Bug 131011 - Calc Corrupting Spreadsheets -- Crosslinking Cells that Have No Formula's Associated
Summary: Calc Corrupting Spreadsheets -- Crosslinking Cells that Have No Formula's Ass...
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
6.4.0.3 release
Hardware: x86 (IA32) Windows (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2020-02-28 14:17 UTC by Mark
Modified: 2020-03-18 09:16 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Mark 2020-02-28 14:17:30 UTC
Description:
The latest version of Calc Version: Win: 6.4.0.3 (x64) appears to Cross-Link Cells that have no formal relationship at all.

So, let's say you have a Workbook with two tabs on the bottom. (Separate sheets?)

On Sheet1, You have some formula's that Reference Cells that appear in Sheet2.

All is fine.

The problem is, in completely unrelated Cells in Sheet1 (that have NO formulas), Contents from the Cells in Sheet2 appear and they are active, in the sense that if you Delete/Edit them, it deletes the cells also in Sheet2 and also in the range on Sheet1 that DOES have Formula's associated.

**Calc is Crosslinking Cells from Sheet1 and Sheet2 completely randomly, when no formula association is even defined.**

This has only occurred since latest version of Calc Version: 6.4.0.3 (x64)
and after restoring from Known Good Backups, it repeats the behavior!

IF 10 cells in Sheet2 (Say B1-10) are referenced in Sheet1 in say C1-C10, why are they showing up in Sheet1 in rows A1-A10 (and still in C1-C10) when there are no formulas at all in Sheet1 Cells A1-A10?  A1-A10 are completely blank cells. Why would they show ANY data from Sheet2? There are no formulas at all in Sheet1 A1-A10. This behavior only began in:   Win Version: 6.4.0.3 (x64)

It appears that Calc is just cross-linking cells between Sheet1 and Sheet2 with no instruction to do so....and it can't be eliminated.

Even if you clear the contents of the cells (Sheet1 A1-A10) (by copying a known empty cell) into A1-A10 or deleting them, etc.-- within minutes, Calc puts the contents of Sheet2 B1-B10 back inside...but not even all at once.

One minute it may add Sheet2 B1 to Sheet1 A1 and then a little while later may
add Sheet2 B2 to A2, etc -- unlike with real formula's which would do it right away. It just randomly seems to fill the cells of Sheet1 A1-A10 with cells in Sheet2 B1-10 when it shouldn't do any such thing at all. 

And if you delete Sheet1 A1-A10 it destroys the cells in Sheet2 completely...as well as the cells that were connected in Sheet1 via a Formula.

Worksheets are being completely destroyed via this cross-linking issue.

Thank you!





Steps to Reproduce:
1.Not sure. It appears to do this randomly.
2.Reference cells from Sheet2 into Sheet1 legitimately and see of they show up in places they shouldn't. And if they do, try to delete them and clear any formulas in the cells that don't even have formulas and the data is all corrupted.
3.

Actual Results:
Extra cells that have no formulas at all, are being filled randomly with data from another Sheet, when there are no formula's asking them to do so in those cells, though other cells from the Sheet DO have formula's referencing data from the second sheet -- which functions normally. Calc shouldn't be pretending those formulas are also elsewhere on the sheet when they are not.



Expected Results:
Cell contents from Sheet2 appear in Random cells in Sheet1 that contain No formula's at all. Deleting them corrupts legit contents in Sheet2. There doesn't seem to be a way of unlinking the cells that should NOT have the data.

Since there are no formula's, there is nothing TO delete...if you just delete the data or copy blank cells over the data, it wipes our the legit cells in Sheet2 that you need!


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
Calc should not be randomly placing data from Sheet2 into Sheet1 when no formula's ask for it to do so.

It ruins the Spreadsheet entirely, because you can't stop the behavior at all.

Deleting/Editing/Cutting Pasting over the Cells that SHOULD NOT be linked, kills the cells on Sheet2 that should rightfully exist and which ARE referenced legitimately in other Cells on Sheet1.

Any cells in Sheet1 that do NOT call for any reference to cells in Sheet2 should not have cells in Sheet2 in them, especially when such cells contain no formula's at all...

and most especially, this should not be occurring at random times!

All cells are just fine for an hour and then it randomly begins this corruption.

This is a truly fatal problem, as there is no way to fix the Spreadsheet itself once it is corrupted in this manner.

And even Known Good Backups will eventually see this corruption.

Version: 6.4.0.3 (x64)
Build ID: b0a288ab3d2d4774cb44b62f04d5d28733ac6df8
CPU threads: 2; OS: Windows 6.1 Service Pack 1 Build 7601; UI render: default; VCL: win; 
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI-Language: en-US
Calc: threaded

Ps. I'm on Win7 64 Home. I do not know enough about Open G/L to know if I have that enabled or not. So sorry!
Comment 1 Xisco Faulí 2020-03-17 10:22:03 UTC
Thank you for reporting the bug. Please attach a sample document, as this makes it easier for us to verify the bug. 
I have set the bug's status to 'NEEDINFO'. Please change it back to 'UNCONFIRMED' once the requested document is provided.
(Please note that the attachment will be public, remove any sensitive information before attaching it. 
See https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/FAQ#How_can_I_eliminate_confidential_data_from_a_sample_document.3F for help on how to do so.)
Comment 2 Mark 2020-03-18 02:57:40 UTC
I am so sorry, but once restoring from old backups, I don't have versions of the corrupted sheets. My bad!!!

So sorry!
Comment 3 Xisco Faulí 2020-03-18 09:16:40 UTC
Closing as RESOLVED NOTABUG