Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

While I was away from my computer, it was hacked and the hacker deleted the OpenOffice data files I had opened. Whenever I try to use OpenOffice, it keeps trying to recover the deleted files and gets stalled and tells me the files are locked.

The lock files are hidden. Open the Windows Files Explorer, select the folder where your documents are, right click, tell it to show hidden files. Then delete the .lock files - they only serve to tell OpenOffice that a file is being edited, they don't contain any data from the file. Then try the backup folder in your user profile. Hopefully you can find something useful there.

I tried to view the hidden files in the directory where my files were. Nothing showed so I could not delete them.

Try to reset your OpenOffice user profile.

Please add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the ✎ button if your issue has been fixed.

I'm not sure what I did but I can't even start Open Office now which is a whole lot worse than starting Open Office and not being able to access my files.

What do you mean by hacked exactly?
Try to uninstall, clean the registry with something like CCleaner and then reinstall.

In most operating systems it is possible to search for all, including hidden, files.

In OpenOffice, lock files have a distinct pattern ".~lock.FileName.odt#" (no quotes. and the ".odt" changes to mark the file type), so searching for ".~lock." will throw up all lock files on your computer' remember to select the option to "search for hidden files".

These found lock files may be deleted if OpenOffice is closed.

Hagar Delest, by hacked, I mean someone other than myself accessed my computer with evil intent and deleted the Open Office files I had open. I was grocery shopping at the time.

Well, strange if you can't launch AOO. More harm may have been done then.
Have you tried to reinstall AOO?

I took your advice and uninstalled Apache Open Office. It's running now and the lock files that plagued me are gone!