Files will not open

[wtb32141]

Schwarzer Kater, you asked if the file opened when I used a terminal within Dolphin. No, the file did NOT open. I should add that never before had I done that; so I did not know what to expect. Maybe I should have waited longer or looked down at the bottom of my screen to see if a progress bar had opened.

[Snowhog]

-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 16 15:17 '.~lock.3-col_index--Paper Book file--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:14 '.~lock.Chapter 11--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 19 13:32 '.~lock.Chapter 1--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:11 '.~lock.Chapter 13--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:12 '.~lock.Chapter 14--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:01 '.~lock.Chapter 15--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jun 18 12:44 '.~lock.Chapter 18--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:08 '.~lock.Chapter 19--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jun 30 05:38 '.~lock.Chapter 20--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:04 '.~lock.Chapter 21--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 1 19:43 '.~lock.Chapter 22--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 3 03:00 '.~lock.Chapter 24--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 16:18 '.~lock.Chapter 25--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 3 04:31 '.~lock.Chapter 26--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 18 06:25 '.~lock.Chapter 27--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 16 15:17 '.~lock.Chapter 28--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:08 '.~lock.Chapter 29--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 6 00:53 '.~lock.Chapter 30--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 16:05 '.~lock.Chapter 31--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:09 '.~lock.Chapter 32--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 8 04:17 '.~lock.Chapter 35--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 09:57 '.~lock.Chapter 36--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 17 09:18 '.~lock.Chapter 37--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 18 05:48 '.~lock.Chapter 40--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 2 03:49 '.~lock.Chapter 6--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:12 '.~lock.Chapter 8--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jun 22 05:05 '.~lock.Chapter 9--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 6 06:13 '.~lock.sources--Einstein book 2023.odt#'

Do you use Save As... and have the Save with password box checked for all of your work in this directory? The .~lock. files above indicate that you do. And, with the testing I've done on my laptop, these .~lock. files are only created when the password protected document is actually opened for editing. With the listing above, that says you have ALL the chapter documents opened at once. Is that true?

[wtb32141]

Snowhog, I use Save As, but I never have used Save As With Password. Until I saw your post just a minute ago, I was unaware of "Save As With Password", but it makes sense under some circumstances. I live alone; so no one fools around with these files except me. If everything were to go smoothly, a total of 43 files would exist: 40 chapter files, a front-matter file, a sources file, and an index file. I never have all of the files open simultaneously, but I often have 10 to 15 files open simultaneously. I have written other documents on writing a book; so some of those documents often are open along with the book files. File size is not the problem. All of my files are less than 1 megabyte, and most of them are far less than a megabyte. I also doubt that file corruption is the problem. One of my posts addresses the corruption issue. I believe it's Chapter 37. I changed "A. Sommerfeld" to "Arnold Sommerfeld", and I saved the document. It took forever to save that file. When it finished saving the file, I rebooted my laptop. I then reopened that file, and I restored "Arnold Sommerfeld" to the original "A. Sommerfeld". Then I saved the file, and the saving went perfectly! If that file were corrupted, surely the second saving would not have gone smoothly (perfectly)! The text that was changed the 2nd time is the exact same text that was changed the first time. That one change was the only change I made to that file. The first time it worked horribly; the 2nd time it worked beautifully. That dual behavior does not sound like a corrupted file to me!

[Snowhog]

If this were me, I’d uncheck the Save with password on each of the files. Given your issue, that might take some time, but it might yield favorable results. Just a guess, but doing so won’t hurt anything. You do have a good backup?

[Schwarzer Kater]

Schwarzer Kater, you asked if the file opened when I used a terminal within Dolphin. No, the file did NOT open. I should add that never before had I done that; so I did not know what to expect. Maybe I should have waited longer or looked down at the bottom of my screen to see if a progress bar had opened.

I think concerning the terminal output to find out what is going on we should go back to the basics - just use it as a standalone output.

