lower left of the window, and then, scroll down and download pages/numbers from there. It will prompt you to download the latest compatible version for Mojave.

 

[feeverte]

thanx everybody
that method didnt work for me. True it did give me the alert msg " looking for old version ) from the apple store / itune ... but never delivered, its just stalled

I could however simply copy Pages from my other mac book air to the mac book pro and I am using it. Its been so long since I last copied across an App, or software as I still call them, I had forgotten one can do that

 

[Mike Richardson]

Why doesn't the Mac App Store just offer to upgrade the older Pages version to a newer compatible version? That they don't is a s__tty user experience and further representative of the long slow decline of Apple since Steve Jobs died.

FYI, the last Pages version for Mojave is 10.1. I only very recently "upgraded" from High Sierra to Mojave. This topic helped me to then upgrade some other apps such as Pages and iMovie (must delete and then reinstall from the purchased page).

 

[Juicy Box]

I was able to download an older version of Numbers by clicking the download button in the "Purchased" tab of the Mac App Store on High Sierra.

It asked if I wanted to download an older version, and I said yes.

So, it is possible, even if you have never had the app before, but it appears that you will need a to purchase it on a Mac with at least Mojave first, so it appears in your purchased history.

Then you have the option to download an older version.

Of course, it would be so much easier for there to be an option to download the older version without having it in purchased history. Maybe there is a way, but I am unsure of how to do it.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Maybe there is a way, but I am unsure of how to do it.

There’s not.

Or, well, you can use CharlesProxy to edit the http request. I’ve done that before. It’s time-intensive.

 

[Kandrew]

I don't know how, or if, I can solve my problem with getting Numbers V10.1

I have a current iMac which is running Big Sur and has the latest version of Numbers, as well as Pages and Keynote. But I also have a slightly older MacBook which is running Mojave. Obviously, the Mac App Store is telling me that it can't install the current version(s) of Numbers, etc on the MacBook. But when I go to the Purchased section on the Mac App Store, I see only the latest versions, because they are what I have downloaded for the current iMac. I cannot access the older versions for Mojave.

Any suggestions as to how I can download them, please?

 

[TheWriteBeat]

I don't know how, or if, I can solve my problem with getting Numbers V10.1

I have a current iMac which is running Big Sur and has the latest version of Numbers, as well as Pages and Keynote. But I also have a slightly older MacBook which is running Mojave. Obviously, the Mac App Store is telling me that it can't install the current version(s) of Numbers, etc on the MacBook. But when I go to the Purchased section on the Mac App Store, I see only the latest versions, because they are what I have downloaded for the current iMac. I cannot access the older versions for Mojave.

Any suggestions as to how I can download them, please?

App Store stays logged in on every device unless you take a step to log out. Go to your current iMac. Launch the App Store. Under the "store" menu (top of screen), find "Sign Out." Now return to your MacBook, App Store. Log in there. See what happens when you try to download via the Purchased option. It worked for me; hope it does for you, too.

 

[Kandrew]

App Store stays logged in on every device unless you take a step to log out. Go to your current iMac. Launch the App Store. Under the "store" menu (top of screen), find "Sign Out." Now return to your MacBook, App Store. Log in there. See what happens when you try to download via the Purchased option. It worked for me; hope it does for you, too.

I read through your reply and thought it made perfect sense!

Unfortunately, when I tried it, it is still showing Numbers, Pages, and Keynote as incompatible updates.

I tried logging out of the Mac and logging back in. No change.
And then I rebooted the Mac in a last-ditch attempt to force it to log me out of the Mac App Store (in case it hadn't done that already) but it is still showing those updates as incompatible.

I'll try staying logged out until I have to log back in for something critical and see if, over time, anything changes.

 

[daniel-n-b]

Hi, I've got a similar issue. In my case I purchased iWork '09 back before the days of the App store, back in November of 2010. I still have the Serial number I received for it. I'm currently running 10.12.6 Sierra where iWork '09 still works, but I now need to run some software that requires at least 10.15 Catalina. My current version of iWork 09 will stop working in Catalina, but I'd like to keep using it. When I go to the App store, it offers me a free version of Pages, but only if I upgrade to Mac OS 11 - which my MacBook Pro 2012 (The last MacBook with expandable hard drive & Ram) won't support.
I looked under the App Store, but it doesn't list Pages or iWork under my prior purchases, probably because the purchase pre-dated the App store.
Is there any way for me to download a compatible version of iWork? A Wikipedia article indicates I'd be best off with iWork 10.2, but any others that would work under Catalina would be a big step in the right direction.

 

[James_C]

@daniel-n-b , As soon as you upgrade to Catalina or later you will not be able to run iWork '09. The reason is iWork 09 is a 32 bit App, and Catalina and later only supports 64 bit Apps. You will only be able to run the 64 bit versions of Numbers, Pages and Keynote.

 

[daniel-n-b]

@daniel-n-b , As soon as you upgrade to Catalina or later you will not be able to run iWork '09. The reason is iWork 09 is a 32 bit App, and Catalina and later only supports 64 bit Apps. You will only be able to run the 64 bit versions of Numbers, Pages and Keynote.

