Re: [libreoffice-users] Big Problem with LibreOffice for Mac

Hi John,

We are volunteers supporting LibreOffice during our free time. The 
version from Apple Store and the version from LibreOffice website are 
the same. The files you mention have probably been created on a 
different PC, without extension (and this is why they are recognized by 
macOS as Unix Executables, although they may have different origins and 
may be of different kinds). You can try to rename the files adding the 
DOC extension (.DOC). If the system recognizes them, they will change 
icon, otherwise they will remain black as they are not Word files.

LibreOffice should be able to save old Word files, and also other old 
files which can be recognized (but there are many extensions, and doing 
a guess work will take a large amount of time). I suggest to save the 
files in the native LibreOffice format, which is more robust and secure 
than the Word format (and will always allow to save as Word at a later 
time).

If the system hangs while trying to recognize the file, this means that 
is not a macOS file and the system has no clue. From remote, it is very 
difficult to help, but they could be Windows executables or other files 
from other applications.

Best regards, Italo

On 2/26/25 05:03, John Mallon wrote:
> Greetings
>   
> I am writing you about a big problem I’ve been having with Libre Office Writer, specifically on a Mac. I was very happy to find this app for the specific reason that I have hundreds of those little black file icons displaying “EXEC” on them, these are files created with past versions of MSWord dating back to the 80s. I need to be able to access those files and LibreOffice is the only app I could find capable of doing it. Years ago I had Open Office and tried to reinstall it but it didn’t work. So I discovered LibreOffice on your website and eagerly downloaded it. Then I had a problem with that. Finally I saw it on the Apple App Store and thought, surely this will work, because Apple would have vetted it for use with Macs. It still didn’t work properly. So I used the most stable version I could find, Version: 24.8.4002.
>   
> The problem is that I could open the documents by opening the Libre Office app and dragging and dropping the file to a page where previous files are shown as thumbnails and dropping the file. It would immediately open, so far so good, but then I was not able to save the file. It would work sometimes but not every time. I found at that point I could print the file but not save it. I thought maybe I could copy and paste the text into a new MS Word file. In the odd case where I could paste it successfully, I then couldn’t save the Word file! Then I had other random memory issues such as dragging and dropping a single file like a jpg or small document into a folder on the desktop. I was able to save some files to Libre but not all. I would choose Save As… And sometimes I would get the window to name and save a file and where to save it. Other times, (in the majority) I would get the spinning beach ball, in both Word and Libre and I would have to force quit the app or even restart the app or restart or shut down the Mac before I could continue working. Very time consuming and frustrating. It also seemed to cause MS Word to do the same thing.
>   
> I am using the latest OS of the Mac, macOS Sequoia 15.3.1. on a 2019 iMac. I also have 32 GBs of RAM on this Mac and 2 TBs of disk space on the internal HD.
>   
> I spent many hours on the phone with Mac Tech Support and they finally referred me to contact you. I tried to reach you already, at various email addresses, but heard nothing back. I have a genius bar appointment tomorrow at my local Mac Store. But I thought I should alert you to the problem of Libre causing chaos with Macs, including your version available in the Apple Mac App Store.
>   
> I am rooting for you and for Libre to continue to open these old documents in a smooth and stable way. I am no fan of Microsoft but is the word processor I know best. Shame on them for not producing a version of Word that could open documents saved in all its previous versions, and good for you for what Libre can do in this regard.
>   
> I look forward to hearing from you.
>   
> Sincerely
>   
> John Mallon
> +1-405-819-7521
> johnmallon@mac.com <mailto:johnmallon@mac.com>

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