Fixed: OpenOffice “Restore Windows” Popup

On By Tony ZampognaIn Open Office, Technology

I tried starting Open Office on my Mac running 10.7.2, and I got this annoying popup window that won’t go away. I click on “Don’t Restore Windows” or “Restore Windows”, and it just stays popped up.

OpenOffice Restore Windows Popup Image

I found a solution though.

1) Force Quit your Open Office Application (Right-click holding the option key).

2) Open up Terminal and at the command prompt type to remove the Saved Application State information.

rm -rf "~/Library/Saved Application State/org.openoffice.script.savedState"

3) Start up OpenOffice and the popup should no longer show.

Hope that helps

 

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139 thoughts on “Fixed: OpenOffice “Restore Windows” Popup”

    1. The terminal command just removes the file. Once you hit enter, nothing will happen in Terminal, but the file will be removed. The “rm” part of the command means remove.

      Did the application start without the prompt?

      Reply
      2. Sarah

        I “forced quit” OpenOffice (right-click holding the option key) but the application OpenOffice was still open, even thought the “Restore Windows” box disappeared. I tried putting the code into the Terminal anyway and hit “enter” but it didn’t work (I guess because OpenOffice never quit). So I don’t think the file was ever removed. And I can’t restart the application because it never closed. What should I do??

        Reply

  7. Hooray! Thanks so much for this. The method you describe in this post didn’t actually work for me, but the manual removal that you describe on the forum worked perfectly. user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=43095#p198915 Such a relief!

    Reply
  15. Caro

    I have tried the two different versions of this script in terminal and I am still getting the pop up window (restore windows) in open office. Is there anything else I can do. I have reinstalled the application and it still happens 🙁

    Reply
  16. Caro

    GRMrGecko wrote:
    I have found a solution to this issue. I do not know why this has be marked as “[Solved]” while it doesn’t provide the answer as to how to fix it.

    Here is how you fix it.
    I found something that worked for me on another forum:
    In the Finder, make a new window. Go into the Go menu and hold down option to reveal the Library folder and select that folder in the menu. Find the folder “Saved Application State” in the Library and delete the folder “org.libreoffice.script.savedState” (Should be similar for OpenOffice), now open LibreOffice and your problem will be fixed.

    Reply
    3. S

      JOY!!!! This worked, I am soooo releived! Thanks much to all who have contributed to this collaborative solution for me at least. And thanks to the original poster for putting it out there.

      Happy Bunny.

      Reply
    6. Rosie

      Thank you so much! I couldn’t format my essay because of the stupid pop-up box and thought I’d tried everything, this fixed it straight away. Life saver.

      Reply

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  19. Cory Wagner

    This did not work for me, I can’t force quit OOo-dev. After typing that code into Terminal, it does nothing.

    Reply
  20. mary

    Open up Terminal and at the command prompt type to remove the Saved Application State information.

    rm -rf “~/Library/Saved Application State/org.openoffice.script.savedState”
    I don get it this part, i opened terminal and there was just my profile name that I’ve been logged in with. scan someone explain this part for me

    Reply

    1. That’s a command prompt. You need to type (or copy and paste) that line of code in the Terminal command prompt. Then, once it’s there (you should see that line of text after you type it), hit enter. That will run the command.

      After that, you are done.

      Make sure you quit out of OpenOffice before you do it, though.

      Reply
    1. andrew

      Thanks for expressing what other newbies experience when instructions are given that assume you know your way around a Mac. I’m learning computers and a new Mac, too.

      Reply

  24. Great. Thanks for the help… For those that it isnt working for, i used your method, but instead of using the terminal, i just went to my user folder, tuerned on invisible files, went to Library/Saved Application State/ then found most recent 8 being open office and deleted the folder…. problem solved.

    maybe easier for some people as terminal is a bit scary. BMany thanks as this was really buggin me

    Reply
  25. Steve

    I have tried both the posted line to type by Tony and the escaped line that someone else posted and neither of them worked.

    I hunted for that path and was unable to find it. I don’t know if “Saved Application State” is a hidden folder, but it’s not in the Library folder.

    Anyone have any other ideas?

    Thanks!
    Steve

    Reply
  33. Brenna

    Thank you so much! Didn’t even know I had a Library folder; it disappeared after a second of showing up on my screen every time I searched for it.

