Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 100230
formulas missing when file reopened 'cause MacOS automatically cleans tmp folder
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:40:36 UTC
Irregularly, I open an Openoffice.org writer file and find that all (or sometimes almost all) of my equations have been replaced by red icons labelled object #. This morning it happened again. OOo had not crashed. There was not recovery dialog. I closed (the file didn't even ask if I wanted to save) and quit and restarted to no avail. Given than I'm writing physics exam solutions, this is a major downer - an hour or so of saved work up in smoke. I'll attach an example of the destruction.
Created attachment 60946 [details] mangled file
MRU->MAV: we have now two similar cases (this and issue 97207), where formula objects are lost upon saving a document. Both happen on Mac and in both cases the "ObjectsXX" folders are missing in the file format. Can you imagine how this could happen? MRU->lhorner: what setting do you have in "OpenOffice.Preferences.OpenOffice.Memory" for OLE objects?
The first idea I have is the known feature of MacOS to clean the temporary files folder. It affects the embedded objects at first place. mav->lhorner: Please try as a workaround to set the temporary folder to a different location that is not affected by the removing process. If I am right with my assumption it should help. The temporary folder can be changed using "OpenOffice->Preferences->OpenOffice.org->Paths" on MacOS.
"lhorner: what setting do you have in "OpenOffice.Preferences.OpenOffice.Memory" for OLE objects?" cache for inserted objects - number of objects 40 The only place to set amount is with graphical objects: 80MB 2MB / object remove after 5min I have reset the temp folder to something in my document folder. I will re-upgrade to m5 and see if it happens again. (I downgraded to 3.0.1 because I thought I remembered this happening in the past with bleeding edge and not with stable releases.)
I'm still in 3.0.1 (300m15). As noted, I had moved my temp files. I opened a file just now and it told me the file was locked by another user (me - not really). I let it open as read only and the equations are gone again. I quit OOo. In terminal I renamed .~lock.HW9_solns.odt# in the directory of my file. I restarted OOo and had it open the file again. This time, no lock complaint, but still all the equations and figures are gone. There is only 1 empty folder in the moved temp directory although the directory modification time suggests it still being used. This time as well, OOo has not crashed nor have I force-quit it since I last edited this file (this morning). Suggestions for how to avoid future trouble? I'll attach the file fwiw.
I assume that the reason, why the file is locked by you is that there is a lock file from another office installation ( OOo3.1 ). If I am correct with my assumption regarding the temporary folder, then the embedded objects are lost on saving, not on loading. That means that in this case you have just opened an already broken document. Of course the "temporary folder move" workaround can not help in this case. Please correct me if I have misunderstood your comment.
It seems reasonable that the links are lost on closing. That leaves two questions: why is the file getting mangled on saving and why isn't OO realizing the problem as it saves rather than when it finds the lock some time later?
My assumption is that the file is broken during the saving because the temporary files were removed. As result some contents were lost. The remaining lock-file looks like a result of crash, that would explain why the OOo3.1 did not try to repair the document. Usually, if saving fails, the repairing is done. Please try to find the user layer of OOo3.1 you have used. There should be backups of stored document in the backup folder, the backup contains the document name as the prefix. That could probably help to get the lost information back, although the backup contains only the version before the last save. Please let me know if you are able to generate such a broken document while having the temporary folder moved.
Thanks for telling me where to find the back-up files manually. I would, of course, prefer for OOo to use them itself, but it is good to know a fall-back mechanism. There were a handful of files in the at folder - ending with 0 or 00 in the file name. I opened them. Several asked for character-set information. One said it was locked. All were free of the dread red missing object icon. As to whether I can generate a broken document with the temp file moved, the results are some what mixed. The last time one was generated spontaneously (reported above) was with the temp file moved. However, I just tried having a document open and running the OSX cleaning routines from terminal and failed to break the file then.
