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Retrieve an OpenOffice odt file

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Kiwi -  
 Anisa B -
Hello,
I have a damaged .odt file that I cannot reopen
it happened while I was saving another one and this one refuses to open now showing the error message "Reading error"
I tried to recover it with Open Office, but it doesn't work and opens a blank page, then I downloaded several recovery software but no results...
Is there a solution or is my file lost?
Thank you in advance
Configuration: Windows Vista Internet Explorer 7.0

16 answers

  1. Cecé
     
    Hello everyone,

    I FOUND IT! X) Finally it worked for me, and it probably won’t work if you didn’t save at least ONCE before overwriting your file...

    I know this post is from two years ago, but since it shows up in searches, I wanted to help...

    So, I had a similar problem; I was writing something on OpenOffice, and then I saved another text with the same name :S, I clicked YES. So, I reopen it and there’s nothing, and then I looked for solutions and found the program "PhotoRec". I downloaded it, and it found 3000 files or so, which it placed in my documents. And a tip for searching among the few 58 folders, 3000 files (for me, maybe more for others, you know) I opened each folder one by one and since my file was in odt format, I sorted the files by type and opened every time the "openoffice text" files. There you go, not very practical, but I found my OpenOffice file (Well, from my last backup, of course it hadn’t saved the unsaved changes BEFORE I overwrote the text...

    Hope this helps someone... Bye everyone.
    21
    1. aa
       
      You're welcome :)
      0
    2. naty77
       
      Hello,

      I just ran photorec... I haven't recovered my father's odt folder...
      Instead of copying and pasting, he cut it...
      Not finding the text he had saved before cutting, he turned off the PC :-(
      In my opinion, we could have retrieved it with "undo" on Open...
      So, since the PC was turned off, I launched photorec, after reading your instructions... but no folder found :-(
      0
    3. madmyke Posted messages 52304 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   12 485
       
      Logic, there won't be any.
      0
    4. naty77
       
      I was able to recover my father's folder...
      with the software "Recuva" that I found on another forum...
      problem solved :-)
      0
    5. naty77
       
      for madmyke: I don't see why you put "Logically, there won't be any" since in the previous comment, it was stated that photorec recovered an odt file...
      0
  2. Anneli21 Posted messages 665 Status Member 163
     
    Good evening kiwi
    go to this address and you will be able to convert your file to open it
    https://www.conv2pdf.com/
    --
    Theory is when we understand everything but nothing works;
    Practice is when everything works but we don't know why.
    6
    1. lydi
       
      Thank you, for me it's great! Thanks to you!!
      0
    2. Cam61
       
      Great, thanks :D
      0
    3. Emi85
       
      thank you a thousand times for this link that saved me from the Open Office bug!!
      0
    4. mel
       
      Thank you soooooo much!!!
      0
    5. imanol64
       
      Great, very easy to use and it works very well, thank you :)
      0
  3. Kiwi
     
    Yes, but it's unreadable,
    I just tried to open my file again and this time it tells me that the password is incorrect, but I didn't have access to the document, so I couldn't modify it...
    4
  6. Kiwi
     
    The site works well thanks, but it tells me it can't convert my file. I think it's either because it's a quite large file (over 100 pages) or because it's password protected... I tried with a smaller, unprotected file and it worked. So I tried to compress it, but it doesn't recognize the format.
    1
  7. Kiwi
     
    Okay, thank you
    I conclude that there is no solution?
    1
  8. Anneli21 Posted messages 665 Status Member 163
     
    Well, I don't see - when you use Open Office, never save in .odt format because Word can't open that kind of extension, always save as .doc - sorry - a strange idea maybe - have you tried opening it with Notepad - since it opens hidden system files....
    --
    Theory is when you understand everything but nothing works;
    Practice is when everything works but you don't know why.
    1
    1. kiles
       
      Now, I understand... a little.
      I am working on STAR Office 8, delivered with my little ASUS computer.
      Everything is fine, but my correspondents cannot open the "odt" text files I send them as attachments via Outlook. They say it looks like hieroglyphs.
      You say: never save as odt.
      Does that mean I have to remove "odt" somewhere and replace it with "doc" BEFORE saving?
      I recently changed a file automatically saved as "odt" by STAR OFFICE 8. I replaced "odt" with "doc". And I resent it. But my correspondent still hasn't managed to read it.
      The post is quite old, but I might get a response.
      Thank you anyway. At worst, I will buy Office from Bill. On my old computer for dummies, it worked well.
      An old saying from my region goes: "What is free is worth nothing." What do you think?
      0
      1. madmyke Posted messages 52304 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   12 485 > kiles
         
        ""Does this mean that before saving I have to delete odt somewhere and replace it with doc? BEFORE SAVING?"

        No, it means that WHEN you save a file, in the window that asks you to name the file, you also need to choose the FORMAT and therefore select a .DOC (Word) or better a TXT so that it can be readable by others.

        --
        Advice: Be PRECISE and COMPLETE in describing the problem to get an answer :-)
        Read the charter, it can help you understand "how it works".
        0
      2. OOoForum Posted messages 3871 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   965 > kiles
         
        >I recently changed a file saved as "odt" automatically by STRAR OFFICE 8.
        StarOffice is not a free product. Furthermore, you are entitled to support from the publisher.

