Issue with disabling LibreOffice automatic background update check in headless mode (bundled portable installation)

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#1

Hi everyone,

I’m using Java’s ProcessBuilder to call LibreOffice command line for document conversion to PDF (e.g., soffice --headless --convert-to pdf …). The basic conversion works fine.

To make deployment easier, I bundle a compressed LibreOffice installation directory with my application. During my app’s installation, this directory is extracted and used directly (like a portable setup – no MSI installer).

The problem: On the conversion job (headless launch), LibreOffice triggers a background automatic update check. This is very slow, causes conversion timeouts/errors, and on intranet/offline machines generates a lot of “update error” logs. Subsequent conversions are fast and normal.

I cannot allow any background update behavior due to product security policies (no outbound connections permitted).

I’ve tried the following without success:

  1. During initial setup, manually disable the online update module via UI – but automatic check still happens on first headless start.
  2. Edit the user profile’s registrymodifications.xcu to disable update checks – this only affects UI mode; headless still performs the check.
  3. Open LibreOffice GUI once, disable all auto-update options via Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Online Update, then re-bundle the modified installation directory – still triggers on first headless job.
  4. Delete update-settings.ini in installation dir and clear contents of program/update.ini – this stops the check when online, but on offline machines it still attempts the update every time (very slow + logs errors).

Is there a reliable way to completely disable the background update check, especially for headless/portable use cases?

  • Preferably a configuration file, environment variable, or command-line flag that works without needing a GUI launch or user profile.
  • Or a way to pre-configure the bundled installation so the start skips the update entirely.

Additional info:

  • LibreOffice version: [25.2.6.2 ]
  • OS: Windows server 2022/2019 Win11
  • Running as portable (extracted folder, no system installation).

Any help or workaround would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

#3

It looks as if you configured things, that should do the trick for you in that version (even though you never explained sufficiently, what exactly did you configure / disabled - your text is vague enough…). However, it would only work, if you use the same profile for the GUI and headless session. Are you using LibreOffice in these two modes from the same user account? (But likely, this is not relevant for the portable version; I don’t know that for sure.) Are you using an -env:UserInstallation parameter? Here, again, your question is vague, only mentioning ellipsis after the beginning of your command line, allowing for interpretations. Unless you upgrade to a version that has that problem fixed, you need to make sure that the profile where you disabled the updater is the same profile you use headless. If you use a dedicated or temporary profile, then you need to use a profile template, or generate the needed settings programmatically.

#2

upgrade
→ 167676 – MAR updater must not run is headless mode

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