[Solved] Can't open .ods file

[Malibu]

I have a .ods file that will not open. It's 112 KB (lots of text in it). When I select the file, I can see a preview of it in Windows Explorer (WIN 7 64 Bit).

I tried the backups and they, too, won't open. I have a backup from Nov. 2012 (last year) and that won't open, but since that date, I did use the file with no problems. The last time I typed on it was in Aug. 2013.

I'm also not able to create a pdf by right-clicking the file.

The error is:
OpenOffice 4.0.1 has stopped working
Windows can check online for a solution to the problem.
Check online for a solution and close the program
Close the program
View problem details

I cannot open it properly with WordPerfect or Wordpad - I see jumbled up text.
I don't have Microsoft Word.

I made a test .ods file and this opens with no problem, but only has text in one cell.

When opening with Notepad ++, I see mostly jibberish, but with some regular English words like:
meta:initial-creator><meta:creation-date>2012-05-05T12:27:26.93</meta:creation-date><dc:date>2013-08-05T14:19:08.90
OpenOffice/4.0.0$Win32 OpenOffice.org_project/400m3$Build-970

Any suggestions for opening this file, or has it been fried?

Thanks

[Hagar Delest]

Can you upload it here (see How to attach a document here)?

[RoryOF]

Can you make, save and reopen a trivial OpenOffice file? If not, start TarkManager (Ctrl Shift Esc) and kill all soffice processes shown running on the processes tab.

[Malibu]

I could, but it's a personal diary! Can I email it to you privately?

[RoryOF]

Also, having done my suggestion above, if the files are still not opening, delete or rename your User Profile.
Details are in
[Tutorial] The OpenOffice User Profile

[Malibu]

Can you make, save and reopen a trivial OpenOffice file? If not, start TarkManager (Ctrl Shift Esc) and kill all soffice processes shown running on the processes tab.

Yes, I'm able to do that.

[RoryOF]

Then try the User Profile.

[Malibu]

I reset the profile. I still cannot open the .ods file

It starts to load and says this in the bottom left corner:
Loading document
Adapt Row Height

Then crashes.

[Malibu]

I forgot to say, that I found 2 backups of that file in the profile for version 4 and in version 3.

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice\4\user\backup
C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice.org\3\user\backup

Are those of any use?

[Hagar Delest]

The one in C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice\4\user\backup should be the latest one. You can try to see if it has not lost too much. Make a copy and rename it as .ods.

[Malibu]

The one in C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice\4\user\backup should be the latest one. You can try to see if it has not lost too much. Make a copy and rename it as .ods.

I tried both backups and even renamed as odt as well as ods. All tests failed - the program still crashes on that particular file.

[Malibu]

I installed LibraOffice and the file loaded - so far. I attempted to export as a PDF, but it's taking really long to finish that, already over an hour. Once that settles down, I'll try opening the .ods again in Libra calc and if it goes OK, I'll post back here asap.

Thanks

[Malibu]

Back again. . . the pdf export finally finished. While in Libra, I copy and pasted all the text into a brand new calc doc, then renamed it, then closed it. I opened (or tried to) using OpenOffice calc, but this file also crashed. There are over 223 pages, so maybe that's a problem? Looks like I will have to use Libra for this document.

Thanks for helping, Rory and Hagar.

[RoryOF]

I think the problem may be some construct to do with Row Height, but I'm not a Calc user, so don't offer this as a definite diagnosis.

[Malibu]

I think the problem may be some construct to do with Row Height, but I'm not a Calc user, so don't offer this as a definite diagnosis.

There is quite a lot of weird formatting (as I'm looking at the cells in Libra), with empty line above text in some cells. Maybe you're on to something!