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Utter confusion about Pages/iWork update

W

woolypants

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I read here on MR about the updates to Pages as part of the new subscription offering.

And just now in Pages a box flashed up saying there was an update available in the App Store.

Except this isn't marked as an update. It's marked as "Get".
Screenshot 2026-02-01 at 3.08.12 pm.png

And if I look under updates within the App Store, I see that "my" version of Pages (already installed) was updated four days ago:

Screenshot 2026-02-01 at 3.09.00 pm.png

So, if I install the new version of Pages, do I lose this older version -- which is seemingly still being updated? Are there basically two concurrent releases?

I have actually through about trying the new creative subscription to get Final Cut Pro, but will this wipe out my old version of Pages?
 
I got iWork for my Macbook 2007 back in the day. I was amazed when I many years later learned that Apple users were going to get it for free. And now we're back to the old ways. But I'm happy Apple did it, as I was afraid they would go bankrupt since they've had such hard times financially the last ten years. 🥺
 
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It looks like THREE versions of Pages (and perhaps Numbers and Keynote as well?):

Version 14.x -- what you probably have installed NOW (just updated) -- the older free version for Mac. My guess is that it will keep working for the foreseeable future.

New version (15?) -- new download from Apple. Also a free version. Is this intended to be cross-platform? Not sure, I haven't attempted to download it. (I have only Macs, no iPhone or iPad here)

New version (15?) -- essentially identical to version 15, but it has new (AI?) features that can be "unlocked" via a paid subscription.

My understanding is that if you have the older (14.x) version, downloading the new version does not remove the old one. They co-exist in your applications folder until you remove the old version "manually" (at least for now). I again want to state that I have not tried this myself. If you want to preserve the older version, you could create a .zip archive of the app right in your applications folder.

Having said that, there are other 3rd party apps that once downloaded can run "in free mode" and "in paid mode". One I use myself is "BetterDisplay". I tried it as freeware for a while, but liked it so much I paid the registration (on sale for $14) and now get all the features in "pro mode"...
 
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14.5 is the "old" version which was just updated a few days ago.

According to Apple, this version won't be upgraded any more.

The "new" version, which doesn't seem to even have a version number but is probably 15-something, is the one that you can pay to unlock features such as AI, but will otherwise work for free.

They're considered separate apps, so you can have both. I'm sticking with 14.5 at the moment.

If you do install the new versions anywhere, they collect telemetry by default (very sneaky) so turn it off:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/1qq7q9m/new_versions_of_keynote_numbers_and_pages_collect
 
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Apple_Robert said:
I installed the Pages update on my iPad Pro. I did not do the subscription update and I still have access to the original Pages.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot for posting this! I’ve been reluctant to update it on my iPad Pro for fear to get ads and prompt to do the subscription that I guess it’s not happening to you
 
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I hadn't seen this thread, and updated Pages on my MBP this morning; when I opened it, I saw this:

A pages.jpg


It only showed two documents I'd created in January, forgot the name of one of them, and apparently lost all my documents from 2022 to 2024, and February of this year. Anybody else getting this?

The good news is that it downloaded as a whole new app (as mentioned above), it didn't update my old copy of Pages. I can still open the old one (from my dock) and all my old docs are still there/retrievable, but this does not give me a good feeling.

When I get to a version of MacOS that just doesn't support the old Pages at all, will I lose all those documents?
 
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BotchQue said:
I hadn't seen this thread, and updated Pages on my MBP this morning; when I opened it, I saw this:....
When I get to a version of MacOS that just doesn't support the old Pages at all, will I lose all those documents?
Click to expand...
Probably you should try to open each one of those files in the new Pages and see if it converts and shows the titles as it should
The ones that are zero bytes are really just blank documents? In that case you shouldn’t have too much work
Otherwise ..😟
 
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katbel said:
Probably you should try to open each one of those files in the new Pages and see if it converts and shows the titles as it should
The ones that are zero bytes are really just blank documents? In that case you shouldn’t have too much work
Otherwise ..😟
Click to expand...
I didn't try that yet this afternoon. Later my MBP needed a charge, so I picked up my iPad, clicked on Pages (the new icon) and all my files showed up as normal. 🙂 This evening, when my MBP was fully charged, I hit the new Pages icon again, and now all my old files are there, whew!
Guess my iCloud just needed some time to sort things out, or wait for a weather system to pass thru? 🤣

Now, my new Sadé concert bluray won't come up on my TV, but that's another question for another forum... 😠
 
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