Writer offers a rudimentary version control feature.
When your document has already been saved once, File>Versions becomes enabled.
If you want to backup several snapshots of your work, do File>Versions and use the Save New Version instead of the usual File>Save command. With the version specific command, you are prompted for a comment to attach to each version.
The history of your document is displayed with time of backup, author and comment.
These versions are saved amid the document, i.e. they are carried over if you move the file across your computer. The drawback is that the file is larger than strictly necessary but you can step back if you are not satisfied with the current version.
However, ther is a really big inconvenience for me (this is why I call it a rudimentary feature). If you decide to step back to some earlier version, I highly advise you to make a copy of the original file before the step back.
From the history, you can select any previous version, but there are in a linear relationship, not in a tree-like hierarchy. The restored version becomes the current one and all ulterior versions are deleted. In case you finally decide that it was not pertinent to step back, you can't revert to your most recent version! Thus the advice for a backup before definitive action.
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Your strategy working with important documents seems questionable from a distance. It is - for important documents - a bad habit to just click the save button every x minutes, since you will also save all your errors into a single document. You absolutely need to have some versioning (copy) of your documents. I personally use something like
MyImportantDoc-YYYY-MM-DD-Version-xy, increase the version number on each save and thus have a large number of the same thing and if it happens that I accidentally save an empty version of my doc - just go back a version.Regarding How do I recover If your doc is empty, it is empty - you cannot recover from no content.
@Opaque : This is very interesting. It raises the question of what is actually saved when you click on the Save button. I had always thought that it saved a copy of the document as it currently exists, without the "baggage" of previous versions. It seems I have missed something.
@ve3oat :May be I do not understand your comment - but
Savesaves into the current file location and all previous stuff (neglecting the track changes thing and of course all these forensic data recovery technologies) gets lost. It is overwriting the file with current document content. It doesn't save into a copy - that's my understanding ofSave, since using software and that's why there is aSave a copyfunctionality inFilemenu of LibreOffice to address this issue and to mitigate those accidental faults likeCTRL+Afollowed byCTRL+Xand thenCTRL+S.@Opaque : No, I think you understood correctly and you have explained very well what I was wondering about. I have never used Save a copy and didn't realize the difference. Thanks for your explanation.
Libre Office has never behaved like this before but I've never used it before for such a large document. It sounds like it doesn't behave like WORD. I just assumed I could use save and it would save. If so, what are the benefits for using Libre Office? Why would I want to use LO in lieu of WORD if save doesn't work? Why isn't there any recover function for this defect?
It is your decision what you want to use and the same thing could happen with any application and hence it is your habit you should revise and not the application.
I've been using WORD for over 20 yrs and have never had this problem before. And I've written many lengthy research papers, so my habits are irrelevant here. Don't get defensive. Please answer my legitimate question. What are the benefits of using Libre Office over WORD? If I can't rely on save and I have to rename each version why is that better (especially when you're writing documents 25-500 pgs in length)? If there's a benefit to the different tecnical approaches it would be good to know.
Clearly, something is not working as it should. Have you tried backing up all your documents, uninstalling LibreOffice and then re-installing it (perhaps a newer version)?
Also, saving separate versions of your documents, as suggested by @Opaque, is excellent, and might provide some clue as to the underlying fault with the Save process.
@Adamf - Congratulations for driving without any seat belt for 20 years without an accident. Buy the car which drove you securely through the world of document creation for such long time without a backup strategy. And my admiration for still not seeing the benefit of having more than a single copy of your so important document in the light of you current problem and for your tenacity to refuse well-intentioned advice. Good luck ...
Have you tried to see if you inadvertantly saved your document in a somewhat unexpected location? Have you tried the file search utility? (it was once named Sherlock on MacOS)
Since you seem to be a Word fan, have you saved your document as .doc(x) instead of .odt? In this case, you're adding instabilities: the input-output filters do not guarantee exact conversions from one format to the other; moreover after some number of edits, the underlying XML is completely cluttered with conversion approximations making the document more exposed to formatting errors.