Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I'm sure this has been asked many times before, so my apologies for globbing up the board but I couldn't locate my problem. The closest I came was the [Tutorial] The Dreaded Pound Signs: file reduced to #### topic. I am trying to rescue a spreadsheet that got lost to AOO after an unexpected power-off. Been renaming temp files as ods files. I'm wondering what the correct character set to pick is when I get the text import screen. Choosing the choice that is there already results in hieroglyphics to me. I don't know what character set is/means. With whichever one I choose the results are unintelligible. Which should I use? Is there something else I need to do? This is a long and very important spreadsheet which I fear may be lost forever. But you've never heard that before, right?

Thanks for the help.

PontiacKiller wrote: ↑Fri Mar 07, 2025 12:09 am I am trying to rescue a spreadsheet that got lost to AOO after an unexpected power-off.

There must be a hundred topics in the forum about spreadsheets which contain nothing but garbage after a power outage. Read section 6. Saving your data and making backups in Ten concepts that every Calc user should know.

PontiacKiller wrote: ↑Fri Mar 07, 2025 12:09 am Been renaming temp files as ods files.

If the temp file is really a copy of an ODS file, after rename Calc will open it with no assistance. The dialog which you received is presented to allow Calc to open non-spreadsheet text files which might have been created in various formats. None of the options in the dialog will recover your data if a spreadsheet is damaged. Here are similar topics and explanations:
Filter selection dialog when opening ODS file
Unable to open spreadsheet: ASCII Filter Options
ASCII Filter Options
Unable to open file, shows ASCII Filter Options dialog
Corrupted file?
Everything has turned into hashtags!

PontiacKiller wrote: ↑Fri Mar 07, 2025 12:09 am This is a long and very important spreadsheet which I fear may be lost forever. But you've never heard that before, right?

I'm sure there are lots of topics here about a spreadsheet which is important to someone, but they have no backups of it which could be used to recover the data if the spreadsheet is damaged, either due to a hardware problem, a software problem, or just because the owner made some critical mistakes during editing. People frequently learn about the need for backups the hard way: once burned, twice shy.

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Sorry, your file is lost.
All is said in that topic about the ### issue.

When the file shows as all ###, forget recovery. Use an undelete utility to find deleted files of the correct date/time, and see if any of these contain all or part of your information.