LibreOffice crashing on change window focus - MacOS Ventura

LibreOffice has begun crashing whenever I switch window focus between open LO windows. This problem has occurred only recently.

I am using the latest version of LO (7.4.2) but the problem does not seem to be version-related as I have tried the previous version and also rolled back to earlier versions. However, the problem may be related to the recently-released new version of MacOS Ventura.

There are various ways to switch window focus between open LO windows.

  1. Mac keyboard: Command+Tilde
  2. LO icon in dock - right-click and select the window you want to focus on
  3. LO menu bar at top - under Window menu.
  4. Use Mac’s Mission Control

Of the above, only the keyboard shortcut (Command+Tilde) and selecting from the dock icon cause the crash. Switching windows with either of the other options works as it should.

Can anyone else reproduce this problem. It was working perfectly until recently. The only recent change for me has been the update to MacOS Ventura.

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I am current using V7.4.1.2 of LO, but I just downloaded V7.4.2. Will install it shortly. I am wondering, though, about LO and compatibility with Ventura, OS 13.0. In actuality, there is beta version of Ventura, V13.1b, that is now being tested. I am planning on downloading V13.1 when it is released, installing it on an external SSD, migrate all my “stuff” to that SSD, and doing testing. But I have yet to see anything official as to whether LO is compatible.

Anyone have an update?

I seem to be having the same problem. It started only after I updated to Ventura. LO was working fine on my Mac before the update. Not very technically inclined so not sure how to address it.

Good to hear I’m not alone. There was an update to Apple Ventura today but that has not fixed the problem, alas.

I have fiddled around endlessly but can’t fix it. I am managing to work around it in the way described in my original comment. The problem does not occur with any other apps on my Mac. Only LibreOffice.

I am having the same problem. It is causing major delays in getting work done. :slight_smile: Hopefully, someone can find a fix ASAP.

Same problem here. I’ve got four Presentations open to cut and paste slides between them and, as a habitual keyboard user, it’s driving me mad! Hopefully some kind tech person from the great LibreOffice community or from Apple, or both, will sort this out for us!

Just a quick update on this problem.

I see that various bugs have been reported with similar MacOS/LibreOffice crashing problems related to window switching/resizing etc.

There may now be a fix. From what I read, it is being pushed out in the daily builds and should be included in the 7.5 (and 7.4.4) release of LO.

Here’s the link to the bug report. I haven’t been able to test the daily build with the fix because there isn’t a MacOS silicon daily build update yet (the one showing on the daily builds site dated 28 Nov is faulty and won’t open, so I’m waiting for that to be fixed).

So I emphasise may because I haven’t been able to test this yet.

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=148435

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Ok, so after doing a little more googling, I saw where someone mentioned Command+Tilde still working after turning on Stage Manager (a new feature in Ventura). I turned this on (in System Settings > Desktop & Dock) and this seems to fix the problem.

I have only been testing this for a few minutes since turning it on, but so far, so good. I’ll keep you posted.

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Thank you for this, John. I have just tried this on my side. As you say, if I turn on Stage Manager, Command+Tilde then switches between the various open windows of LibreOffice as it should.

If I then turn Stage Manager off again, the crashing problem resumes and LO crashes when I switch windows.

It’s great that you have managed to narrow down the problem.

Up to now I have kept Stage Manager switched off because I don’t particularly like or need it. But it is a work-around to get things working again.

I have no idea whether the fix for this lies with Apple or LO. But at least you’ve narrowed down the problem. Thanks again.

Hi! Same here. I had the same issue after a Ventura iOS update. I have been looking around and your post helped me to fix it… for a short time. After 1 hour it start crashing again, even thought the Stage manager is still on. I hope Apple or LibreOffice will fix it soon, so we do not need to have this work-around. Thanks!

Hi, Alpino. I have been using this option since I first posted the fix and haven’t had any more crashes. I use LibreOffice almost every day and usually with multiple files open. I wonder why it is not working for you, too? I’m on an M1 MBA. What machine are you using?

Oh dear! Turning on Stage Manager helped, for now!

I’m using MacOS Ventura 13.1 (22C65), LO 7.4.3.2 1048a8393ae2eeec98dff31b5c133c5f1d08b890, before finding this I’ve tried: resetting user profiles, removing recent document history (took a while to find the right file to delete), running in Safe Mode, reinstallation of LO, turning off anti-aliasing, switching off Java… While LO crashed regularly before (I was using Catalina), it would be more of a memory overflow problem or due to connecting a peripheral screen. After installing Ventura it started happening every time a window was switched.

The problem was very easy to reproduce, just make a new document, then another one, then switch (sometimes I had to switch more than once to trigger). Both Writer and Sheets or combination would trigger it. Using Cmd+tilde or Dock would (as per OP). But clicking on either window when both were in view wouldn’t.

mkosicki
I believe this has been identified as a bug and has been fixed in the upcoming LO version for Mac. It is available already in pre-release version if you want to test it. And I think it’s due for release sometime this month.

Thanks for this thread - I found the Stage Manager suggestion somewhere else and it worked to reduce the crashes from once every 2 minutes to once a day, which was solvable by remembering to save after every action.

But Stage Manager is awful and I was getting fed up of it so I finally found how to get LO 7.5.

And 7.5 is also awful in a different way as Calc now doesn’t respond to keyboard navigation. How can this be a pre-release version?? Also this native dark mode thing is screwy but I don’t have time to research how to go back to previous behaviour now. Took me an hour to work out how to make v7.3 usable too

Yes I get it LO is free and relies on donations etc etc but I’ve been using it since the split from OOO without needing to look for help anywhere … and every version just worked fine on mac until 7.2 but since then it’s been problem after problem with every new release

I turned on Stage Manager, opened two docs in LO and did Cmnd-~ three or four times and LO crashed.