Can't open OOo Files

[Sockdip]

Hi all,

complete newbie here.

Ive been using Open office for a while now and had no issues whatsoever. However, this morning I went to open some files from OneDrive and Open office asked me to select a character set, and then the file just displayed full pages of hastags with no text.

I also noticed that every file now has a duplicate, one with its original name, and one with my PC name on the end. This is the same for every .odt file in my One drive directory. I need these files for my job!

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Mark.

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Sadly, the files with hashtags are definitively lost (99.99%).
See: [Tutorial] The Dreaded Pound Signs: file reduced to ####. Good luck. I hope you had backups.

Switch to LibreOffice, they have fixed this issue a long time ago.

[LastUnicorn]

Of late in this forum there have been multiple posts of people having problems with OpenOffice on Windows 10 and 11 systems. Often time the solution is just to switch to LibreOffice. There are several good reasons to make the switch, some of which are given here: [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information

This does not apply to your files now full of hashtags. Be wise and switch to LibreOffice.

[John_Ha]

See [Tutorial] How to find and un-delete AOO temporary files for detailed instructions on how to

a) use Previous Versions (W7 and later) to recover previous versions of the file (is there something similar on MacOS and Linux?);

b) recover your file as it was when you last opened or saved it, or as it was when it was last saved with AutoRecovery;

c) find previous versions of the file in the folder it is located in, but which have since been deleted;

d) find any temporary files AOO wrote while you were editing the file but which have not yet been deleted;

e) un-delete the temporary files AOO wrote while you were editing the file, and then deleted. d) and e) will recover your file as it was when you last opened or you last saved it.

If you cannot follow the instructions ask someone with more PC skills to help you. Act quickly - the longer you wait the more likely any temporary files are to be deleted.

See Why is my Writer file full of #####? for an explanation of files which open with the ASCII Filter option and are full of #####.

[Bill]

I also noticed that every file now has a duplicate, one with its original name, and one with my PC name on the end.

This is not an AOO problem. I don't use OneDrive or Windows, but a Google search found this:

Duplicate files in OneDrive