The images in my document have disappeared

[towheedm]

My document has several images embedded in it, 19 to be exact. I did some editing last night. Now I open my document and all of the images have disappeared. The frames and captions are still there though. I have three illustrations which I did using the drawing tool and those are intact.

Please note that the images are embedded and not linked.

Can someone please, please, please help me recover the images without having to re-insert each and every one.

Thanks.

[JohnV]

Try Tools > Options > Writer > View and see if Graphics & Objects has become unchecked.

[towheedm]

It's still checked.

[Hagar Delest]

Have you noticed a file size change? If you've saved in native ODF, right click the file and open it with the archive manager. Then check the /pictures subfolder.

Can you upload a screenshot of the display of the pics in the document (see: How to attach a document here)?

[towheedm]

The document is just over 100 pgs. The file size is 165K. Unfortunately, I cannot say what the size may have been prior to this happening. Just before this happened, I exported the file to pdf which is 4.8M in size. Checked the /piictures folder and there are only two images there.

Yellow arrow missing between Accessories and Terminal.

"info" image present here, but missing for the rest of the document.

Image in document.

The above image (and all others) have diappeared with only the frame with the caption located in the upper left of the frame shown.

[Hagar Delest]

Have you checked the content of the file?
Can you cut some pages and upload the file here? Or use a 3rd party site like mediafire.

[towheedm]

The images are from the file, with the exception of the last one which together with all others have disappeared. The last image is from the pdf file which was created before the problem occurred.

I've done some searching and saw several posts where others had this same problem as far back as Writer 2.0 but still no solution.

[Hagar Delest]

Could you upload the file?

[towheedm]

It is here: http://www.mediafire.com/?c9d2xh6e926u9b6

[Hagar Delest]

I fear the images are gone, don't know why...

But since you've the PDF, you should be able to recover them: in the PDF reader, just copy each pic, paste it in a picture manager (avoid pasting them directly in Writer), then save them in the appropriate format (.png/.jpg) and reinsert them with the menu Insert>Picture>From file.

Don't forget to make backups and any file size decrease should be checked in detail.

[towheedm]

Suspected as much. I don't need to copy the images from the pdf since I have the original image files. I was hoping I did not have to go through the entire process of having to re-insert the images into the document, oh well.

Thank you very much for your assistance. I will try to re-create this and see if it's a bug.

[JohnFornaro]

Hello all:

I can report that the problem of disappearing pictures has not yet been solved. I created a document yesterday, and opened it today, and the picture frames remained, but the picture was gone. There was no menu selection in the "Picture" sub window, which would let me reload the picture.

Yesterday, I made a PDF of the document, and the pictures printed. The pictures remained visible during that session of Open Office, but they disappeared on the second opening today.

The only solution I've come up with is to reinsert the pictures, which is totally a pain in the butt, since you heve to reposition them, and reset their margins, wrapping, sizing and other characteristics.

Further help would be greatly appreciated.

JF

[RoryOF]

Have you checked the setting indicated in JohnV's post earlier in this thread? Also, when you close the file, do you wait some few seconds before shutting down your computer? Because of the complex file structure of OpenOffice, it takes several seconds for the disk write buffers to clear.

[JohnFornaro]

Have you checked the setting indicated in JohnV's post earlier in this thread? Also, when you close the file, do you wait some few seconds before shutting down your computer? Because of the complex file structure of OpenOffice, it takes several seconds for the disk write buffers to clear.

Thanks for trying:

Yes, I've checked JohnV's suggestion. It has no effect. More completely described, Tools / Options / OpenOffice.org Writer / View / Display / graphics and objects, is checked. I have also reviewed each and every tab, and each and every subselection in the Picture sub menu. There is a non functioning menu selection in Picture / Picture / File. It displays by default [None]; shows a "..." box to imply browsing, but no selection or modification in this menu item is allowed.

Incidentally, I expanded each selection in the Picture / Macro tab, but did not find anything to happen when I double clicked on the some, but not all of the entries there.

