https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=170272

--- Comment #1 from Denis <[email protected]> ---
I asked Claude, it says bug is in LibreOffice and here is its answer:

70 replacements in each file. Now let's replace content.xml, repackage both odt
files, and verify with headless LibreOffice that synchronization now correctly
repopulates the empty labels in file B.Now let's verify the fix actually works
— simulate a sync on the fixed B file and confirm the empty labels
repopulate.The fix works — synchronization now correctly repopulates the
labels. Let's save the resynced version (with the content already restored) and
finalize both output files.No empty sections left. Now let's copy the final
files to outputs.J'ai trouvé la cause exacte, distincte du bug précédent, et
j'ai réparé les deux fichiers.

**The problem:** When LibreOffice generates labels via mail merge using your
template, it internally **renames** all linked sections with a prefix like
`MailMergeSection2026-09-15T17:10:54Z...` (e.g., `MasterContact` becomes
`MailMergeSection...Z11MasterContact`). The issue is that the
`text:section-source` references for the 7 synchronized labels are **not
updated** and continue to point to the old name `MasterContact`—which no longer
exists in the document.

As long as you don't touch anything, the problem isn't visible: the content
generated during the mail merge remains displayed as is. However, as soon as
you click **Synchronize** (or LibreOffice updates the links, for instance after
a modification), it looks for the source section `MasterContact`, fails to find
it, and clears the content instead of leaving it intact. A comparison of your
two files confirms this: all 10 field types (Contact, Conso, Details, Time,
Weight, Degrees, Description, Title, Code, Date) were pointing to obsolete
section names.

**The fix:** I matched each broken reference to the actual current name of its
master section in both files and then re-ran a clean synchronization—all
content (including your 7 labels) is now present and correctly linked again.

⚠️ **Good to know for the future:** This bug stems from LibreOffice's mail merge
engine itself (not your template), so it will recur with **every new
generation** of labels until the underlying issue is fixed. If you like, I can
prepare a small reusable script for you (or you can send the generated files
back to me) to apply this fix automatically after each mail merge, before
clicking Synchronize.

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