[Dropped] Program frozen with unsaved document

[ianwatt]

I have a rather lengthy document ready to save but everything is frozen with no action on either toolbar - is there a way I can save this document or shall I have to recreate it? It froze when I clicked on the save button.

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Have a look in the /backup folder of the AOO user profile: [Tutorial] The OpenOffice User Profile.
In the temporary folders of your system, you may have some files that could be helpful, see in this thread how to recover them (it is not exactly your case but some operations could be relevant for you): [Tutorial] The Dreaded Pound Signs: file reduced to ####. Especially the part about "Looking for temporary files" in [Tutorial] How to find and un-delete AOO/LO temporary files.

[keme]

Perhaps this is a little late, but if you still have your document in the frozen state, it may be possible to save.

I typically see this freeze on Macs when you have iCloud sync active (like almost every user around here does), use the 5G free storage offer (again almost everyone ...) and reach the storage limit. The temporary solution is to stop syncing. Not at a Mac right now, so I cannot check before I post, but try these steps:

• "Soft quit" sync: System Preferences/iCloud ; uncheck iCloud Drive syncing.
• Force quit: Cmd+Option+Esc. Select the iCloud sync item in the list and click Quit button.
  Not sure that the sync client will actually appear in the list. If you don't find it, skip to next step.
• "Brute force": Disconnect from internet.

No matter which option you have used from the above, you will most likely need to wait for a low level "retry" in your system before issue is resolved. Also, it doesn't always work. Give it 10 minutes. Good luck!

[ianwatt]

Thank you Hagar and Keme - my frustration level peaked and I just Force Quit the whole thing and am now ready to start over again!!

Thanks for your suggestions and willingness to help.

[RoryOF]

It is good practice to name a document (/File /Save As) immediately on commencing it, and then regularly press Ctrl S (Cmd S on a Mac?) to save current state. If it then locks up, one only loses the last modifications.

[ianwatt]

Great advice!!