Lost iCloud Pages Document because of xml index missing- finally resolved!

This morning I opened a Pages document in the cloud and started making changes to it the same as I have a hundred times in the past. The dreaded spinning ball appeared and I force quit Pages. Upon trying to open the same document I got the dreaded "xml index is missing". I callled tech support and was told by the first person that there is no way to recover the document. I also asked if Time Machine would have backed it up and he said NO, there is no way of recovering it if I didn't make a copy of it. I called Apple Support again and this time talked to a lady who at least tried to help me, but we weren't making any progress. I then found an article online (after searching earlier for the xml issue) that said Time Machine DOES backup Mobile Documents under the ~Library/Mobile Documents unless you specifically tell it not to. Luckily this person insisted that it backs up mobile documents because I was able to recover the document from a Time Machine backup. Thank you to the person who posted about the Time Machine backup! Now Apple needs to let their Tech Support people know about this!

Hank,
You were wise to search for answers here. There's no doubt that there is more collective wisdom in these discussions than you would expect to encounter in one first-echelon phone support person. You are also wise to be using TimeMachine so you have that recovery option available to you.
Jerry

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Editing icloud pages document on desktop, edits not showing up on icloud

I have a pages document on my icloud called "ABC123"
I am on my mac
I go to FINDER > iCLOUD > PAGES FOLDER
in the pages folder I see the document "ABC123"
I click ABC123
It opens in pages on my desktop (not in browser)
I make an edit and type: "***?"
I click save.
When I open ABC123 in the browser-version of pages, my "***?" edit is not there.
Why are my edits not syncing with the icloud version even though I opened it through my icloud folder? Everything is updated (software and pages and icloud acct).... can we just not use the desktop version to edit icloud documents?
In other words:
I ask because I'd like to collaborate with others, but I would like to use my desktop version. They can use the browser to edit. but.... my desktop edits aren't saving to the collaborative online version of ABC123

Hello anonAnthony,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
Yes, Pages and iCloud Drive can be used in the way you're describing. It sounds like you're seeing some unexpected behavior with this feature.
For troubleshooting, start with the tips in the "Documents on iCloud.com are not updated when changes are made on my iOS device or Mac" section of this article:
iCloud: Troubleshooting Documents in the Cloud - Apple Support
You may also want to close and re-open Pages and Safari, and test again.
If the steps above don't solve it, the article I mentioned recommends contacting iCloud Support for more help:
If you still need help, contact iCloud Support.
Best Regards,
Jeremy

Why are my iCloud Pages documents showing as "zero bytes" in Pages on my MacBookPro?

Many of my Pages documents that are stored in iCloud can not be opened in Pages on my MacBookPro. They show "zero bytes". Is there something I can do to have them showing their full size and be accessible from Pages on my MacBookPro?

I realize it's probably an imponderable question and I could do the dragging thing from iWork in iCloud to iWork.com Beta and vice versa. It doesn't really seem right, or even Apple-like, that Numbers on my iPad saves to the ICloud iWork and Numbers on my iMac, MacBook and MacBook Pro saves their documents to iWork.com. Why the heck aren't they saved to the same iWork? This should work more smoothly if they want people to use the iOS device to it's fullest extent.
So, there's no way around it. At some point I'll have to pick one of the iWorks to work on the documents from. I guess it would have to be the iCloud iWork since the iOS Numbers can't get to the iWork.com iWork? And I'll have to save the Numbers docs on the Macs and then drag them to the iCloud iWork? Brilliant! Same for Pages?

ICloud: Page documents disappearing

my iPad had a technical disorder. it was repaired but after re-storing from the latest iCloud copy, my documents of the last 72 hours seem to be missing, although I synchronized them. in my Pages, the docs are simply missing, on the PC (iCloud page) they are there, but empty with a Pages icon and at the Helpdesk they seem to be able to open them but I must wait for a technical investigation, I really need those (mine!) docs, what to do?

Have you looked on icloud.com/iwork? They might still be on the iWork site. If they are, download them immediately. If they're gone there too, do you have a Time Machine backup? If not, you're probably hosed. Always recommend local backups and for really really important docs, burning to CD, storing another copy in Dropbox, etc.

Lost my pages document, can I recover it anywhere?

