NeoOffice Download and Installation Issues

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Most common problems

Cannot save documents

If you see the dialog shown in the screen snapshot to the right when you edit or try to save a document, then the problem is that you have launched NeoOffice Viewer. NeoOffice Viewer can only view files and cannot save documents.

To fix this problem, right-click or Control-click on the NeoOffice icon in the Dock while NeoOffice Viewer is still running. In the popup menu that appears, select the Options > Show in Finder menu item. A Finder window will appear. Quit NeoOffice, drag the NeoOffice application in that Finder window to the Trash, and empty the Trash.

If you have not already installed NeoOffice Professional Edition or Classic Edition or NeoOffice from the Mac App Store, install either now. If you already installed one of them, double-clicking on a NeoOffice file in the Finder should now launch NeoOffice Professional Edition or Classic Edition or NeoOffice from the Mac App Store.

NeoOffice tells you to install a newer version

If your web browser displays a page telling you to install a newer version of NeoOffice whenever you launch NeoOffice, then you have an old version of NeoOffice Professional Edition or Classic Edition installed on your machine.

To fix this problem, right-click or Control-click on the NeoOffice icon in the Dock while NeoOffice is still running. In the popup menu that appears, select the Options > Show in Finder menu item. A Finder window will appear. Quit NeoOffice, drag the NeoOffice application in that Finder window to the Trash, and empty the Trash.

If you have not already installed NeoOffice Professional Edition or Classic Edition or NeoOffice from the Mac App Store, install either now. If you already installed one of them, double-clicking on a NeoOffice file in the Finder should now launch NeoOffice Professional Edition or Classic Edition or NeoOffice from the Mac App Store.

Mac App Store tells you that NeoOffice is already installed

If Apple's App Store application displays a dialog that says that NeoOffice is already installed, then you have an old version of NeoOffice Professional Edition or Classic Edition installed on your machine.

To fix this problem, open a Finder window and go to the /Applications folder. Drag the NeoOffice application in that Finder window to the Trash, and empty the Trash. Then, go back to Apple's App Store application and click on the download icon to install NeoOffice.

NeoOffice in the Mac App Store

Silicon Mac users: Run NeoOffice natively on both Silicon and Intel Macs by installing NeoOffice 2022

Downloading NeoOffice from the Mac App Store

A version of NeoOffice is in Apple's Mac App Store which you can download from here. Although our Mac App Store version costs more than our Professional Edition or Classic Edition versions, you only need to purchase the Mac App Store version once and then all upgrades to future Mac App Store versions will be free.

Mac App Store Installation Issues

NeoOffice does not launch or NeoOffice Viewer launches

If NeoOffice does not launch or NeoOffice Viewer launches, we recommend that you try the following steps. These steps will force Apple's App Store application to redownload NeoOffice:

  • Quit NeoOffice
  • Move NeoOffice to the Trash and empty the Trash
  • Reboot your machine (note: this step is very important because if you do not reboot, the steps below may not work)
  • Launch Apple's App Store application, select the Store > Sign In menu item, and login using your Apple iTunes account
  • In the App Store application, click on your user name in bottom right corner (Mojave) or the Purchased icon (pre-Mojave), and press the download icon (Mojave) or the Install button (pre-Mojave) next to NeoOffice
  • Wait for NeoOffice to finish downloading before you try to launch NeoOffice

The Mac App Store has not finished installing NeoOffice after several minutes

If you see the Installing button in Apple's App Store application for more than a few minutes, this usually means that the App Store application is still downloading NeoOffice from Apple's servers. NeoOffice is a very large download so Apple's App Store application will show the Installing button for at least a few minutes and, if you have a slow internet connection, 15 minutes or longer.

To see the NeoOffice download progress, click on your user name in bottom right corner (Mojave) or the Purchased icon (pre-Mojave) in the App Store application. The App Store application will usually finish the installation within a minute or two after the download is finished.

