How do I find a password locked document?

[peachbird]

I've been working on a project for a few months but recently took a break from it. The document was in Pages and it was password protected. It doesn't appear in my recent files list and I can't seem to find it. I know it hasn't been deleted, either.

Any help would be much appreciated, thank you.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi and welcome,

Try looking here.

~//library/ saved application state/

also here
~//Containers/com.apple.Textedit/Data/Library/Autosave Information

and lastly here
~/Autosave Information

 

[peachbird]

Hi and welcome,

Try looking here.

~//library/ saved application state/

also here
~//Containers/com.apple.Textedit/Data/Library/Autosave Information

and lastly here
~/Autosave Information

Thank you for your reply. I've checked all three of the options and couldn't find it. Is there anything else I could do?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Is it a large file?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-Which version of OS X?
-Which version of Pages?
-Do you have a current Time Machine or other backup of your files?
-Are you using iCloud, and if so, have you looked in the iCloud Drive > Pages folder in the Finder sidebar?

C

 

[peachbird]

Hi,

Is it a large file?

It's about 12,000 words.

 

[peachbird]

Hello and welcome.

-Which version of OS X?
-Which version of Pages?
-Do you have a current Time Machine or other backup of your files?
-Are you using iCloud, and if so, have you looked in the iCloud Drive > Pages folder in the Finder sidebar?

C

I have OS X El Capitan version 10.11.2
Pages is version 5.2 (1860)
No, I do not.
Yes, and it is not there.

Thank you for your reply.

 

[peachbird]

I've tried looking for it under command-F > security and it's not showing up there either. I remember the name of the file and it's contents.

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, thanks for the additional information.

-I assume you have looked in all of the folders in your Home folder - Documents, Downloads, etc.?
-Could it have been renamed?
-Did you verify your Spotlight prefs to make sure it is scanning all compatible document types?
-Is it possible you have a copy on a USB flash drive, external hard drive, or had emailed it to yourself?
-Do you have more than one version of Pages installed?

We'll keep trying.

C

 

[peachbird]

OK, thanks for the additional information.

-I assume you have looked in all of the folders in your Home folder - Documents, Downloads, etc.?
-Could it have been renamed?
-Did you verify your Spotlight prefs to make sure it is scanning all compatible document types?
-Is it possible you have a copy on a USB flash drive, external hard drive, or had emailed it to yourself?
-Do you have more than one version of Pages installed?

We'll keep trying.

C

Thank you for replying and helping!

Yes, I've looked in those places and it's not there.

No, I did not rename it. I was trying to make it easier to find so it's name was always "..." Could this be the problem?

No - how do I do that? (verify spotlight prefs)

No, I only worked on it through Pages and never saved it to a USB or anything.

No, I only have the one version.

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries.

Yes, if you named it ... then it may be hidden, as files starting with a . period are reserved for System use. It may be hidden, or more likely not recoverable.

 > System Preferences... > Spotlight > Search Results - make sure all are check and there is nothing in the Privacy tab

C

 

[peachbird]

No worries.

Yes, if you named it ... then it may be hidden, as files starting with a . period are reserved for System use. It may be hidden, or more likely not recoverable.

 > System Preferences... > Spotlight > Search Results - make sure all are check and there is nothing in the Privacy tab

C

Oh no, I hope it is only hidden.

I made sure all the boxes are checked and nothing is in the Privacy tab, however it still doesn't appear. This has happened before with the same document, but it did not prove this difficult to find.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Did you save it as .pages? If you can remember the format you saved the file in then give this a whirl ...

• Double click to open your MacintoshHD icon.
• In the search located at the top right, search for the file type ie: .pages .doc etc
• Change the search option from "This Mac" to your system HD & also change "Contents" to "File Name" (as you are typing .pages you will notice a drop down menu, select Filename Cont...)
• All the way over to the right after the Save button there is a "+" button, click it
• Click the "Kind" button to see suggestions, choose one or the other whichever is applicable
  
• Then to the right of this another field will appear which you can further fill in
• Perform the search as many times as you change the "Kind" button to another option.

Hope this makes sense & you have luck.

 

[peachbird]

Did you save it as .pages? If you can remember the format you saved the file in then give this a whirl ...

• Double click to open your MacintoshHD icon.
• In the search located at the top right, search for the file type ie: .pages .doc etc
• Change the search option from "This Mac" to your system HD & also change "Contents" to "File Name" (as you are typing .pages you will notice a drop down menu, select Filename Cont...)
• All the way over to the right after the Save button there is a "+" button, click it
• Click the "Kind" button to see suggestions, choose one or the other whichever is applicable
  
• Then to the right of this another field will appear which you can further fill in
• Perform the search as many times as you change the "Kind" button to another option.

Hope this makes sense & you have luck.

Thank you for replying. I did save it as a pages document. I took a screenshot of what showed up when I did the steps. Is there something I did wrong?

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

See the little - + to the far right in the bottom bar (Security Contains ...), well if you click on the - does the result window populate with .pages files?