Looking for help repairing corrupted .odt file!

[deadmickey]

Hello,

I have a corrupt .odt file and I am hoping that someone more savvy than me can take a crack at recovering the text from (it is poetry and very important to it's owner!). I have tried all of the instructions that I could find on this forum and elsewhere, including repair tools, searching for previous versions and temp files, converting to zip, and I have had no luck.

I have attached the file, my deepest appreciation for anyone willing to take a stab at it. Thank you!

[RoryOF]

File is damaged beyond repair - content lost.

This is almost certainly because you powered down your computer (or closed a laptop's lid) before the internal housekeeping had been written to disk. Use the methods described in
[Tutorial] How to find and un-delete Writer temporary files
to attempt to recover your file.

Do not delay in doing this.

[deadmickey]

Thank you for the quick reply. I was afraid that was the case. I have already searched for the temp files to no avail. Thank you again.

[RoryOF]

Have you tried a deleted file search with Recuva or Photorec?

[deadmickey]

I tried Recuva, I will try Photorec next time I am with the computer.

[RoryOF]

I doubt PhotoRec will give any different results to Recuva. Note that the found file (check date/time to know which to consider) may need to be renamed as type .odt.

[deadmickey]

Is this version beyond repair as well? I have tried what I could. I have recovered a very old version, so not all is lost, just trying to see if I can get a more up to date one. Thank you for help, advice, encouragement!

[deadmickey]

Or this one?

[RoryOF]

Both files damaged beyond repair. Sorry!

[PPLIFE]

OpenOffice has been great for me but this constant corruption of files has been a big headache for me. I recently found this extension called MultiFormatSave that allows you to automatically save a file in .pdf, .doc and .odt formats at the same time and this has saved my butt a couple of times. This advice may not help you with your existing problem but I encourage you to install and use that extension. I hope more improvement will be made to make this application more reliable.

Good luck in finding a solution.

[Lupp]

You may consider to keep a series of backup copies in adequate odf-FileFormat. There is an Extension supporting this:
See
viewtopic.php?p=406045 , but the most recent version of the extension you find here:
https://extensions.libreoffice.org/exte ... amp-backup , and probably
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=23531 .

The series should have minmum length 3. The last extra backup should be verified for opening correctly, and be identical with the current ordinary version of the document.

[RoryOF]

Frequently the corruption of OO files and/or loss of spellcheck is due to over-hasty powering off of the computer (or closing the laptop lid), before the internal buffers of the hard drives have written to disk. It is best to use the formal computer shutdown procedure and wait until all disk activity has ceased before cutting the power or closing the laptop. This is merely a matter of a few seconds - one can hear the drive(s) spin down (unless SSD type devices). Such a problem is not a matter of the reliability of OO, but of the usage methods of the user.

If one's computer repeatedly crashes, that can also cause the problem, but investigation of computer instability is beyond the remit of this forum.

[John_Ha]

OpenOffice has been great for me but this constant corruption of files has been a big headache for me.

I find it extraordinary that you have had multiple corrupted files which suggests that the cause is your way of working and/or your PC.

Normally we find that a person experiences only one corrupted file and it is extremely rare.

In well over 20 years use of AOO I have created and edited tens of thousands of files. I have never had a corrupted file.