Writer freezes when left alone

[PaulaO]

Odd title but that’s the shortest I could do.

Running Windows 10 (up-to-date), LO 7.0.1.2

I open a document, enter in some text (or not), then open another app to do, say, research. Go back to LO and the document is frozen. Sort of.

• Clicking within document does nothing
• Scrolling doesn’t work
• I can click on file>save and be able to save but
• clicking on the Save icon does not
• I can click the X or do file>exit
  then reopen. All is well.

But why is it freezing?

I’ve not tested it with Calc but I can if needed.

Started with the 7.0.1.2 update I think. It is a pain to keep doing this every time I go to another program. I’m afraid of losing what I’ve entered. I’m a writer so losing bits of a manuscript is terrifying.

[igorlius]

Try Help → “Restart in Safe Mode…” and report back if the freezing still accures or not.
We’ll continue from there.

[PaulaO]

So far, so good. I’m still going through what I usually do but it isn’t happening. So it is a plugin?

[igorlius]

Maybe a plugin and if you did not have any installed, your LO profile folder might have gotten corrupted maybe during an update or … something else. If you have nothing of value stored (settings, macros, etc.) there. You can safely start with a clean slate. Take a look here:
https://help.libreoffice.org/6.0/en-US/text/shared/01/profile_safe_mode.html
for more info.

[PaulaO]

How do I get OUT of safemode? Under Help there isn’t anything saying “restart in regular mode” or whatever. I can’t get the addons turned on or off when in safemode. Actually, there’s no addons but what comes bundled. The Extension manager says I can add though. I’m going to try and add one at a time (if I remember what I had, that is)

[igorlius]

Try closing LO and restarting … there should be a popup asking you how you would like to proceed. If not, upload a screenshoft of your Help Menu.

[PaulaO]

Okay, installing an extension pulled it out of safe mode. Cool. I’ll report back if any of them bork it up.

[PaulaO]

I’ve found two errors in my extensions.

One was the bundled dictionary was installed twice. One was locked, the other could be disabled. I disabled and removed the extra.

Everything was going well. I continued adding the extensions one at a time.

There’s one called Instant Word Count, that, when enabled, resulted in two LO crashes. (in all, I had about five crashes by the time I got to this point). If I am understanding the code on its extension page, it was last updated in 2013 (20130416.0.1). I wish there was some way LO could mark the extensions’ pages with “last updated” and/or “designed for version…” notices.

The extension isn’t needed any more so it was easy to let go.

[igorlius]

Glad that you found the likely cause(es) of your instable installation.

[PaulaO]

Should I start from scratch? Uninstall and reinstall? Or did the safe mode basically do that?

[igorlius]

I dont see a reason why you should un- or re-install LO again, If it runs stable now, just leave it at it is.
Safe Mode should have only reseted your profile (settings) if you told it todo that. And the extensions were only deactivated. If you have uninstalled the problematic once without errors, everything should be fine.