LibreOffice deleted all of my files

They were all saved, manually, many, many times. My computer did an update and LibreOffice dumped my files. They’re nowhere to be found. Is there a way to get them back? Or, perhaps, a way to prevent this from happening again?

Why do you accuse LibO if an update, supposedly of the OperatingSystem, caused a problem?
I am using LibO and its predecessors for 20 years now and never experiend a related problem.
In your case I would suggest you find a user experienced with the OS in the first place, and trying a solution while sitting in front of your computer…

Furthermore, best practice is to backup your system before any updates or upgrades. I can say this boldly, as I have done the reverse, and fully suffered the consequences, and now I am more diligent at doing this pre-upgrade backup. Sorry if you didn’t have a backup before you started your upgrade. Learn from it and move on. And do a really good search for your older stuff, and if you can’t find it then, allow yourself to grieve, then start again. have been there.

Furthermore, best practice is to backup your system before any updates or upgrades. I can say this boldly, as I have done the reverse, and fully suffered the consequences, and now I am more diligent at doing this pre-upgrade backup. Sorry if you didn’t have a backup before you started your upgrade. Learn from it and move on. And do a really good search for your older stuff, and if you can’t find it then, allow yourself to grieve, then start again. have been there.

There is absolutely no way in which LO can delete your files - it is completely impossible. Your files are still there and if they are not, something else has caused them to disappear. But trust me - they are still there.

Prove it by going Start > type zebra into the Search box, where zebra is a word you know has been used in one or more of your LO files. This will find all files on your PC containing the word zebra. If you run Unix then use zipgrep to do the search.

You have probably merely lost the file association between LO and its file types which says use LO to open .odt files.

Google default programs or set file associations to fix the problem.

If this helps then please tick the answer and/or show you like it with an uptick.

Hello guys,

Yes, I agree with Lupp. I also believe that the data is not vanished because of LibreOffice. It might be possible that the OS you are using is making the issue or the storage is not working properly. To get your lost data I would suggest you to try the Stellar Phoenix Windows data recovery – Home. This tool allows recovering 1GB data at free of cost. I believe this tool can troubleshoot your data loss problem.

The EXACT same thing just happened to me… I had 7 manuscripts open, each one 100,000+ words (I’m an author), suddenly my computer automatically turned off to install updates - no warning (even though I have it set to ask first :frowning: )

When it came back on, LibreOffice opened, did not ask to restore docs like it usually does.

When I try to open “recent documents” I get a message from LO saying “file does not exist”.

When I go to the folder, low and behold, not only is the file not there - the folder it was in is gone to.

Normally I follow the LO data backup path to find the file. Nope. That says “folder empty” nothing there.

I go to start and search PC for the file name. It says “no search results found”.

I look in file history. It says “file history empty”.
It’s like this automatic update, wiped my computer back to brand new state and just deleted my files and folders… but not all of them, just the ones that had been open at the time it did the automatic update.

I’ve spent the last 6 months writing that novel, it’s due to be published next week, I can’t find it anywhere?

I’ve tried the stuff mentioned in the answers, so far nothing works.

Too the OP:… have you found a way to recover your lost files yet? If so, please post here to let us know. Whatever that update was, it must have been the same one I got, because it happened same time and has same results.

So frustrating. I’m using Windows 10… are you? Any clue what the computer was updating that could have caused this?

I agree with other users it’s probably not LO, but rather Windows that’s the problem. I came here hoping someone had and answer how to fix this and so far this thread is all I’ve found. Oh well. I’ll keep looking for answers. If I find one I’ll try to remember to come back here and let you know.


OMG! It’s like 10 minutes since I posted this and I’m back to edit it because, I found my files!!! And I think I know what happened.

I had them originally saved in F:\epubs\folder-name\file-name

It moved them to: F:\bookcovers\file-name

in other words it saved them in the next folder (alphabetically) above the folder they were originally in. Not sure why it did that. But, try checking in the other folders that start with the same letter (C:\ etc) as where they were originally, and see if it did the same thing to your’s that it did to mine.


oh, and I found them, by using the free trial version of a program called Data Recovery Pro http://www.any-data-recovery.com/product/datarecoveryprofessional.htm

I had googled “data recovery” and it was the top result Google gave me, so, I tried it and, in about 3 minutes it had found all “recently moved” files; showed me a list of files that had recently been moved, and gave me the path to find them. That’s how I discovered they were saved in a different place then they should have been.

Now that I know how it moved them, I should be able to just look in other folders if it happens again, without any need to download that app again.

Hopefully this helps you.

OMG! I am so glad I found my files. I’ve been in a panic for the past few hours trying to find them.