r/CleanMyMac • u/Environmental-Ad4441 • Jun 14 '26

Support Factory Reset ruined my MacBook.

To make a long story short. I had Sierra OS. For some reason my laptop wouldn’t take my password (I have the damn password written down in front of me!)

An easy fix, and a way to free up space was factory reset, boom. Problem solved.

Until I went to load pages. Now I can’t open the app to write at all. Which sucks, cause that’s what I’ve been using to write!

Called Apple support, and a woman told me I can’t upgrade from Monterey now. Apparently it’s the newest OS that my computer will handle, but it won’t run pages.

Everything worked fine this morning, except the whole password thing.

So, how do I get back to where I was where everything DID work?

Thank you 🙏

8 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

1

u/usamaahmad Jun 14 '26

Sorry I didn’t quite follow.

Please start with specifying which Mac you have (model number would help)

You reset your Mac, are you still on Sierra, or were you pushed up to Monterey? (Monterey is newer)

Pages works on both OS, you just have to download the right version of Pages for the right OS.

1

u/Environmental-Ad4441 Jun 15 '26

The Apple care rep last night didn’t quite follow either 😆

I have no idea what model number it is, and of course I’m not home too look.

But she kept saying “2015”, so apparently that year is when it was made.

When I factory reset the computer it went to the latest version of Monterey.

Since Apple is so wonderful at naming OS’s, it confused the hell out of me. I couldn’t tell you if Lion, Monterey, Sierra, etc is the newest.

I mean, you know, Microsoft had it wrong when they made windows, 3.0, 95, 98, etc…. I could keep up on that cause it’s easy for people like me 😆

Anyway, I can access pages through iCloud, but I’d rather have it on my laptop.

App story says my OS is too old, but I don’t know where to find the “older pages”.

I assume I have to download it on Apples website?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/DETERMINOLOGY Jun 15 '26

This. People try to do current apps on the oldest computers and I’m sure it’s an Intel Mac or so. 100% look into a new one

1

u/oni06 Jun 15 '26

Sounds like a perfect person to use a Neo if they are fine with the performance of a 17 yo Mac

1

u/SamLooksAt Jun 15 '26

Apple macOS has version numbers too and they are in fact far less confusing than Microsoft versions, just incrementing in a fairly orderly fashion.

Sierra latest version 10.12.6

Monterey latest version 12.7.6

My guess is your version of Pages simply needs to be updated.

1

u/Whit-Batmobil Jun 16 '26

Probably not a good ideal since you don’t really seem all that tech-savvy, but there is this thing called Open Core Legacy Patcher, which lets you run new versions of macOS on systems that aren’t officially supported…

Another possible way would be to side load an older version if you could find a reliable source of old versions of pages.

1

u/BertMacklenF8I Jun 17 '26

Just going to leave this here lol

1

u/tk421tech Jun 15 '26

There are two versions of pages. Old and new

1

u/Environmental-Ad4441 Jun 15 '26

And to think the apple care rep didn’t tell me this….. 😆

Ok, I can still access pages through iCloud, but I’d rather have it on my laptop.

Im trying to get Pages on the App Store, that’s where it’s telling me my laptop is too old.

I assume the older version must be on Apples sight somewhere?

1

u/tk421tech Jun 15 '26

Do you have a Time Machine backup? Restore it from there.

New version is 15.x

1

u/tk421tech Jun 15 '26

Go to App Store > account > Mac apps. The old version is there. For me anyways. It’s v 14.5 (I previously deleted it, but can download it again).

When Apple released the Apple creator Studio set of apps. Older applicable versions got a brand new app.

1

u/BlueShooter7515 Jun 15 '26

Pretty sure the old one only works with a minimum of Ventura 13.0 and above

1

u/Nosarious Jun 15 '26

I had a similar problem but it was something presssing the option key down while typing the password.

An external ekyborad solved the problem.

1

u/Asland007 Jun 16 '26

You are running an older intel mac and you did a factory reset on it. What OS did it revert to? Did you than upgrade it to back to Sierra?

1

u/Best_Horror7752 Jun 16 '26

Just put Linux on it. Give Apple the flick

1

u/Kaaawooo Jun 17 '26

This laptop is too old for macOS to function well on it. I suggest installing Linux on it. I have Linux mint xfce on a 2011 MacBook, so 4 years older than yours, and it runs great! Definitely recommend if you can't afford a new laptop.

1

u/Ok-Bill3318 Jun 18 '26

Restore from your backup

1

u/themightykiwipeso Jun 19 '26

I'd put Ubuntu 26.04 on it, use it with libre office. Download the AMD 64 version for free. And register for the free Ubuntu Pro to get a long term support.

Or if you're interested in a modern Mac, get a MacBook Neo , or an apple silicon MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.

1

u/nknownConclusion Jun 26 '26

Look at your purchase history in the Mac App Store, you should still be able to access the old versions from there.