The file could not be written

[2CV67oo]

Back in 1999 or so, in XP, I created an Excel spreadsheet for my personal accounts.
It soon got to be quite big with over 25 sheets & several macros (but only around 200KB).

I use it all the time & branch off a new version every year, keeping the old ones for reference.

I have been dual-booting XP/Ubuntu since 2006.
In 2010, I finally shifted this accounts spreadsheet to Ubuntu, using OpenOffice.
Impressively it all worked.
Maybe I had to redo the macros - I don't remember.

Since then, I have been using it regularly - more or less daily - saving after each update with no problem.
In the meantime, Ubuntu switched from OOo to LibreOffice, but the spreadsheet kept working OK.

I am now on the 2012 version, with 2010 & 2011 versions filed as .ods & earlier versions as .xls.

A couple of weeks ago, I started to notice problems.
The first symptom was that the push-buttons for actuating macros disappeared when the spreadsheet was re-opened.
I am unable to recreate these buttons in LibO but I found a workaround by copying the sheet with the buttons from the 2011 version to the 2012 version & that worked!

Yesterday, after copying some other (non-macro-related) sheets from the 2011 version, I first got the well-known message: "Error saving document. Write error. The file could not be written".
Afterwards, the top & bottom panels of my screen were frozen...
On reopening the spreadsheet, the buttons were missing.
Today, I tried again & ended up with the same result.

So I gave up with the 2012 version & started again with the trouble-free 2011 version, which I progressively updated (long job) keeping backup versions after every major change.
Everything went OK & I had an up-to-date version which I successfully saved & opened several times.

Then, I think after copying a (non-macro) sheet internally within the document, I got the "File could not be written" message again.
And the top & bottom panels were frozen again.

All this in LibO 3.4.4 in Lubuntu 11.10.

I found numerous threads concerning the same error message but no obvious fix or diagnosis.

Suggestions?

[Hagar Delest]

Have you saved the file in native .ods format?

You can try to reset your OOo user profile. Maybe installing a vanilla version could help: [Ubuntu] Installing OOo on Debian and Co., the same applies to LibO.

This error message is quite generic. Have you tried to save under another name?

[RoryOF]

Sometimes such a message occurs because the "automatic file name extension" box is not checked in /File /Save As and the file has been saved without an extension.