Hello,
the history of it:
I had a situation with the apple software "aperture" where rendering out a large slideshow to video to external drive actually used up the remaining 50 gigs of hard drive space on my local drive within the laptop. as a result "disk utility" showed 0 disc space left. resulting in me not being able to save my "pages" document before I closed it. (amongst other problems).
I had spent over a year writing this pages document as a journal every other day. (no backups). I had really ended up trusting my mac because of its robust performance this last 2 years >.<
I had pressed "discard or close" something like that from memory when trying to close it before shutting down my computer due to zero disc space left. but that should have only got rid of the days writing correct ?? / not deleted the whole document... !!
I had deleted the trash after logging back in to try and free up disc space (not realizing that perhaps, the pages document had been moved there).
Is there anywhere I can retrieve this document its gone !. (I have managed to get some disc space back but cannot find the document).

Hi john,
It depends. What OS are you running? What application? How/why did the Mac shut down? Have you restarted and looked for recent documents?

Lost my Pages document

I am glad to say this is a first, but it is a frustrating first. I had been writing a document for some time and instead of just going up to save the document, I hit (Command A) and then hit (Command S). I assumed I would be saving the document, but instead it deleted the text, but ironically started the speech program so even though my text was visible, it began reading it. It did save the document on my Desktop, but just the cover page - no text. Anybody have any idea what the heck happened and wether or not my document is still there? I wonder if I happened to hit return after all was said and done and erased the selection - but I would have done that after it saved - but it is not there.

You have probably lost it if you haven't saved it earlier than the incident.
You could make a search for specific word in the document. Maybe it is lurking somewhere. Look also for documents with the name untitled. Good hunting!

After sync i lost my pages,numbers,keynote,documents

After I sync my ipad I lost my pages, documents can anyone help

Best program I've ever used is from
http://www.iphonebackupextractor.com/
Don't sync you device yet
Load this software on your Mac or pc where iTunes is loaded
Will find all your docs contacts from your last backup sync
Enables you to retrieve lost files from all your backups
Even files that iTunes disregards because it doesn't look right.
Even allows you to retrieve files from backed up saved discs
iPhones, iPads iPods
This little gem has saved me hours of worry
Copy all my backups to disc now and can say without worry
I have everything in hand
Free program at the moment

Can't open a pages document

It seems it should be very easy to transfer between the 2 mac programs. but I cannot open a Pages document with another computer running Appleworks 6. Is it not possible to open a iWork Paes documnet using appleworks. I have exported from Pages the different file types: WORD screws up the format and fonts; PLAIN TEXT does the same and I can't open RTF, HTML, or PDF files with Appleworks. Can anybody help???

It seems it should be very easy to transfer between
the 2 mac programs. but I cannot open a Pages
document with another computer running Appleworks 6.
Is it not possible to open a iWork Paes documnet
using appleworks. I have exported from Pages the
different file types: WORD screws up the format and
fonts; PLAIN TEXT does the same and I can't open
RTF, HTML, or PDF files with Appleworks. Can
anybody help???
As Sagesse notes, AppleWorks can't open Pages documents because it was released/updated years before Pages was made available. Apple does not claim that AppleWorks can open Pages documents.
Pages does not perfectly convert every document to a Word format. Nothing but Word does this.
But, plain text is plain text. It has no formatting, fonts, styles, etc. That's why it's called plain text and why your formatting, etc is 'screwed up'.
Regarding Peggy's advice that AppleWorks cannot open Pages documents converted to RTF. This is generally true, but not technically true. In any case, it's easy to work around.
AppleWorks, Pages and Word can all open RTF files. However, if you include an image in a RTF file, it becomes a RTFD file. So because most Pages documents contain images, these files will be exported to a RTFD file format. AppleWorks and Word cannot handle a RTFD file. To work around this either: don't add images to your Pages documents, or open the the RTFD file (it's really just a folder containing a RTF file and the images) so you can open the RTF file in AppleWorks or Word.
HTML is a poor format to rely on for word processing documents they look different from browser to browser.
AppleWorks can only import PDF files, page-by-page, as images.
Before you consider purchasing MS Office, first download NeoOffice/J. It's a free clone of MS Office that does an almost perfect job at Office file translation.
Cheers.

How Can I download and open iCloud Pages doucments?

