Mac OS question for our tech experts

[Colin Woods]

Hi all

In fact my question is indirectly related to Mac OS. I am on a late 2013 27 inch iMac. I recently upgraded to Catalina which has left me in a bit of a bind. Its nothing serious but I would like to resolve it. I have always used Pages and Numbers as I prefer them to Word and Excel. Now however my versions of Pages and Numbers will not open as they are too old for Catalina. The sting in the tail is that when I try to download them from the AppStore it tells me that I have to upgrade to MacOS 11 (Big Sur), and Big Sur tells me that my computer is too old (it still works as well as when I bought it so I am not going to change it because of Pages and Numbers).

 

Mr Google tells me that I can upgrade from my Purchase History, but neither program is in my Purchase History (I looked in App Store and iTunes).

 

So my question, then, is does anyone know of a site where I can download a Catalina compatible version of Pages and Numbers? I looked on the  internet but all the sites I found suggested only the Purchase History route. This is a real pain with Apple, the fact that older versions of software are removed and made very hard to find.  I would like to get this sorted as I have  lots of documents and spreadsheets in these formats. I could probably get Word and Excel to open them ( I haven't tried) but I thought I would put the question out to the huge knowledge bank that is the Alamy forum.

 

Colin

[wiskerke]

You could google something like How to Install macOS Big Sur on Unsupported iMac.

Apparently your iMac is still unofficially supported. How long that will last is anybody's guess though.

I had no such luck with a 2009 Macbook. There are hacks out there though and I may take that route.

 

wim

 

[Colin Woods]

Thanks Wim, I'll have a look at that. I don't fancy going round the hack route -  I am tech savvy enough to get into trouble but not enough to get out of it.

[M.Chapman]

10 hours ago, wiskerke said:

You could google something like How to Install macOS Big Sur on Unsupported iMac.

Apparently your iMac is still unofficially supported. How long that will last is anybody's guess though.

I had no such luck with a 2009 Macbook. There are hacks out there though and I may take that route.

 

wim

 

 

I used a "hack" (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znlhI6f7x1Q) to install Big Sur on an old MacBook Pro 2012. It worked fine. The only problem is that updates can require a reinstall and there's no guarantee that the "hack" will still work.

 

OTOH - I assume TimeMachine keeps a copy of old versions of these apps, which could be retrieved and installed? I can check my TM if you want.

 

Update I have TM copies of Pages.app and Numbers.app dated 16 Jun 2021 when I was running Catalina. Will these work if simply copied onto the target machine? 

 

Mark 

Edited December 14, 2021 by M.Chapman

[Allan Bell]

I am on a late 2013 27" iMac which I updated to Catalina a little while ago and do not have any problems opening and working with Pages or Numbers. My files are stored on local network not on Appstore.

 

Would you be able to download your files to local memory store (disc) then open them in Catalina?

 

Allan

 

[MDM]

12 hours ago, Colin Woods said:

Hi all

In fact my question is indirectly related to Mac OS. I am on a late 2013 27 inch iMac. I recently upgraded to Catalina which has left me in a bit of a bind. Its nothing serious but I would like to resolve it. I have always used Pages and Numbers as I prefer them to Word and Excel. Now however my versions of Pages and Numbers will not open as they are too old for Catalina. The sting in the tail is that when I try to download them from the AppStore it tells me that I have to upgrade to MacOS 11 (Big Sur), and Big Sur tells me that my computer is too old (it still works as well as when I bought it so I am not going to change it because of Pages and Numbers).

 

Mr Google tells me that I can upgrade from my Purchase History, but neither program is in my Purchase History (I looked in App Store and iTunes).

 

 

 

Did you use a different Apple ID when you purchased the apps? Did you buy them or did they come with the computer? It is strange that they are not showing in your purchase history on the App Store. I can't remember when Apple started providing them as part of the operating system and I never bought them but they are showing as purchased in Oct 2014 when I got a new Mac.

