Files will not open

[wtb32141]

I've been working with Writer for at least 15 years. Today I have a brand new problem: some of my files created with Writer will not open. I have written a 40-chapter book. A few of the chapter files have opened, but most of them will not open. I look at the file's properties, and the permissions data say that I have read and write permissions, but the file won't open. Several files won't open; so it's not just one file. I'm running Ubuntu 22.04. I have gotten no message re a potential source of the problem. I've rebooted several times; that does not help. This problem just began today. Have you any thoughts as to what the problem may be?

[claydoh]

Do any backups for your book open?
Do any other unrelated files open?

What version of Libreoffice are you using?

Maybe try running Writer from the terminal, then trying to open a file:

libreoffice --writer

You will see a lot of 'garbage' that may look like errors, but see what it shows when you open that file.

You could also try other applications to see if the files open there, such as KDE's own Calligra., Only Office, WPS Office, or even Google Docs.

We are trying to see if the file is corrupt, or if it is something on the software side.

[jlittle]

You may get some information if you open the files from the CLI. Open a konsole, and run

cd <location of file>
soffice <filename>

I once had a problem a little like this and solved it using an AppImage of an older version. See https://www.libreoffice.org/download/appimage/.

[wtb32141]

Claydoh, I'm running version 7.3.7.2 of Writer. I opened Dolphin; then I split the screen. I put my laptop's hard drive on one side, and my backup drive (a flash drive) on the other side. So the 2 versions of a given file (say the Chapter 3 file) are side by side. Neither version of the Chapter 3.odt file will open. Then I went to my Documents folder. It contains 2 versions of a letter I wrote to a doctor. One version is an .odt file; the other version of that letter is a .pdf file. The .pdf file opens; the .odt file does not open. I may be wrong, but that tells me it's a Writer problem. As it stands right now, Writer for me is worthless, and I have no idea re the source of the problem. My best bet at this point may be to delete Writer and then re-install it.

[Schwarzer Kater]

If even your backup files don't open: did you try opening the files from another user account (and did you try the other suggestions above)?

Otherwise there also is a newer version of LibreOffice availabe from the *Ubuntu backports for Kubuntu 22.04 - LibreOffice 7.4.7 instead of 7.3.7.
Perhaps upgrading to it will help with your problem:
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -t jammy-backports in the Konsole terminal emulator will install it from official *Ubuntu repositories.

PS: I supposed you use Kubuntu 22.04 - not 23.04 (did you post in the wrong forum?)…

[wtb32141]

I have 2 laptops (a 6-year-old Dell and a System76 laptop bought in March 2023). Both are running Ubuntu 22.04 with version 7.3.7.2 of LibreOffice. I misspoke when I said that I cannot get files to open. They will open on both machines, but the process of opening a file is an exercise in torture! Both machines behave exactly the same when I try to open or save a file using Writer. I’ve been using Writer for at least 15 years, and opening and saving files was trivial. Well, opening or saving a file now is not trivial; it’s “torture”! I just opened a 7-page Writer document, and it took about 5 minutes to open the file. At the bottom of the screen appears a horizontal progress bar that moves from left to right at a snail’s pace to indicate progress. Ditto when I save a file. This situation is intolerable! For the past 6 years I’ve used the Dell laptop. I’ve had no problems with it at all. It has been a great machine. Laptops don’t last forever; so I bought the System 76 unit. Instead of trying the various suggestions that were offered a few days ago on this forum to fix my “files will not open” problem, I decided to fire up my new laptop and see what it does. I’m glad that I did. Please share with me your thoughts about this “intolerable situation” I've described.

[Schwarzer Kater]

I assume you did not copy your /home from the old to the new laptop? Then the culprit very probably cannot be your /home/$USER folder …

And you did not try another LibreOffice version either?
If you don't want to upgrade LibreOffice with the *Ubuntu backports you could use an AppImage which will not touch your installed version of LO or change files in your system at all (it behaves like a "standalone Windows .exe"): https://www.libreoffice.org/download/appimage/

And it could be lots of different things causing this, e.g.:
Do you use specific fonts on both laptops / in the file(s) which could be corrupt?
Did you try if this also happens with a new file (the files themselves could be corrupt)?

-> Opening the file(s) / running LibreOffice from Konsole as sugested above is still a good idea to see if there is some output that can narrow down the nuisance.

[claydoh]

At the bottom of the screen appears a horizontal progress bar that moves from left to right at a snail’s pace to indicate progress

That's odd. That usually indicates somethings trying to open or save a file in a remoter location - a shared driver via Samba or NFS or something over s slow connection, or a very slow USB stick, maybe?

Cant say without seeing a screenshot of what you are seeing though.
This is the same version of LO that I am running, and I don't have this issue myself, even with external files from my NAS shares.

[claydoh]

Moving this to the appropriate 22.04 section, btw....

[Snowhog]

What are the file settings in Writer?

[wtb32141]

Snowhog, I don't know how to answer your query. I have been using Writer for at least 15 years, and I never have thought about Writer's "file settings." I have thought often about document settings and font settings but not of file settings. The only file settings of which I'm aware are the ".odt" and ".pdf" labels, and I do not set them; Writer just produces them.

[claydoh]

Still, it should be helpful to try opening the file in Writer from a terminal, so we can see the output andf any errors.

Open dolphin, and navifage to where you have a ODT file. Hit f4 to toggle on a terminal panel. This will be opened to the same directory as you see in Dolphin.
Then enter libreoffice my_file.odt, or soffice my_file.odt.

Past the output, using the Code tag in the forum's text editor -- the "#"

[vanadiumboy]

I have 2 laptops (a 6-year-old Dell and a System76 laptop bought in March 2023). Both are running Ubuntu 22.04 with version 7.3.7.2 of LibreOffice. I misspoke when I said that I cannot get files to open. They will open on both machines, but the process of opening a file is an exercise in torture! Both machines behave exactly the same when I try to open or save a file using Writer. I’ve been using Writer for at least 15 years, and opening and saving files was trivial. Well, opening or saving a file now is not trivial; it’s “torture”! I just opened a 7-page Writer document, and it took about 5 minutes to open the file. At the bottom of the screen appears a horizontal progress bar that moves from left to right at a snail’s pace to indicate progress. Ditto when I save a file. This situation is intolerable! For the past 6 years I’ve used the Dell laptop. I’ve had no problems with it at all. It has been a great machine. Laptops don’t last forever; so I bought the System 76 unit. Instead of trying the various suggestions that were offered a few days ago on this forum to fix my “files will not open” problem, I decided to fire up my new laptop and see what it does. I’m glad that I did. Please share with me your thoughts about this “intolerable situation” I've described.

I have been using Writer for 3 years.
I have seen this behavior across various versions of LibreOffice but I haven’t seen it for a while (maybe 1 year).

My files only contain text. Nothing fancy. Arial font. The text is size 10 with some parts being 22 or 16 or 18.
In some cases, there are images embedded.

What I have found is that a certain section of text slows down Writer a lot.

For example, if I want to select the text, I press Shift + Up arrow. <==== No problem.
When I press Ctrl - C, it takes a lot of CPU time to finish. (5 s, 10 s, 1 min?)

THE SOLUTION:
Make a new file.
The problem section should be copied to Kate or any simple text editor.
Copy from Kate back to Writer.

[wtb32141]

I wonder if the problems I reported (trouble opening and saving files) might be due to me having too many Writer files open simultaneously. I have been working with Writer today, and I'm not having any problems opening and closing files, but I have open simultaneously just a few Writer files.

[Snowhog]

Any open file has to be “in memory “, so it is possible that you had reached the available memory limit.