Password stopped working for .ods file, "read error"

[drm2]

I have a password protected .ods file I’ve used for months. Now when I try to open it, the correct password gives me this message and closes the program:

Read Error.
The wrong password has been entered.

When I purposely enter the wrong password, I get a different error message and the program stays open, ready for another attempt at the password:

Warning.
The password is incorrect. The fie cannot be opened.

I know that I’m entering the correct password because an older backup copy with the same password still works. That and the fact that the program responds differently to the correct password. I’ve tried copying the file and opening with OpenOffice to no avail. Any ideas how I can get into this file?

Thanks!

[fpy]

@drm2

the program

version? OS ? Guidelines for asking …

@drm2

Read Error

maybe the document is corrupted.
what does zip says ?

see file format used by LibreOffice

[drm2]

sorry.
LibreOffice Calc version 24.2.3.2 (X86_64) with Windows 11 64-bit

In the zip, which file should I look in to see if it is corrupted? I see: content, manifest, meta, mimetype, settings, and styles. (The folder META-INF has a manifest file also, and there is a folder called Configurations2 with many subfolders.)

[fpy]

@drm2

corrupted?

first, something like that : archiving - Testing archive with 7-zip - Super User

then How_to_remove_a_Password_Protected_Sheet_Flag - FAQ - Calc - TDF Wiki

and maybe some tips from the antiquity … 11.10 - Can no longer open a password protected Libreoffice .ods - Ask Ubuntu

[drm2]

thanks! I will give it a try

[mikekaganski]

This is likely a corruption in the XML, unrelated to the password, but incorrectly reported as such for the corrupt document - I guess, it’s one of the last two instances of ERRCODE_SFX_WRONGPASSWORD in xmlwrap.cxx (revision 000aaf1f) - OpenGrok cross reference for /core/sc/source/filter/xml/xmlwrap.cxx.

It is impossible to suggest anything except “build a debug version, and try to debug yourself”, without the document itself, along with the password (which is, of course, unlikely, given that people usually password-protect their documents for a reason). The package content (with the broken XML, but unencrypted) would be likely available in memory at the point that I identified; but the parser gives the error, and there’s no way to recover.

[drm2]

thanks for the reply! I will look into this also