Hi James, I'm aware of that, which is exactly why I'm looking for some way to get a newer (64 bit) version of Pages that will work within Catalina. I have the impression that once I make the upgrade, the only version available from the app store will still be the one that requires Mac OS 11. And once again, that OS won't run on my current Mac.

 

[troyf]

I just found a solution today after I upgraded my Mac Mini 2012 from High Sierra to Catalina last week: Mac App Store command line interface

It requires using Terminal or iTerm, so that might deter some people.

Steps:
- make sure you have a backup available of the old version of the apps
- install Homebrew using instructions at https://brew.sh
- install mas using instructions at https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/mas#default
- from the command line, check your list of installed apps from the Mac App Store: mas list
- delete the iWork apps (or go one at a time if that's more comfortable for you)
- install each app using the syntax "mas install <app-id>" using the app-id from your listing or here's what I used:
mas install 409183694
mas install 409201541
mas install 409203825

More info about mas at https://github.com/mas-cli/mas

Each time I was asked if I wanted to install the latest compatible version and it worked.

 

[daniel-n-b]

Hello Troyf, and thanks a lot for sharing this solution - it looks very promising!

I have an update about another approach that's supposed to work, according to an Apple representative that I had a long digital chat with. She told me that during the update of Mac OS to Catalina, it will also install all the iWork apps that are compatible with the new Mac OS. I asked her specifically if the iWork apps were built into the installer, and she replied that was correct, but I'd need a strong and stable WiFi or cable connection.

Unfortunately my only internet connection is through a cell phone network, which has reasonable speeds but maxes out at 3 GB per day! Her comment to that was: "That might not work." During a recent bit of travel I'd made a point of downloading a Catalina installer, which weighs in at 8.1 GB.

It sounds like her claim is contradicted by your experience of upgrading to Catalina, since you didn't automatically end up with the iWork apps installed after the upgrade. Maybe some methods of invoking the upgrade would work while others wouldn't, but she didn't give any particular instructions for this, other than insuring a good internet connection. She also said that some installers would include all the needed files, while others would need to download things.

Since arranging for a strong and stable internet connection for a day would involve a lot of delays and effort, I'm going to try a clean installation from the installer I have, and see what I end up with. I'll do this on a blank partition, to avoid any risk to my working bootable partition. I've also installed my iWork '09 apps into the virtual machine I've already got for running Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6.8).

 

[Fishrrman]

Perhaps this URL might be of help to someone here:

How to download Apple's iWork apps on older Macs for free

If you bought a Mac from 2013 on, you can download the iWork suite of apps -- Pages, Keynote and Numbers -- from the Mac App Store absolutely free. But

www.cultofmac.com

 

[troyf]

Hello Troyf, and thanks a lot for sharing this solution - it looks very promising!

I have an update about another approach that's supposed to work, according to an Apple representative that I had a long digital chat with. She told me that during the update of Mac OS to Catalina, it will also install all the iWork apps that are compatible with the new Mac OS. I asked her specifically if the iWork apps were built into the installer, and she replied that was correct, but I'd need a strong and stable WiFi or cable connection.

Unfortunately my only internet connection is through a cell phone network, which has reasonable speeds but maxes out at 3 GB per day! Her comment to that was: "That might not work." During a recent bit of travel I'd made a point of downloading a Catalina installer, which weighs in at 8.1 GB.

It sounds like her claim is contradicted by your experience of upgrading to Catalina, since you didn't automatically end up with the iWork apps installed after the upgrade. Maybe some methods of invoking the upgrade would work while others wouldn't, but she didn't give any particular instructions for this, other than insuring a good internet connection. She also said that some installers would include all the needed files, while others would need to download things.

Since arranging for a strong and stable internet connection for a day would involve a lot of delays and effort, I'm going to try a clean installation from the installer I have, and see what I end up with. I'll do this on a blank partition, to avoid any risk to my working bootable partition. I've also installed my iWork '09 apps into the virtual machine I've already got for running Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6.8).

I upgraded to Catalina on my current boot drive and the apps were not updated. I was also using a small stub installer (~16mb) rather than the full installer that you have.

I hope your install goes well and includes the

Hello Troyf, and thanks a lot for sharing this solution - it looks very promising!

I have an update about another approach that's supposed to work, according to an Apple representative that I had a long digital chat with. She told me that during the update of Mac OS to Catalina, it will also install all the iWork apps that are compatible with the new Mac OS. I asked her specifically if the iWork apps were built into the installer, and she replied that was correct, but I'd need a strong and stable WiFi or cable connection.

Unfortunately my only internet connection is through a cell phone network, which has reasonable speeds but maxes out at 3 GB per day! Her comment to that was: "That might not work." During a recent bit of travel I'd made a point of downloading a Catalina installer, which weighs in at 8.1 GB.

