OpenOffice crashes

[JDC]

This isn't exactly on point but tangentially related. I've been using AOO for, literally, years. I've have had no problems with it. Lately, I've been getting an "Open Office crash unexpectedly" message (is there ever an expected crash?) and AOO goes about recovery ...so far.

Would updating to 4.1.5 take care of this?

I've read that renaming user profile to (for example) user2 can sort this activity, but I'm a bit hesitant. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Bill]

What is the most recent Open Office version?

At the bottom of the forum page, there is a link (look for the green arrow) to the Apache OpenOffice download page. Click the link to go to the download page where it will tell you the most recent version.

[RoryOF]

I doubt that updating (recommended in any case) will cure the problem. It is either the site being down, which a later access attempt should cure, or some wrong configuration on your computer, perhaps bad firewall/antivirus permissions. In this latter case, the erroneous permissions may continue with the updated version.

[JDC]

Thanks for the reply.

The site being down? Perhaps I didn't explain, well.

Example:

I go to aoo spreadsheet to enter information. Frequently (moreso. lately) it will give me the crash message and go into recovery mode. Thus far, it has always recovered everything but I 've used aoo long enough to know this is abnormal behavior and want to do whatever is necessary to make it stop.

I don't know how to clone the entire contents of aao files (although I have many backed up), to restore them if I was to uninstall the program and start over with a fresh install.

Thoughts ?

[RusselB]

Open Office crashing has nothing to do with the original topic, an inability to check for updates.
There is no way to know just what it is that is causing OpenOffice to crash, though a common "repair" for a lot of problems is to reset your OpenOffice user profile as explained in The OpenOffice User Profile

[John_Ha]

I go to aoo spreadsheet to enter information. Frequently (moreso. lately) it will give me the crash message and go into recovery mode.

That is a faulty or corrupted file problem. If you get such a recovery message, be sure to recover the file properly because, if you don't, you will get the message the next tie you open the file.

If recovery fails, create a new empty spreadsheet. Now go Insert ..., and insert each sheet of the "faulty" file. Save.

[benlev@aol.com]

I really need some expert help with OO. I need to find someone to hire to fix this. I've used this program for years and all our reports are in Open Office, but in the past year halfway through a (40 page report), the program starts to freeze and crash. Seems to be related to simple graphs and figure inserted as PNG. Usually about four or five of them in these reports. The program starts to slow and then crash. Usually, we can recover it enough times to finish editing and then quickly PDF the document. But at this point, just going back in to add a comma, or fix one type can take 20 minutes. I'm waiting for a recovery now.

Please, someone, tell me how to get help. Otherwise, within the week we'll have to abandon Open Office and (gag) buy MS Word.

Ben Levitan

[RusselB]

If your system is running that slow, I'd suggest checking it for malware/spyware/ransomware, in addition to a full anti-virus check.
Also a memory and hard drive defragmentation wouldn't hurt.
Also look at what other programs are running on your system and see how much memory they are using in comparison to your total RAM.
If you don't feel comfortable doing this on your own, any decent computer repair shop can and will do it for a fee. How much depends on the shop and possibly on how long it actually takes.

[RoryOF]

Another diagnostic is to start Windows in Safe mode, then run OpenOffice while Windows is in that mode. If OO runs well and stable while Windows is in Safe mode, then the problem is being caused by a program or driver that runs when windows is in normal mode. Careful detective work may then pinpoint that.

[benlev@aol.com]

Thank you for these suggestions. I'm not having problems with any other programs and do open the task manager to see if anything else is running. When I have problems I close all the other program.

This is definitely related to the issue of adding graphics to word documents. This is when things go bad. I need to find an expert to look at some files.

[robleyd]

You might find some helpful information in [Tutorial] Some useful hints on using images

If your OS and OpenOffice version are as shown in your signature, you might consider an upgrade; or otherwise perhaps you could update your information - How to update your signature

Edit: Fix tutorial link

[benlev@aol.com]

Thanks, David. Can you resend the link? This one is 404.

[RusselB]

[Tutorial]Helpful hints on using images

[RoryOF]

Try the Safe Mode option. It is a useful diagnostic for OO problems.

