How to Reset LibreOffice to Factory Settings

LibreOffice is an open-source alternative to Microsoft Office. It works on Windows, macOS and Linux. In the last few years, it has become very popular because it offers regular updates and can do almost anything you would use Microsoft Office for. In fact, compared to Microsoft Office, LibreOffice is very fast and consumes less memory and other system resources.

LibreOffice is highly customizable and offers tons of settings. If you have changed some of these settings and made a mess of your LibreOffice installation then it is possible to reset these settings back to their default values. This can be done through an option for resetting LibreOffice back to the factory defaults.

Here is how you can reset LibreOffice to default factory settings:

1. Launch any LibreOffice application (such as Writer) and then select Help → Restart in Safe Mode from the menubar.
2. When asked for confirmation, you have to choose Restart. If you have a any documents open in any of the LibreOffice applications, please save and close them before continuing.
3. When LibreOffice starts in the safe mode, choose the option Reset to factory settings and then both the options under it (Reset settings and user interface modifications, & Reset entire user profile).
4. Click on the Apply Changes and Restart button.

Now when LibreOffice starts, it will start with a fresh user profile. All the customizations and changes made to settings will be lost. This is a great option when LibreOffice is not running as expected due to bad configuration or corrupt use profile. However, if LibreOffice files have become corrupt then you will have to reinstall LibreOffice all over to ensure that files are in good condition.

You can also choose to use LibreOffice in the safe mode where there are no user profiles and hardware acceleration is also disabled completely.