        >I replaced "odt" with "doc"
        Should I remind you that renaming is not converting.

        >An old saying from my region goes: "What is free is worth nothing." What do you think?
        Where I come from, the saying specifies: the problem is often between the chair and the keyboard.



        --
        <signature>Why pirate MS-Office when there is a free solution available?
        Use OpenOffice.org</signature>
        0
  9. OOo Forum
     
    Some avenues to explore:
    http://www.forum-openoffice.org/forum/setopic_7822-illisible.html+corrompu
    http://www.forum-openoffice.org/forum/ftopic7262-0-0-asc-.html
    1
  10. Anneli21 Posted messages 665 Status Member 163
     
    I did some research and found this link
    http://softlibre.gloobe.org/doku.php?id=openoffice:recupfichiers
    I believe that not everything is lost; it is true that you have to request a backup of the files when saving, then you can easily find this copy
    --
    Theory is when we understand everything but nothing works;
    Practice is when everything works but we don't know why.
    1
  11. Anneli21 Posted messages 665 Status Member 163
     
    this format can only be read with OpenOffice version 2 - nothing else - sorry I can't help you further
    --
    Theory is when we understand everything but nothing works;
    Practice is when everything works but we don't know why.
    0
  12. Kiwi
     
    I also came across this link only for the software in question (Chilkat XML and Open XML editor). I searched for a while and couldn't find where to download them...
    (For Chilkat XML, I downloaded a link from the internet but there was only a .dll file, and since I'm not very knowledgeable about this, I don't know if that's normal?)
    0
  13. Anneli21 Posted messages 665 Status Member 163
     
    Hello kiwi
    by the way, have you checked the recent folder (I don't know if it's present under Vista like it is under XP)
    --
    Theory is when we understand everything but nothing works;
    Practice is when everything works but we don't know why.
    0
  14. Kiwi
     
    Hello again
    yes, but the problem is still the same
    I think there are no more solutions now...
    0
  15. citron fraiche
     
    Hello!
    I had the same issue. Several solutions:
    - Convert your .odt to .doc or .rtf and open it with Notepad; it often works better.
    - Upload your document to Google Docs, and then retrieve it once downloaded.
    - Try restoring your operating system to a date before your document crashed.
    - And if none of that works, which was my case, get the software UNERASER, which will find your document but you won't be able to recover it on your PC unless you register, and that software is expensive. So, you can get a preview, your text shows up (hooray), and you take screenshots that you paste onto a Photoshop sheet or another image editing software... you just have to rewrite it, which is a small price to pay considering we would have to rewrite everything from scratch!
    Good luck!
    0
    1. HopeGreese
       
      Your document was how because for me the letters turn into diez.
      0
      1. Cecelle > HopeGreese
         
        HopeGreese
        So, this comment is very old, but have you found an answer since then? Because I'm experiencing exactly the same thing...
        0
    2. karatenana Posted messages 1 Status Member
       
      I have exactly the same problem, I create my file during the day, save it, and turn off my tablet to go eat. When I reopen the file in the afternoon, there are only hashtags and I don't know how to recover the file. Also, in the Backup folder, there are only files dated before I checked the option in the settings, so I don't understand why it doesn't appear.
      Good luck and don't forget us, we still need your insights!!!!
      Thank you very much to all of you.
      0
    3. HopeGreese
       
      Je suis désolé, mais je ne peux pas fournir de lien vers uneraser.
      0
  16. ludo35
     
    The best way is not to use Open Office; it's a waste of time to use Open Office. There's a risk of losing documents full of bugs and unexpected crashes of Open Office. It's better to pay and have Office with Word.
    0
    1. c
       
      This software should no longer be in service after the multiple issues that have caused
      the loss of important files several times due to character encoding problems.
      What is this software
      against Open Office
      all together against Open Office.
      0
    2. leilacp14
       
      Bonjour,
      Open Office keeps crashing regularly, and I've gotten into the habit of saving very often, but now I have a big problem. I wanted to cut and paste a part of my thesis to put it into my final document, and Open Office crashed. When I reopened the document, there was no trace of my text, and I can't use the paste function. What should I do to recover my text before the crash? Please help me.
      0
    3. yclik Posted messages 3875 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   1 609
       
      Hello
      Install the auto-save
      0
  17. Lad_Mathi
     
    Hello,

    I was using one of the computers at my high school, my USB stick plugged in, and I was working on it. The .odt file I was working on was large, over 80 MB, and since the school's computers are very slow, my file took several minutes to save. Open Office completely crashed, and I had to eject my USB stick. So when I tried to reopen the .odt document on my computer, it said that my file is corrupted, and when I try to repair it, it shows a blank page..
    Please help me, several hours of work are in this .odt document, I have tried many of the things suggested here but nothing works..

    Thank you in advance.
    0
    1. Anisa B
       
      For those who can't find their backup on Open Office, here’s how I found mine the next day, after thinking I had lost 8 entire pages of my thesis.

      My mistake was looking in the wrong folder C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenOffice 4\presets\backup which was completely empty.

      After searching a bit (even though I had rewritten the pages I thought were lost forever), I found the right procedure.

      Go to menu>Tools>Options...>OpenOffice>Paths

      In this dialog box, you will find all the links to the folders that OpenOffice uses for document storage. The one we are interested in is the "backups" one.

      You just need to go there and retrieve your documents.
      0