GnuCash could not obtain the lock for /home/tim/GnuCash/timsaccount

[Donald Allen]

On Sun, Aug 17, 2008 at 12:01 PM, timzak <tzakharov at charter.net> wrote:
>
> I just received this message this morning when trying to open GnuCash.  It
> says the "database may be in use by another user, in which case you should
> not open the database.  What would you like to do?"
>
> I have only one user on my computer:  me.  If I select "Open Anyway",
> GnuCash acts as if it is loading, then shuts down.  I'm a little panicky
> here, is there a way to get my GnuCash files back?

First, you can stop panicking. Gnucash does a good job of providing
backup files, so the chances of recovering from this without losing
anything are quite good.

Normally, the message you are receiving is caused by forgetting to
quit from gnucash before shutting your system down. But, selecting
'open anyway' usually just works, so you did the right thing. But it's
not "just working" (it sounds like either a bug in gnucash or some
file has gotten corrupted), so time for Plan B. If you go to
/home/tim/Gnucash, you'll see that there are a number of
timsaccount.<long number>.xac files. Display the directory sorted in
descending chronological order (ls -lt would do it in a terminal
window). There will also probably be timsaccount.<long number>.log
files that are newer than the newest .xac file. So start gnucash as
you normally do, and when you get the dialog with the 'Open Anyway'
button, choose 'Create New File' instead. Now you'll be in gnucash
environment without a file. Open the most recent of your .xac files.
Don't save anything yet. Now, check your directory for .log files that
are newer than the .xac file you just opened. Go to
File->Import->Replay log file and replay the .log files newer than the
.xac, oldest through newest. Then File->Save as to a new directory
(NOT /home/tim/Gnucash) and maybe call it something else as well, to
avoid future confusion. If you've done this correctly, you should lose
none of your work and will have preserved the original directory for
more analysis by you and/or the gnucash developers (I am not one of
them).

Hope this helps ...

/Don

>
> I am using Hardy Heron 8.4.1 Gnome, with the GnuCash version straight from
> their repository:  2.2.4.
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