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Can't open odt files

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:11 pm
by lfshadow
Don't know what happened. I didn't change any settings or anything. I was on a web page copying and pasting to a blank odt document and on about the 4th copy, I went to paste and the document would not open. This was an unsaved document. The icon where the document was at the bottom of screen is usually what looks like a sheet of paper with lines on it, however, this icon has changed to the OpenOffice icon - blue circle with 2 flying birds. When I move my cursor over it it shows the document I was working on, but when I click on it, it does nothing. Also, now I can not open ANY odt files, even ones I've saved, and the program itself will not even open.
I tried changing the compatibility mode to Win 7, but that did nothing. Any suggestions?
Thanks :shock:

Re: Can't open odt files

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:46 pm
by Hagar Delest
Can you upload the file (see How to attach a document here)? What is the file extension?
You can try to reset your OOo user profile to check if you can open old files afterward.

Re: Can't open odt files

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:01 am
by lfshadow
I can not upload the file because I can not open it in order to save it first. I can not open any of my saved ".odt" files in "My Documents" either. I can not open or do anything with any of the OpenOffice files with the file extension ".odt".
How can resetting my user profile do anything to fix this problem?
Thanks

Re: Can't open odt files

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:15 am
by Hagar Delest
Resetting the profile cures a lot of weird issues. It's worth a try and you don't lose anything (rename it, don't delete it of course), you can revert to the former profile if it doesn't work.

Re: Can't open odt files

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 2:43 pm
by willyhankk
I was working on a letter document at 6AM on 12.10.2011 when the whole document crashed and disappeared. I cannot get it back. There was a screen from OpenOffice or Java that acknowledged the crash and said the files would be restored. This has not happened. Is there an update on this situation?
I would certainly hope that my several pages of work product is not totally lost.

Re: Can't open odt files

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:02 pm
by RoryOF
If the restore doesn't work, then you should look for files in the backup directory of OpenOffice. The backup directory is as set in / Tools / Options / OpenOffice.org : Paths. The files you are looking for will have names such as dtyhf.tmp or .bak. Rename these to .odt and pray.

Re: Can't open odt files

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 1:00 am
by kingfisher
Presumably the files have been deleted, in which case a tool to recover deleted files may help. I would do that ASAP and avoid using the hard drive in the meantime so that any recoverable files are not overwritten. Back your files up, rule number one.

Re: Can't open odt files

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:15 pm
by willyhankk
Tried to recover it from Carbonite and from Open Office which lists the document and its size but when you open it, the letter format screen has no text on it. I'm pretty well resigned now to this lost data and lost cause and will start to re-enter the text, probably in Word this time around. Thanks for your comments. I still don't have a explanation from the Open Office (Java) on their message that popped up on my screen, which said they acknowledged the problem, as theirs, and all data would be restored.