Created attachment 203741 [details]
Example file with external links to another file

The behavior of external link update has changed in 7.1, I think for being more safe in general. However, the UI did not follow this change.

0. In Options - Calc - General, set Update links on opening to "Never"
1. Download both attached files and open Target.ods
2. Open Edit - Links to External Files 
3. Observe there are two external links in the file, by clicking on the Modify button you can also see they are set to automatic update in 5 and 10 seconds.

-> Despite this, the content is not automatically updated after these few seconds. Nor when the Update button is pressed.

4. Press the Modify button, change something like disabling the auto update or its timeout, or the linked file / selected range; Press OK
-> Reopen the dialog with Modify: the change is not applied at all.

This used to work before 7.1 commit:

https://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=75a88761b70a098e77c73a0ba716d0e78a6d4659

author	Eike Rathke <erack@redhat.com>	2021-08-01 21:40:15 +0200
committer	Caolán McNamara <caolanm@redhat.com>	2021-08-03 12:39:55 +0200
commit 75a88761b70a098e77c73a0ba716d0e78a6d4659 (patch)

Consolidate link update handling 

I don't think going into more secure direction is bad, but the current UI in the Options - Calc - General tab makes the user think that the setting is only applied at opening time, and not for the auto-update or manual update cases, like before this commit was.

My suggestion is

1. Change the label on the Calc - General tab to reflect the new reality:
"Update links when opening" -> "Update links to other documents"

2. In the Edit Links dialog, disable the Modify and Update buttons if the "Update links" setting is "Never". This would set the expectation correctly that these settings can not be changed and the link can not be updated; matching the current behavior.

Version: 26.2.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: ce72458a4492c93b4429e2173057e7afbdbbc51e
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 6.8; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: hu-HU (hu_HU.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded