I have had this problem too in Win 10 “Pro”. My Libre Office 25.2 disappeared from my system twice in the past two months. Microsoft have a notorious habit of trying to discourage third party apps and force everybody to use their often lousy MS apps, but this is a whole new dimension. Normally their updates just change the default apps but don’t actually erase the third party program from your computer.
However it isn’t a Microsoft update this time. By taking ownership and changing permissions on various system folders and files I achieved full manual control on my Windows 10 updates a couple of years ago and keep the so called “feature” updates fully and permanently disabled. Constantly waiting 20 minutes at a time and fighting their damn default apps resets was driving me nuts, so I put 'em in their place. My computer boots in 22 seconds flat now, every time, and I can pick and choose which updates are genuine security patches and which are just Microsoft’s incessant self promotion.
In this disappearing LO problem, for once Microsoft are not guilty. A check of c:\Program Files\LibreOffice… shows part of the basic installation support still present but the entire executables section totally gone. How that is happening I am still trying to track down, but I found a simple workaround.
Re-installing from scratch is slow and in my case runs into a road block trying to write to my user start menu path. If you then cancel the install it “rolls back” the files just installed, leaving you with the empty skeleton you started with.
That folder access issue complication probably stems from an error when I tinkered with permissions in my security. My user account has administrator status and even the file explorer I was launching the installer from (XYplorer) is at admin level.
But I found a much simpler workaround anyway. I went ahead and ran the Libre installer and when it halted with the user folder permission roadblock I used my file explorer to create a new folder "…\LibreOfficeBackupCopy… in Program Files. I then copied the newly installed LO files into that backup location.
Next I went BACK to the halted installer and cancelled it. It then of course rolled back (ie erased) all those new files. But all I had to do then was go to my backup folder and copy the backed up files back into that main “skeleton” LO folder tree.
It worked like a charm. All my context menus and other Libre Office shortcuts were back in action and all my documents history was still intact. The reason for that is simple: the user’s DATA and desktop files (LO documents, shortcuts, etc) are a totally separate entity from the actual LO PROGRAM files, so they do not get erased.
This workaround is so fast and simple that it’s almost no trouble at all. I only needed to use that sleight of hand once to create the backup files and now I can copy the whole program files system over in just seconds.
Still not answered is why this erasure is happening. It only started happening recently after my Avast Premium Security asked to update Libre Office. I said OK and it tried but reported update failure. Obviously it ran into my little Start menu write obstacle and the update rolled back the install. The rollback leaves behind some Python folders and other basic folder structure, with just all the main executable system erased.
That is highly suggestive of an obscure bug in LO 25.2, such that, quite some time after installation, this installation abort “rollback” is somehow being triggered. The state of the LO program files tree after an unexplained disappearance of LO matches EXACTLY the state seen after that halted re-installation. It’s not Avast that is triggering it, since I have both their Premium Security and Cleanup programs set for full manual supervision. Very interesting. Hope this report may be useful to others.
A distinct possibility is that recent editions of LO might be designed to try and automatically update themselves, just as do FireFox and Adobe Reader for example. Those latter two programs at least present a manual response dialog asking you if you WANT the latest update, but LO might be trying to do it “conveniently” in the background: a program too clever for its own good. If it encounters any obstacle in its update – like say a permissions glitch in Microsoft’s abominable 1000 user home computer file security system, then down goes the update and down “roll” all your executables. How about it Documents Foundation? Any hidden automatic update function in LO 25.2?
Interesting and hope to hear more on it. (Great program otherwise).
This reply submitted Sept 2025.
Cheers
