Content of LibreOffice Calc file completely wiped. Any idea how this might have happened?

I hope this is the right place to ask, I usually prefer finding stuff out on my own but in this case I’m not sure what happened under the hood to cause this.
If somebody is wondering why I’m mentioning rclone and OneDrive, it is because I assume that a failed sync might be a reason for this thing happening?
In the end any software involved in this scenario is famouse/flagship Linux software, so I’m really curious what could’ve cause such a critical error. I’m also, of course, worried that this could happen again if I keep working with the same setup.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! :grinning:

What happened (from a user perspective)

  • I opened a LibreOffice Calc file that is backuped to OneDrive using rclone
  • I changed something
  • I saved
  • I turned off the machine
  • Later I rebooted
  • I tried to open the file again

Expected Result:

  • The file opens with the contents I had last entered

Actual Result:

  • The file opens as an empty text, it did not even open in LibreOffice Calc anymore
  • Any contents in the file were wiped, any, like the file was 0KB afterwards

My setup

  • Linux Mint 22.1 Xfce
  • Uptodate LibreOffice Calc
  • OneDrive personal cloud
  • rclone (see rclone setup)

Other forums I’ve asked this in

Just for transparency, since I’m not sure who the culprit is I’ve also asked this in the Linux Mint Forum and the rclone Forum.

Any idea how this might have happened?

Why can data be lost?

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And you are doing right. I very much suspect rclone (well, I don’t claim it’s “guilty”, just that its operation may interfere, and that needs checking). Any live copy is a suspect in such cases - e.g., could it incorrectly assume at some point, that it needs to clone an in-write file, which content was erased, but new one wasn’t written? (Actually, I believe that there is never such a state in LO; we create a temporary file, store the new content there, still keeping the old file intact; and only in the end, we replace the old file with the new one. But still - I’d test with and without rclone, to see if it makes a difference; and only then, try to figure what is the exact sequence of events leading to the problem, and how to fix it, including the question, on which side the fault is).

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Thanks for the information but it is difficult to tell how this could apply to my situation, e.g. “The edited file was not saved, or the saving process was interrupted.”, I mean an “interruption” of the saving process could probably lead to that outcome but the big question then is why was the saving process interrupted? I used all these applications as intended.

Generally a good approach but I do not think that this will be easy to deterministically reproduce. I imagine this is a flaky bug. I will however try to reproduce it when I’ve got some time on my hands.

I think LO Calc saves logs by default? Should I look for something specific in those logs (if they exist)?

No; and not only “by default”, but even we don’t have any logging ability in non-debug builds at all. Which is a pity, but.

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Ok, so LibreOffice can in no way “prove” that it is not the responsible party for the data loss. In that case I tend to assume that this did not happen because of rclone/OneDrive but that it’s probably a LO Calc issue. I will further observe this but this might lead to me switching my spreadsheet application.

I’d think this is the critical sequence, if you don’t wait enough until the the save is completed. Saving (especially first save after opening) can take a bit longer.
.
Second point to consider: You seem to leave the file “open”. This state is more vulnerable than a closed filed on your disk. This depends also on the notifications to LibreOffice on shutdown/hibernate, and if there is time to react.

But me clicking on save and immediately turning of the machine surely should not result in complete data loss of the file, right?

But me leaving the file open after saving and immediately turning of the machine surely should not result in complete data loss of the file, right?