I do not typically shut off the computer when closing a file. I have merely closed Open Office, and opened the same file some time later in the same computer session, noticing that the picture does not display.

[jmac939]

Why is this marked [Solved]?

In no way whatsoever is this solved.

This is a huge bug.

[RoryOF]

This was marked [Solved] because it _was _ solved for the original poster. If you are suffering the same problem, please start a new thread, describe your computer system, the version of OpenOffice you are using, and what symptoms you experience. It is bad practice to append a new problem to the end of an already resolved thread.

[wolfworks]

I am having the same problem all of the sudden. I noticed because my file size dropped by an order of magnitude.

I have read the thread, and I'm not sure how it has been solved either, unless the solution is to manually re-insert each image using Insert/Picture/from file... This may be a short term fix, but doesn't seem to be a permanent fix as it doesn't identify the problem.

Have I just missed something? Thanks.

[Hagar Delest]

What format have you used? ODF? external like .doc?

[wolfworks]

Timely question. I was just posting the novel behaviours that may have triggered the image errors. Typically, I work in .odt format without trouble. However, I often create either a PDF(no problem) or .doc(usually no problem) for transport, which is what I did today.

Here are some of my novel behaviours today that may have triggered the lost images:

1) Deleting the first page of text, which necessitates that all my images shift up a page.
2) 'Saving As' a .doc file type. Note that I did not overwrite my original .odt, which when re-opened had the image errors.
3) Uploading to gmail email in Chrome.

Can't imaging how these actions would trigger image errors in my original .odt files, but they were unique actions correlating to timing of lost images.

Cheers,
Josh

[wolfworks]

Oh, and:

4) I moved a bunch of older versions into a newly created Archive folder leaving only the latest versions.

Interestingly, only the .odt's and .doc's *not* put in the Archive folder lost their images. And the timing of this file re-org and noticing the drop in memory was very tight.

Cheers.

[marty-0750]

Why is this marked [Solved]?

In no way whatsoever is this solved.

This is a huge bug.

It's been an ongoing issue for years and the coders just don't seem to get their heads around it.

[Hagar Delest]

What do you mean?
Have you faced it yourself? Do you save in native ODF?

I have used OOo and now AOO for years and never experienced such loss of content. Using AOO 8 hours a day at work.

[Bill]

Why is this marked [Solved]?

In no way whatsoever is this solved.

This is a huge bug.

It's been an ongoing issue for years and the coders just don't seem to get their heads around it.

Do you have a link to a bug report?

[Billycan]

Just had this problem - very embarrassing having sent in an important bid document which had a couple of images included.
Saved the final draft and attached it only to find the images had gone!!!

IF THIS CAN'T BE SORTED SOON THEN IT UNDERMINES THE ENTIRE PROGRAM AND I CANNOT RECOMMEND ITS USE... SHAME.

[Billycan]

What happened to my previous post about this? I too have been using Open Office for years and not had this issue.
Major bug and very embarrassing when attaching a doc and finding the images weren't saved within it... tried reinserting and saving in both odt and doc formats but despite the display of images when reopening the file on this PC, the file size is clearly not big enough at 45kb to actually contain the images (approx 700kb). The file seems to acting as if there are only external links to the image files. Exported to pdf and all was ok on this occasion but obviously if I wanted the receiver to continue editing in doc or odt.

[Hagar Delest]

When you inserted the pic, was the "Link" option checked (bottom left)? In such case, the pic is not embedded.
To embed them, in the Edit menu, go to Links, select all of them and break the links.

[jmac939]

This was not solved for the original poster.

The problem with marking something SOLVED is that people googling for an answer will see the post and then spend several minutes trying to see how it was SOLVED.

[Hagar Delest]

Solved tag removed.

[evdhemel]

Same here. Happily editing a file, just before a deadline, all the images have turned into frames and error messages. I have attached a screenshot. It looks like crap, and I have had to delete the image, insert it again, but, withing a minute or so it display the same error.

Are there any fixes underway for this?

[Hagar Delest]

How have you inserted the pics?
Have you saved them first on your HD?