Locked file

[Sally Roach]

openoffice 4.1.1 on windows 8 single user

Having saved a document a few days ago when i returned it said was 'locked for editing by unknown used' (I am the only user).
It offered the option to open read only or a copy of the document but neither of these allowed me to open it. One offered the ASCII filter option and the other did nothing.
If i try to open it from windows i get pages of '##########'.

Any ideas
Thanks
Sally Roach

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Well, not very good news.
First you can look for a file starting by ".lock..." in the same directory as your file (the file may be hidden. In this case, change the setting of your browser to make the hidden file displayed).
Once deleted if you still have the pounds pages, then, quite nothing to do I fear, see: 22 pages term paper replaced with pound signs.

Check the temporary folder of the system (see in OO Tools>Options>OO>Paths). If there are folders like sgmlf.tmp with a file having the same name inside, make a copy of that file, rename it in .odt and cross your fingers.

If you want to help fix this problem, you can also do this survey created for this very problem: Document Recovery Survey.

[RoryOF]

You can also try running an Undelete utility, such as Recuva or PhotoRec, (one will be enough). One of these may recover a deleted version of your file, or a work file, which could contain some or all of your data. The sooner one of these is run on your computer the better, but there are no guarantees.