Urgent Pages issue

[Cave Man]

I'm using Pages on my main desktop computer that is running Big Sur (11.7.10) and unfortunately, last week it gave me the spinning beach ball of death. I have to Force Quit, "Pages (Not Responding)". I disconnected from iCloud thinking this might be part of the problem, but that didn't resolve it. I cannot upgrade this computer to a newer OS because of DNA analysis software that will run on Big Sur but nothing newer.

I left Pages running over the weekend hoping it would resolve, but it did not. I tried reinstalling Pages from the Apple Store but the problem persists. I deleted Pages, the Pages .plist files from my home Library folder (Prefereces folder, nothing in the Application Support folder that I could find), emptied the trash, shut down the computer, unplugged it, rebooted and reinstalled Pages from the App Store. But I still have the spinning beach ball. Any idea how to fix this? I'm trying to finish a really important document and can use my MacBook Pro, but prefer to keep working on this computer because I have my EndNote library and all my data files on this computer that are required for the document preparation.

Any way to do a "clean install" of Pages?

 

[Cyby-CyberDog]

Try this:

AppCleaner

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Hmmm, it appears you've done all I would do to get Pages working again.

However, I have an idea for you. Maybe it's NOT the app but your file. And Pages trying to open the last file that crashed is trying to open a corrupted file and thus giving you the beach ball.

So something to try would be to locate ANOTHER pages doc on your computer. Double click it to basically ask the Pages app to open THAT file instead of the last one that was opened. If that works, it will point to your document as having an issue instead of the app.

Then, assuming you have Time Machine, after making a copy of the latest version of your DNA doc, use Time Machine restore to restore the next oldest version. Try double clicking on that one to see if it will open. If it does, you'll have only lost up to about 1 hours work. If that doesn't work, try stepping back one more version. And then again if necessary.

You might also be able to boot into safe mode to be sure it's not something else in macOS. Look that up online and try too.

Put the file on a portable drive and get to some other Mac running Big Sur. Open it there to verify the file is fine. Maybe save a copy back to the portable. Then go back to your own Mac and try opening the freshly-saved copy.

Lastly, take that Mac to an Apple store and see if they can get Pages to open (and your doc too).

 

[Cave Man]

Thanks for the replies. The solution was to hold the shift key while launching Pages. When I did that, a popup stating that a file "untitled72" could not be opened. I dismissed it, then in sequence four others popped up. After dismissing those, Pages seems to be behaving properly. Weird.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Great. Now, if you don't have a backup system: given the urgency and importance of the DNA paper, I suggest not assuming all is well and backing up your Mac and that file. You may very well be fine or you may have got a "last gasp" lucky sequence here. Hopefully it is the former but if it is the latter, a backup will save the day (and your paper) if you try to open tomorrow and it's dead.

Whenever weird stuff happens with Macs, it's a very good idea to be sure you are backed up. Sometimes the weird is nothing. Sometimes it's the beginning of the end.

 

[Cave Man]

This computer has had a Time Machine backup since I bought it 4 years ago.

 

[HDFan]

This computer has had a Time Machine backup since I bought it 4 years ago.

You'll need 2 other backups, not TM, to implement the recommended 3-2-1 backup strategy.