[Solved] OOo crashes constantly

[Skrag]

Hey guys,

I hope you can help me out. I have two issues, one which I do not understand but doesn't make trouble and another which makes a lot of trouble.

1) I deleted some portion of my database. In particular, I deleted several tables and several fields of my 'main' table. As a result, the size of the database file doubled. I don't know why the file size grows if I delete data. Is this common?

2) Since then, OOo often crashes for no apparent reason. It just instantly shuts down with no error message. This typically happens when I save the file or when I try to run a query or another SQL command. In the past, this has happened as well, but only if there was an error in the SQL command I was trying to run or something like that. Now, it crashes without such a reason.
The result of these crashes is that the database file is broken. It is significantly smaller in size and when I try to open it, one of two things happens: 1. OOo opens, but everything is blank, no tables forms or queries. Clicking anything causes OOo to say that the connection to the database could not be established. 2. OOo offers me different filters for importing the file. I didn't try any of these out.

I don't know if these issues are related, obviously the second one appears more important to me. Any ideas?

I'm running OOo 4.1.5 on macOS 10.13.4 with HSQL database engine, embedded database.

Best, Skrag

[UnklDonald418]

It might be a good idea to make a backup before trying a little housekeeping. Go to Tools-SQL and execute

Code: Select all

CHECKPOINT DEFRAG;

and then

Code: Select all

SHUTDOWN COMPACT;

when you close the database the file size should shrink and hopefully the crashing will stop also.

[Skrag]

Thank you, Mr. UnklDonald418, for your quick reply. I just tried it out and the database shrunk to about 5% of its original size.

We'll have to wait and see whether the crashing stops.

[Skrag]

It seems like the crashes are done with. Thank you!

[Skrag]

Alright, I suppose I was a little early to announce that the problem has been solved, because the programm still crashes for no apparent reason.

It feels like the problem got a little better, but it is still there. However, the file is not broken after the crashes anymore and OOo offers me a recovery that seems to work (of course, some progress is still lost).

Do any of you know something about this kind of problem? It is really weird, since the program chrashes upon actions that I performed hundreds of times before. Just now, I tried to open a form that has worked perfectly for months. I didn't change the query it is based on or anything like that. Nonetheless, OOo instantly shuts down without error message or anything.

[Zizi64]

Just for the clarify:

I'm running OOo 4.1.5 on macOS 10.13.4

The Apache OpenOffice is not related (today) to the old OpenOffice.org - "OOo". The OpenOffice.org was a common ancestor of the Apache OpenOffice and the LibreOffice.

[UnklDonald418]

The .obd file of an Embedded database model that is standard issue with Base is actually a zip archive containing compressed files for all the Tables, Queries, Forms and Reports in your database. The zipping process seems to be a problem for some users and in those cases it often results in a damaged database.
I would recommend a Split database model that moves the Tables from the zip archive into separate uncompressed data files. As a bonus you get a more recent version of the database engine.
[Wizard] Create a new 'split' HSQL 2.x database
Then copy your Tables, Queries, Forms and Reports into the new split database. You can use either Cut and Paste or Drag and Drop to move the components. When copying Tables you will get a Copy Table dialog that allows you to chose which columns to copy into the new table.

[Skrag]

Thank you, UnklDonald, for the idea! However, I figured that I cannot try this out right now. I will mark the topic as Solved.