LibreOffice leaving background processes on exit, and other weirdness on Windows 11

English
#1

(This is crossposted from the r/libreoffice subreddit; I was encouraged by a user there to post this here.)

First off, specs:

  • LibreOffice 26.2.5.2, running on Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (26200.8973)
  • Intel 13th Gen Core i7-13700
  • Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 12GB. driver version 610.88 (Studio Driver)
  • 64GB of RAM

Here’s my problem: whenever I exit out of any LibreOffice app, either using the close window button or going to File > Exit LibreOffice, I always end up with several leftover LibreOffice processes in Task Manager running as background processes. soffice.bin and soffice.exe will always be two of the processes left behind; if I launched one of the apps directly from the Start menu, that app’s associated process will also be left behind as well. For example, if I open and then close LibreOffice Writer, swriter.exe will be one of the processes left behind as well.

These processes persist until I use Task Manager to end all soffice.bin processes, which in turn ends all of the associated soffice.exe and other LibreOffice app processes with it.

This has actually been a problem I have with LibreOffice since at least version 24. I found a bug report on the LibreOffice bug tracker that seemed to describe the same issue affecting version 24.8 that was marked as “resolved fixed”; comments left there seemed to link this issue with OpenCL. However, when I went into LibreOffice options to check, the option to turn off OpenCL is nowhere to be found. In addition, in Options > LibreOffice > View, the setting to turn on “Use hardware acceleration” is off and greyed out, while the “Use Skia for all rendering” option is turned on but also greyed out. “Force Skia software rendering” is available, but turning it on or off seems to have no effect.

I have tried deleting my user profile, tried repairing LibreOffice, and even went as far as to completely uninstall LibreOffice, removing all traces of it on my computer, and reinstalling, but the problem continues to persist on my computer.

In addition, I have been experiencing other weirdness with LibreOffice that I suspect are linked to this problem:

  • In any fresh install of LibreOffice, if I run any of the LibreOffice apps for the first time, the splash screen briefly appears but the app never fully loads; Task Manager shows the associated soffice.bin and soffice.exe processes running. Starting the LibreOffice app the second time loads fine, but now I will have two sets of soffice.bin and soffice.exe processes in Task Manager, both of which will persist after I close the app.
  • If I change a setting in Options that requires me to restart the app, and I choose restart when prompted, the app closes but never restarts, and Task Manager will show the associated processes left behind. I will have to manually start the app back up again, which again leaves two sets of soffice.bin and soffice.exe processes in Task Manager.
  • Safe mode sometimes doesn’t start, especially when I choose to restart with safe mode from within any LibreOffice app. Sometimes it does work, but when I choose to restart from within safe mode, the app doesn’t actually restart until I manually restart the app, and the restarted app will often not have the configuration changes I choose in safe mode. This is similar to the restart problem above.

Despite the bug I linked to above being marked as “resolved fixed”, I continue to run into this problem. Can someone have a look at what’s going on? Is this a problem with my computer, or another bug with LibreOffice elsewhere?

Edit: raw copy-paste info from LibreOffice about box:

Version: 26.2.5.2 (X86_64)
Build ID: cd7284b4cbbfeb507e630c1aac019f4157393acb
CPU threads: 24; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (build 26200); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-SG (en_SG); UI: en-GB
Calc: threaded

#2

https://www.reddit.com/r/libreoffice/comments/1vbmn7y/libreoffice_leaving_background_processes_on_exit/

QA/Bibisect - The Document Foundation Wiki

How to get a backtrace with WinDbg - The Document Foundation Wiki

1 Like
#3

Hi, I followed the instructions on using WinDbg to debug LibreOffice, and accidentally stumbled on the solution to my own problem: apparently a mod I was using in Windhawk - a Windows customisation/modding app - was causing the issue.

After I ran the debugger, this was the relevant output I got:

0:000> !analyze -v
Reloading current modules
................................................................
................................................................
..........................................................
*** WARNING: Unable to verify checksum for C:\ProgramData\Windhawk\Engine\Mods\64\icon-resource-redirect_1.3_812902.dll

************* Symbol Loading Error Summary **************
Module name            Error
icon-resource-redirect No error - symbol load deferred

You can troubleshoot most symbol related issues by turning on symbol loading diagnostics (!sym noisy) and repeating the command that caused symbols to be loaded.
You should also verify that your symbol search path (.sympath) is correct.
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Exception Analysis                                   *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************


