Why does libreoffice keep disappearing from the computer?

[LewG2]

Windows 10, version 1903, build 18362.720
LO 6.3.5.2

We’ve been using LO for years (windows, linux, mac).

March 11 was the first time this happened to my wife. LO didn’t appear at all in the list of programs to remove. I downloaded and reinstalled, and it worked fine.

Today she told me that she’s had to *reinstall from the 6.3.5.msi file every day she wants to use it. When I checked today, the directories ‘…/Program Files/LibreOffice’ and ‘…/Program Files/LibreOffice5’ were empty. I removed the one for v5, she reinstalled from the *.msi file, and she’s up again.

She shut the computer down today (“Shut Down”). I opened it again, and today’s reinstall is still good.

This is odd, though: when I click on the desktop icon to start it again – all recent files are available, going back months. How is that possible when I saw empty directories this morning before she reinstalled this morning?

This incident was closed in 2016 as irrelevant or outdated. The problem is back for me.

Has this happened to anyone? What’s the cause and/or solution?

[mikekaganski]

Starting the system, it suggested to restore “last known good” state (and user accepted)? then it would surely affect installed programs (including Program Files), but keep user data (%appdata%), which keeps the history.

[LewG2]

No, sorry, we never saw that option. Windows always came up “normally”. Except for the missing LO.

[MQ-818]

1. update your windows 10
2. reinstall from an administrator account; not as a standard user.

Hope this helps and solves your issue

[LewG2]

Will try these steps. FTR, today it all worked fine.

[LewG2]

Win10 said I’m up to date. My acct has admin rights. But it was telling me that I didn’t have rights to delete the program directory. I shut down again with the shutdown button lower left. I brought the system up again, clicked the *.msi file to reinstall, and this time it worked. Go figure.

Thanks all for responding.