It sounds like her claim is contradicted by your experience of upgrading to Catalina, since you didn't automatically end up with the iWork apps installed after the upgrade. Maybe some methods of invoking the upgrade would work while others wouldn't, but she didn't give any particular instructions for this, other than insuring a good internet connection. She also said that some installers would include all the needed files, while others would need to download things.

Since arranging for a strong and stable internet connection for a day would involve a lot of delays and effort, I'm going to try a clean installation from the installer I have, and see what I end up with. I'll do this on a blank partition, to avoid any risk to my working bootable partition. I've also installed my iWork '09 apps into the virtual machine I've already got for running Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6.8).

With a separate partition AND a VM, it sounds like you're prepared for the worst case scenario. I hope the installation goes well and that you don't need the additional steps with mas.

For the record, I installed Catalina on my existing boot drive. I was also using a stub installer (~16mb) rather than the full installer that you have.

Good luck!

 

[daniel-n-b]

I upgraded to Catalina on my current boot drive and the apps were not updated. I was also using a small stub installer (~16mb) rather than the full installer that you have.

I hope your install goes well and includes the

With a separate partition AND a VM, it sounds like you're prepared for the worst case scenario. I hope the installation goes well and that you don't need the additional steps with mas.

For the record, I installed Catalina on my existing boot drive. I was also using a stub installer (~16mb) rather than the full installer that you have.

Good luck!

My installation ground to a halt because I'd downloaded the installer from a website called ISORIVER, and it didn't pass the security checks: "the identity of the developer cannot be confirmed."

So I ended up using perhaps the same stub installer that you did, from the app store.

The apple rep I'd spoken to was wrong on both counts: iWork wasn't downloaded automatically, and once I'd booted into Catalina the app store there gave me error messages that I'd need to upgrade to MacOS 11 before I'd be able to get any of the iWork apps.

I told her explicitly that I'd purchased iWork before the app store existed, but maybe she didn't realize that the app store would therefore have no record of my owning iWork.

I think I'll try another chat with an Apple Rep, in the hope that they'll acknowledge my past purchase of iWork within the app store. It's nice to have your mas solution as a backup, but my iWork '09 serial number OUGHT to be adequate proof.

By the way, I'm really glad I have a separate partition for the new OS. For the moment I can boot into either the new or the old, and I'm aiming to make a bootable backup of the bare-bones Catalina (which is currently only 17.4 GB) before I invoke the migration assistant, and finally say goodbye to 10.12 Sierra. This old 2012 MacBook Pro supports two internal drives (one in the old optical drive slot), so I've got a 2TB hard drive in one and a 500 GB SSD in the other. Currently I've got the SSD split into two equal partitions for the old and new systems, and one of the partitions of my physical hard drive is a 25 GB bootable partition I call "LifeBoat", which is an emergency boot drive loaded with disk repair utilities. This is similar to what Apple has done with their hidden recovery partition, but mine is loaded with more apps for repairing & managing disks, like DiskWarrior and Carbon Copy Cloner. I like to be prepared!

 

[NoBoMac]

The big problem is that you never "bought" Pages when they became free. So only getting option to purchase for latest OS.

Do you have an iPhone/iPad? If so, "buy" Pages et. al. there. Then go back to the Mac and its App Store. At that point you might be presented the option to download a compatible version of Pages et. al. Seem to recall I did this with my previous Mac: got a new iPhone that came with Pages, accepted the "purchase" there, then it became available to my Mac.

 

[daniel-n-b]

The big problem is that you never "bought" Pages when they became free. So only getting option to purchase for latest OS.

Do you have an iPhone/iPad? If so, "buy" Pages et. al. there. Then go back to the Mac and its App Store. At that point you might be presented the option to download a compatible version of Pages et. al. Seem to recall I did this with my previous Mac: got a new iPhone that came with Pages, accepted the "purchase" there, then it became available to my Mac.

Hello NoBoMac, that's an interesting idea, so I tried it!

In my case I'd already purchased Pages for iPad back in 2014, for $10, in addition to my buying it as part of iWork '08 AND iWork '09 on the Mac. So I tried to download a new(er) version for my iPad mini. The download for the iPad worked, AND it looked like it might work on the 10.12.6 version of the App store, but then it came back with a different error message: "Pages cannot be updated because it was refunded or purchased with a different Apple ID." Which is one of the most confusing, nonsensical error messages I've seen in quite a while!
I tried it also in the 10.15.7 version of the App store, but there it gave me the same message: that I had to upgrade to Mac OS 11.

Once that didn't work, I chatted with another Apple Rep. She was eager to assist me as well as she could, but Apple has given their employees NO WAY to tell the App store about purchases like mine, so offering her my serial numbers from iWork '08 and iWork '09 didn't help her to help me in any way. She told me she'd forwarded my feedback to their internal engineering team, that there should be a way to inform the App store of purchases like mine. She also told me that "The option is not available on my end to get those versions on your device," or in other words, she had zero options to help me in any way. Which is a bit disappointing, but not particularly surprising.

It looks like the mas command line interface solution, offered by Troyf up above, is my only remaining option.