Document locked and blank

[crocodile5003]

This is a similar issue to some others have posted, but I have not found anyone exactly the same. My laptop crashed, and when I reloaded it a very large odt. document on Libre Office 3 which I had been working on at the time had for some reason made another copy. The first one was only a small section of the document, but on properties the size is massively bigger than you'd expect and which sounds like the size of the full document, and the copy brought up an ASCII Filter Options pop-up when clicked on, which I have tried numerous settings but however I have it, when I click Okay a new pop up appears saying the document is locked for editing by Unknown User. When I click read-only or open copy, a blank document is displayed. I should have made copies of the document as I was working when it got so big, but I didn't realise and it is really important to me so if anyone knows how to retrieve it that would be appreciated.

[RoryOF]

The locked document is because there is a hidden lock file left after the crash. If you close OpenOffice you may delete any hidden documents with name similar to

Code: Select all   Expand viewCollapse view

.~lock.FileName.odt#

Once you get the ASCII text message your file is probably damaged beyond repair.

You might try opening the file with an archive manager such as 7zip or winzip; if it opens, look in Content.xml, where you may find some or all of your content (unformatted). Also try some form of undelete utility; Photorec has been recommended previously on this forum.

[crocodile5003]

There aren't any files with a name like that when I close OpenOffice, not sure why. Thanks for the advice on the archive manager, but content.xml only brought back what I could see on the smaller document anyway- to page eleven. Not really sure what you mean about Photorec, how do I get it? Thanks

[RoryOF]

Google for it and download from its site, which throws up as first or early hit on Google. Run it and leave your computer alone while it runs. It may (or may not) find deleted copies of your file, which will possibly be incomplete, but may extend beyond page eleven.