Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I have been successfully using this excellent programme for 5 years It saves documents as you work on them then are findable under recent documents but suddenly a document I use every day with a title has just disappeared , from my document files. ANY IDEAS how to recover . It is not in my recycle bin and was last used yesterday 12 August

Is it missing from OO's /File /Recent documents? if so, it should still be in the directory in which it was originally saved. Start OpenOffice from Programs button, use /File /Open and its navigation buttons to navigate to that directory, select the file and press Open. It will open, and once again appear on Recent Documents, which shows only the last ten files opened.

1. Start
2. Type some characters of the file name in the Search box - or type *.odt to find all .odt files.
3. Press Enter.

it is missing from recent documents and my main my documents so no amount of typing in the title is revealing it

Then, as soon as possible, use the methods set out below to try to recover it.

You may be able to recover a previous version of the file - 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 ;

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

thanks been to your tutorial opened control panel but it does not have folder options in the menu . <i have windows 10

patrickelvin wrote:it is missing from recent documents and my main my documents so no amount of typing in the title is revealing it

Try the search as suggested. What is the point of asking for help and then rejecting the help given?

patrickelvin wrote:thanks been to your tutorial opened control panel but it does not have folder options in the menu . <i have windows 10

Google for help on Windows 10.

For John Ha not sure which part of your help I ihave rejected .I have tried everything including *odt. and all permutations of the title. Would be grateful if you could enlighten me as I have not deliberately or consciously rejected your kind advice

It might have been saved somewhere else, for whatever reasons. Your best bet is still to search all folders for your missing file.

my problem not solved .I am vaguely aware that you can reset your computer foro a date before the docuoment disappeared can anyone help with that¿

See the instructions in the tutorial linked above re Restore Previous Versions - in the second Edit box

Set View hidden files to ON just in case you have made it a hidden file. Now:

1. Do a search for a word which you know was in the document as W10 will then find all documents with that word in them. Sort by date.
2. Look in the recycle bin
3. Search with *.* and sort in date order.
4. Check all disks if you have more than one disk.

If none of those find it then you have managed to remove all trace of the document from your PC.

Edit: You can look at the last 100 or so files you saved by 1. Set View hidden files to ON 2. Open C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice\4\user\registrymodifications.xcu with an XML editor (eg Notepad ++ with the XML Tools plugin) 3. Pretty print (Plugins > XML Tools > Pretty Print with line breaks) 4. Search for file: This finds the last 100 or so files which you saved with AOO. Code: Select all <item oor:path="/org.openoffice.Office.Histories/Histories/org.openoffice.Office.Histories:HistoryInfo['PickList']/OrderList"> <node oor:name="8" oor:op="replace"> <prop oor:name="HistoryItemRef" oor:op="fuse"> <value>file:///C:/Users/John/Desktop/2019kostenverkopen_saved%20by%20LO.ods</value> </prop> </node> </item>

Have you checked the backup folder of your profile if you had the option checked for "Create a backup copy" in the Load/Save options.
See: [Tutorial] The OpenOffice User Profile.

Regarding Lost documents. IIts a pain. but I save as ODT file in folders on several drives I have. I also put it in my outlook files. It is a pain, but if you do it is securing your file as you go.