[Solved] Read-Only Status Set on Modified File - Can't Save

[jwdening]

I recently updated to Version 2.4. I have a spreadsheet that I modify by inputting a delimited text file. It is in ODS format and has links to another spreadsheet. In 2.3, I could input the text delimited file to this spreadsheet and then do a "Save As" an ODS file with no problem. Now that I have updated to 2.4, it yields a "General I/O Error" and won't replace the original file containing the links to another spreadsheet any longer. I think that this is because 2.4 now opens this spreadsheet as a "read-only" file, even though Windows XP Professional SP2 doesn't show the "read only" attribute as being checked.

This is causing me a real problem because I send a delimited text feed from Microsoft Money to this ODS-format spreadsheet and expect then to be able to replace the old version of the spreadsheet and then open my budget spreadsheet which contains links to this spreadsheet that I can no longer update and replace because Version 2.4 is now giving me a "General I/O Error" when I try to do so.

I can't save the modified spreadsheet under another name, delete the original one, and then rename the new one to the previous version's name, because I can't delete the previous spreadsheet. Windows tells me the old version can't be deleted because the file is in use by another program even though scalc isn't in use at the time I try to delete the old version and rename the newly-named-and-saved spreadsheet as the older original name.

So I'm stymied. Version 2.3 did this just fine with no problem. Version 2.4 won't allow me to do the replacement any longer. Please help.

[Hagar Delest]

Try to rename your OOo user profile (\Documents and settings\<user>\Application data\OpenOffice.org2), maybe there is a damaged configuration file that makes OOo open the files as read-only.

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[Villeroy]

I created a new spreadsheet document ~/csvlink.ods, called Menu:Insert>SheetFromFile... with option "Link" pointing to ~/Documents/bulli.csv.
Saved as /tmp/csvlink.ods, refreshed link.
Opened ~/Documents/bulli.csv edited, saved, refreshed links in ~/Documents/bulli.csv as well as in ~/csvlink.ods. Stored everything, restarted the office, loaded all 3 files again edited ~/Documents/bulli.csv, updated links /tmp/csvlink.ods and ~/csvlink.ods, stored all files without any problem.
I moved /tmp/csvlink.ods to /tmp/subdir/csvlink.ods and opened the file. The link to ~/Documents/bulli.csv keeps on working.
My system is setup with write access to my own files in ~ (home directory of current user) and the files created by myself in /tmp.
Then I searched for test files with similar links, created with older versions of OOo. Reading, writing, refreshing links work just fine.
Off topic question: What could be the reason why so many Windows users have difficulties with file permissions and I/O errors?

[jwdening]

I found that if I exit "Quickstarter", things seem to work fine as they did in Version 2.3. I'm not sure why, but I no longer get an error when I replace the file with an updated version. As a work-around, I'm going to try not loading "Quickstarter" at startup and if it is present, being sure to exit it before doing the updates I did before. I hope this information will help other users with a similar problem. Thanks to all who posted helpful suggestions.

[Hagar Delest]

Ah, thanks for that information, it had been a long time we hadn't seen issues related to the Quickstarter! Personally, I always switch it off. If your computer is not so old, you don't really need it anyway.