Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I have a text file that I use to record weight and other health data. Today, it wouldn't let me open the file. It asks me to update links then gives me an error message and the file never opens. My first thought was to check for updates and I updated to 15, but that makes no difference. Same error. I really need to recover this file, what should I do? Would older versions of the file be stored somewhere?

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Try to reset your OpenOffice user profile.
If no change, then try LibreOffice (at least a portable version, just to check), see: [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information.

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.

Many thanks! Switching to LibreOffice did the trick! Is OpenOffice basically defunct with LibreOffice as the replacement? Is it the same people behind each program?

This is a long story dating back 2012 IIRC (several topics in the forum if you want to check).
Not the same team at all. Most developers have left AOO to fork (based on OOo). Thus, the quite few devs who remained with AOO can no longer keep up with the many changes of the operating systems, other application that could interfere. That's why sadly, a quick fix is to switch to LO. Of course, we could spent hours trying to identify what's wrong. But even if we find something, few chances that it would be fixed (there is already so much to fix).
And anyway, LO has now so many more features than AOO that productivity POV, it doesn't really make sense to remain with AOO, except if its current features cover your needs.

The OP would be well advised to make daily, dated backups of his file; he was fortunate that LibreOffice recovered it. Often an unopenable file has been damaged beyond recovery by any means.