External links showing wrong values

[JoBreit]

Hi all!

I have two calc files, say f1 and f2, on a Samba fileserver in my LAN. f1 contains some external links to cells in f2. Upon opening f1 on a Windows 11 client PC some of the cells with external links show wrong values (i.e. not the values contained in f2). When I close f1 and reopen it the correct values appear, at least in one experiment.

A similar error occurs when I open f1, do some work in it like adding columns, entering data in sheets s2, s3, s4, …, and then go back to sheet s1 with the external links. Even if the values of the external links were correct upon opening they may now sometimes (not always) show wrong values.

When I issue the command ‘reload’ from the LO menu, the correct values are always shown.

I have declared all relevant directories as trusted sources.

The attached screenshot shows:

• the error in cell F485 (value 163 is an incorrect (random) value, resulting in a wrong value in F494)

LO 7.5.9.2 as well as LO 24.2

My questions:

• Is this a known LO issue? I could not find anything in the forum or elsewhere.
• Could this be a Samba issue, or a Windows network configuration issue or a caching issue?
• Can the problem be solved using a different type of external link, i.e. DDE link?

I have tried in vain to reproduce the error with minimal files containing only a handful of cells.
Also, the error does not occur when I open f1 from a linux machine.

Any help is sure appreciated.

Regards
Jo

[Ash733]

I have seen similar issues where the other file isn’t trusted but I think this only relates to documents containing macros. Can you confirm the external document doesn’t contain macros and/or is added to the trusted sources list in LibreOffice?

[JoBreit]

The external document is definetely added to the list trusted sources.
As for the macros: there may be a macro to position the cursor to the end of a column (have to check). I can do without the macro - should I remove it?

[JoBreit]

Have checked: no macros in the document

[Ash733]

Can you humour me and add it as a trusted document (or add the path) anyway? I think it only applies to documents with macros but I could be wrong.

EDIT: Nevermind, I just saw your other post I initially missed saying it is a trusted document.

[Ash733]

Have been playing around with this and wonder if something’s broken.

If I link data using a DDE link (Paste Special/Link)
or
If I link data with a direct reference to another workbook

I can’t get the Edit Links/Update field to enable at all. Both options are greyed out and unselectable. DDE Links are supposed to enable this option (Edit External Links).

This is with security disabled and folders added as trusted also.

This results in the document always prompting to update links when the document is opened. Like you, recalculate or update from the edit links window result in the correct information being displayed.

But yours isn’t prompting to update, and still not updating the figures - correct?

[JoBreit]

My document does not prompt me for updating.
And yes, options are greyed out. Strange indeed.

[JoBreit]

I can meanwhile add that the error occurs on a Linux LO 7.1.4.2, too.

[Ash733]

@JoBreit can you submit a bug report at https://bugs.libreoffice.org and then post the bug number here and I’ll add my 2c worth also.

[JoBreit]

Will do that. May take a while because I am on vacation til the end of Aug.
I have been on the bug site.
Have little hope since. There are several bugs concerning external links malfunctioning…

[fpy]

@JoBreit

incorrect (random) value

should at least have been a timeline where the value was correct ?

[JoBreit]

No, the document was showing the incorrect value right from the start after being loaded