Account file becomes corrupt after saving in Mac OS X

[David Reiser]

On Apr 19, 2009, at 12:30 PM, <graffitici at yahoo.com> <graffitici at yahoo.com 
 > wrote:

>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I have been trying to get GnuCash on my Mac OS X system for a long  
> time now. After finally getting Fink to work and compile the 300  
> package requirements, I was rejoiced to see the main account screen.  
> I copied the same GnuCash account I've been using on my Linux setup,  
> and got it to open. Everything seems to be fine up to this point,  
> but when I try to save it (even without making any changes) and try  
> to reopen the saved file, the start-up hangs at the "Reading File"  
> step.
>
> I seem to be able to create new, empty files, and save those, but I  
> couldn't manage to start working off of my previous file. Since I  
> have all my account structure etc.. set up there, I would really  
> like to get it back.
>
> Any ideas why this might be happening?
>
> Thanks,
> Berk
>
Which version of OS X? Which version of gnucash on the mac? Which  
version of gnucash on Linux? How big is your file? How long are you  
waiting at "reading file"? What kind of Mac? Can you take a copy of  
the original data file, open it on the mac, Save As some other file  
name, and open that one?

The most common reason the mac stops while "reading file..." is that  
the gnucash splash screen is modal on the mac, and gnucash cannot  
display another dialog/alert while the splash screen is showing. The  
most common trigger for an attempted second alert is that there are  
lock files present for the data file being opened (gnucash asks at  
that point "what do you want to do?", but the question is blocked by  
the existence of the modal splash screen). There is at least one other  
situation that also locks up with the splash screen.

The usual workaround is to start gnucash with "gnucash --nofile" and  
then use the File menu to open the data file. You'll then find out  
what other alert was trying to appear when the splash screen blocked it.

Dave
--
David Reiser
dbreiser at earthlink.net