When I cmd+click to open links to local files in LibreOffice Calc 7.1.5.2, I persistently get the following message:
“file:///local path/parent directory/filename.tif” cannot be passed to an external application to open it (e.g. it might not be an absolute URL, or might denote no existing file).
I’m using macOS 11.5.2 to work with a .xls database that was originally created in Excel on Windows XP around 20 years ago. The creator has since died and can’t help me resolve the problem. This message only comes up when working on a Mac. In Windows 10, the links all open correctly, but I want to be able to search it while using macOS.
I’ve opened these links successfully on Mac a few weeks ago, but since then I always get this error message.
I’ve tried toggling the Load/Save preference item “Save URLs relative to file system” without success, as well as attempting to manually relink some of the files, also without success. Moving the folder onto Macintosh HD or to a different external drive doesn’t fix it either.
I saw that this issue was listed as a bug a few years ago, but it has apparently been fixed since then.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Additional context:
I have no experience building or maintaining databases but I am good with computers and learn quickly. This is an academic database that will no longer be updated by the original archivists, as they have retired or died, and it is only available locally (no web version).
The relevant directory hierarchy looks like this (more levels when stored on internal drive):
External drive (exFAT)
Top level directory
Parent directory
data.xls
all files with hyperlinks in data.xls
The overwhelming majority of the thousands of links in this spreadsheet are TIFs—a few are PDFs—and all of them live in the same directory as the .xls file. And it doesn’t need to access anything on the network or internet.