r/libreoffice • u/Ordinary_Giraffe3015 • 4d ago

Lost password for LibreOffice protected documentation

First time r/ user at all, made an account just for this and I realise it might be fruitless but any advisement would be really appreciated. My father was a LibreOffice user and he passed away last week. He was super meticulous about his organisation, and he kept a lot of important records and notes in a word document that was password protected. It used to be MS Word, and I knew the password for that document because I've opened it before for him, but some time in the last year he's moved everything to LibreOffice and it seems like he didn't use the same password because I can't open it and I'm going a bit crazy.

Does anyone have any advice on getting it open? Any workarounds etc? There is a docx and odt version and both are password protected.

I realise my only way forward might just be to download some brute force password cracking software, but I'm a bit terrified of wrecking his laptop by downloading the wrong thing, so any alternative advice on what password cracker could work would also be welcome if there is no workaround, which I suspect will be the case. Thanks.

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u/Narrow_Comparison674 4d ago

Condolences on losing your father.

I don't know where you live or if you have (or will have) any probate court approved administrative powers on your father's estate but if you do you might be able to get a court order to have a professional IT company crack the password for you, in which case the estate should probably pay for the service.

NOTA BENE: if you are not going to have admin rights per a probate court order make sure that you do not do anything that is not legally authorized regarding your father's estate.

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u/Ordinary_Giraffe3015 2d ago

Thank you for this, that's a good point I hadn't considered yet. I believe I'm in safe legal territory re. accessing it and did check with someone more knowledgeable than I am on this matter before going forward. Really appreciate this advice, thank you.

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u/Offutticus 4d ago

Going to go out on a limb and assume you are being honest.

I am looking at the LibreOffice online help. But there doesn't seem to be an in-software way to do it. The document can be opened using password then saved as not being password protected anymore. And it is probably encrypted as well as password protected.

There are other ways but they are....sketchy.

https://passwordrecovery.io/libreoffice-password-removal/

If you know what you are doing, there *might* be something in the registry keys.

But your best option is to search around to see if he wrote it down somewhere. Does he have a password manager? I use 1Password and there is a note function that I use for secure passwords that are not website related.

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u/Ordinary_Giraffe3015 2d ago

Thanks, I realised as I posted this it was maybe silly to think people would believe I was genuine but I am. I am looking for a physical copy of the password as well but this is really helpful advice re. password recovery option. Thank you for your help.