Is there a way to NOT lose your customized preferences when you update LO ? Each time i install an update i have to spend half the day sorting everything back out. Have to re register databases and re customize all of my preferences (i think tool bars too get reset). This seems like a totally unbelievable oversight, so perhaps i am doing something wrong when i update??? This last update triggered a .ods repair which rolled back to a previous version of my .ods (45 days old)… and then (i am guessing) it deleted my current copy and all other backups!!! So i lost 45 days of data that cannot be recreated. Surely LO is not designed this way so i must be doing something wrong.
This happens only on your computer. Updating LO keeps your customized preferences. Everything, including macro code, templates, dictionaries is stored in the user’s profile folder.
May be you should simply shut down LO completely before running the installer. In the Windows task manager kill anything named with “soffice”.
Are you under Window$? My preferences have survived decades of LO updates and Linux upgrades. So you might consider switching to another OS (Mac or any other).
Same here on Linux and Windows as well. However, Windows may be a can of worms. All kinds of snake oil messing around with your data, configuration, installation routines and other processes.
Surely. But it doesn’t tamper with the LibreOffice user profile. I accept Win for specific reasons, and install next to every update of LibO (to keep up with questioners and bug discussions). The windows installer automatically called due to the .msi extension of my downloaded update file easily finds the location of the previous instal and that of the existing associated profile of the unchanged user.
As a Win standard: Everything is kept and accessible nicely if only you do NOT uninstall the previous version, and accept the standard paths. If you made a mistake, want to change a path, or install for a different user, you can copy your old user profile to the new valid location and it will be used. (Changed user requires to update the user information stored to the profile later later.)
It’s different if you install a developer version. Tell me if you did.
You might consider if this statement is misleading and should be reworked.
The customized settings are preserved by default. No need to “keep” them explicitly.
BTW:;
Win users aren’t expected to call the Options “Preferences”. It’s Mac speak.
I can’t tell anything about the behaviour of MSX on OS updates.
Uh, well…i do not install apps onto my windows drive/partition. If you value your sanity at all, it is absolutely necessary to put the widows OS on a partition all it’s own and then put apps, documents, downloads, pics, videos, etc… (basically, everything else) on other partition(s). Since windows regularly tries to eat itself whole, it must be reinstalled pretty regularly… and that screws up anything else that happens to be located on the same partition. Why windows does not install itself this way by default is anyone’s guess, but this would save a bzillion headaches. Why on earth do all apps install to C: by default? This requires you to reinstall each and every app you use after a windows clean reinstall. That’s just crazy. So, no… i do not let Libre install to C: drive. Libre allows you to install it to a different location and i do. Nowhere in that process does it warn me that i will lose all my preferences and have to reset all kinds of stuff after a libre update. True enough, i have no choice but to reinstall everything anyway since the new windows registry has no references to any of my apps until i reinstall them. But at least this way windows does not delete all of my data.
Can’t confirm your experiences.
Anyway, for decades now my drives C: and D: are only partitions on the same HD (first) or SSD (now) storage device.
I really don’t “like” Win much, and MS much less. But there also are rumours.
In addition I would assume, the Win registry will also keep the correct location of your LibO install if located on a different drive. I will not test this, however.
You may have a problem with the User/AppData/Roaming location. But that’s a Win specific. You can make copies/backups of the LibO user profile anywhere. If Win actually then crashed its “own” drive, you only need to restore that profile folder.
You have seen in the comments, your situation is quite unusual. But lets accept this for the moment.
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The way not to loose your settings would be to backup them. (I usually suggest to keep %APPDATA% in your backup-scheme anyway, as in windows this is also the place for your browsers bookmarks, Thunderbirds emails etc, if you don’t move them.).
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So type %APPDATA% in your Explorer to open the hidden path and make a copy of the folder LibreOffice\4 before you update.
Now you are able to restore the complete folder after updates.
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Btw: Do you use some software to automate your updates or have some “cleaning”- tasks in your security system? They may interfere with the typical behaviour, where the profile is not changed on updates.
LibreOffice user profile - The Document Foundation Wiki).-,Expert%20information,Options%20%E2%96%B8%20LibreOffice%20%E2%96%B8%20Paths.
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