[benlev@aol.com]

Thank you for the tutorial link. This may be the answer and the cause of my problems.

>>>>>>>>>>>Never insert photos or JPG files by copy and paste. Never - not even once ... but see below.

I frequently take screen captures and then simply paste them into my report.

[JDC]

Okay...The crash/recovery is intermittent so I don't know that there is any particular trigger. I've resaved pages, saved copies under different fuile names and yet it persists. I tried running AOO in Safe Mode and (as I said, I don't know the trigger) I didn't see it replicate the error.

Someone said something about a driver comflicting and some good detective work being necessary to discover which. Can you expand on that, a bit?

If not, does LibreOffice use the same bits or is it completely separate. I am flummoxed by the repetitive recovery (albeit always..up to now...successful) and I'm about ready to "jump ship".

[RoryOF]

Someone said something about a driver comflicting and some good detective work being necessary to discover which. Can you expand on that, a bit?

If not, does LibreOffice use the same bits or is it completely separate. I am flummoxed by the repetitive recovery (albeit always..up to now...successful) and I'm about ready to "jump ship".

The obvious things to look for are firewalls and antivirus programs; start in normal mode and stop each of these in turn - it may be best to disconnect from the internet to avoid any risk of infection. You will need to run for quite some time with any of these disabled until you are certain of OO's stability. Often, if one of these causes the problem, a change in its configuration can help solve the problem and permit the program's reinstatement. Any program that touches an open OpenOffice file can cause crashes (antivirus, continuous backup... is Carbonite one such?). Also programs that touch or monitor the clipboard.

You can certainly try LibreOffice, but this may suffer from the same problem if it is being caused by another program.

[JDC]

Thanks for the tips. I will try those. The only caveat is that this crash is not reproducible upon command ... so it may take awhile before I see any results. Thanks again

[RusselB]

Unfortunately diagnosing an inconsistent crash is the next thing to impossible. Even if you discovered one program that caused it to crash, and got that problem fixed, there's nothing to say that another program won't have the same effect, but due to completely different circumstances.

[JDC]

Yes...that's unfortunate, isn't it?

All I have to go on is the approximate time I first noticed the "Open Office has unexpectedly crashed" message. I then worked back to see if I'd done anything to the computer about the same time frame.

I took a look at all the non-Windows programs listed in msconfig Startup.

At some point, I'd turned many of them off, but not all of them.

Two more that I've temporarily disabled, upon startup, are a Garmin (GPS) update application and Team Viewer (remote access application that I used, recently). They were both running in the background.

The problem did not recur , afterwards, but that's not to say it won't again. I'll keep my fingers crossed lol

Thanks for the give and take, here, and ideas on what I actions I might take to make the problem reveal itself.

Cheers

[John_Ha]

Is it a layout problem with badly placed image anchors? Or a footnotes layout problem? Do you get blank spaces and/or erratic page counts?

See [Solved] Large file very slow to respond and CPU use is high and Re: OpenOffice always crashes when opening this one document

[Marathon Lady]

Thanks for the add. I have been using Open office for some years now, without any problems. I mainly use the spreadsheet to manager data. I have just had the latest update to windows downloaded, and now Open Office crashes. I start the program it opens and after a short time crashes I receive Unexpected error message and goes into file recovery mode. This happens in the spreadsheet and word processing, without any data loaded.
When I try to load a spread sheet all data is underlined in red, and then the program crashes.
I have tried using the macro (config_backend_cleaner.py_) but the program locks up before I can complete the procedure.
I have reloaded the program and checked that I have a dictionary file.
Any advice I what I can check next.
Russell

[Marathon Lady]

Just a follow up from my previous post, I am a computer novice by reading previous post I have now tried the following:
Went into MSCONFIG and changed to selective startup I could now run Office Office without a problem. My Spreadsheet still has all text underlined in Red, running spell checker removed the red line.
Once I rebooted in normal startup the problem came back.
Can anyone advise where I can go from here? Is this a windows problem or a problem with Open Office? (no other program appears to be effected)
Thanks
Russell