[Bug 159008] Autorecovery files are hard deleted when you say no to saving the current open document and cannot be found even with data recovery software

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=159008

--- Comment #3 from Jeff <jcolter at gmail.com> ---
In my case I was unaware "Save Autorecovery information every x minutes" and
"Always create backup copies" was not on by default in the install so neither
were enabled for me.  

It looks like this has been changed in a recent update 24.2 - "Changes in
automatic saving of documents: "Save AutoRecovery information" is turned on by
default, as well as "Always create backup copies"."   

And then on top of that I accidentally clicked do not save, so I went hunting
for a way to recover my lost data. 


Stéphane's solution to ensure "Always create backup copy" is checked might
resolve my concern (I was unaware of the feature), however it doesn't seem to
be working as I expected it.

Stéphane's comment  -  "If you want to always store your changes, you can chose
"automatically save the document too", and create n-1 backup copies with
"Always create backup copy" (the .bak file in the backup directory, which does
not get deleted)." 

After reading it my assumption was that when Libreoffice autosaves, a backup
file would be created. I figured n was a setting you could set for how many
backups you wanted it to rotate through to ensure there are not too many files
created. However I couldn't find a setting to change to configure n. 

>From what I can tell a backup file is 'only' created when you manually save the
file, and not when libreoffice autosaves.  Also there do  not look to be
multiple .bak copies of the original file created.  Instead every time you
manually save (and keep the app open) the single .bak file is overwritten.


Steps I took to test:
-------------
-Installed latest Libreoffice 7.6.4
-Rebooted
-I have ensured in Libreoffice calc both "Always create backup copy" and "Save
autorecovery information every x minutes" are checked.  I then shutdown
libreoffice calc and restarted it.
-I opened a blank sheet and saved it with a name "testautosave.ods"
-Then made changes to it and left it sitting.
-I see the autorecovery file testautosave.ods in the
C:\Users\XXXXXX\AppData\Roaming\LibreOffice\4\user\backup Folder.  
-I see the autorecovery file in the backup folder get an updated modified time
stamp per the configured time.
-However, there are no additional backup files eg testautosave.ods.bak 
-As soon as I close the libreoffice calc file, the autorecovery file
"autorecovery.ods" is deleted from the backup folder and the backup folder is
left empty.

2nd test for "Always create backup copy"
---------------------------------------
-opened testautosave.ods again
-make a change 
-press file->Save
-testautosave.ods.bak file created
-make another change and manually save again
-testautsave.ods.bak gets its modified time updated, but there is still only on
.bak file.



I did some testing with another popular spreadsheet application to see how it
operates as well. When you have autorecovery turned on, it will create the
backup folder/files just as libreoffice does.  If you close the file and 'don't
save' it keeps that unsaved autorecovery backup information.   When you open
the original file again it versions the recovery files.  Then when you save the
original file manually, only then does it delete all the the autorecovery
files.  

I don't think having backups saved in your backups folder is really a privacy
concern since those folders should be in profile secured locations anyhow.

Maybe this would need to move to a feature request if "Always create backup
copies" is working as intended. With the way things seem to work now, a simple
mistake of clicking do not save can be a loss of significant work.   

Related to Justin's note "In any case, this would be a duplicate variation of
other bug reports that want LibreOffice to become a full-fledged backup
program."  The ask here is not for Libreoffice to become a full fledged backup
program. What is being requested is a way to ensure data you are working with
in libreoffice has a way to be recovered if a mistake is made when closing the
program and click do not save.  The only place this can be done is in
Libreoffice since the data only resides in the programs memory or it's own
autorecovery /autosave backups.  People make mistakes and technology is there
to save us from them :)

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