Hello. I hope someone can help me. I am going crazy as I cannot download and open a lengthy iCloud Pages document I have been working on. Each time I perform a download the document appears as a ZIP Archive in my Downloads Folder on my MacBook Air. However, when I try to open the document e.g. using Zip View Pro, I get a one-page document instead of the original 150+ pages manuscript.
My second 'beef' about iPages is that it synchronizes very slowly. I worked on my document on an iPad and then, the next day, tried to continue working on it on my laptop. The changes I'd made on the iPad did not appear until much, much later. I was better off using Dropbox as a meansa of ensuing that, whatever machine I happened to be working on, I would always have access to the latest version of my file.
I am very, very disappointed with ICould Pages!!!
Stephen

You can try to open the zip file with the bulit-in Mac Archive Utility application (right click, Open With > Archive Utility.app).
I expect the manuscript file is quite large but I can't explain the delayed iCloud sync.

Pages will not open a downloaded .pages document from iCloud because index.xml file not found?

New to using iCloud. I created a large pages document on Mac Air and saved it to my iCloud account. Found it at home on desktop Mac and downloaded it. No problem. However, it will not open due to the index.xml file not being found. What should I do to open this document? I've tried several things and no luck yet. Thanks for any tips! :-)

Options posted here: The required index.xml file is missing.
William Farrar posted:
Try this. It worked for me:
1. Single click on the document. This will "highlight" the document icon, but not invoke the error message.
2. Click on "File" in the menu.
3. Scroll down to "Open With".
4. One of my choices in the "Open With" selection is Pages (default) (5.0.1)
5. Click on that choice and the document should open.
In my "Open WIth" selection there is also a Pages (4.0.4), but that didn't work for me.
Now, here is a caveat. If before you open your document you instead first click on an open Internet window, then the "Open With" selection disappears from the File menu. In that case just single click again on the document icon again and the "Open With" selection returns.
fruhulda posted:
Try this:
1. Make a duplicate of the file (cmd D), just to be safe
2. Select .pages on the copy and change to .zip
3. When the System asks if you really want to do this, click Use .zip
4. Double click the new .zip file
5. It will now appear as a folder with no extension
6. Append .pages to the end of the folder name
7. Again click on Use .pages
8. Double click on this file to open it in Pages.
What you have done is extracted all the Pages resources from the .pages "package" and reconstructed it.
or
http://www.freeforum101.com/iworktipsntrick/viewtopic.php?t=308

HT202879 How do I fix "the required index.xml file is missing?" when opening Pages documents?

I can't open any documents from my son's iPad. Error message: the required index.xml file is missing. How do I fix this error so that I can open his Pages documents? Before I ran the latest update as prompted when I opened Pages, I WAS able to open and view the document.
I did try restoring Pages using my Time Machine, but it still won't open the Pages document.
I have a brand new iMac that I just set up last week.
Son uses iPad at school, so we update when the school asks him to update. Will doublecheck his version of Pages but it should be pretty recent.
In general I don't like using Pages because it lacks a lot of the backwards / forwards compatibilty of Microsoft Word.
However, it is what my son uses with the iPad.
Most of the time I have to export his files as WORD files because we never seem to have compatible versions of Pages between the iPad and the desktop iMacs.
Where can I recommend that Apple improve its compatibility issues with Pages?
This week I am going to receive a new iPad at my school (I am a teacher) but I am 100% certain that it will not be compatible with the older version of Pages on my classroom iMac. I also avoid using Keynote for the same reason. I have 15 year old Power Points that I can still open, but I am hesitant to switch over to Keynote because I want to be able to open my files any time, any where.
Please advise.

Not sure what v5 is. Someone helped me and opened it through Pages 5.2, through the program, rather than the Finder. Thanks for making a suggestion!

"index.xml" missing in Pages document

I had made some changes to a Pages file, as chose "Save As..." to keep the original document intact. I got the spinning beachball and after waiting for several minutes had to Force Quit. Now when I try to open the new document it tells me the file is invalid and the index.xml file is missing. Looking at the package contents I can only see the audio, video, and images from the document. Is there anyway to recover my text changes?

