Lock files not disappearing, unopenable documents

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ahtlantashah
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Lock files not disappearing, unopenable documents

Post by ahtlantashah »

so i have a document i have been working on and im not sure what happened but openoffice crashed (as it always does) and now every time i open any of the documents in the same source folder as the one i had open when it crashed, they open, freeze for a second, then i get a small openoffice window saying "a problem has caused the program to stop working. what i found odd was that ive noticed with open office whenever i have a document open, there is a ~lock file thing related to it in the source folder. which disappears when the document is closed. however since this problem started last night, the ~lock things appearing as i open the docuents in said folder, do not disappear when the program freezes and kills itself??????????

these documents are the core of my project, some of them have over 40 hours of work logged, and im kind of panicking. i type fast, but these documents are chock full of graphs, charts, inlaid images, excessive page formatting. not just a matter of retype-from-manuscript.
pleeeeaaaase help
open office 4.1.3 windows 8
ahtlantashah
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Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:08 am

Re: `lock files not disappearing, unopenable documents

Post by ahtlantashah »

wanted to add: i have tried deleting the lock file things before reopening. had no positive result from that

also tried removing the documents from the folder, as it seemed (to my techtarded logic) that maybe the actually folder was corrupted somehow? no positive result.

also found a similar problem stated in another thread and saw the suggestion of turning off the auto start option in memory, checked that out and found that mine was already off.

also note: in the processing of coming on these boards to solve the problem i realized there was a new version of openoffice, so i updated. restarted my machine, and all the files in question opened successfully once. unfortunately i needed to leave the house at that point. i closed the documents, put my machine to sleep and when i came back, right back to the original problem stated above
open office 4.1.3 windows 8
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robleyd
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Re: `lock files not disappearing, unopenable documents

Post by robleyd »

i closed the documents, put my machine to sleep
May I suggest that, prior to causing the system to sleep, you close your documents and close OpenOffice - this may help.
Cheers
David
OS - Slackware 15 64 bit
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LibreOffice 24.2.1.2; SlackBuild for 24.2.1 by Eric Hameleers
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RusselB
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Re: `lock files not disappearing, unopenable documents

Post by RusselB »

Since the problem has reoccurred after putting your system to sleep, I suspect that not all of the internal housekeeping was complete when the system actually went to sleep.
OpenOffice does not attempt to keep your system awake until it is done it's housekeeping, unlike some other programs.
The lock files aren't removed when the system freezes, due to the fact that the internal processing has been stopped unexpectedly, and there is no information sent to issue the commands to remove those files.

You seem to have already done everything that I can think of to suggest, so re-suggesting those steps seems redundant, thus I'm going to leave this for someone more experienced in these matters.... unless something comes to mind.
OpenOffice 4.1.7, LibreOffice 7.0.1.2 on Windows 7 Pro, Ultimate & Windows 10 Home (2004)
If you believe your problem has been resolved, please go to your first post in this topic, click the Edit button and add [Solved] to the beginning of the Subject line.
ahtlantashah
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Re: `lock files not disappearing, unopenable documents

Post by ahtlantashah »

RusselB wrote:Since the problem has reoccurred after putting your system to sleep, I suspect that not all of the internal housekeeping was complete when the system actually went to sleep.
OpenOffice does not attempt to keep your system awake until it is done it's housekeeping, unlike some other programs.
The lock files aren't removed when the system freezes, due to the fact that the internal processing has been stopped unexpectedly, and there is no information sent to issue the commands to remove those files.

You seem to have already done everything that I can think of to suggest, so re-suggesting those steps seems redundant, thus I'm going to leave this for someone more experienced in these matters.... unless something comes to mind.
thank you
open office 4.1.3 windows 8
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Lock files not disappearing, unopenable documents

Post by Hagar Delest »

Try to reset your OpenOffice user profile.

Do you save in native ODF (.odt for text for example)?
External formats like .doc are less robust when used with AOO.
LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
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RoryOF
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Re: Lock files not disappearing, unopenable documents

Post by RoryOF »

With OpenOffice closed you should also check for leftover components of OO after a crash. Do this by starting TaskManager (Ctrl Shift Esc) and kill all instances of soffice shown on TM's Processes tab (Details tab on Win10). Also, as Hagar advises, you should reset your OO user profile.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
lenbh
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Re: Lock files not disappearing, unopenable documents

Post by lenbh »

I'm struggling with this problem as well. It's a recent problem, maybe started around the time we upgraded to Windows 10 Creators Edition, or maybe an update shortly after that.

When I open a document on a shared network drive - located on another PC, then close it, the lock file randomly gets deleted or not deleted. Seems about 80% of the time it gets deleted, and 20% not. I've tried this on several PCs, and the same problem occurs.

Files do not appear to be corrupted in any way - if I delete the lock file, anyone can open the document or spreadsheet.

Any ideas where to start? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers.
Len
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OpenOffice 4.1.3 on Win10 Creators Edition
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RoryOF
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Re: Lock files not disappearing, unopenable documents

Post by RoryOF »

With OpenOffice closed, delete all lock files. Be certain that it is the lock files you delete - they are much smaller (a few hundred bytes) than the main files (bigger than 6 KB). Then, in future, always use the /File /Close and /File /Exit procedures in OpenOffice and then (leisurely - a few seconds) disconnect from your network share before powering off your computer using the correct shutdown procedure; once again, wait a few seconds for all disk activity to stop.

Left over lock files are typically a symptom of improper close down of OO, often due to user haste (read: careless work habits).
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
lenbh
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Re: Lock files not disappearing, unopenable documents

Post by lenbh »

Thanks for the suggestions. I think, as I've now seen posted elsewhere, that it's related to an overly protective Bitdefender antivirus software. I have disabled one of the features (Threat Defense / Ransomware Protection), and I think it has solved the problem. Now, I'll have to get some help from Bitdefender to figure out how I can make it work with that feature turned back on.
Cheers.
Len
Len Hodder
OpenOffice 4.1.3 on Win10 Creators Edition
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