Java-based features do not work

Apple does not allow applications in the Mac App Store to use Java so all features that require Java have been removed from the Mac App Store version of NeoOffice.

NeoOffice Professional Edition or Classic Edition

Downloading NeoOffice Professional Edition or Classic Edition from our website

You can download the current version of NeoOffice Professional Edition as well as older versions of NeoOffice Professional Edition and Classic Edition from the NeoOffice releases page on GitHub. If you are running an older version of OS X or macOS, be sure to search for the NeoOffice version that lists your version of OS X or macOS.

Download fails or cannot open downloaded file

This error usually means that the NeoOffice .dmg file was not completely downloaded. The NeoOffice download file is very large and some internet service providers disconnect your connection to our web server before the download has finished.

To fix this problem, try the following steps. These steps will use Safari to resume the download without starting a new download. Safari has the ability to resume the download if your internet service provider disconnects your connection. Note: these steps only work in Safari and they do not work in Firefox or Chrome:

  1. Launch the Safari web browser, go to the NeoOffice releases page on GitHub, and a start a new download of the NeoOffice version that matches your version of OS X or macOS in Safari
  2. Every few minutes, check on the download by clicking the Downloads toolbar button as shown in the screen snapshot to the right. If the progress bar in the Downloads popup window is replaced by an error message, press the Resume downloading icon that is circled in red.
  3. After pressing the Resume downloading icon, the download progress bar should reappear and the download should resume. If the download stops again, repeat the previous step.

NeoOffice installer fails to launch

If you can open the NeoOffice .dmg file but double-clicking on the NeoOffice installation file does nothing or you only see a dialog like the one shown in the screen snapshot to the right, try the following: right-click or Control-click on the file and, in the popup menu that appears, select the Open With > Installer menu item.

If selecting the Open With > Installer menu item does not open the NeoOffice installation file, reboot your computer into "safe mode" using these steps. Rebooting into safe mode forces macOS to clear and recreate the security files that control launching and verifying the NeoOffice installer.

NeoOffice Professional Edition and Classic Edition Installation Issues

Cannot save documents

If you see the dialog shown in the screen snapshot to the right when you edit or try to save a document, then the problem is that you have launched NeoOffice Viewer. NeoOffice Viewer can only view files and cannot save documents.

If you have already installed NeoOffice Professional Edition or Classic Edition, you can fix this problem by deleting NeoOffice Viewer using these steps.

When double-clicking on the .dmg file, there is an error about "image not recognized"

This error usually means that the NeoOffice .dmg file was not completely downloaded. To fix this problem, try these steps.

Installation stalls when it gets to the "Select Destination" panel

The installer sometimes hangs when it gets to the "Select Destination" panel and no drives in that panel will be selectable.

Unreachable or unreadable volumes on your Mac

The Apple Installer is known to hang when probing all of the volumes on your system if any of your volumes are unreadable.

Try opening each of the volumes on your desktop in the Finder and unmounting any iPods. Once you can open all volumes, then try rerunning the installer. If opening any volumes causes the Finder to hang, you have found the cause of the problem and you might need to reboot to force Mac OS X to unmount the offending volume.

Virus Barrier X6 software

VirusBarrier X6 is known to crash while scanning NeoOffice’s pre-installation scripts, thereby blocking the Apple Installer from continuing. Sometimes after a period of 10 minutes Apple’s installer will recover.

You may be able to prevent this problem from occurring by temporarily disabling the “Scanning & Firewall” feature of VirusBarrier X6 before trying to install NeoOffice or a NeoOffice patch.

If neither temporarily disabling the “Scanning & Firewall” feature of VirusBarrier X6 nor waiting 10 minutes of the Apple Installer to recover works, you may have to completely uninstall VirusBarrier X6.

Installation fails with a "Install Failed. The source media you are installing from is damaged" error message

For some users, installation will fail and the following error message will appear:

Install Failed. The source media you are installing from is damaged

If you see this message, most likely the disk image you downloaded is corrupted. We recommend that you delete the corrupted file and redownload NeoOffice.

