[Solved] OpenOffice Document Recovery endless loop

[Kenner]

Using Windows 10, OpenOffice 4.1.1
I have an endless loop problem with document recovery.
I've searched the forums but haven't found a truly relevant solution to the endless loop of recovering an untitled file.

When opening OO it goes into Document recovery mode for an Untitled file. I click the Start Recovery button and get the 'Safely Recovered' message, click 'next', and it goes right back to the OO Document Recovery screen.

I've tried stopping the process but each time I start open office again the same endless loop comes up - after a reboot too. I tried downloading and installing the latest OpenOffice but that failed too.

[jrkrideau]

Just a guess but try Resetting your Profile

I'd do a complete shutdown and reboot, also, just for the heck of it.

[thomasjk]

Hit cancel when asked about recovery? Otherwise do as jkrideau suggests.

[Kenner]

'Cancel' just continues the loop.
We have done a shutdown and reboot. It still goes into the document recovery endless loop.
I tried renaming the User file to Userold so it would create a new user folder. The new 'user' folder get created but still get the same endless loop. Also deleted the '.lock' file. But still get the loop. I can only stop the loop by ending the OpenOffice process with Task Manager.

[Kenner]

I'm attempting to locate and delete the Recovery.xcu file now. So far I haven't figured out how to locate it.

[Hagar Delest]

Check the beginning of the tutorial linked above.

Please add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the edit button if your issue has been fixed.

[Kenner]

The last step of the tutorial worked. However the path name is incorrect for version 4.1.1. not sure it was ever correct.
The offending file 'extensions.pmap' is one step deeper, located at C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice\4\user\extensions\tmp\extensions.pmap
Thanks much for the prompting.

[etraynor]

Is there a friggin' phone number for this company? This is no help, and I am tired of that recovery loop!

[thomasjk]

There is no formal support for AOO because its freeware. This forum is the support vehicle. Have you looked at the solutions suggested in the earlier posts? For starters select "Cancel" or "Discard" when prompted for recovery. Post #2 of this thread offers a second solution. Please read the posts the solution is contained in this thread.

[etraynor]

Thanks, Tom. Tried and failed with both. I'll just delete and go to something else.

[thomasjk]

You missed the solution presented by Kenner in the post immediately above your first post. My last try.

[etraynor]

That is very kind of you. But I'm a creative writer and a computer idiot! I already have LibreOffice up and functioning wonderfully. I thank you, though.

[thomasjk]

This problem is not unique to AOO. Libreoffice can experience the same issues. Bookmark this thread for future reference.

[ynjiun]

What's the solution then?
Could anyone summarize it?

In my case, I did the following things to solve my "endless recovery" problem:

1. I had a filename.odt file experienced "endless recovery" issue when opened in Windows 10 using OpenOffice 4.1.11.
2. I then open the same file using LibreOffice 5.1.6.2 in a Ubuntu 16.4 virtual machine "successfully"! And then save it to a temp.odt file.
3. Go back to Windows 10 using OpenOffice 4.1.11 to open temp.odt and Praise the Lord it opened successfully! Save the temp.odt to the filename.odt to overwrite the original file that caused "endless recovery" issue.

Now my filename.odt got fixed by the above 1-2-3 steps.

I hope it helps ; ))

[Hagar Delest]

Why not just use LibreOffice?

[ynjiun]

Because of layout issue.

I have been using OpenOffice for Bible editing for more than 15 years. The 1441 pages layout are subtle and simply not portable to LibreOffice (which it creates not readable layout due to all historical macro and settings).

So the above solution break the OpenOffice "endless recovery" loop and preserved my more than a decade of works. Make sense?

[Hagar Delest]

Then either you invest time to fix the migration to LO or be prepared to use such workarounds.
AOO is not under very active development, meaning that you may face the issue again if there is no code change.
By the way, you asked for a solution but had you tried to reset the profile as advised at the beginning of this (old) topic?

[ynjiun]

Then either you invest time to fix the migration to LO or be prepared to use such workarounds.
AOO is not under very active development …

Actually I don't mind to invest to migrate to LO but the fact hindering me doing so for at least past decade is: both OpenOffice and LibreOffice cannot "lock" the layout for quick start. This diminishes my motivation to migrate. Let me explain: my Bible draft has 1441 pages. Everytime when open the document, it takes about 20 to 40 minutes to "settle" the layout. If I don't wait until it settle and dive in directly for any changes, then the layout would get "stuck" in a weired situation which has few page blank in between texts which supposed to be continuous. I did try LO and it has the same behaviour! I wish either LO or OO will eventually has a feature I would named it "layout lock" to bypass the slow auto layout all the time. (When a document only has few pages, the auto layout make sense, but when you have over thousand pages, auto layout is waste of time!)

By the way, you asked for a solution but had you tried to reset the profile as advised at the beginning of this (old) topic?

I read this post several times and had no clue what do you mean by the "solution" and where is the link? That's why I wrote my version of "solution" explicitly rather than pointing to a .....? I would appreciate if you can explicitly include the "link" in your text rather than let the reader to figure out.... ; ((

Still thank you for your notes.

[Hagar Delest]

First reply of the thread:

Just a guess but try Resetting your Profile

Your own solution may work because LO did the job but it could also be because the profile was different, hence without a possible corruption that triggers the endless recovery loop.

For your issue with layout, you could try the master document to split your document in several ones that use the same template. Break it in places where you are sure the layout won't be changed by a change before the break. Like a new chapter that is set to start on a new page.

[Bellante]

I have the same problem "Document Recovery endless loop" and although above it say's "Solved" I can't find anything that clearly provides an answer, if there really is an answer please advise me where it is and what I have to do and please make it simple English because I don't speak Geek. Thanks

[RoryOF]

Normally, if prompted for a Recovery of a file which doesn't recover, simply press Cancel and the message will usually not reoccur.

[Hagar Delest]

And if it does not work, please confirm that you had tried t reset the AOO user profile.