KEY_VALUES_STRING: 1

    Key  : AV.Type
    Value: Read

    Key  : Analysis.CPU.mSec
    Value: 1781

    Key  : Analysis.Elapsed.mSec
    Value: 64186

    Key  : Analysis.IO.Other.Mb
    Value: 1

    Key  : Analysis.IO.Read.Mb
    Value: 209

    Key  : Analysis.IO.Write.Mb
    Value: 1485

    Key  : Analysis.Init.CPU.mSec
    Value: 5812

    Key  : Analysis.Init.Elapsed.mSec
    Value: 113747

    Key  : Analysis.Memory.CommitPeak.Mb
    Value: 499

    Key  : Analysis.Version.DbgEng
    Value: 10.0.29617.1000

    Key  : Analysis.Version.Description
    Value: 10.2604.29.1 amd64fre

    Key  : Analysis.Version.Ext
    Value: 1.2604.29.1

    Key  : Failure.Bucket
    Value: INVALID_POINTER_READ_c0000005_icon-resource-redirect_1.3_812902.dll!Unknown

    Key  : Failure.Exception.Code
    Value: 0xc0000005

    Key  : Failure.Exception.IP.Address
    Value: 0x7ff83ae11190

    Key  : Failure.Exception.IP.Module
    Value: icon_resource_redirect_1_3_812902

    Key  : Failure.Exception.IP.Offset
    Value: 0x11190

    Key  : Failure.Hash
    Value: {ef212db7-7088-6510-6d59-51fac55ef435}

    Key  : Failure.ProblemClass.Primary
    Value: INVALID_POINTER_READ

    Key  : Faulting.IP.Type
    Value: Paged

    Key  : Timeline.OS.Boot.DeltaSec
    Value: 84300

    Key  : Timeline.Process.Start.DeltaSec
    Value: 136

    Key  : WER.OS.Branch
    Value: ge_release

    Key  : WER.OS.Version
    Value: 10.0.26100.1

    Key  : WER.Process.Version
    Value: 26.2.5.2


NTGLOBALFLAG:  0

APPLICATION_VERIFIER_FLAGS:  0

EXCEPTION_RECORD:  (.exr -1)
ExceptionAddress: 00007ff83ae11190 (icon_resource_redirect_1_3_812902!ZNSt3__112__hash_tableINS_17__hash_value_typeINS_12basic_stringIwNS_11char_traitsIwEENS_9allocatorIwEEEENS_6vectorIS7_NS5_IS7_EEEEEENS_22__unordered_map_hasherIS7_SB_NS_4hashIS7_EENS_8equal_toIS7_EELb1EEENS_21__unordered_map_equalIS7_SB_SG_SE_Lb1EEENS5_ISB_EEE4findIS7_EENS_15__hash_iteratorIPNS_11__hash_nodeISB_PvEEEERKT_+0x00000000000000e0)
   ExceptionCode: c0000005 (Access violation)
  ExceptionFlags: 00000000
NumberParameters: 2
   Parameter[0]: 0000000000000000
   Parameter[1]: 0000000000000008
Attempt to read from address 0000000000000008

FAULTING_THREAD:  78ac

PROCESS_NAME:  soffice.bin

READ_ADDRESS:  0000000000000008 

ERROR_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc0000005 - The instruction at 0x%p referenced memory at 0x%p. The memory could not be %s.