The file may not be gone, but you may have lost links to the images.
To recover the file:
REMOVE THE PAGES "WRAPPER"
Press the [control] key and click on the hosed file.
Scroll to Get Info and select it
In the Name & Extenstion box, delete the ".pages" extension so that "myfilename.pages" reads "myfilename" and press [Enter].
Don't worry about the "will open in another application" warning. We'll put the extension back when we're done. Click [Okay] at the confirmation dialog.
The file is now displayed as what it is, a folder containing multiple files.
CORRECT THE PROBLEM
Next open the folder "myfilename" and browse to the index.xml file.
In my case, the offending issue was that the index file had been renamed to "index(xxxxx).xml.gz" by my syncing software. The icon identified the file as a gzip archive, so I simply edited the filename to read: "index.xml.gz" (without quotation marks).
Presuming the author of the previous post is correct and your file is no longer gzipped, you'll need to get a archive utility. Stuffit Standard has a 30-day free trial and is available at
http://www.stuffit.com/cgi-bin/stuffit_loginpage.cgi?standardmac
Other utilities, freeware, shareware and commercial, are available as well. Download one and Gzip the file and delete (or move) the unarchived "index.xml" file out of the "myfilename" folder. (Note that there are MANY different achive formats. I don't know if any will work other than the gzip that I found mine in.)
PUT THE FOLDER BACK IN THE "WRAPPER"
Back in the File Info dialog, click in the Name & Extenstion box, add the ".pages" extension after the last letter of "myfilename" so that it reads "myfilename.pages" and press [Enter].
Double-click you reconstructed Pages document. If you get a warning your only option at this point is to click [Continue]. At least you still have the text and layout. The only thing I've lost in the past is the images. You can relink them to their boxes.
Hope this works!
G4 800; Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4)
G4 800 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

I can't open pages files from USB and iCloud due to : "The necessary file index.xml is missing".

I can't open pages files from USB and iCloud due to : "The necessary file index.xml is missing". Original file is written on iMac (2014) and saved to an USB stick and then transferred till macBook Pro (2009, Yosemite) for editing. Then I shared the files by iCloud but I am not able to open them on iMac again. Niether can I use the USB stick to transfer the edited files back. I'm running Pages '09 4,1 (923) on the macBook and Pges 5.5.2 (2120) on the iMac.
Håkan

Pages 5.5.2 is extremely incompatible with even other Macs let alone the vast majority of PC and MsWord users out there, so not a good idea to leap into the fire with both eyes shut.
After having done that to the first Pages 5 files, Apple has repeatedly done it to even the most minor point updates. Apple can't even anticipate its own erratic changes let alone what everyone else needs doing.
Peter

Can't open page documents and get The required index.xml file is missing

I have “hundreds” of pages documents that were created with pre Pages 09 that will not open now that I have upgraded to Pages 09. In every case I get the error “The required index.xml file is missing“.
I need a way to fix this or it will cost me many dollars since these files constitute legal backup for earlier federal jobs.
Anyone out there that can help rather than telling me to open (which I can’t) and save in Pages 08 format!

If a Pages '08 document doesn't open in Pages '09, the problem is not Pages '09, it's that the document is corrupted.
I will be disconnected for a few days but if you may wait until tuesday 26th,
on this day, send me a sample file.
I will try to understand what is wrong with it.
Click my blue name to get my mail address.
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mercredi 20 mai 2009 21:33:43)

Cannot open pages documents "index.xml file is missing"

Working on an iMac Mountain lion and using pages 3.0.3. Just today, none of my pages documents will open. I haven't stored anything in the cloud, I haven't changes anything, just working on the pages documents simple text.
The last thing I did with it was to print the file, as I have so often before. I have a MacBook with the same pages app, but running on Yosemite -- bought a new version of pages.
The MacBook will open .pages files stored on that hard drive, but files taken from the iMac will not open on the MacBook.
I'm in a tight. I have a vast number of documents as I've been using pages for years.

By default, Pages v5.5.2 on Yosemite saves out a Single File format document, which is a compressed renamed zip folder that the Finder allows us to believe is a document. When you attempt to open that document from within Pages '08, or Pages '09, you get the following dialog:
The Pages v5 generation documents do not use an internal index.xml file. Pages v5.5.2 also allows one to change that single file format document into a package file format document, which is not a compressed, renamed folder. When you open one of these package format documents in the older Pages applications, you now get a different dialog message. The index.xml file is still missing, but…
If you are using Pages '08 v3.0.3, or Pages '09 v4.3, there are no newer versions of these applications available. This is an Apple attempt to steer users to a Yosemite update, and then downgrade to the latest Pages applications that now require Yosemite. They could have just said, “we made a document format that is incompatible with older Pages applications.”

Lost iCloud Pages Document because of xml index missing- finally resolved!

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