Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hello everyone,

When I copy an OO document to a second computer, the password doesn't work. I've had to work around it by saving it with a new name without a password on computer 1 and then copying it again to computer2.

I have 2 questions:

1. why does this happen and is there a workaround?

2. when I do succesfully make a copy from computer 1 without a password, the document on computer 2 won't take the old password.

Thanks in advance!
OO 4.1.2 on Mac

That does not sound right.

What file type is it? .odt? .doc?

Try this on both PCs. The password is Fred.

John_Ha wrote:That does not sound right.

What file type is it? .odt? .doc?

Try this on both PCs. The password is Fred.

Note that the password is case sensitive, so Fred, not fred.

Perhaps document is trying to be opened by a different user on the second computer?

RoryOF wrote:Perhaps document is trying to be opened by a different user on the second computer?

Rory

The password is completely independent of user name, path and machine. It is wholly contained within the password protected document and derived solely from what the user types (hashed with seeds which are stored in the file so that using the same password for two different documents gives unique encryptions to the data). See Unable to open p/word protected file anymore for a discussion of how passwords work in AOO.

Another thought for the poster - could it be that the keyboard mapping is different on the two PCs?

1. Open a document with AOO on PC1 and type the password into it.
2. Open a document with AOO on PC2 and type the password into it.

Do they both look absolutely identical? or does one have characters with accents or something different?

I had thought (as a quick speculation) that ownership of the file might be involved. I confirm that I was able to download and open your text.odt file.

pedalmegone wrote:When I copy an OO document to a second computer, the password doesn't work.

[Tutorial] Mac FAQ Q08/A08

John_Ha wrote:Try this on both PCs. The password is Fred. ATTACHMENTS: test.odt

I can open test.odt with no problem on my MacOS 10.11.6 system.

pedalmegone wrote:OO 4.1.2 on Mac

See Q09/A09.

If this solved your problem please go to your first post use the Edit button and add [Solved] to the start of the title. You can select the green checkmark icon at the same time.

One warning: it can be a bad idea to password protect Open-/Libre-Office files, even though the facility is provided.

If one forgets the password it is effectively impossible to open the file, as the encryption is so strong. Also, in the event that the file becomes corrupted, which can happen with an impatient user or power failure, it can be impossible to decide if the problem arises from the encryption or the corruption; but in either case the file is lost.

See, for example, this case:
I forgot my password to a very important document Please Please help. I'll get fired

If I needed to restrict access to a particular file, I would place it into a Zip or other encrypted folder, or keep it on my own removable media.

HI all, thank you for your comments.

1) I'm the same user on both computers; in fact both computers have the same log in.
2) I've a feeling it might be the keyboard issue (John_Ha) because when trying to save a file that had been copied from the laptop#1 to the desktop#2, using the same password, I get this
error message:
Open Office 4.1.2: Error saving the document [name]. General Error. General input/output error.
3)I can use this same password but only if I first save the file without a password on laptop1, copy it to minimac 2, and then save with password.

This is not a MAC keyboard, it is a logitech blue tooth keyboard which I use with the Mac minimac. in a text file they do look exactly the same.

Uh-oh: further complication: If I save the same document as an XP document instead of odt, I can use the same password that doesn't work with the odt.