    Reply
    1. CAS

      Ok, apparently I kept mistyping something, because I tried one more time and it miraculously worked. So I guess my thanks are in order too!

      Reply
  44. Damian Hutchinson

    You are all such stars…couldn’t open open office got that ******y message…eventually (Yep I included quotation marks!!!) beat the thing with your help..Muchos thanks!

    Reply
  49. Lydia

    THANK YOU!!! It took me forever to figure out how to “open the Terminal” and what the “command prompt” was, but this worked perfectly once I figured that out. Hesher: These are instructions for a Mac.

    Reply
  50. christiane

    if you can’t find the folder in the library, use the “terminal” solution from above.
    go to
    Applications–> Untilities–> terminal (double click)
    then copy this:
    rm -rf ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/org.openoffice.script.savedState
    and paste it where the grey sign is. —> enter

    problem solved thank you thank you thank you

    Reply

  52. The script didn’t do the trick for me, so I used Finder to browse to the Library folder in my personal user folder and deleted the “org.openoffice.script.savedState” folder under “Saved Application State” manually. Worked like a charm!

    Reply
    1. Steve

      Can you tell me where to find the Library folder to delete “org.openoffice.sctipt.savedState” I have a MacBook Pro…don’t know where to look.

      Reply

  55. Okay phew – I’ve been trying that line of code for last half an hour, didn’t realise you were not supposed to use the quotation marks! But thanks so much y’all for thanks and responses finally I can use my program

    Reply

  58. Thank you so much! For me worked this one:
    rm -rf ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/org.openoffice.script.savedState

    Just copy paste to terminal and hit enter.

    Then reopen openoffice and well done!

    Reply

    1. Use Searchlight (the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of your screen (just to the right of your name) and type in Terminal. The first option it will offer will be that program

      Reply
  75. OYKU

    Hello I’ve been dealing with the same problem but I can’t ‘force quit’ because the name does not even appear. How can I quit? When I shut down the computer it appears when I open it…

    Reply

  78. I had trouble when typing this command into the terminal, error said no such file or drectory….

    Tried to find it in the Finder and search came up with no results.

    So if you are having those same 2 issues, this is how I got around it.

    I am running:
    MAC OSX 10.7.5
    Open Office 3.4.1

    Make sure openoffice is NOT OPEN.

    Step 1:
    In order to see the files in your finder so that you can delete them you need to show the invisible files.
    Go to APPLICATIONS FOLDER
    Select UTILITIES
    Select TERMINAL

    Step 2:(Show Invisible Files)
    In the terminal window you need to type the following command:

    defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

    Type that command exactly as it is. What that command does is make it so you can see ALL OF YOUR FILES in the finder window. Don’t worry you can turn this off at the end. But for now go to step 3.

    Step 3: (Relaunching the Finder Window)
    Click on the Apple ICON at the top left of your screen in the top navigation bar of the computer. When the list of options comes up click on FORCE QUIT
    A small window named FORCE QUIT APPLICATIONS will pop up. Look for the word FINDER inside that new window. It may be the last one listed and you may need to scroll inside that window if you have a lot of applications open. Click on the word FINDER so it is hilighted.

    CLICK THE RELAUNCH BUTTON on the bottom right of that little window.

    Step 4: (This is where you DELETE the File)
    Go to the new FINDER WINDOW
    In the left Pain click on your USER NAME (has the little house icon right before it)
    You will see a bunch of grayed out files, those grayed out files are all the files that were hidden from your view before. One of those files is your Library Folder. They are in Alphabetical order and mixed in with visible folders, so scroll down and you’ll find it.

    Click on your LIBRARY folder.
    Click on SAVED APPLICATION STATE folder
    Hold down the CONTROL key and then Click on the folder named org.openoffice.script.savedState
    a pop up will come up and you should select MOVE TO TRASH
    This deletes the file
    Empty your trash bin

    Step 5: Launch Open Office
    Open office should work great again.

    Step 6: Hide your invisible files and relaunch finder
    If you are uncomfortable seeing all these new files on your computer, don’t worry you can hide them again by going back to the TERMINAL WINDOW
    at the prompt type:

    defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

    Then RELAUNCH your FINDER again by doing step 3 above.

    Hope this helps somebody!

    Reply

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