Dissapeared Database

Martulus · July 17, 2024, 8:46pm

Hi all,

Been a while, but soldiering on, until now. For the record, using LibreOffice 24.2. Also kept 7.3 on. All on Ubuntu Linux. Pretty stable.

I was working in my database, and had just finished with a report. Saved it. Came out to the Base page with tables, queries, reports, forms. Tried to save the database, wouldn’t take. Exited without saving, thinking, no problem, all substantial work and data was saved before, so any new stuff could be recreated easily.

Re-entered to continue work. BOOM, nothing. Everything has disappeared. No tables. No queries. No forms. No reports. The file showed a blank page. My file manager shows the file is now ZERO bytes. I’ve looked high and low. In backups, under the table, in the cornfield. NOTHING. Btw, no pictures, just linked tables with text, a few queries, forms for data entry to the tables, and reports from them.

Can anyone help me out here? I really don’t know what to do next… any and all assistance appreciated.

Wanderer · July 17, 2024, 9:29pm

Depends. If you really checked everything, there is not much hope left. You could use special tools too undelete stuff (search for .zip-files), but this is usually done directly after a problem, and you should avoid writing on the disk.
.
But your “looked high and low. In backups, under the table, in the cornfield.” is not absolutely convincing me, you know, what you did…

You have a backup-system running under Ubuntu like back-in-time or do manual backups?
You have activated to save the previous version, when you save something?
You checked the backups folder in fhe hidden profile?
I guess you useed an embedded database? If not, your data may be safe, but the .odb would have contained queries, forms and reports…

Martulus · July 18, 2024, 12:59am

Immediately after the loss, I started searching. Haven’t done any work since then. Went to the autosave folder in LO, nothing resembling it. I guess it’s gone. I have some produced reports I will have to revisit, to recapture the data previously used. I’ll switch to a fully MySQL database going forward…

Martulus · July 22, 2024, 4:43pm

Ok. I believe I have found a bug.
I recreated the conditions under which the last disappearance occurred, and it happened again. This time, data is safe, using a MySQL backend.
The problem occurs when using LO 24.2, in the Report Builder. At a certain point, it does not want to save, and when you close the application, you lose everything. Forms, reports, anything in there.
Will try it with LO 7.3 and see what happens. Maybe it’s the Report Builder itself. If it happens with LO 7.3, then the Report Builder has a problem that is beyond my expertise. Keep everyone posted, and see if anyone has the same problem.

Wanderer · July 22, 2024, 5:04pm

You seem to work without any backups. While not recommended, it is your decision… Usually I use “File>save a copy” before and after I do anything complicated, error-prone or just tedious to reproduce.

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Videos/Preventing_data_disaster

On your special topic: Report-builder is not really the most “stable” tool when creating reports, so your problem max be there. But at some times I had similiar problems with Windows, but I noticed only the usual Save/SaveAs had problems. I could save by macro, an I detected I could switch from OS-dialog to LibreOffice-File-dialog via tools->options and save then. So problem seemed to be in connection to Windows-Explorer… (Problem vanished some day, but I see Explorer restarting sometimes)

Martulus · July 22, 2024, 5:52pm

Pleased to report, i do backup, and did. Sometimes the work flows and you get caught up in it, but not this time, so I had all but the last bit saved… I’ll be shopping around for something else to do the front end in soon… suggestions welcome.

RobertG · July 23, 2024, 6:03am

You are using a LibreOffice version from Ubuntu - right? Think it is the same problem as it is here for a special package for OpenSUSE: Reports couldn’t be executed.

Please try the packages from LibreOffice directly. With this packages the ReportBuilder will work.

Note: ReportBuilder isn’t very stable since report will be edited. So save the content often, also save the database file (without closing the ReportBuilder window). Executing of reports won’t show this instability.