On Sun, 5 Jan 2014 11:05:25 -0500
Rob Weir <robw...@apache.org> wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 3:53 PM, Hagar Delest <hagar.del...@laposte.net> wrote:
> > Sadly, quite nothing to do, see:
> > https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17677 where you'll
> > see that I've recorded more than 150 occurrences of this problem.
> 
> 
> And there were 368 reported UFO sightings in December:
> http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/ndxe201312.html
> 
> But I'm not rushing to learn Klingon...
> 
> If you search Google for phrases like "Word document lost when saving"
> you'll see 100's of reports of this as well.

With respect, we are not concerned about MS Word's reliability. But 
OpenOffice's ought be a matter of concern for us all. We are all on the same 
side here.

> 
> > I've raised this issue on the dev mailing list:
> > http://www.mail-archive.com/dev@openoffice.apache.org/msg15177.html and
> > interest has been slightly raised (new comments in the bug report) but this
> > is a difficult problem that can't be reproduced, hence very difficult to
> > spot. Nevertheless, even in case of bug, the save process could be improved
> > IMHO.
> > Any power shortage?
> >
> > Check the temporary folder of the system (see in OOo
> > Tools>Options>OOo>Paths). If there are folders like sgmlf.tmp with a file
> > having the same name inside, make a copy of that file, rename it to .odt and
> > cross your fingers. If you have not rebooted, you might have those files
> > still there.
> >
> 
> It would be great to ask for information like this whenever someone
> reports this kind of problem.  150 reports without this detail are
> useless.  But even 10 reports with this detail might indicate a
> pattern.
> 
> 1) What AOO version is in use?
> 
> 2) What OS version?

The Version and OS are usually indicated in the footer of the repoorting post. 
Most OS versions are Windows
> 
> 3) What file type (extension) was being saved?
> 
> 4) Where was the file being saved?  USB?  Network drive?

In many cases to the hard disk. USB saves as you say below can unreliable and 
we try to separate them out from spontaneous hashtag events.

> 
> 5) Is autosaved enabled?
> 
> 6) When you returned to your computer was it in the same state?  For
> example, had you lost power?  Did the OS force a reboot?  Did your
> laptop hibernate?

Hibernation/Suspend of a computer with an open OO file reportedly can cause 
corruption. Some hashtag/damaged archive events seem to be caused by over hasty 
closedown of the computer, such as by snapping laptop lid shut, or power off of 
the desktop before the software/hardware write buffers have flushed. 
 
> Just anecdotally, and without deeper analysis, I see a number of
> reports on OpenOffice and with Microsoft Office, where a USB memory
> stick is being used.   Savvy users know how to properly remove a
> memory stick.  But not all users do.  This can cause problems.

We know this and advise not to work direct to a USB stick, also advising 
observance of correct removal protocols. Also (added information) anecdotally 
(also personal experience) USB sticks of earlier manufacture can fail (internal 
chip failure) after a smallish (circa 1000 is suggested in some postings) 
number of read/write cycles. I have no knowledge of more recent USB stick 
reliability.

> 
> Another case to watch out for is old Wordperfect files.   A user saves
> a WPD file, upgrades OOo 3.3.0 to AOO 4.0.1 and now their file won't
> open.  But this is due to the loss of WPD support, not due to damage
> to the file, though the symptoms look the same at first.
> 
> Another thing to look for is a forced reboot, the kind that recent
> versions of Windows do when installing a critical security patch.
> Some antivirus software does this as well.  If you have a document
> loaded in OpenOffice with unsaved changed, and have autosave enabled,
> and leave your machine on for a week, with OpenOffice running, and a
> system restart is forced, what will happen?  Is there a correlation to
> problems in that scenario?
> 


-- 
Rory O'Farrell <ofarr...@iol.ie>

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