• open the Konsole terminal emulator from -> Application Menu -> System
• enter libreoffice (nothing else) in Konsole to open LibreOffice
• work with LibreOffice as you usually would do and leave the Konsole window open all the time
• when something does not work as expected (e.g. when it takes a long time to save a file) look at the Konsole window afterwards and report back any output here

[wtb32141]

Schwarzer Kater, I'm having trouble doing what you want me to do. The best I have been able to do is to launch Dolphin and then hit F4. That splits the screen into 2 parts. The top part has Dolphin; the bottom part has the terminal. I try to launch LibreOffice from the top part (by selecting a file and then telling the computer to open it with LibreOffice, but it won't open the file--it won't launch LibreOffice!).
In the bottom part (the terminal part), I entered "LibreOffice". It answered, "Command not found".

Before I tried that stuff, I used Writer to edit a file. I have told Writer not to save my work as I'm working on a file, but it does it anyway! The first time it took 48 minutes and 29 seconds to save the 5-page file. The second time it saved it, it took 45 minutes and 30 seconds. Then I opened a different .odt file, and it took Writer 22 minutes and 7 seconds to open the file!

I'm open for suggestions, and I genuinely appreciate your efforts (and those of others on this forum) to help me.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Perhaps this is easier to understand:





After pressing [Return] in the second screenshot LibreOffice should launch and then you can open the files from the "File -> Open" menu in LibreOffice.
Leave the Konsole window open and proceed as written above.

[wtb32141]

Schwarzer Kater, please excuse my delay in responding, but several items arose that required my immediate attention. This morning I did the things you wanted me to do. I opened Konsole. I used it to open LibreOffice, and I left Konsole running while I worked with LibreOffice's Writer. When Konsole launched LibreOffice, it gave this warning: "Warning: failed to launch javaldx - java may not function correctly."

I turned my computer off last night; so when I started it this morning, it opened (or recovered) 7 Writer files, which were open when I turned it off last night. Those 7 files were opened a week or more ago. This morning I opened 2 files (A.odt) and (A.pdf). Those 2 files have the exact same content, which is about 2/3 of 1 page. It took Writer 19 minutes and 38 seconds to open the A.odt file. The pdf version of that file opened immediately! After the A.odt file finally opened, I looked at Konsole. Nothing new was there! To be safe, I just looked again at Konsole. Still, nothing new is there!

Late yesterday afternoon, I tried to open 3 Writer files: Chapter 1.odt, Chapter 2.odt, and Chapter 3.odt. Writer would not open any of those 3 files. I looked at Konsole after each of the 3 attempts, and nothing new was there beyond the warning mentioned supra.

I have gotten no message from Writer, Konsole, or anything else re this problem with opening and saving Writer files.

I have some thoughts about this problem, but I'll remain silent until I hear from you.

[JeffRedd]

I would also recommend saving every document file you have in plain ASCII text (without embedded characters) as a backup for every file. The files are very small this way and they very rarely get corrupted. In other words you have your regular “Chapter 37.odt” and then saving another copy of “Chapter 37.txt” and make sure you save the text file without the encoding under file type when you go to save it, it will say Text (.txt).

This may be enough to help clean up those files that may have some corruption that you can’t see (in the document). I hope things get better for you soon.

[wtb32141]

Jeff, thanks for the advice and your sympathy for me. From now on, I'll save 2 versions (an .odt version and a .txt version) of every file. I've written 5 books with Writer, and the current problem is the first really serious problem I've encountered. It took me 10 months to write (in 2006) the first book; so I've been using Linux and LibreOffice for 17+ years. The current book (on Einstein) has 43 files (40 chapter files, a front-matter file, a sources file, and an index file). This problem will get even worse if I find that my backup copies are corrupt! If Writer is unable to open a file, why doesn't it issue a message to that effect and tell me the source of the problem? Ditto re a corrupt file. I've been left completely in the dark re the source of the problems (one on opening a file, and one saving a file).

