Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 103075
File corruption in Calc wipes out data
Last modified: 2013-01-29 21:51:11 UTC
Calc is frequently corrupting files, however, calc can still open them with no problem. The bug is that data just disappears. One file just had twenty tabs of information in it. Every tab was blank. The names of the tabs were there, but no content. Interestingly enough, the filesize on disk still looked like a full spreadsheet. Since all my files are saved in MS Excel 2000 format, I opened the file up with Microsoft Excel. Excel reported a file error, said it would recover, but check for data loss. As a result, all the data was recovered...so it was, in fact, there somewhere. However, all formatting was not retrievable by Excel. No column widths, no colors, no number formats, no borders, nothing. Thought it was a fluke...Now it's happened a few more times. This time at a random place in the file, all the data is just gone. The attached file is a good example. From cell range H35:V35 and from cell range A36:V41 all the data is just gone. It was there when I saved it yesterday. You will notice that row 41 still has preserved the row height, but yet R2:V2 is no longer a single merged cell and B2:B3 is also no longer a merged cell.
Created attachment 63196 [details] Example of corrupted file with data loss
Confirming with m40 on WinXP - Calc would not show the data after G35, Excel can read a bit more, but looses formatting.
Should be m49, not m40.
Well, my file with 20 tabs just corrupted yet again. The only tab still in tact is the first one that I had entered last. After opening in MS Excel last time, I spent a few hours restoring all the formatting and saved and opened the file a few times. Tonight, it's all gone again! Frustrating as hell! I will now attach this file as well as the original corrupted file. I am close to abandoning OpenOffice. The product has gotten very unstable and should not be published until these serious bugs are eliminated.
Created attachment 63285 [details] Original corrupted file. I got back the data by opening in 2007 Excel but I had to reformat everything.
Created attachment 63286 [details] Says (fixed) but after fixing and adding more data, this file has corrupted also.
mckramer, may I suggest using .ods for storage and resave in .xls only when you need to exchange files with somebody?
Created attachment 63419 [details] Another file corrupted on one tab only
Another file corrupted. Perhaps if we don't know the cause, we should issue an alert bulletin to all users that the excel format frequently corrupts files so they can no longer see any data. I don't know why this is happening with this build of the 3.0 version. Never had any problems up until now. To say that the fix is just to save in ODF format is very myopic. This issue needs to be fixed because if Open Office cannot reliably communicate with the greater world of MicroSoft Office, then this product is doomed!