[2023] How to Recover Unsaved or Deleted Pages Document on Mac

iWork Pages is a document type designed by Apple to contend with Microsoft Office Word, but it is easier and more stylish to create files. And this is just the reason why more and more Mac users prefer to work with Pages documents. However, there are possibilities that we may leave a Pages document unsaved due to sudden power off or force quit, or just accidentally delete a Pages document on mac.

Here, in this quick guide, we will cover the solutions to recover unsaved pages document on mac and to recover accidentally deleted/lost pages document on mac, even we will explore how to recover the previous version of a pages document.

How to Recover Unsaved Pages Document on Mac?

To retrieve Pages document that accidentally closed without saving on mac, there are 3 solutions listed as follows.

Method 1. Use Mac Auto-Save

Actually, Auto-save is a part of macOS, allowing an app to auto-save the document users are working on. When you are editing a document, the changes are saved automatically, there will be no “Save” command appears. And the Auto-Save is super powerful, when changes are made, the auto-saving takes effect. So, basically, it is not likely to have a Pages document unsaved on mac. But if your Pages force quit or the mac is powered off in the process of your working, you will need to recover the unsaved Pages document.

Steps to Recover Unsaved Pages Document on Mac with AutoSave

Step 1. Go to Find a Pages Document.

Step 2. Right-click to open with “Pages”.

Step 3. Now you will see all the Page documents that you leave an opening or unsaved are opened. Choose the one you want to restore.

Step 4. Go to File>Save, and store the pages document that is unsaved onto your mac.

Tips: How to Turn On Auto-Save?

Basically, auto-save is turned ON on all Macs, but maybe yours is turned off for some reason. To save your troubles on “Recover unsaved Pages document” in future days, here we recommend you to turn on the Auto-Save.

Go to System Preferences > General, and un-check the box before “Ask to keep changes when closing documents”. Then the Auto-save will be ON.

Method 2. Recover Unsaved Pages Document on Mac from Temporary Folders

If you have re-launched the Pages application, but it doesn’t open the unsaved files again, you will need to find the unsaved pages document in temporary folders.

Step 1. Go to Finder>Applications>Utilities.

Step 2. Find and run Terminal on your mac.

Step 3. Input “open $TMPDIR” to Terminal, then press “Enter”.

Step 4. Find the Pages document you didn’t save in the opened folder. Then open the document and save it.

Method 3. Retrieve the Untitled Pages Document that Wasn’t Saved on Mac

In the case you just create a new Pages document, you don’t have enough time to name the file before any problems happen, and hence have no idea where you store the pages document, here is the solution to recover the untitled pages document that wasn’t saved.

Step 1. Go to Finder > File > Find.

Step 2. Choose “This Mac” and select file kind as “Document”.

Step 3. Right-click on the blank area of the toolbar, and choose “Date Modified” and “Kind” to arrange files. Then you will be able to find your Pages document fast and easily.

Step 4. Open the found Pages document and save it.

Of course, when you open the unsaved Pages document, you can go to File>Revert to>Browse All Versions to recover your preferred unsaved Pages document.

How to Recover Deleted/Lost/Disappeared Pages Document on Mac?

Besides leaving pages document unsaved on mac, we may sometime mistakenly delete pages document or an iWork Pages document just went disappeared for an unknown reason, then we need to recover deleted, lost/disappeared Pages document on mac.

The methods to recover deleted/lost Pages documents are quite different from those for recovering unsaved Page documents. It may require a 3rd party program, such as Time Machine or other professional Data Recovery Software.

Method 1. The Most Efficient Solution to Recover Deleted Pages Document

If you have a backup or are able to find back the Pages documents from the Trash bin, Pages recovery can be quite easy. However, on most occasions, we happen to permanently delete the Pages document, or we don’t have any backups, even the files won’t work when we recover from the Trash bin or with Time Machine. Then, the most efficient solution to recover deleted or disappeared/lost Pages documents is to utilize a professional Data Recovery Program.

For mac users, we highly recommend MacDeed Data Recovery, it provides abundant features to recover deleted PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and others fast, smartly, and efficiently. Also, it supports the latest macOS 13 Ventura and M2 chip.

Main Features of MacDeed Data Recovery

• Recover Pages, Keynote, Numbers, and 1000+ file formats
• Recover files lost due to power off, formatting, deletion, virus attack, system crash, and so on
• Restore files from both Mac internal and external storage devices
• Use both quick scan and deep scan to recover any files
• Preview files before recovery
• Recover to local drive or Cloud

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Steps to Recover Deleted or Unsaved Pages Document on Mac

Step 1. Download and install MacDeed Data Recovery on your Mac, and choose the hard drive where you lost the Pages documents.

Step 3. Scanning takes some time. You can click on the file type you want to view to get a specific preview of the scan results as they are generated.

Step 4. Preview the Pages document before recovery. Then select and recover.

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Method 2. Recover Deleted Pages Document on Mac from Time Machine Backup

If you are one who gets used to backing up files with Time Machine, you are able to recover deleted Pages and documents with Time Machine. As we talked about above, Time Machine is a program allowing users to back up their files onto an external hard drive and find the deleted or lost files back when files are gone or corrupted for some reason.

Step 1. Click on the Apple icon and go to System Preferences.

Step 2. Enter Time Machine.

Step 3. Once you are in Time Machine, open the folder in which you store the Pages document.

Step 4. Use the arrows and timeline to find your Pages document fast.

Step 5. Once ready, click “Restore” to recover deleted Pages documents with Time Machine.

Method 3. Recover Deleted Pages Document on Mac from Trash Bin

This is an easy yet easily-overlooked way to recover a deleted Pages document. In fact, when we delete a document on the Mac, it is just moved to the Trash bin instead of being permanently deleted. For permanent deletion, we need to go to the Trash bin and delete manually. If you haven’t performed the step of “Delete Immediately” in the Trash bin, you can still recover the deleted Pages document.

Step 1. Go to Trash Bin and find the deleted Pages document.

Step 2. Right-click on the Pages document, and choose “Put Back”.

Step 3. You will find the recovered Pages document appears in the originally saved folder.

Extended: How to Recover A Replaced Pages Document

Thanks to the Revert feature of iWork Pages, we can even recover a replaced pages document, or put it simply, recover an earlier document version in Pages, as long as you did the Pages document editing on your mac, instead of receiving the Pages document from other.

Steps to Recover A Replaced Pages Document on Mac

Step 1. Open the Pages document in Pages.

Step 2. Go to File > Revert to > Browse All Versions.

Step 3. Then choose your version by clicking the up/down button and click “Restore” to recover a replaced Pages document.

Step 4. Go to File > Save.

Conclusion

In conclusion, no matter whether you want to recover the Pages documents on Mac, or no matter you want to recover unsaved or deleted Pages documents, as long as you use the appropriate method, we are able to find them back. Also, we should always remember that, back up all our important files before our file is gone forever.

MacDeed Data Recovery – Get Your Pages Document Back Now!

• Recover deleted/lost/formatted/disappeared iWork Pages/Keynote/Numbers
• Recover images, videos, audio, and documents, a total of 200 types
• Recover files lost under different situations
• Recover files from mac internal or external hard drives
• Filter files with keywords, file size, and date for quick recovery
• Preview files before recovery
• Recover to local drive or Cloud
• Compatible with macOS 13 Ventura

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