File locked by unknown user

[Marsman66]

Hello,

I need some help.
My laptop battery went low while i wash working on a saved document.
When ik plugged in the powerline in and turned the laptop back on, i received a notification that the file was locked by unknown user.
the file could only be open as a read only or copy.
When i try to open the file it ask some questions about asci?

When the file opens i only see ############ on 4 pages.

I have seen that this problem occurs regularly, but non of the solutions seems to work.

I hope that my file is not lost. It is a import file.

Greetings Marcel

[RoryOF]

You are getting an ASCII message when you open the file. This normally means your file has been damaged, possibly because of over-hasty shut down of the computer before the internal house-keeping is complete - in your case shut down of the computer because of power failure. Experience indicates that there is unlikely to be any recoverable data in your file.

To try and recover your file, you should look in the backup and temporary directories pointed to by /Tools /Options /OpenOffice : Paths. Rename any files in those to the type of ODF file used and see if they contain your data. Download Recuva or PhotoRec (only one needed) and let it do an indepth recovery of deleted files on your computer. You may get a file containing some or all of your data (or not). Do this as a first priority; other use of the computer may overwrite any existing but deleted files and prevent their recovery. There is no guarantee that you will recover anything useful.

To prevent this happening again, always close down the computer using the recommended shutdown procedure and wait until you are certain all disk activity has ceased

The locked file message may be cured by rebooting your computer. If not, please ask for further help on that.

[Marsman66]

Hello,

Thanks for responding. The file is not lock anymore, butt i searched the computer and no copies of the document.
Can i consider the document as lost?

[Hagar Delest]

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

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.