How to delete a "lost/missing" file from within LibreOffice or any App (Mac or PC)?

[NMsd]

Solutions have been offered on this forum to deleting files that are hard to find or misplaced that rely on using the native file system to search for the “lost” document. The subject is considered closed, but no one has offered a way to use LibreOffice (which knows that the file exists somewhere) itself to complete the deletion task. For 20 years I have been using the following method to delete misplaced files.

To delete a file (using LibreOffice as an example), go to “File Open”. (If you have the file opened the folder it is contained in is shown. You can also search for the file name in the top-right Search). Right-click on the document and select “Move to Trash” (Mac option, likely something like Delete File on a PC). You can delete any file using this method, not just LibreOffice documents. You also (on a Mac) chose to Rename, Duplicate or Show in Finder. This will delete the file that you have opened. LIbreOffice’s Start Center will show the file moved to the Trash Folder.

If the folder the document was created, or last saved in, was moved using the file system you will have to search for the file (as described above) to find it and delete it. LibreOffice Start Center will show it as not available when clicked to Open.

[Wanderer]

@NMsd

Mac option, likely something like Delete File on a PC

Careful - there is more than on Operating system beyond Apple. We can choose Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, NetBSD …
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The default on a Win10 is to use system-dialogue when open/save files. So you are actually using the Windows-Explorer. And you have all options to rename/delete Explorer will allow you. So basically your suggestion is the same where you started at: Use the tools of the OS.

[NMsd]

My suggestion is not to use the tools of the OS (Finder, Windows Explorer, etc.) to find misplaced flies. It is using the App/Exe which can more easily locate the file to delete, or find it.

The method I described I learned on a PC with Windows. I assume that the method still works on Windows. I do not see any reason for you to try to disregard my comment in favor of using the more cumbersome way method of the file system to search and find a missing file.

So basically your suggestion is, don’t use the easier way of the App/Exe itself, exit the App/Exe and use the tools of the OS which takes more time.

[ajlittoz]

Here LO 7.3.5.2 under Fedora 36 with KDE Plasma desktop.

Even when Use LibreOffice dialogs is selected in Tools>Options, LibreOffice>General, I have no such “Search” box/command. I can effectively right-click on filename to Rename or Delete it only.

With the OS dialogs, there is no “Search” box either, but right-click is much richer.

However, I wouldn’t use such filesystem commands from inside LO because I’d fear that some failsafe measures are not implemented, thus not allowing to recover from a typo or an error.

IMHO, filesystem commands are better implemented and optimised in a file browser with probably more features. Contemporary computers are multi-task. You can always leave open one filebrowser window simultaneously with LO-document windows. Switching from one to the other is just one click away (or one keyboard press like Ctl+Tab under KDE). Of course, YMMV and your routine is legitimate to be different from mine.

[NMsd]

The Search option is in LibreOffice’s Save dialog. So, from LibreOffice > File > Save. This Search is also built into Save As, and Open. The benefit of using the App/Exe to find a file using the native file system is that an App/Exe knows where it last saved a file. That information is not known to the native file system.
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LibreOffice also has a Start Center which seems to only be available if no files are opened in it. All you see is LibreOffice with File as the only dropdown option. (Not even Help appears.) Chose Start Center from File and you will see all your Recent Documents. This Start Center does not seem to track if a file has been relocated, deleted or renamed – it tell you exactly where a file was last seen regardless of what has happened to it since. If you click on such a file in this Center you will get an Error message stating the file does not exist, and it also shows you the full path where the file was last saved. The last known full file path can help you find a file if it was saved on an external/remote drive.

[mikekaganski]

@ajlittoz : @NMsd doesn’t realize that they are talking about system file dialogs, which are not a property of LibreOffice, but are just windows created by OS (Window Managers) when LibreOffice asks; and thus, they are different on different systems (may or may not provide search capability and so on).

And well, sometimes I’m also lazy to go and take a screwdriver, and use a spoon; sometimes the spoon is even convenient enough for the task

[NMsd]

@mikekaganski … Don’t troll.

[NMsd]

What mikek does not understand is that LibreOffice, and most apps/exes, KNOW where they last saved a file. LibreOffice using the system dialog (Save, Open, Start Center) will show you. Windows-Explore/Finder, etc. do not know where an App last saved a file.

[ajlittoz]

I don’t think @mikekaganski trolls. He’s a very knowledgeable and understanding guy.

It looks to me that you expect too much from the “Recent Documents” feature in LO (or the Start Center which is a visual feedback of it). IMHO it is a poor substitute for a methodical work-flow procedure. I prefer to structure myself my work directories with dedicated sub-directories and group all project/prospect/case documents in a specific directory. And then I don’t use the recent documents feature. I leave a file browser window open on my desktop, pointing on the currently active directory. This window is automatically reopened when my session is restarted.

I find this routine more reliable than “Recent Documents” because this list is somehow limited (I switch between different activities during a single day and this would frequently overflow my “Recent Documents” list with one-shot type-and-forget entries).

[NMsd]

Ajittiz: It looks to me that you expect too little from the Save, Open, and Start Center options built into LibreOffice, or any most Apps/Exes.
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“Knowledgable” mike wrote: “sometimes I’m also lazy to go and take a screwdriver, and use a spoon; sometimes the spoon is even convenient enough for the task ” This entirely discounts the option I posted (an insult) and directs people to it his, and other’s, more difficult way. It surprises me that they do not understand that Exes/Apps know where they last saved a file, and file managers do not. It is far easier to find and delete missing/lost/misplaced files using the Exe/App it was last saved in.
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Maybe my 40+ years of using PCs and Macs does not qualify me as being “knowledgable”. My first PC was suitcase sized and featured a C: prompt and a postcard sized green text screen.

