[Solved] Unable to open docs in Writer, forced to register

[SitaR]

I've been using OO for years - mostly Writer - & have thousands of documents. When I try to either launch the program or open a document, I am not permitted to do so. Instead, as of today I'm being asked to register like a newby & start at the beginning. I have things I need to post ASAP that I cannot access.

Could this be because my long-time email - deepthink8-at-gmail-dot-com - was hacked? If so, all I need to do is change that email to my current one of sitarainbow-at-gmail-dot-com. I don't want to lose my templates & work, all my registration info filled out years ago & have to do it all again. PLEASE, can you advise?

I use Open Office 4.1.2 on a Windows 7 Professional tower pc
Theresa Harvey

[robleyd]

Is OpenOffice asking you to enter your name and initials? If so, this suggests that your user profile has somehow been renamed or deleted. Just enter your name and initials and the program should open as normal. You might consider doing a complete virus scan and a malware scan just in case.

More information on the user profile; [Tutorial] The OpenOffice User Profile

If this is not the case, please give a little more detail on exactly what you are seeing.

[SitaR]

I thought I tried this once & it didn't work. Tried it again, & it worked - HOWEVER - my template is lost. Not sure how my user profile could have been deleted - but at least I can access the program. I was actually ready to quit using OO, entirely. Been doing okay with WordPad, LOL.

Let me know if there's anything that can be done to see why my lovely doc template is no more. If not, I'm a big girl - I'll figure out how to recreate it. Thank you so much!

Happy 4th
~♥~

[robleyd]

Your template(s), additional word lists and many other things are all part of the user profile - more detail is in the link in my earlier post.

As I suggested, it may be that your profile has been renamed; if so a search using Windows Explorer may find it - search for a file registrymodifications.xcu

It should find at least one in your current profile; if there is more than one result the second will be the location of your former profile. You can then copy the template file(s) to your new profile.

If a second copy isn't found, you might try, as soon as possible, downloading Recuva (Windows only) or PhotoRec for Win, MacOS, Linux and other OSes (only one needed) and let it do an in-depth recovery of deleted files on your computer.

[SitaR]

Thanks, David. I found 3 - one dated 2013 - 290k
one dated 2014 - 247k
one dated 7/1/2017 - 25k

Had 2 day Internet outage 6/30 - 7/1 . It may be that my provider did something 7/1 that resulted in that stripped-down profile - IDK. Other than that, I'm clueless. I did make changes to my profile in 2014, so I'd like to recover that one.

Not sure how to restore the .xcu file. I have it, which is GREAT - but how to apply it? Can you direct me to instructions on how to do this? I checked the Tools/Options, but didn't find anything there, or in the other menu choices.

Thanks, again. Your help has been right-on.
~♥~

[robleyd]

You probably don't want to restore just the .xcu file.

Please take a few minutes to read the link to the tutorial on the profile that I posted earlier - I suspect most of your questions may be answered by it. The .xcu files you have found will most likely be part of a directory structure that includes a complete user profile.

This post tells how to move profiles between machines; you can also copy within the same machine.

If you only wish to recover certain items, see this post which describes what is kept where.

[SitaR]

Very good - will do.

Thanks, once again. I appreciate your patience
~♥~