Locked File on OpenOffice, lost all coursework

[sebt]

SO I completed an essay this morning on Open Office 4.1.2, saved it, turned off my laptop and took it to a wifi zone where I prepared to submit it. When I came round to opening it to give it a final check, I saw the following message - 'Document is Locked for editing by : Unknown User. Open document as read-only or open a copy of the document for editing.'

I have tried both options, but every word I have written has now been changed into the # sign. I have lost several thousands words worth of words, I have now missed the hand-in deadline and I still can't access my document. I am incredibly frustrated and really really annoyed by this, I have never had any issues with open office in the past but now I am definitely not going to be usinng it again.

I have looked at other posts about similar problems but they haven't solved anything. I really, really, desperately need help. Please solve this. I now have to do re-takes because of this ridiculous problem, so thanks a bunch Open Office.

[RoryOF]

Most probably you turned off your laptop without following the proper close down procedure, which meant that the essential housekeeping was not carried out or completed properly. You should start by deleting or renaming your OpenOffice user profile. If you are using Windows do this by

Close OpenOffice and the Quickstarter. Open File Explorer. Copy and paste %appdata%\OpenOffice\4 in the File Explorer Address Bar (not the search engine) and press Enter. Delete or Rename the "user" folder. Start OpenOffice.

Download Recuva or PhotoRec (only one needed) and see if this application can find any deleted previous copies or temporary files containing some or all (or none) of your data.

[sebt]

should i create a new username on openoffice?

[RoryOF]

That should do as well as deleting the User Profile.

[sebt]

is that a yes to making a new username or a no? i'm confused

[sebt]

and how do i use recuva ?

[sebt]

none of that has worked
I am literally begging you, anyone out there, to help me. Please. Please help me with this.

[sebt]

RoryOF? Help? Please?

[sebt]

?????

[RoryOF]

I've told you what to do. You could try moving your project files to another computer with OpenOffice to see if they open there.

[sebt]

Sorry but nothing you have recommended has worked or been helpful. You haven't explained how I use Recuva at all, Ive just been clicking it and clicking it in the vain hopes that somehow it might work. You have surely had to deal with this issue before. Why can't you help me?

[sebt]

I thought you were here to help? Why aren't you helping?

[sebt]

you can help me in one way - how do you uninstall open office

[RoryOF]

I thought you were here to help? Why aren't you helping?

I'm doing this in my own time, on a pro bono (i.e., volunteer) basis. I've pointed you to the tool to use, which no doubt has a help file. There are limits to the help one can give remotely, and even more limits on the time one has to devote to helping.

[sebt]

still, don't really understand what help you've given other than vaguely point me in a direction which doesn't really go anywhere. But thanks nonetheless, I'll be thinking of your help when my friends and family are all on holiday and I'm stuck studying in the library because of your idiotic program

[jrkrideau]

Enjoy the week-end. I don't think you realize that anyone participating on this forum is an totally unpaid volunteer. We like to help but we do expect people to do something themselves.

Learn how to uninstall a program. It should be easy to google it and it's not an AOO issue. It's an operating systems issue and you never told us what OS you have. It's up to you to know/learn how to use your operating system.

Read the instructions for Recuva. Again, it's not an AOO issue.

[Hagar Delest]

every word I have written has now been changed into the # sign. I have lost several thousands words worth of words

Sadly, quite nothing to do I fear, see: 22 pages term paper replaced with pound signs.

As said by Rory, check the temporary folder of the system (see in OO Tools>Options>OO>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/.ods/... (I hope you were saving in ODF) and cross your fingers.

If you want to help fix this problem, you can also do this survey created for this very problem: Document Recovery Survey.

You're right, this is an utmost bug in AOO (see the discussion I've linked). But remember, we are users like you here. We have no control of the code and we even try to make the user's voice heard by the devs. And it seems that there are some change about how this bug is perceived. Someone may start working eventually on it.

Some have reported success with PhotoRec, it's not that complicated to use so just google a bit and try.
And backup your most important files, to different medias.
Isn't there a Windows 7 feature that gives previous versions of a file?