Bug 116132 - When I open a legacy Database file it opens as Writer and never as Database
Summary: When I open a legacy Database file it opens as Writer and never as Database
Status: RESOLVED INSUFFICIENTDATA
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Base (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
5.4.6.1 rc
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2018-03-01 19:50 UTC by jorge.mourinha
Modified: 2018-11-05 16:12 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screenshot of New Database once opened by LO (68.40 KB, image/png)
2018-03-03 13:53 UTC, jorge.mourinha
Details
Screenshot of old database opened by LO as writing document (66.42 KB, image/png)
2018-03-03 13:54 UTC, jorge.mourinha
Details

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Description jorge.mourinha 2018-03-01 19:50:18 UTC
Description:
After updating to 5.4 on Windows 10 and 6.0.1 on Mac OSX High Sierra, my legacy database documents created before the upgrade will not open as database but always default to Writer (.odt).
The bug is the same in different computers and OS. Any database created before the upgrade opens as writer. 

Steps to Reproduce:
1.open database
2.
3.

Actual Results:  
Database converts to writer

Expected Results:
Opened as database


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No


OpenGL enabled: Yes

Additional Info:


User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 11_2_6 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/604.5.6 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/11.0 Mobile/15D100 Safari/604.1
Comment 1 Robert Großkopf 2018-03-02 08:01:11 UTC
How do you open the files? Did you try first opening LibreOiffce, then open the database file from the LibreOffice-dialog?

Are you able to create a new database-file?
Comment 2 jorge.mourinha 2018-03-02 08:51:20 UTC
I tried both opening The file by double clicking on the file and opening the file from the LibreOffice dialogue, and in both cases it defaulted to Writer. 
I can create a new database file, but I cannot open as database the files created before the upgrade. They default to text processing both in windows and in Mac oOS. The extension on the old file remains .odb but the file never opens as .odb. Any newly created database file opens normally as.odb. 
All my backup fdatabaaes also open as .odt even though their extensions are .odb
This situation only started happening after I upgraded to 6.0.1 on Mac.
Comment 3 Robert Großkopf 2018-03-02 15:38:19 UTC
You could create a new database. Could you also save this database and reopen it (close LO before reopening)?

Problem here: You can't attach a database here, because you can't open the old files and can't delete private data. Please add a screenshot of what LO shows after opening such a database. If you are able to open the file in a zip-program please add a screenshot of the content the zip-program shows.
Comment 4 jorge.mourinha 2018-03-03 13:53:30 UTC
Created attachment 140309 [details]
Screenshot of New Database once opened by LO
Comment 5 jorge.mourinha 2018-03-03 13:54:07 UTC
Created attachment 140310 [details]
Screenshot of old database opened by LO as writing document
Comment 6 jorge.mourinha 2018-03-03 13:57:24 UTC
I am attaching two screenshots of LO 6.0.1. on Mac High Sierra 10.13.3

I can create, save and open a new database. The opening screen of the New Database is in the first shot.

Please note that the new database opens and processes correctly in normal time. 

The old database opens not as a database but as a word-processing document. The second screenshot is of the opening screen of the old database. 

The old database takes a very long time to open and during it LibreOffice seems to get stuck (colour wheel and indication that the app isn't responding). 

Eventually after 3-4 minutes the document opens but not as database.
Comment 7 Robert Großkopf 2018-03-03 15:56:26 UTC
Looks like the *.odb-file of the old database would be damaged. It shows more than 13500 pages of content. No wonder for opening the file in such a long time.

Could you try to open the file with a packaging-program?
Could you try to open other "old" databases like this: https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=134850
?

If you don't know how to try to repair a database-file you could also send the file per private mail to me and I will try it.

Regards

Robert
Comment 8 jorge.mourinha 2018-03-04 22:09:14 UTC
After your latest message I decided to return to my backed-up copies of my old database document and see what happened.

I back up my files on a daily basis, but the back-ups made over the last week all did not work. 

I moved backward in time until I found a back-up copy that would open correctly as database, and made a note of the date. 

All the back-up copies made until the end of January, BEFORE I upgraded LibreOffice to 6.0.1 on Mac 10.13.1 opened correctly as database documents. (*.odb) . But the first few back-ups made in February, also BEFORE the upgrade, didn't open. 

All the back-up copies made AFTER I upgraded LibreOffice to 6.0.1 on Mac 10.13.1 did not open except as word-processing documents. (*.odt)

The file is now restored and working correctly as a database (I have opened and closed it several times with no problem, and it works as it should, as a *.odb database). 

But I'm not quite sure why this is. I don't know if there was something that happened at the beginning of February that caused the document to be corrupted and no longer open as a database, or if this is a problem created by upgrading to 6.0.1 that affected some of the back-ups. As far as I can think the database worked just fine during all of February until I first encountered this issue two days ago. There were no crashes or unexpected quitting by the program. 

Have you had other cases where database files suddenly stop working this way after an upgrade?

Thank you for all your help on this subject.
Comment 9 Robert Großkopf 2018-03-05 11:58:12 UTC
How did you get your backup? There isn't a default-backup in LO for database-files. So I would have a look for problems at this point.

I have never had problems to open or close a database after changing LO to a newer released version.
Comment 10 jorge.mourinha 2018-03-09 14:40:46 UTC
Apologies for the late answer. 

My MacOS Time Machine saves daily backups of my documents, so I can search in the backup files.

What I did was I looked into my backup disc to find older copies of the database. I opened all the daily backup files until I found the last one to open correctly as *.odb, and re-entered manually the missing data, then re-saved with a different name.

The new version of the database is now working correctly, opening normally as *.odb. 
But the old version of the database that prompted me to write to you still opens as *.odt. 

So my question at this point is no longer about restoring the database.

It is whether my problem with the database was a one-off specific to my system or if this is a hidden bug that may affect others.
Comment 11 Xisco Faulí 2018-03-12 14:55:23 UTC
it's difficult to tell.
Would you mind attaching an example of an old database?
Comment 12 QA Administrators 2018-10-09 11:26:50 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 13 QA Administrators 2018-11-05 16:12:18 UTC
Dear Bug Submitter,

Please read this message in its entirety before proceeding.

Your bug report is being closed as INSUFFICIENTDATA due to inactivity and
a lack of information which is needed in order to accurately
reproduce and confirm the problem. We encourage you to retest
your bug against the latest release. If the issue is still
present in the latest stable release, we need the following
information (please ignore any that you've already provided):

a) Provide details of your system including your operating
   system and the latest version of LibreOffice that you have
   confirmed the bug to be present

b) Provide easy to reproduce steps – the simpler the better

c) Provide any test case(s) which will help us confirm the problem

d) Provide screenshots of the problem if you think it might help

e) Read all comments and provide any requested information

Once all of this is done, please set the bug back to UNCONFIRMED
and we will attempt to reproduce the issue. Please do not:

a) respond via email 

b) update the version field in the bug or any of the other details
   on the top section of our bug tracker

Warm Regards,
QA Team

MassPing-NeedInfo-20181105