How to Recover a LibreOffice Document

Several ways to recover an unsaved or accidentally deleted or lost document created in one of the programs within LibreOffice package. Do you need to recover an unsaved or lost document created in LibreOffice software package? There are several ways to restore either unsaved or accidentally deleted document created in one of the programs from LibreOffice package.

How to Recover a LibreOffice Document

Unsaved LibreOffice document recovery

LibreOffice gives you the opportunity to recover an unsaved document with the help of its integrated tools. For example, if a document was closed without saving, the program will suggest saving it when you open it next time. The programs included in this package have an autosave function.

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How to Recover an Unsaved or Lost Microsoft Word, Excel Document or PowerPoint Presentation ⚕️📖💥

How to Recover an Unsaved or Lost Microsoft Word, Excel Document or PowerPoint Presentation ⚕️📖💥

In order to restore an unsaved LibreOffice document, do the following:

  • Open the document which was closed without saving, and the program will suggest recovering the unsaved document.

    LibreOffice suggest recovering the unsaved document
  • Click «Start» and the document will be recovered.

    LibreOffice. Click «Start» and the document will be recovered

LibreOffice backup copy recovery

If for some reason the program didn’t suggest autorecovery for an autosaved document, it can also be recovered from a backup copy which LibreOffice creates automatically. To do it:

  • Open a LibreOffice Writer or Calc document

  • Go to the menu Tools / Options.

    LibreOffice. Tools / Options
  • In the opening window, find the LibreOffice / Paths menu and select it.

    LibreOffice. Paths

If you follow the path, in “backup” folder you will find the latest file which you can use to recover the autosaved document. To open it, start the corresponding LibreOffice program and open the backup copy (.bak) with the menu File / Open.

LibreOffice backup copies are saved to this folder:
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\LibreOffice\4\user\backup

Please note that the LibreOffice option to create autosave copies is disabled by default. To enable it, go to the menu Tools / Options / Load/Save General, and check the box next to «Always create backup copy» and «Save AutoRecovery information every…».

LibreOffice. Load/Save

Now backup copies will be created automatically every time the file is saved.

Recovering a Lost or Deleted LibreOffice File

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How To Recover Open Writer (odt) and Calc Documents (ods) in 2020 With Hetman Office Recovery 📁🔥⚕️

How To Recover Open Writer (odt) and Calc Documents (ods) in 2020 With Hetman Office Recovery 📁🔥⚕️

You can recover a LibreOffice document deleted or lost for some reason with the help of Hetman Partition Recovery or Hetman Office Recovery.

The tool recovers data from any devices, regardless of the cause of data loss.

To do it, start the program and scan the media you need to restore LibreOffice files from. After the analysis is over (Fast scan) choose the folder Content-Aware Analysis, and the program will suggest you to choose the type of files you want to find.

Hetman Partition Recovery. Selected file types

Select files in *.odp, *.ods or *.odt format and click OK. As a result of the analysis, Hetman Partition Recovery will find and show all files of these formats.

Vladimir Artiukh

Author: , Technical Writer

Vladimir Artiukh is a technical writer for Hetman Software, as well as the voice and face of their English-speaking YouTube channel, Hetman Software: Data Recovery for Windows. He handles tutorials, how-tos, and detailed reviews on how the company’s tools work with all kinds of data storage devices.

Oleg Afonin

Editor: , Technical Writer

Oleg Afonin is an expert in mobile forensics, data recovery and computer systems. He often attends large data security conferences, and writes several blogs for such resources as xaker.ru, Elcomsoft and Habr. In addition to his online activities, Oleg’s articles are also published in professional magazines. Also, Oleg Afonin is the co-author of a well-known book, Mobile Forensics - Advanced Investigative Strategies.

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