[Solved] How to repair corrupt .odt file?

[Alexandro English]

I have an .odt file that can't be opened anymore in Writer.
It appears for a few seconds and then OO Writer shuts down.

The AOO Dutch forum helped me by turning the .odt file in an .zip file. The file can be opened with AOO but still crashes.
I would like to add the file in attachment but it's 2,67Mb and not accepted.

Can somebody propose a solution?

[John_Ha]

Upload it to your Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive and give us the public link. Or search for a file share site, upload it there and give us the link.

[Alexandro English]

This is the link:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/yqxpdrwc ... 1.zip/file

Succes.

[robleyd]

The file opens for me and has 27 pages and a number of images, some of which are external and took a little while to load. What makes you think it is corrupt?

[RoryOF]

Also opened for me, but slow, as images were downloading.

If it opens correctly (leave it to do so!), I suggest breaking the image inks. Go to /Edit /Links, click in the link window, press Crtl A, then press "unlink" (may be "Break link") button. Wait until that window clears - will be slow, as it will download the images and store them internally.

It is best to edit images in an image editor before placing them in OpenOffice. Resolution need be no more than 150-210 dpi and you should also crop the image as required before insertion.

[John_Ha]

It opened OK for me with AOO but it was very slow and, when I scrolled quickly, it crashed AOO.

I therefore created a new empty document and went Insert > From file ..., and inserted your file - this often fixes problems with files.

I then went Edit > Links ..., and broke the all links to embed the linked images. See Planning dag per dag Bretagne 2021_imaged embedded.odt where it is 6MB because it includes the images. The file is much more responsive.

See [Tutorial] Some useful hints on using images for a discussion on how best to handle images in Writer and the differences between linked and embedded images.

Showing that a problem has been solved helps others searching so, if your problem is now solved, please view your first post in this thread and click the Edit button (top right in the post) and add [Solved] in front of the subject.

[Alexandro English]

RoryF, John-Ha and Robleyd,

I suspected that the images were part of the problem as they took time to open before Writer crashes. I wasn't aware they were linked images as I copy/paste them from internet into the document.
I followed the solution of John-Ha:
Open a new document and insert the zip file,
deleted all the links
saved the file as .odt
reopened the .odt file and ... Writer still crashes.

More suggestions?

[Alexandro English]

More INFO

I tried another solution:

I deleted ALL the images in the document, saved it under a new name.
Closed Writer and reopened it for opening the new document ... and Writer crashed again.

The problem is inside this document as I can open other .odt documents with images without problem.

[RoryOF]

Try restarting your computer (power off, wait 20 seconds, power on). Then run OpenOffice as first thing you run and load the file John_Ha has provided, which has the images embedded.

The problem may be the tables.

Try this: start Windows in Safe Mode, and see if John_Ha's file will load and edit.

[Villeroy]

LibreOffice handles the file properly. At least it does not crash.

https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/li ... penoffice/

[John_Ha]

Try the file I linked to - it does not crash with AOO for me.

Planning dag per dag Bretagne 2021_imaged embedded.odt

[Alexandro English]

OK, I loaded John-Ha's embedded file and it opens properly in AOO.
I made some modifications in the document (adding text only) and save and close it.
By reopening this document AOO crashes again: the document opens, you see the load symbol (turning circle) and then AOO closes without warning.
Next try I need to correct the damage file.

What I'm going to do in the next days is to remove the program, clear the registry concerning AOO and remove all depth links.
Then I'll reinstall AOO and see what happens.

If the embedded document still let's AOO crash I will delete this document and all copies and start over by creating a new document from zero.

Maybe this will also resolve a minor problem with tables (and may be they are the cause of this crashing):
as an example you can look at pages 16 and 17. For my, for an unknown reason the second table always start on a new page (17) and I cannot place it under the table on page 16. I tried everything but ...

[Villeroy]

What I'm going to do in the next days is to remove the program, clear the registry concerning AOO and remove all depth links.
Then I'll reinstall AOO and see what happens.

This will not change anything. Just reset your user profile or install LibreOffice.

[RoryOF]

Maybe this will also resolve a minor problem with tables (and may be they are the cause of this crashing):
as an example you can look at pages 16 and 17. For my, for an unknown reason the second table always start on a new page (17) and I cannot place it under the table on page 16. I tried everything but ...

Place cursor in Dag 6 line, /Format /Paragraph, select Text flow tab, and uncheck Insert in the Breaks section.

[Alexandro English]

OK guys,

After another problem with AOO (clipboard problem!) I decided to start from zero.
Opening the embedded file in LibreOffice 7.1 worked and didn't crash. Even after several saves and reopening it.
So a created a new document with all the tables correctly positioned on the page (I will use this as a template) duplicated that page several times and then started to fill in this new document with copy/paste from the embedded document (also opened in LibreOffice). This resolved that table problem I couldn't resolve.
I saved this document under a new name. Closed it, reopened it several times without any problem
Anyway I have now a perfect working document in LibreOffice and will continue to work on it.

That AOO has all those problems even after your suggestions (and yes I deleted my user profile) let me think that there is a problem in the combination AOO and my original document.
So, I deleted all documents involved in this project and only keep the embedded document as a temporally back-up. Later on I will delete in depth AOO and reinstall it, but now all my attention goes to planning Bretagne, France as this will be my next trip.

Once again, tkx for the support. I learned a lot from you.

How can I close this treat?

[Hagar Delest]

You have to add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the *EDIT button if your issue has been fixed.

but now all my attention goes to planning Bretagne, France as this will be my next trip.

Nice area indeed! Both north, south and west sides offer very interesting places.