[JeffRedd]

Word processors are notorious for corrupting large files? Why? Because most likely the document has been edited a lot. Direct formatting like Bold, Italics, etc., can corrupt the files as well as inserted pictures. The Microsoft website says this about Microsoft Word.

A Word document can become corrupted for several reasons that will prevent you from opening it. This behavior may be related to damage to the document or to the template on which the document is based. This behavior might include the following:

Repeatedly renumbers the existing pages in the document
Repeatedly redoes the page breaks in the document Incorrect document layout and formatting
Unreadable characters on the screen
Error messages during processing
A computer that stops responding when you open the file
Any other unexpected behavior that cannot be attributed to the typical operation of the program


Although you are using LibreOffice Writer, all word processors have these familiar themes when it comes to corrupted files. Again, it is almost always happens when the files become very large and seldom happens in smaller document files.


Just remember that pure ASCII text will strip away all the embedded characters. This means that it WILL remove bold, italics and pictures. Headers, footers and endnotes will look different but the text should all still be there. I know that using a backup is a pain in the neck and many things will have to be redone but you will still have your coveted text, which is like Gold! You should also consider some good quality USB thumb drives. And back it up to drives if you have to. Stick with the best brands like, SanDisk, PNY, Samsung and Kingston Data just name a few and these are always rated among the top 10 brands in the reviews I read. Also good backup program like FreeFileSyc is always handy to have on hand but it does have a learning curve.

Open up your worst files and save it as text and then try opening it again and see how much faster it opens. This will prove that there was file corruption.

Word processors are not good at knowing if a file is corrupt and will usually not see any message at all. Sometime it can be the word processor but if LibreOffice Writer is working fine on some files and not on others then it is a file corruption problem. Like I said open your worst file and and save it text only and not text with encoding. Get out of the file and load it again. It should load much faster and this might become your new master but read it careful to make sure that there is no missing text. Good luck my friend

P.S. I know about these things because I have had these same problems over the years.

[wtb32141]

Jeff, I agree with you about the quality of flash drives. PNY is my number 1 choice. I use GRSYNC to back up my work. It has worked well for me, but it too has a learning curve.

[wtb32141]

I'm interested to see the reactions I get to the following info about this thread's 2-sided problem: Writer's awfully long times taken to (1) save files and (2) open files. This morning I reread some of the comments I have gotten over the past 3 weeks. Schwarzer Kater asked, "Did you try if this also happens with a new file (the files themselves could be corrupt)?" I tested a "new file" once, but this morning I decided to test it again. I have told Writer not to save my work automatically every X minutes as I create a document (Tools > Options > Load/Save > General > the box for Save AutoRecovery Information Every ... minutes) is NOT checked, but Writer saves it anyway. So I was creating a new test document. I had typed some, but not much, text on page 1, and I was on page 2. All of a sudden, Writer begins the autosave feature. A progress line appeared at the bottom of the screen, and it took Writer 8.5 minutes to save that untitled text. This situation differs from the ones I previously have reported in this thread. I don't know enough about computers to understand the significance of this new info, but I'll bet some of you do. I'm looking forward to your comments.

[JeffRedd]

Jeff, I agree with you about the quality of flash drives. PNY is my number 1 choice. I use GRSYNC to back up my work. It has worked well for me, but it too has a learning curve.

I use PNY a lot also because they are the least expensive of the top rated Thumb drives (also called USB drives). I have to look into GRSYNC. I have already seen it’s highly rated and well regarded.

The reason I like FreeFilesyc is because it’s cross-platform software and can run in almost any operating system. I use it for my Windows 10 computer which I use, but lately it’s all Linux for me.

[JeffRedd]

It’s defiantly possible that you have more than one thing going on. Are comfortable enough to uninstall LibreOffice Writer and reinstall it? If you are, I would try that and also use a package manager like Muon Package Manager or Synaptic Package Manager to make sure that the whole package is removed totally (and all the dependencies) and start a fresh re-install. I’m not sure if LibreOffice is broken or not but you will have a better chance with a new install. And you should be able to re-install it in Discovery (like I did).