Can't Save Documents (Error: file does not exist – duh ;)

English
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#1

Hello,

I’ve been using Libre Office the past few years and have been a happy user :slight_smile:

A while ago, I started getting multiple error messages upon trying to save a new file (no matter if Writer, Impress etc.) in my home directory or anywhere on the system:

  1. Error saving the document “Untitled 1”: [path to file if it would’ve been saved] doesn’t exist.
    [I press OK]
  2. [same error message again]
    [I press OK]
  3. Error saving the document “Untitled 1”: write error. The file could not be written.

I’ve translated these error messages into English (my LO installation is set to German).

I used to restart my system, and it’d work again after that (sometimes two restarts were necessary). Now, however, after upgrading to Linux Mint 21, this has stopped working.

I’ve experimented a bit with safe mode to diagnose the issue. On the first try, I selected the option to reset to factory settings and clear UI customizations and the entire user profile. In this instance, everything worked perfectly. Even after starting LO normally, saving documents was still functional.
Of course, that would’ve been too easy a solution, because after a system restart, the error reappeared – and safe mode doesn’t help now either. :frowning:

In case you’d like to take a look at my user profile, I’ve exported it via the safe mode “advanced” settings. Here it is (the file format wasn’t accepted by the forum).

Any ideas? I’ve tried starting Libre Office Writer via the command line to get logs (this method scared me off), but it isn’t very chatty. Can I enable a verbose option or something similar?

Thank you for making the LO community awesome!

System info:
Version: 7.3.7.2 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 30(Build:2)
CPU threads: 12; OS: unknown; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: de-DE (de_DE.UTF-8); UI: de-DE
Ubuntu package version: 1:7.3.7-0ubuntu0.22.04.2
Calc : threaded

1 Like
#2

Same here, I have the same exact problem using Arch Linux as a distribution, and french as locale.

#3

Very similar problem. I’m using
LO version 7.6.2.1
on a
MacBook Air running on OS Sonoma 14.5.

I create a new LibreOffice Writer document, enter some text (or, sometimes, paste text in from an internet source), write or copy-paste a name for the file. Depending on what file folder I decide to put the new file in, either the warning about ‘path to file does not exist’ pops up immediately after I choose a folder in which to put the new document, OR such a warning pops up after I click the “Save” button.

Thank you.

#4

Hi @Catlike . This thread is for Ubuntu not Mac. It would have been better to open your own question as any fix won’t be relevant to the original poster.

Have you given LibreOffice full disc access in Mac preferences?

#5

Just did it. Thank you for the advice. I apologize for mis-filing my inquiry.

#6

Hi. I hope you are well and in good spirits.

I’m not the only one who has had trouble saving a newly-created Writer document to a specific folder.
I am using version 7.6.2.1 on a MacBook Air that’s running OS 14.6.1.

The problem: I create a new document in LibreOffice Writer; I use the “save” dialogue to give it a name and to select a folder in which to put it; an error window pops up that says the document cannot be found or does not exist or some such.

I have gone into the Mac system settings and toggled the switch to allow LibreOffice full disk access, as was suggested in some community post.
Oddly, that worked for a while, but now the problem is back.

Please suggest a fix I can enact.

LibreOffice folks ought to look into repairing this. Other users have posted about this problem which apparently arose in a version update.

Greg

#7

You may need to remove full disk access for previous version of LibreOffice and then give it to the new version

#8

Uh-oh – that’s going to be a day’s work to figure out…
Thank you for suggesting this anyway…

#9

Just save all your documents somewhere in your home directory on local drive. If you need some backup on a plug-in drive or network drive, just copy the file to that place after editing. Many “cloud services” allow for linking a directory within your home directory to some cloud space. In this case, you store your work to that local, reliable, available directory on your local drive and the service will try to keep everything in sync.

Ubuntu distributes late versions of LibreOffice as so called “flatpaks”. These packages are not well integrated in the surrounding system. They do not even see the /tmp directory. Install some slightly older Debian package from the Ubuntu app store. Or download and install the Debian package from libreoffice.org.

DebianPackage from https://libreoffice.org Debian Package From Ubuntu Container Package
Up to date √ — √
Fully featured √ √ * —
Automatic upgrade — — √
Automatic update — √ √
  • together with complimentary packages from same source, e.g. database connectivity.

Update: Bugs and security fixes 24.2.0 24.2.1 24.2.2. 24.2.3 until end of distribution support
Upgrade: Bugs and security fixes but also new releases 24.2. … 24.8. … 25.2 … 25.8 …

#10

Nitpick: they don’t use flatpak but instead their own snap bundles.

#11

I always confuse product names.

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