Recover overwritten CSV files with multiple worksheets

English
#1
  • I have a CSV file with one worksheet.
  • After editing with Libre Office, I saved it and opened it with Libre Office again.
  • I created a new sheet in the Libre Office.
  • I saved it and opened it with Sublime Text.
  • I couldn’t see the data from both sheets. Still, I edited in Sublime Text and saved the .csv file.
  • I reopened the workbook with Libre Office again. All my previous worksheets are lost. Only the last worksheet is remaining.

I have been working on the other sheets for almost the past 10 days. All the work seems like it’s gone. Ultimate frustration :frowning: Is there a way to restore the lost data?

#2

A lesson to learn: never work in foreign file formats. Only in ODF. Only having finished export as necessary. If you did not save to ODS before exporting to CSV, no luck.

#3

Yes, man. Poor design of such stable software. It should have warned me at least.

#4

It always warns.

#5

It no longer warns if you say don’t warn.

#6

Hello saint1729,

I’m sorry to have to write again, no backup done, most likely no chance.

By luck you’re maybe working under Windows (which you did not mention as part of the requested information). There you could have activated ‘System Protection’ (it is part of ‘advanced system settings’). If so, you could maybe access ‘previous versions’ of your file with the file manager.

Take a minute to understand what kind of fileformat csv is. It is simple plain text. ASCii. It is not possible to store more than one sheet in it. That and a lot of other things calc would like to store in a file.

For the future consider to store more than one version of your file. E. g. by adding a revision number to the filename or a date. So you could also go back in history of this file in case something went wrong.

Cookievore

#7

@cookievore: Thanks for your reply. I know CSV is a plain text format. But, in that case, calc should not even allow me to create a new worksheet in CSV file format. It should repeatedly repeatedly repeatedly and indefinitely warn me saying that “You idiot, you might lose your data. Store in .ods format. I am not smart enough to understand your mind”.

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