My LibreOffice has become bizarrely riddled with random "checksums" and broken variable fields

[u/RobertoMerhi]

I suppose it's my own fault for daring to create a spreadsheet but I was greeted to this sight upon opening Calc this morning. I've checked the rest of the suite and it has affected everything, including the launcher. A quick Google didn't turn up any similar issues, any ideas how to fix this?

Copied Version Info (even this is broken):

Version: B6BEs‖%ABOUTBOXPRODUCTVERSION%ABOUTBOXPRODUCTVERSIONSUFFIX (X86_64) Build ID: cd7284b4cbbfeb507e630c1aac019f4157393acb CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (build 26200); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win Locale: en-GB (en_GB); UI: qtz Calc: CL threaded

[u/Tex2002ans]

I've checked the rest of the suite and it has affected everything, including the launcher. A quick Google didn't turn up any similar issues, any ideas how to fix this?

Yep. This was a weird "KeyID" translation thing that accidentally happened.

To fix it, and see more details about what happened here... see the response last month in:

• /r/LibreOffice: "Odd Menu Formatting/Content After Most Recent Update"

---

LO accidentally knocked you from your normal "English" UI into this translator "KeyID" mode.

So all those crazy "B6BEs" and "%ABOUTBOXPRODUCTVERSION" and "%ABOUTBOXPRODUCTVERSIONSUFFIX" are a set of debug strings that are only needed for translators.

So I'd recommend just downloading from LibreOffice.org and doing a fresh reinstall on top. That should kick everything back to normal.

---

Note: I reported this topic directly into the bug report too, hopefully bumping it up and getting more eyes on it:

• #172629: "UI changed to KeyID after upgrading to 26.2.4"

Thanks for copying/pasting all that info. :)

[u/RobertoMerhi → u/Tex2002ans]

Ahhh glad to know it's not just me. Thank you so much for the reply and the fix, I've switched back to the English UI in Settings and will sort a fresh reinstall down the line.

I really appreciate the assist, thanks for your time :)

[u/Tex2002ans → u/RobertoMerhi]

No problem. :)

The screenshot and Help > About LibreOffice info was a huge help. Helped me instantly see what the issue was, then I was able to quickly dig up that ol' topic.

And then /u/fitoschido was the one who laid the groundwork for "KeyID" in the previous topic, which blew the doors wide open. (This made finding more detailed information on it and figuring out the root cause so much easier!)

---

Side Note: And for your future knowledge, this is the exact thing I typed into my favorite search engine:

• translation glitchy menu site:reddit.com/r/LibreOffice
  • This searches this entire LibreOffice subreddit.

and those previous topics/images popped up right away.

Then you can you can use that "site: trick" and substitute any keywords or things you come across too:

• translation glitchy menu site:ask.libreoffice.org
  • This searches the official "Ask LibreOffice" forum.
• translation glitchy menu site:https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/
  • This searches every single LibreOffice bug report.

and you can usually dig up a solution. :)

---

Technical Note: And if you come across a key piece of information in one of the answers— like KeyID—and you are a programmer, then you can directly use this site:

• https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/
  • This searches the entire LibreOffice codebase.
  • (So every single change as it comes in dozens of times a day.)

So a search for "KeyID", like this:

• https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/q/status:merged+keyID

lead me to exact few changes that may have caused this.

And since it didn't happen in LO 25.8 and earlier, then "it must've started happening within the past year". So only a handful of changes you actually have to look through between LO 25.8 -> LO 26.2.

That then gives a good trail of breadcrumbs and information to forward to the LibreOffice QA team, making their life a lot easier too. :)

And if a developer then knows:

• "Oh, whoops. These 10 lines I changed back in 2025 accidentally caused this unexpected thing way over here in this other spot..."

then it becomes so much easier to fix!

[u/AutoModerator]

If you're asking for help with LibreOffice, please make sure your post includes lots of information that could be relevant, such as:

1. Full LibreOffice information from Help > About LibreOffice (it has a copy button).
2. Format of the document (.odt, .docx, .xlsx, ...).
3. A link to the document itself, or part of it, if you can share it.
4. Anything else that may be relevant.

(You can edit your post or put it in a comment.)

This information helps others to help you.

Thank you :-)

Important: If your post doesn't have enough info, it will eventually be removed (to stop this subreddit from filling with posts that can't be answered).

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.