Why does the NeoOffice installer request my administrator password?

The NeoOffice installer is designed to not only support launching NeoOffice on a single user machine, but also to support launching NeoOffice from a shared network volume and launching NeoOffice by any user on a multi-user machine. We have found that installing as an administrative user is the only reliable way to handle all of these types of installation.

Java Installation Issues

Some features in NeoOffice Professional Edition and Classic Edition require Java. If you see the dialog shown below while running NeoOffice Professional Edition or Classic Edition, you need to install the Java SE Development Kit (JDK) from Oracle.

To download the Java SE Development Kit (JDK) from Oracle, press the Download button in the dialog shown below or download it from here. Note: only Oracle's JDK will work NeoOffice Professional Edition and Classic Edition. Neither Apple's Java nor Oracle's Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE) will work.

Image:Java not found dialog.png

Patch Installation Issues

The patch installer refuses to start the installation.

If none of the volumes in the installer's "Select a Destination" panel are selectable, there are possible causes for this:

The patch is for a version of NeoOffice newer than the version installed on your computer

Patches for the latest version of NeoOffice will not apply to earlier versions of NeoOffice. Patches can only be installed when a specific version of NeoOffice is already installed. For example, NeoOffice 2017 Professional Edition must already be installed before you can install NeoOffice 2017 Professional Edition Patch 1.

To fix this problem, download and install the latest version of NeoOffice from the NeoOffice download page. After installing the latest version, select the Help > Check for Updates menu to check if you have the latest patch.

NeoOffice is not located in the Applications folder

The message will also appear if you have moved NeoOffice from your Applications folder, or if you have renamed NeoOffice. The patch installer will only search the Applications folder for NeoOffice installations. If you have moved NeoOffice out of the Applications folder, quit the installer, move NeoOffice back into your Applications folder, run the installer, and then move NeoOffice back to its original folder.

Other Issues

Check your language settings before launching NeoOffice

NeoOffice uses the first language in the Preferred languages: list in the Language & Region panel in the System Preferences application.

Some languages have more than one form (English has US English, British English, Australian English, etc.). To add another language or language form, launch the System Preferences application, click on the Language & Region icon, and click the + button below the Preferred languages: list. After adding a new language, move that language to the top of the Preferred languages: list and restart NeoOffice.

See Troubleshooting Spellcheck for further details on issues with certain languages.

Why doesn't NeoOffice let me run it as "root"?

Running as root is disabled on purpose. Several years ago we found that when running as root, NeoOffice's underlying OpenOffice code would modify files in the NeoOffice application folder. This, in turn, caused NeoOffice to not be launchable from a shared network volume or launchable by any non-root user on a multi-user machine.

If you are logged in as "root", you can run NeoOffice as a non-root user using the following steps:

  1. Go to the Finder and launch the Terminal application (/Applications/Utilties/Terminal)
  2. Execute the following command in the Terminal window. Note: replace "<non-root user>" with the name of a non-root user on your machine:
sudo -H -u <non-root-user-name> /Applications/NeoOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice.bin

Why does NeoOffice Professional Edition and Classic Edition access the internet after the first launch?

When you first install a version of NeoOffice Professional Edition or Classic Edition and once a week thereafter, NeoOffice will connect to our servers to check if there are any NeoOffice updates. If an update is available, NeoOffice will display a dialog prompting you to download the latest update.

If you do need to disable this update checking feature (for example, you are in a managed environment and will be handling mass-deployment of NeoOffice patches yourself), see Disabling Patch Checking for instructions.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting tips for other common problems can be found on the Troubleshooting Tips page.

How do I uninstall NeoOffice?

To uninstall the NeoOffice application, go to the Finder and drag NeoOffice from the Applications folder to the Trash and empty the Trash. If you also want to remove any folders that contain your NeoOffice user preferences, macros, and extensions, see Uninstalling NeoOffice.

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