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grumpyduck

(6,650 posts)
Wed May 1, 2024, 02:16 PM May 2024

Any Libre Office users here?

I've been working on a novel in LO Write. Yesterday I saved my work and made two backup copies. This morning I opened up the file to find that the last two days' worth of work were gone, including on the backups.

I wrote a post in their forum, but wanted to ask here too. Is there a limit to how many words a Write file can handle? I have over 56,000 so far. Or is there a way to recover what's lost? I've looked all over the computer and can't find any backups.

Thanks.

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Any Libre Office users here? (Original Post) grumpyduck May 2024 OP
Years ago, like 2002 bucolic_frolic May 2024 #1
Thanks. I did back up to a stick grumpyduck May 2024 #2
File recovery software bucolic_frolic May 2024 #5
If the USB backup was gone, birdographer May 2024 #3
I use the spreadsheet part of LibreOffice, not the word processor. RipVanWinkle May 2024 #4
Running on Windows, Linux, Mac? How did you search the computer for the backups? Wonder Why Jun 2024 #6
Running Windows, thanks. grumpyduck Jun 2024 #7

bucolic_frolic

(46,973 posts)
1. Years ago, like 2002
Wed May 1, 2024, 02:26 PM
May 2024

I had a similar problem. I downloaded free recovery software that allowed me to scan the unwritten parts of the hard drive bit by bit to find the lost parts. It was work, a day or so, but it was a lot larger than 2 days work, it was the whole thing. I don't recall what it's called. But don't write other things to the hard drive in the meantime. Google to search and find similar software. The lost backup is there on your hard drive.

Most people today would say, backup automatically to the cloud each night, and save to a USB stick, they're cheap enough.

birdographer

(2,527 posts)
3. If the USB backup was gone,
Wed May 1, 2024, 02:50 PM
May 2024

then it somehow didn't get saved in the first place, for some reason the program didn't register it.

I finished a novel recently (my first and last). I started it in Pages. Same thing happened to me, I lost 9 hard-won pages of writing that had been on the screen when I did a Save and then Save As elsewhere. Gone. I left Pages, tried LO as well as two other Word-like apps. Finally paid for Word. Too many tutorials were teaching how to do stuff in Word, which, no longer being the computer whiz I used to be, did me no good.

Anyway, my sympathies for the loss. Put it in two different apps altogether in the future before closing up?

RipVanWinkle

(265 posts)
4. I use the spreadsheet part of LibreOffice, not the word processor.
Wed May 1, 2024, 03:15 PM
May 2024

I have all of my LO files backed up hourly on a separate external drive. I'm on a Mac, and the backup software is Carbon Copy Cloner. I have had no problems with lost files, but I have experienced one or two files that got corrupted. LO was able to repair the files.

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