Can I recover content I saw in a recovered read only file?

[mdesyrae]

When I switched the document back to edit that content I saw in read only disappeared. Now shows as a grayed out locked file. New content was not saved before a crash but I saw it. Can I get it back?
Des

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

The context is not clear. If you switched back to edit mode, then why having been in read-only mode? Or was it an attachment opened from your mail client thus at first in raed-only.
You can check for backups in the /backup folder of your user profile, maybe there is still something. See: [Tutorial] The OpenOffice User Profile.

Applications like Photorec may be able to recover something.

[mdesyrae]

Hi, thanks Hagar for responding. I cannot find a user folder anywhere on macOS 10.15.7 Catalina from Go To in finder. There is one called users (plural) but does not appear to contain any Open Office files. Neither can I find anything labeled open office support anywhere in library. Would these backup files maybe be located someplace else? When OO froze up, got the spinning wheel of death and had to force quit I think I screwed up by selecting the read only option on recovery first. But the edited version was right there. Don't know if I could have saved that first before switching to editor or not. But now anytime I try to re-recover I get the unedited version instead. Seems like the alternate edited file should be there somewhere since I did see it, no?
I have a screenshot of my finder page with no user folder as pictured in the instructions you pointed me to but get and error msg that the file is too big to attach?

[MrProgrammer]

I cannot find a user folder anywhere on macOS

OpenOffice → Preferences → OpenOffice → Paths → Backups

202404191634.gif (78.5 KiB) Viewed 293 times

New content was not saved before a crash but I saw it.

My guess is that the data saved for the recovery process was discarded during your attempts to save it; you have one opportunity to save it during recovery. After recovery, immediately save the file to your desktop. Deal with any remaining read-only difficulty later. I don't know where recovery data is/was kept, but I do not think it is in the Backups folder. Backups and Recovery are separate processes.

[Tutorial] Mac FAQ
Q23/A23: How do I backup OpenOffice files on my Mac?
Q24/A24: How do I restore OpenOffice files from the backups in A23?

[mdesyrae]

Yeah, when I press okay on that path/backup absolutely nothing happens. I also have a time machine disk backup and thought it should be saved there but no luck. Guess I'm rewriting which is a drag. Still recovering from a brain injury that leaves me with a left hand drag while typing, so it's slow work. Basically I'm still faster with one finger. But the words are still in my head, just have to get them out on page again. Oh well, thats for your help!