[NMsd]

@ajlittoz

I find this routine more reliable than “Recent Documents” because this list is somehow limited (I switch between different activities during a single day and this would frequently overflow my “Recent Documents” list with one-shot type-and-forget entries).

Please note that this thread is about finding lost/missing/misplaced files. It is not about using an App in lieu of a file management system. The first responders have managed to change the topic, as your comment proves.

[mikekaganski]

Are you talking about one single specific task that this could be useful for, namely: when one saved a file somewhere, and immediately realized that they don’t know where?

Because it’s useless for any other task.
FTR: each dialog can have own MRU location: e.g., on Windows, if you open a file using File Open dialog from one location, and save using Save As dialog to another, the Open dialog and the Save dialog would have different saved directories (same for export).

Then, as soon as you open a file, a Save dialog would default to the open file location, overwriting the saved one.

And as soon as you saved to a different directory, you won’t be able to find “misplaced” files from older days, which is the usual problem for users.

And no, I can’t take seriously “solutions” that misuse tools based on misunderstanding, offering such a solution for users who, by definition (based on the task we discuss here) know even less about file management. That would only create more chaos in their understanding, and increase some users’ misconception that the software “owns” its files.

[Wanderer]

@NMsd

I assume that the method still works on Windows. I do not see any reason for you to try to disregard my comment in favor of using the more cumbersome way method of the file system to search and find a missing file.

No my point is - especially for windows - the tools are THE SAME. So your suggestion is misleading.
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I try to illustrate this with a side by side screenshot:
To le left “inside” libre, to the right the view with Explorer.
You find the the identical search-box in the upper right for example.

The desktop is german but you may see my point.
As my desktop is a bit modified the “cumbersome” explorer even show additional
tools…
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Essentially Libre Office uses a common service of Windows here, so users can use the same dialogue across all programs. (There is the option to use own dialogues by LibreOffice but I’ve never seen a search box there.)

@NMsd

Windows-Explore/Finder, etc. do not know where an App last saved a file.

Windows does know, just check the menue for recent files in Windows. It shows this for all applications. This can be a problem, because my use of Notepad++ may fill the recent list, so I will not see the last file from Writer or Calc.
(The file-system is part of the operating-system. So if Windows “wants” to track this, it will know this.)

[ajlittoz]

@NMsd

this thread is about finding lost/missing/misplaced files

Yep. Apps may know where they last saw some file but they won’t know where it was moved when using the file system. To the best of my knowledge, only MacOS Classic starting with 7.0 was capable of tracking file moves through its use of ‘alis’ resources (one in the “link” or “alias” designator and one per link in the real file) so that a file was never “lost”. But this was more than 30 years ago.

Since there is no definitive technical answer to this problem, my suggested aimed at an organisational workaround. When a file is misplaced among a backlog of thousands, there not many things you can do. I use the file find utility on my computer with a filename regular expression if I have some idea about its name or, slower possibility, a search on contents, provided there is a plugin to access contents.

[NMsd]

@mikekaganski

Are you talking about one single specific task that this could be useful for, namely: when one saved a file somewhere, and immediately realized that they don’t know where?

Yes, in the title of the thread. “Lost/missing” file. And yes, there are many topics on the forum that are closed and tell people the only solution is to use the native film system and hunt and search.

[NMsd]

@ajlittoz

@NMsd

this thread is about finding lost/missing/misplaced files

To the best of my knowledge, only MacOS Classic starting with 7.0 was capable of tracking file moves through its use of ‘alis’ resources (one in the “link” or “alias” designator and one per link in the real file) so that a file was never “lost”. But this was more than 30 years ago.

Since there is no definitive technical answer to this problem, my suggested aimed at an organisational workaround. When a file is misplaced among a backlog of thousands, there not many things you can do. I use the file find utility on my computer with a filename regular expression if I have some idea about its name or, slower possibility, a search on contents, provided there is a plugin to access contents.

The simplest solution to find a misplaced file is using the App/Exe which last saved/opened it. I know how to use regex. Most people do not.

[NMsd]

@ajlittoz

Yep. Apps may know where they last saw some file but they won’t know where it was moved when using the file system.

LibreOffice offers a Start Center which keeps track of where a file was last opened/saved, including the full directory path, which does not change if a file was moved, deleted or renamed. Knowing where a file was last saved/opened can help someone track down the file.

You can search these forums and look for solutions to “I don’t know where the App save my file” and none of them offer the solution of using the App itself for that purpose.

[Wanderer]

@NMsd

Knowing where a file was last saved/opened can help someone track down the file.

Sure it can help, but your title read

How to delete a “lost/missing” file

This is something you do after you found it. And I usually assume a lost file is not in recent files. So sorry for completly misreading your title and description to delete a file. Have fun with your style.

[NMsd]

“Something you do after you found it” applies to the majority of LibreOffice users. You can also Delete and Rename files using my simple method by right-clicking the file name. Most users do not know that they can do some file management in Save and Open dialogs, and they don’t know you can right-click on a file name and do other tasks.
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Do you have a solution using your “style” for finding files opened and closed by a specific App? Please address that LibreOffice allows saving files in many different formats, including MS Office. (Did LibreOffice save that spreadsheet as .ops or .xlsx?) So, searching only for .ods files is not a solution.
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Best wishes.