Can't use Pages on iPad anymore

[Silly John Fatty]

Hello,


I can't use pages on my iPad anymore. When I try to open a document, it says I need to upgrade to the latest version to open that document. When I click to download the latest version, it brings me to the App Store, but I seem to have the latest version already.

I thought maybe it has something to do with the fact I upgraded to El Capitan on my Mac. And I thought I may need iOS 9 now, to download the latest version of pages.

But for some time, pages worked normally, even though I had installed El Capitan already.

I'm on the latest version of iOS 8. Don't really want to upgrade to iOS 9. What can I do? And does it even have anything to do with that in the first place?

Thanks!

 

[iOSUser7]

I had the same message for the Apple Store app back in July 2015 when my iPhone was still on iOS 7. It asked me to upgrade my system to continue using the app. It's the Apple's way of getting customers to upgrade to the latest OS I guess.

My iPad is still on iOS 8.4.1, I will download the Pages app and tell you if it's the same on my side.

EDIT : No issues here, everything works perfectly on my iPad Air 1 on iOS 8.4.1, I can create and edit documents without any problem. Also I noticed that the App Store description says that you need iOS 8.4 to run the latest version of the app so shouldn't have any update issue. Are you sure you are indeed running the latest version of iOS 8 (which is 8.4.1) ?

 

[Silly John Fatty]

I had the same message for the Apple Store app back in July 2015 when my iPhone was still on iOS 7. It asked me to upgrade my system to continue using the app. It's the Apple's way of getting customers to upgrade to the latest OS I guess.

My iPad is still on iOS 8.4.1, I will download the Pages app and tell you if it's the same on my side.

EDIT : No issues here, everything works perfectly on my iPad Air 1 on iOS 8.4.1, I can create and edit documents without any problem. Also I noticed that the App Store description says that you need iOS 8.4 to run the latest version of the app so shouldn't have any update issue. Are you sure you are indeed running the latest version of iOS 8 (which is 8.4.1) ?

Thanks for reporting back!
That's weird. Yes, I'm running 8.4.1 since it came out.

When I try to open a document it tells me to update the app, alright so I click update and it brings me to the App Store. But there's no 'Update' or 'Install' button, but just an 'Open' button. Meaning everything is installed already. It says the last update was on 11.11.2015. That's version 2.6.1 and that's the one I have.

But it did work before, until I installed El Capitan on my Mac and synced the iPad. I thought the version 2.6.1 from 11.11.2015 may be an old version, but the latest available for iOS 8. And that I might have downloaded the (newer) Pages App (for iOS 9) in iTunes and then synced the iPad. But when I look in iTunes, it always says I have the version 2.6.1. That's very. I guess it's some bug or something.

 

[iOSUser7]

That's strange indeed. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Pages app on your iPad ?

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Nope, I think I'll try that!

What's weird is that in iTunes, like I said, it says it's up to date (when I go to "My Apps" or something like that), but when I go to my iPad in iTunes I have the possibility to update Pages. But nothing happens. Haha

I'll play around with it a bit and see what happens. It's horrible how unreliable Apple always is. Imagine I had an important presentation and suddenly I found out I can't open Pages, just the way I found it out when I was at home basically.

 

[iOSUser7]

Yeah I think Apple quality control in the software has degraded over time, it's not as reliable as before.

Also make sure to save your existing documents before removing the app because I believe it delete them too.

Keep us updated.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Yeah I was going to ask, they're saved automatically in iCloud, no? At least I have iCloud activated. Thanks for all the help by the way.

And I'll do keep you updated of course, who knows, someone may have the same issue some day!

 

[Silly John Fatty]

It seems like I have found the solution. It's all very weird actually. My iPad doesn't have 8.4.1 installed, but 8.3. Which I don't understand, because I remember when I upgraded to 8.4.1. But it's not possible to downgrade. I don't understand anything anymore… I'm wondering if I might not have installed it. That's quite annoying as I can't use Pages anymore now, unless I find an older version of pages in my backups, or if someone sent it to me. But then, again I'm not sure why it wouldn't work, when I updated my Pages long time ago. So I've been running the latest Page on 8.3 with no problems so far. It really seems to have something to do with El Capitan.

 

[iOSUser7]

Shame, so that was the problem...
I think the iOS 8.4 requirement is all done server side. As I said before, I had the same message for the Apple Store app without I update the app or anything, one day it just asked me to upgrade for no reason. It was in June 2015 when I was still running iOS 7 on my iPhone. So I think even if you manage to install an old ipa file, it will ask you to upgrade.

I'm sorry to hear that for you. Are you frequently using the Pages app on your iPad ? If yes then I really don't know what to advice you. As I told you in another thread, iOS 9 is really bad on the first iPad Air, it's sometimes get close to unusable, I wouldn't recommand it to anyone. But at this point I'm not sure you have any other choice.

Screw Apple for doing everything to force users to upgrade to their latest and buggy iOS, really.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Yeah, sadly I use it a lot, it's one of the reasons I bought it! That is horrible right now. I guess Apple has achieved what it was trying to do: Make me buy a new iPad…

I might sell mine then and get a used Air 2. I wouldn't mind it price-wise – I bought my Air used for 600€, and it had everything (leather case, Apple Care +, not a single scratch) and it was around 8 months old.

If I sold mine now I would have to put another 200€ on top of it to get a used Air 2 in the same condition. But it's all the hassle that is annoying. Finding it, checking if it's really in top condition, etc. I had luck with this one I guess, all of the things the owner was selling were top notch.

 

[saudor]

The air 2 is a nice upgrade though. The multi tasking features are phenomenal for basic productivity work. Plus it's significantly faster.

Your other option is to wait for the 3 to come out and see what happens to air 2 prices

 

[Silly John Fatty]

I can't believe it's been two weeks already that Pages on my iPad won't work! It's crazy how time flies.

Finally, I would hate to upgrade. Because everything else works perfectly on my iPad. The only thing I wish I had would be the Finger Sensor for the Home Button, but that's not worth the upgrade.


So I tested this whole thing further, and I've noticed the following:

- Pages documents created on my iPad and uploaded to iCloud can be opened and modified on Mac
- Pages documents created on Mac (or any existing Pages documents modified on Mac) can't be opened on iPad anymore.

I guess I need to download an older version of Pages again. The one I had before this. Anyone know how I can find this out? Last time I had updated the Mac was probably in July or early August, but certainly not later.

I don't have a time-machine backup. Is the only way to find my old Pages app to search it with one of the Recovery apps? Or is there a site where I can download older versions of Pages?