[Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

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amapola
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[Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

Post by amapola »

Good morning everyone.

I've come up against this error "format error discovered in the file in sub-document content.xmln" this very early morning and I've been trying to solve it by following the old threads posted here but it's too much for me.... I'm a complete dummy :knock: . I spent the whole day yesterday working on this document and when i tried to open it this morning I could read that lovely message. Of course, like everybody else who asks for help here, I'm desperate.... Could any smat mind give me a little hand if it's not that difficult?? I've uploaded the file ....
Thanks a lot in advance!
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bad.odt.odt
(44.42 KiB) Downloaded 240 times
Last edited by RoryOF on Sat Jun 17, 2017 12:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Added [Solved] and green tick [RoryOF, Moderator]
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RoryOF
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Re: format error discovered in the file in sub-document NEW

Post by RoryOF »

try this: There were too many annotations on one location.
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bad.repaired.odt
(44.31 KiB) Downloaded 295 times
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
amapola
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Re: format error discovered in the file in sub-document NEW

Post by amapola »

RoryOF, thank you very very much. Thank you for your quick response and solution. This is definetely for experts....I hope I can give it back to you anyhow =).

Have a great weekend! :fist:
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John_Ha
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Re: [Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

Post by John_Ha »

I am trying to understand how these problems arise as we are now seeing more of them. Can you please give us some idea of the history of the file. In particular:

1 Did it begin life as a .odt file? Or did you bring in some other file like a .doc or .docx file and save it as a .odt file?

2 Were any of the comments done with MS Word? Or with LibreOffice? Or was everything done with AOO?

Thanks

NB The problem is repeated definitions for office:name in content.xml. There should be only one definition and the fix is to delete the extra ones.
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Clipboard01.png
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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RoryOF
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Re: [Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

Post by RoryOF »

Some of the recent occurrences I have seen are in heavily edited documents using Change tracking and Comments from multiple Sources - whether co-authors or tutors I cannot say.
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amapola
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Re: [Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

Post by amapola »

John_Ha and RoryOF, I'll tell you about the file.

It was originally a .docx document that I later opened and saved as .odt
It contains a lot of comments (as it is a scientific article that I am helping to translate).
It contains comments from 2 users, the author (through MS Word) and me (through AOO). Apart from the loads of comments, I have also recorded all the changes that the text has undergone since the beginning.
It is clearly a terrible mix !!

Thank you very much, again.
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John_Ha
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Re: [Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

Post by John_Ha »

Thank you.

It does seem to be a common thread that it happens when adding changes/comments with both MS Word and with AOO. I am not sure which program is causing the problem though I suspect that, if you send the other person a .odt file, and (s)he edits the .odt file with MS Word, and saves it as a .odt file, then it is actually MS Word causing the corruption in the .odt file.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
ellenemmerentze
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Re: [Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

Post by ellenemmerentze »

I'm having the same issue.
Last edited by ellenemmerentze on Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
apache openoffice 4.1.4 on Mac os highsierra 10.13.3
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RoryOF
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Re: [Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

Post by RoryOF »

I have sent you a PM with an email address to which you may send it.

I am about to go offline, so won't be able to look at it for about 10 hours.
 Edit: PM not read after 8 days. The damaged file is obviously not important. 
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Re: [Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

Post by RoryOF »

John_Ha wrote:Thank you.

It does seem to be a common thread that it happens when adding changes/comments with both MS Word and with AOO. I am not sure which program is causing the problem though I suspect that, if you send the other person a .odt file, and (s)he edits the .odt file with MS Word, and saves it as a .odt file, then it is actually MS Word causing the corruption in the .odt file.
It seems to me that the problem often occurs with multiple comments clustered at a location; frequently such damaged files are heavily commented, and may also have Change Tracking enabled.
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sw1264
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Re: [Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

Post by sw1264 »

Hi I am getting the same error in attached file saying:

"Format error discovered in the file in sub-document content.xml at 2,31585(row,col).error"

If anyone can help a brother out, I will be most grateful! I'm currently in a state of utterly bricking one due to a looming uni deadline.
The error seemed to happen after copying and pasting an image into the file, so sadly at 300kb the file is too large to attach, please help.
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John_Ha
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Re: [Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

Post by John_Ha »

Welcome to the forum.

I have sent you a private message with my email I'D. If you send me the file I will look at it.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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robleyd
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Re: [Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

Post by robleyd »

Alternatively, upload the file to a file sharing service such as Mediafire and put the link here so someone can look at it for you.
Cheers
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Re: [Solved] format error discovered in sub-document

Post by John_Ha »

sw1264 sent me his file. This was my response.
I downloaded the file from your googledrive link and I am sorry but the file is completely corrupted and nothing can be recovered from it.

When I unzip the .odt file (you can do so by renaming it to Literature review write up.ZIP and double-clicking it) it appears to be OK in that It shows me the constituent files within it. But when I attempt to extract content.xml, which is the actual document, I get an error. When I look at the .odt file with a Hex editor I cannot isolate content.xml.

I think the zip file is corrupted beyond repair but if you google for zip repair tools you could try to repair it but I think your chance of success is zero.

You will do much better if you see [Tutorial] How to find and un-delete Writer temporary files for

a) detailed instructions on how to recover your file as it was when you last opened or saved it, or as it was when it was last saved with AutoRecovery.

b) how to find previous versions of the file in the folder it is located in, but which have since been deleted.

c) how to un-delete the temporary files Writer wrote while you were editing the file, and then deleted. This will recover your file as it was when you last opened or you last saved it and is probably your best hope.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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