OOo does not recognize, when MacOS cleans up the tmp folder though its contained files are still in use. Maybe a warning for the user should be given to the user to use the backup files or anything else.
mav-lhorner: Ok, that means the the moving of the temporary files is no workaround actually if I understood your last comment correctly. By the way removing of the temporary files does not always affect the edited documents, so it is not a surprise that a just opened file was not corrupted. Please try to edit about 30 embedded objects and start the cleaning routine then. I assume that this should allow to reproduce the problem.
The latest frustration. I closed all my documents (saving any that asked) and quit OOo. I shut down the computer. I restarted the computer at home and opened a pair of documents that my OS decided to open with OOo. I noticed that OOo was acting as though it had crashed - offering to recover documents. I let it. It opened them - and I proceeded to close all the extra junk. The first file I closed asked me if I wanted to save changes. Stupidly, I said yes. It closed. I reopened it, wondering whether my last edits had been lost in the crash that didn't happen. To my horror the entire file opened without any equations in it. So I went to ~/Library/Application Support/OpenOffice.org/3/user/backup expecting to find the file there. It is not there. Nothing is there more recent than March 27. Temporary files path is set to ~/Documents/OOoTemp. Fortunately, the file was saved there correctly so I have not had to reconstruct all my equations this time. I opened a file with a lot of equations in it. Started all three cleaning tasks and then while they were running added equations to my file and fiddled around with it. I did not think to close it while the cleaning tasks were on. At any rate, when I did close and re-open it, nothing bad happened.
mav->lhorner: I understand that it is very frustrating to fail a document, especially if much time was invested in it. There is no backup because the saving process was successful I assume. The backup remains in backup folder in two cases: - saving was unsuccessful, the target document was corrupted and could not be repaired - saving was successful, but there is an explicit request to create backup on saving The backup creation on saving can be requested using Tools/Options/"Load/Save"/Save/"Always create backup copy" checkbox. I hope it will allow to prevent document loss in future. In this case I assume that the saving was successful, the objects were probably lost on crash-handling. I can not currently understand why did office try to repair documents that was successfully stored and closed, may be the office has crashed while storing one of the documents. That would explain why is the preserved version is incomplete. The problems described by you in issue 100271 might have the same roots, since it also looks like a crash during storing/exporting. Sorry, it is hard currently to say what goes wrong here without possibility to debug the scenario.
"Sorry, it is hard currently to say what goes wrong here without possibility to debug the scenario." If you can tell me how to get debug information to you, I'll be happy to try. Note that on crash recovery when the instructions say that clicking the "next" button will take me to the debugging tool, all that ever happens is that the dialog box disappears and my documents are available. I assumed that crash info was being sent without my aid, but perhaps the debug tool is also failing. "The problems described by you in issue 100271 might have the same roots, since it also looks like a crash during storing/exporting." That seems unlikely to me. Issue 100271 arises from specific characters being typed into equations and only occurs when attempting to create a pdf file - not on saving normally. The issue here is that OOo is losing its mind without crashing so none of the protect-data-on- crashing mechanisms are coming into play. Note that the data was actually still in the temporary folder. That suggests to me some failure of communication among the temporary folder, the real folder, and the backup folder.
mav->lhorner: In your last comment you have written "I noticed that OOo was acting as though it had crashed - offering to recover documents." That let me think that there was a probability of crash during the last saving, that would also explain why the objects are lost. That would of course differ from the original problem you have mentioned in the issue, but my lst comment has addressed the last "frustration" comment from you. As for the debug info, first of all a reproducible scenario is necessary. Is there a scenario that would let the problem be reproduced for sure at least on your system?
This appears to also be happening on Ubuntu 10.04 with OOo 3.2.0 with ooo-build patches. https://launchpad.net/bugs/501030
I am using OpenOffce 3.3.0 OOO330m20 on MacOS 10.5.8. In the past week formula objects have dissappeared after saving and re-opening the next day. I will include my document as an attachment "ME 348 Project". I had this problem once before I updated Openoffice to 3.3.0. I don't remember the version I used before. I did find a backup file and appreciate the suggestion from mav.
Created attachment 76147 [details] Formula Objects Dissapear Another occurance of formulas missing/dissappearing after saving.