ASCII Filter Options when opening Dropbox document

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SaraX
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ASCII Filter Options when opening Dropbox document

Post by SaraX »

When I try to open ODS files on my Mac book Pro I get the ASCII Filter Options box and it won't open, although the file I am trying to open is on a cloud drive and can be opened with no trouble on my desktop mac. I can open it there, save it to the cloud then when I try to open it on my laptop MacBook Pro it won't open and gives the ASCII Filter Options Box.

I looked at previous posts and they all seemed to say the file must be corrupt but it clearly isn't corrupt as can be opened bu Open Office on my Desktop. I uninstalled Open Office and re-installed, both are running 4.1.7.

I wonder if it is something to do with the Open Office on my laptop not recognising the .ods extension properly?

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance...
Last edited by MrProgrammer on Sun Aug 23, 2020 5:41 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Reason: Changed subject, was: ASCII Filter Options; Moved to General Discussion — not an OpenOffice problem
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RoryOF
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Re: ASCII Filter Options when opening cloud document

Post by RoryOF »

As a quick workaround, try moving your document to local hard drive for editing, and restoring it to cloud location afterwards.
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MrProgrammer
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Re: ASCII Filter Options when opening cloud document

Post by MrProgrammer »

Hi, and welcome to the forum. I am going to assume that "the cloud drive" means the iCloud Drive folder on your Mac. There are other types of cloud storage, for example Dropbox and Google Drive. If you are using those instead of iCloud Drive the advice below may work with them as well. Or not. I can't help you with those services.
SaraX wrote:I wonder if it is something to do with the Open Office on my laptop not recognising the .ods extension properly?
Reinstalling OpenOffice would have rebuilt the file association for the ODS extension, so I don't believe that is the problem. Even if the file association is broken, OpenOffice → File → Open opens the file since MacOS (Finder) does not need to understand that the ODS extension is associated with OpenOffice.
SaraX wrote:the file I am trying to open is on a cloud drive
OpenOffice and many other applications were developed years before cloud storage became available. They do not understand the concept of a "cloud". To allow these applications to work with cloud documents, MacOS keeps a local copy of them. They are in folder ~/Library/Mobile Documents. MacOS magically keeps these in sync with the cloud. Perhaps Apple's magic has failed and either:
• the download from the cloud to Mobile Documents corrupted the file, or
• the local copy in Mobile Documents became corrupted and MacOS didn't upload it to the cloud for unknown reasons.

Do other documents in iCloud Drive open properly? If not, it would seem that it is not a good plan to use OpenOffice with cloud documents. You may have better success with using Finder to copy the iCloud Drive document to the Desktop, using OpenOffice on the Desktop copy, and using Finder to copy changes back to iCloud Drive. I realize this is a nuisance, but it is better than being unable to open your documents. Myself, I do not use iCloud Drive when working with OpenOffice documents. Perhaps changes to iCloud settings will help, for example,  → System Preferences → iCloud → iCould Drive → Options → Optimize Mac Storage. Consult an Apple forum for assistance with iCloud.

However, if it is a single document with this problem, then you can try to resynchronize the document. Here is what I would do:
• On the iMac, where the document opens correctly, save a copy (OpenOffice → File → Save As) to the Desktop, then delete document from iCloud Drive. Be careful to ensure you do not lose the document via a mistake. You may want to have a backup of your document, just in case. For example, you can close the document in OpenOffice then attach the spreadsheet to an email message and send it to yourself. Then you have a backup in your mail system.
• On the Macbook, look in iCloud Drive. Is the document there? It should not be, since you deleted the iCloud Drive spreadsheet from the iMac. If it is, you have an Apple problem with iCloud Drive syncronization. You will need to resolve that. Perhaps you need to sign out of your Apple account on the MacBook and sign on again. Petrhaps you have a bad network connection on the Macbook. Perhaps you have run out of room in your iCloud account. There might be other reasons that MacOS cannot connect to iCloud Drive. The  → System Preferences → iCloud dialog may help you diagnose the problem.
• Once the MacBook recognizes that the iCloud Drive document is gone, on the iMac, copy the document from the Desktop back to iCloud Drive with Finder.
• Apple's magic on the Macbook should recognize a new document on iCloud Drive and download a copy so you can use it with OpenOffice. You may have to wait a while for synchronization. Apple displays a cloud icon for the file until it is downloaded. Consult their documentation for details.
People on an Apple forum may have better suggestions for resolving iCloud Drive problems.

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Villeroy
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Re: ASCII Filter Options when opening cloud document

Post by Villeroy »

MrProgrammer wrote: Perhaps Apple's magic has failed and either:
• the download from the cloud to Mobile Documents corrupted the file, or
• the local copy in Mobile Documents became corrupted and MacOS didn't upload it to the cloud for unknown reasons.
• another Apple device failed to upload the same document due to hasty shutdown, hibernation, power outage.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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Re: ASCII Filter Options when opening cloud document

Post by John_Ha »

SaraX wrote:When I try to open ODS files on my Mac book Pro I get the ASCII Filter Options box
A genuine .ods, .xlx or .xlsx file (and .odt, .doc or .docx etc) is a ZIPped file.

If AOO attempts to open a file which is not a ZIPped file, the user gets the ASCII Filter Options box (unless it is a .txt file which AOO recognises as a TEXT file).

Getting the ASCII Filter Options box therefore suggests the file is not a ZIPped file or is not seen by AOO as being a ZIPped file.

See fred.ods. I created and saved fred.txt with Notepad containing "This is a text file - it is not zipped". I renamed it fred.ods. I then started Calc and went File > Open ..., and attempted to open fred.ods getting the ASCII Filter Options box.
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SaraX
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Re: ASCII Filter Options when opening cloud document

Post by SaraX »

Sorry, I'm new to using forums and I'm not sure how to reply individually - thank you all for your help!

It seems to be a 'cloud' issue. I tried emailing the document to the laptop and it opens fine.

I am using dropbox, which shows as a folder in finder, like any other folder, and I have the same thing on the laptop, so the files just self update across the two computers, and are also available on-line from any other computer. Very convenient when it works - and until this week I've had no problems.

But now if I save a file on the Mac in the drop box folder, or save it on the local drive, then copy it in to the dropbox folder, either using open office or Excel, it won't open in the respective programs on my MacBook Pro laptop whilst in the Dropbox folder - but WILL if I copy them back to the local folder.

So this is a Dropbox problem not an open office problem! I will take it up with them. The idea was that I wouldn't need to keep two identical folder structures on my computers, I could save and work directly from the one folder structure - in the Dropbox folder, which would constantly update, so I didn't need to worry about where the updated version currently was. It worked for a while...
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Re: ASCII Filter Options when opening cloud document

Post by John_Ha »

SaraX wrote:So this is a Dropbox problem ...
When I double-click on a .odt file in Dropbox, or go File > Open ..., and navigate to it, it opens for me on W10.

It may be how you have set up Dropbox. Is there a Dropbox forum? or Dropbox support? Or search/ask on an Apple forum.

These MacOS threads mention Dropbox: search.php?keywords=dropbox&terms=all&a ... mit=Search and these mention iCloud: search.php?keywords=icloud&terms=all&au ... mit=Search
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