EXCEPTION_CODE_STR:  c0000005

EXCEPTION_PARAMETER1:  0000000000000000

EXCEPTION_PARAMETER2:  0000000000000008

STACK_TEXT:  
0000005a`7ab8ea10 00007ff8`3ae01ea5     : 00000000`00000065 0000005a`7ab8f1d0 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : icon_resource_redirect_1_3_812902!ZNSt3__112__hash_tableINS_17__hash_value_typeINS_12basic_stringIwNS_11char_traitsIwEENS_9allocatorIwEEEENS_6vectorIS7_NS5_IS7_EEEEEENS_22__unordered_map_hasherIS7_SB_NS_4hashIS7_EENS_8equal_toIS7_EELb1EEENS_21__unordered_map_equalIS7_SB_SG_SE_Lb1EEENS5_ISB_EEE4findIS7_EENS_15__hash_iteratorIPNS_11__hash_nodeISB_PvEEEERKT_+0xe0
0000005a`7ab8ea60 00007ff8`3ae0b489     : 00000000`00000000 000001d8`3f32f1d0 00000000`00000065 00000000`00000041 : icon_resource_redirect_1_3_812902!Z14RedirectModulemP11HINSTANCE__NSt3__18functionIFvvEEENS2_IFbS0_EEE+0x2d5
0000005a`7ab8f170 00007fff`28c190cd     : 00000000`00000000 00007ff8`532de06a 00000000`00000000 00007ff8`00000000 : icon_resource_redirect_1_3_812902!Z17LoadCursorAW_HookITnPDaXadL_Z20LoadCursorA_OriginalEEcEP7HICON__P11HINSTANCE__PKT0_+0x1a9
(Inline Function) --------`--------     : --------`-------- --------`-------- --------`-------- --------`-------- : mergedlo!winwrap::HatchWindowRegister+0x39
0000005a`7ab8f2e0 00007fff`2cead406     : 00000000`7ffe0384 00000000`00000001 00000000`00000001 00000000`7ffe0384 : mergedlo!DllMain+0x5d
0000005a`7ab8f360 00007ff8`532de06a     : 00007fff`27ea0000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000001 00000000`7ffe0384 : mergedlo!dllmain_dispatch+0x8a
0000005a`7ab8f3c0 00007ff8`531bf723     : 000001d8`3ee8a300 000001d8`3eeb8b03 00007ff8`5334ce30 000001d8`390e31f0 : ntdll!LdrpCallInitRoutineInternal+0x22
0000005a`7ab8f3f0 00007ff8`5322bd3f     : 000001d8`390ba9b0 000001d8`390e92e0 00007fff`2ceacfe8 00007ff8`3b2e7730 : ntdll!LdrpCallInitRoutine+0x93
0000005a`7ab8f6c0 00007ff8`5322aeae     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 000001d8`390f6d80 00000000`00000000 : ntdll!LdrShutdownProcess+0x17f
0000005a`7ab8f7d0 00007ff8`525b14bb     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 ffffffff`fffffffe 00000000`00000000 : ntdll!RtlExitUserProcess+0x9e
0000005a`7ab8f800 00007ff8`508b0813     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 0000005a`7ab8f850 : KERNEL32!ExitProcessImplementation+0xb
0000005a`7ab8f830 00007ff6`6ae6133b     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000001 : ucrtbase!common_exit+0xc7
0000005a`7ab8f890 00007ff8`5259ccb7     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : soffice!__scrt_common_main_seh+0x173
0000005a`7ab8f8d0 00007ff8`5322ad6c     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 000004f0`fffffb30 000004d0`fffffb30 : KERNEL32!BaseThreadInitThunk+0x17
0000005a`7ab8f900 00000000`00000000     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : ntdll!RtlUserThreadStart+0x2c


STACK_COMMAND: ~0s; .ecxr ; kb

IP_IN_PAGED_CODE: 
icon_resource_redirect_1_3_812902!ZNSt3__112__hash_tableINS_17__hash_value_typeINS_12basic_stringIwNS_11char_traitsIwEENS_9allocatorIwEEEENS_6vectorIS7_NS5_IS7_EEEEEENS_22__unordered_map_hasherIS7_SB_NS_4hashIS7_EENS_8equal_toIS7_EELb1EEENS_21__unordered_map_+e0
00007ff8`3ae11190 488b14ca        mov     rdx,qword ptr [rdx+rcx*8]

SYMBOL_NAME:  icon_resource_redirect_1_3_812902+11190

MODULE_NAME: icon_resource_redirect_1_3_812902

IMAGE_NAME:  icon-resource-redirect_1.3_812902.dll

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  INVALID_POINTER_READ_c0000005_icon-resource-redirect_1.3_812902.dll!Unknown

OS_VERSION:  10.0.26100.1

BUILDLAB_STR:  ge_release

OSPLATFORM_TYPE:  x64

OSNAME:  Windows 10

FAILURE_ID_HASH:  {ef212db7-7088-6510-6d59-51fac55ef435}

Followup:     MachineOwner
---------

I immediately recognised “icon-resource-redirect” as the name of a mod I was using in Windhawk, so I disabled it within Windhawk and launched/quit Libreoffice again while Task Manager was running. From there, I was able to confirm that, with the mod disabled, LibreOffice was able to completely quit properly with no leftover processes; re-enabling the mod brought the problem back. I then went into the mod’s settings and added soffice.bin and soffice.exe to its process exclusion list, which seemed to have fixed the issue while allowing the mod to remain enabled.

Guess that’s probably the end of this for me, but I will keep monitoring to see if this problem recurs elsewhere.

Either way, thanks for linking me to those articles; without it I would have never suspected the Windhawk mods I was using as being the culprit.

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