GnuCash Restore Problem

[John Ralls]

On Dec 22, 2010, at 10:01 AM, Anthony Nelson wrote:

> Hello All,
> 
> I am trying to restore my GnuCash system from any of several backup files.
> 
> I have found quite a few .xac files in my GnuCash directory (GnuCash 2.2.9
> on MacOS).  Here is an example filename:
> Skyline3071.20101209134156.xac
> 
> When opened, I think, this file should reflect the transactions up until
> December 9, 2010.  Is this correct?
> 
> The problem I am having is that whenever I open any of the many .xac files
> that last transaction I am seeing in my checking account register is dated
> 5/28, which is way out of date.
> 
> Any suggestions?


The .xac is created when you save; it's the old file, renamed... but the timestamp in the name is when you saved the new file, while the system "created" filestamp (which you see in Finder or if you do ls -l from the command line) will be the date that it was actually saved. It won't have transactions later than it was saved.

Note also that if you start using a backup file as your primary, that filename won't change (we'll call it foo.timestamp1.xac), but the backup files will be something like foo.timestamp1.xac.timestamp2.xac. In that case the creation date on foo.timestamp1.xac will be later than timestamp1. This will also affect autodeletion, if you have that turned on: The other foo.timestampn.xac files won't get autodeleted until you reopen the original foo.

So look for files with more than one timestamp.xac and look at the creation dates to see if you can work out which is the most recent file (and if other files might have different sets of transactions).

Regards,
John Ralls