libreoffice files no longer open!

Hi all,

From one moment to the next, I no longer can open any of my libreoffice files. What should I do?

I work on Ubuntu 18.04.2

  • How are you trying to open (From withing libreoffice’s recent document list)
  • Do you get any error message (file does not exist?)
  • Where are your documents stores on the disk?
  • Did you try to use File .-> Open and search your file from the file picker dialog?
  • Which LO version are you using?

All my saved files no longer open: Now just new documents

How are you trying to open (From withing libreoffice's recent document list)
  • I’ve got most files on the desktop and usually open them by double clicking. Doing this now, the LibreOffice initiating box appears for a short while, then disappears and nothing further happens.
  • I also tried opening an instance of Writer and Calc from the Favourite’s menu on the Desktop’s side. This leads to the same result.
  • I also tried launching from Software Manager: same result.

Do you get any error message (file
does not exist?)

  • So, no: no error message at all.

Where are your documents stores on the
disk?

  • Most are in subfolders at Home Folder\Documents

Did you try to use File .-> Open and
search your file from the file picker
dialog?

  • I’m terrible with the Terminal (at least, if my thinking is right that it is the Terminal this question is referring to?) so you might expend a bit on how I should proceed here.

Which LO version are you using?

  • I honestly cannot say. I upgraded pretty late to Ubuntu 18.04.2 and it should be the version included in that upgrade.

Thanks for helping me out here.

Try to reset your user profile - follow instruction at: Frequently asked questions - General - The Document Foundation Wiki

And please do not use “Answer”, if you are replying to comments. Edit your original post or use “add a comment” function. “Post Your Answer” is reserved for real answers to the original question and should be solutions to the problem. Thanks…

Hi, renaming the user file to user-old and opening (or better: trying to open) a file does not create a new user folder.

This looks like your LO doesn’t even start. Please open a terminal and type libreoffice --version and libreoffice and paste any error message here.

gufghur@gufghur:~$ libreoffice --version
LibreOffice 6.0.7.3 00m0(Build:3)

lgufghur@gufghur:~$ libreoffice

Having typed that, the LibreOffice initiation box showed briefly, then disappeared without anything further happening.

And executing libreoffice --safe-mode doesn’t help either?

Executing Libreoffice – safe-mode brought me passed the LO initiation box alright.
In the LO safe-mode dialogue window, I ticked the first box and got the below result:

gufghur@gufghur:~$ libreoffice --safe-mode
error
xsltParseStylesheetFile : cannot parse
I/O warning : failed to load external entity “”
error
xsltParseStylesheetFile : cannot parse
error
xsltParseStylesheetFile : cannot parse
I/O warning : failed to load external entity “”
error
xsltParseStylesheetFile : cannot parse

I’ll await your suggestion/comment before ticking the second safe-mode option.

It is hard to give an advice here, since this sounds like a problem with your gtk3 installation and I got no such old ubuntu version like your (One of my test systems is already ob ubuntu 19.04 - so I cannot get abny safe advice. One more question: Have you got the choice to start into KDE instead of GNOME? If yes - does LO work in KDE? (Just for assuring that the GTK3-problem direction could be correct).

No, I haven’t got KDE. No problem. I’ll try out the available safe-mode options first…

Just went through all the safe-mode options. I now can access my files again, but as I hadn’t a clear understanding of what I was doing, all personal changes I made over time or gone as to how the files appear. No drama though. Glad to start working again!! Thanks a million.

How do I rate the issue as solved?