Autorecovery Issue

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beccat123
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Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:32 pm

Autorecovery Issue

Post by beccat123 »

Hi, I'm really hoping there are some open office experts who can help me.

My daughter is in floods of tears because she has lost 6000 words of writing that is due to hand in on Monday (in 2 days).

This is what happened in detail:

She saved the work, as she had been doing every 15 minutes or so, and then the computer ran out of battery and turned off. She wasn't worried as she saved, but plugged the computer back in and opened the file again. The recovery process started up and she clicked recover, the document began to be recovered but then there was an error message that said something along the lines of 'recovery file is corrupt, do you wish to proceed without the corrupt file.' She clicked yes and the document opened... and it was 8 pages of # marks, in the place of her work.

It seems that now this is what is saved in place of the writing, the file is not corrupt so cannot be fixed, it is just that this is what is now saved as the file. And unfortunately there is no back up file in the back up folder in the app data/roaming/openoffice ..etc file.

We have tried everything, using system restore, scanning the system for any temporary files, googling numerous different things to find a solution, but so far no luck.

What I am asking is whether there is anywhere previous 'Autorecovery' points are stored, or if there is any way of reverting to a previous version of the document or previous save point?

Unfortunately we do not have Windows 7 so are not able to use the 'revert to previous version' tool.

Thankyou so much in advance for your help.
OpenOffice 3.2 on Windows XP
thomasjk
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Re: Please help!! Autorecovery

Post by thomasjk »

Unfortunately seeing ########## means the file is not recoverable. Go tot Tools-->Option--.Load/Save-->General and turn on "Always Create Backup Copy". This will save a backup copy with filename.bak in the user profile. You could search the temp directories to see if you can find a temp copy of the file. Check Tools-->Options-->Openoffice.org-->Paths for the exact location.
Tom K.
Windows 10 Home version 1803 17134.165
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TheGurkha
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Re: Please help!! Autorecovery

Post by TheGurkha »

Check the user profile to see if by any chance a backup file exists: [Tutorial] The OOo user profile.

The only safe way to use computers is to save frequently, in different folders and with different names. Repeatedly saving to a single file gives you no fall-back. Backups are your friend.
Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn, LibreOffice Version: 4.3.3.2
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Please help!! Autorecovery

Post by Hagar Delest »

Sadly, nothing to do: 22 page term paper replaced with pound signs.

Check the temporary folder of the system (see in OOo Tools>Options>OOo>Paths). If there are folders like sgmlf.tmp with a file having the same name inside, make a copy of that file, rename it in .odt and cross your fingers.

Else, nothing to do I fear.
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: Autorecovery Issue

Post by RoryOF »

As Hagar and Gurkha say, there is little hope of recovery unless there is a temporary file. The only consolation for your daughter is that the 6000 words are in her memory, and she should be able to pull them out without too much effort. The creative work is done, she simply has to remember what she wrote. Also, a second writing usually is _much_ better. Anthony Trollope, perhaps the most underestimated but also perhaps the greatest of English Victorian writers, used rise at 05:00 in the morning and write 3000 words by 08:00, working with a pen and ink.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
booler
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Re: Autorecovery Issue

Post by booler »

You could try downloading a freeware programme called "Recuvva" from "Piriform" I`ve used this for some time and have been successful
in recovering files...hope this helps. Booler
Open Office 3.2 Windows xp 3
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Autorecovery Issue

Post by Hagar Delest »

Perhaps it will help to recover a former version (already deleted). But the current file is definitively damaged.
LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
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