I saved an .odt file yesterday named “ToDoList.odt” and then closed LibreOffice Writer. I went to open “ToDoList.odt” today and the file is missing from the windows folder where I saved it. However, the temporary file “~Lock.ToDoList.odt#” is still there in the folder. I’ve read that they are supposed to disappear once the file is saved and closed, so I’m assuming there was an issue when the program saved the file. How do I get the original file restored? It’s like it disappeared. Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.
What was the specific windows folder where you saved it?
It was just a regular Windows folder that I’ve always stored my documents in. It was “This PC > Documents”. I have Windows 10 Home.
The ~lock file is there to show that the file is in use. It should disappear when you close the file. If it remains after the file is closed, then something isn’t working properly. Do you have a bunch of ~lock files on the desktop?
No, there are not. There is just the one ~lock file (~Lock.ToDoList.odt#) in the folder where the actual document (ToDoList.odt) should be but is now missing. It seems, as you stated, that LibreOffice Writer didn’t delete that ~lock file and restore the actual document once I saved it and closed out of the program. I’m assuming that the document must still exist in some form somewhere on my pc. I’m trying to find out where LibreOffice Writer placed the document while I was working on it when it created that ~lock file or how do I get LibreOffice Writer to complete the process of deleting the ~lock file and putting the actual document back in the folder.
I’m assuming that the document must still exist in some form somewhere on my pc
From which fact does this assumption derive (existence of file ~Lock.ToDoList.odt# is no evidence for this)?
> I'm trying to find out where LibreOffice Writer placed the document while I was working on it when it created that ~lock
LibreOffice creates the ~Lock.ToDoList.odt# exactly in same directory, where file ToDoList.odt was stored to or from where it has been opened. According to your comment above, ToDoList.odt was stored in ..\Documents\, if ~Lock.ToDoList.odt# is in ..\Documents\,
The assumption is based on the fact that the file was in that folder when I opened it, which is why, as you stated, LibreOffice created the ~Lock.ToDoList.odt# in that same folder. However, once I saved my work and closed LibreOffice, the ToDoList.odt file is gone and only the ~Lock.ToDoList.odt# file remains. Seems LibreOffice deleted the document and kept the Lock file.
Seems LibreOffice deleted the document and kept the Lock file.
Never heard such thing to occur.
It seems that either LibreOffice Writer or WIndows 10 deleted the original .odt file from the folder, leaving only the ~Lock file in the folder. Maybe that’s why the ~Lock file never disappeared when I saved and closed the original .odt file. I checked the Recycled bin for the deleted file, ran Windows File Recovery, and used Stellar Data Recovery. None were able to locate the missing/deleted .odt file anywhere. My PC backs up to MS Onedrive, so when the .odt file was deleted from the folder on my PC, it synced with Onedrive and deleted the .odt file in the corresponding Onedrive folder there too. But Onedrive has a file restore feature, so I was able to go into Onedrive and restore the deleted .odt file. I have no idea why the deleted file was in Onedrive’s “Recycle bin”, but is nowhere to be found locally on my machine. Not even Stellar Data Recovery could locate it.
This isn’t technically a solution to my original question, but if this ever happens to anyone else, they should be able to restore the file in the cloud depending on the cloud storage provider’s features. I also back up to Internxt, but they have no option to restore deleted files. Live and learn. Thanks to everyone that tried to help. Much appreciated.
Maybe OneDrive was synching at the moment of save, deleted from offline to match the status of an instant, and then because offline was deleted, then deleted it locally. Or maybe that’s guesswork, many examples of deletion on Microsoft forum