I went to the help facility to find out how to insert a row. When I found it my spreadsheet file was gone and I had not saved it. Is it totally lost or there is a way to claw it back, otherwise I have to re-start all over again.
In what way was the spreadsheet gone? Did you get messages or alerts?
If you can retrieve your work may depend on the circumstances and on your settings.
If LibreOffice was shut down due to a technical error you should get offered a recovery when opening LibreOffice next time if saving autorecovery information was set. This will, however, not in every case work flawlessly.
If you were editing a reopened file and closed it inadvertently without saving changes it will exist in status quo ante in your file system.
[If it was inadvertently saved in an unwanted state you may pick the formerly saved state from your backup folder if a backup setting exist.]
You should tell us more.
@Adrian32 - Please follow the advice of @Lupp.
Here is something additional for the future; you can use it if you like:
Very often I see questions on how to recover lost files. Better than attempting to recover lost data is prepare against the loss of data. To avoid a loss of a file these are 3 recommendations:
1 Check the following LibO options: Tools > options > Load/Save > General
- Save Autorecovery every x mins (the shorter the value the small a possible loss; I use 3 min)
- Automatically save document too ( I don’t use this, because I regard the autorecoverz function as excellent.)
- Always create a backup copy (download and read the free of charge LibO guide to understand how this works)
2 When you work more than a day on a file, create additional daily back ups. I use the format “filename_yymmdd.ext”
and I keep at least 1 previous version.
In case the file is extremely important and I work long hours non-stop, I add the actual time behind the date.
3 Backup the HDD in your computer onto an external HDD. External HDD in the range of 2-4 TB cost mostly less than 100 EUR. (I do this almost daily and even backup my external HDD onto another external HDD.)