 

Alternatively is it possible that the apps are hidden? In the App Store under the Purchased tab, hit View Information, log into your account and see if there is anything under Hidden Items. I am not sure what would happen if you do find them but it might be worth having a look. 

[Colin Woods]

2 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

am on a late 2013 27" iMac which I updated to Catalina a little while ago and do not have any problems opening and working with Pages or Numbers. My files are stored on local network not on Appstore.

This is very odd. For me it wouldn't open Pages at all (Numbers still works) on Catalina nor will it allow me to install the current version.

 

1 hour ago, MDM said:

Alternatively is it possible that the apps are hidden?

Been there, checked that. And no, I have only had the one AppleID that I created when I bought the computer in 2013. I can't remember when I installed them, but the three programs (I got Keynote at the same time) are in my history.

 

I will have a look at the time machine route when I get back home.

 

Thanks for all your input.

 

Colin

[MDM]

 

30 minutes ago, Colin Woods said:

This is very odd. For me it wouldn't open Pages at all (Numbers still works) on Catalina nor will it allow me to install the current version.

 

Been there, checked that. And no, I have only had the one AppleID that I created when I bought the computer in 2013. I can't remember when I installed them, but the three programs (I got Keynote at the same time) are in my history.

 

I will have a look at the time machine route when I get back home.

 

 

 

 

Confused now Colin. In your original post you said  "Now however my versions of Pages and Numbers will not open as they are too old for Catalina. " But there you are saying that Numbers still works? Is it a specific problem with Pages?

 

The Time Machine route might be your best bet in any case. 

[Colin Woods]

When Pages wouldn't work I thought that Numbers would not either. In fact its just Pages, and I'll give the Time Machine a go.

[MDM]

Deleted

 

Edited December 15, 2021 by MDM

[Colin Woods]

Well, Time Machine didn't work. Well, it worked very well. I went back to before I upgraded and there, in Applications, was Pages. Greyed out. I restored it anyway and sure enough the message This Version of Pages is not compatible with your computer. Oh well, without a link to a Catalina compatible upgrade I will do without. Its not like I am writing documents all day long, Word will be fine for what I need. I just found Pages more intuitive.Maybe Apple will tempt me when the new M1 27 inch comes out.

[Sharon]

This is why I haven`t upgraded to Catalina.  I`m on a late 2012 27" desktop and only just recently (in the past 4-6 mos.) upgraded to Mojave.  I was checking to see which of the software I use regularly would be compatible and Numbers was not one of them. If you have a Google account, they have a spreadsheet that they call Sheets.  If I have to upgrade to Catalina because of no security updates on my Mojave, I may just look into using that instead of Numbers.  Or, maybe bite the bullet and order a brand new Mac with the new M1 chip when it becomes available.

[Jansos]

I inadvertently bit the bullet last night and by mistake upgraded from High Sierra to Mojave (10.14.6) on my iMac. I had for some strange reason thought that Lightroom 6.14 wouldn't work with Mojave but to my great relief it does. I read somewhere that Mojave and Lightroom 6.14 were incompatible but perhaps I was getting mixed up with Catalina (incidentally why do Apple give such ridiculous names to their OS?). The other bonus is that my aging 2011 Microsoft Office suite (14.3.7) also works. I think Santa has delivered my Christmas pressies early this year - I didn't even have to tip his reindeer and provide him with a glass of milk and a mince pie! Things are looking up!

[Harry Harrison]

10 minutes ago, Jansos said:

I read somewhere that Mojave and Lightroom 6.14 were incompatible but perhaps I was getting mixed up with Catalina (incidentally why do Apple give such ridiculous names to their OS?).

Yep, looks like Mojave is fine:

 

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-macos-catalina-compatibility/

 

Ditto on the names, I can remember 10.14, 10.15 etc. but hopeless at linking the oh-so-hip names.

[Rebecca Ore]

I switched to Libre Office.   Have no idea about the compatibility with Numbers and Pages, but does convert Word and Exell.   Appears to have good maintainers and is donation ware/Open Source, and recommended by a friend who has used it for years.