Error parsing file

Corey Hedge Toadlips at wowway.com
Wed Aug 3 08:52:33 EDT 2011


Hello Skidz,

Do not despair!  I had the exact same issue with the "error parsing the 
file" when I first started off with GnuCash a couple of months ago.  I 
am running Windows 7 with v2.4.7 (upgraded from v2.4.6, as well).  I had 
entered a ton of transactions over a long period of time, taking regular 
backups.  The next day, when I went to open the files, I found that 
almost all of them would not open!  Fortunately, in my case, I had one 
backup that did work, and another backup from a few minutes later with 
only a couple of added transactions that did not work.  If you are not 
aware, the compressed GnuCash files can be extracted to the 
human-readable text files using 7-zip.  So, I did a File Compare of 
those two files (the one that worked versus the one that did not work) 
using notepad++ and found that the one thing that was peculiar with the 
file that did not work was that there was no "date-posted" section 
beneath the "currency" section for one of my OPENING BALANCE 
transactions.  I added the "date-posted" section underneath "currency" 
section, like so:

</trn:currency>
<trn:date-posted>
<ts:date>2011-07-06 00:00:00 -0400</ts:date>
</trn:date-posted>

Voila!  This worked like a charm!  If I were you, I would do a search 
for the "</trn:currency>" and make sure there is a "date-posted" for 
each of your OPENING BALANCE transactions.  If you wanted to get crafty, 
you could do a regexp and find any "</trn:currency>" that is not 
followed by a "<trn:date-posted>".  At least, that was my problem.

Following the OPENING BALANCE theme, I did some checking today, and that 
is indeed the key!  I was able to verify in GnuCash v2.4.7 that if you 
create a New Account and you select the Opening Balance tab and put in 
an incomplete date (i.e. 7/1 rather than 7/1/11), the date of the 
transaction becomes corrupted and appears as some sort of serial number 
in the ledger (i.e. 001-1751183688 instead of 7/1!)  I noticed this when 
I was initially creating my accounts, but I just overwrote the serial 
number with the proper date and went on my merry way -- only to 
experience the dreaded "error parsing the file"!!

At any rate, I'm not sure if this affects only Win7 or if this is a 
known bug.  But, if it's not, I will file a formal bug report tonight 
(unless the devs just happen upon this).

Good luck!!!!
Corey

PS - I have not had a single issue with file corruption since that 
time.  I believe this issue only affects the Opening Balance when you 
create a New account.

On 8/2/2011 8:56 PM, skidz wrote:
> I've looked at several posts concerning this issue, and haven't found a
> solution.
>
> I'm getting the dreaded "There was an error parsing the file", but not only
> on my data file, but all of my backup files since the day I started using
> gnucash.
>
> My environment:
> Windows 7 SP1 64-bit
> GnuCash v2.4.7 (upgraded from 2.4.6 in an effort to fix my problem)
>
> GnuCash data files and the .gnucash folder are in the default location, at
> the root of my user folder
>
> I'm unable to open any of my data files from day 1. I've spent countless
> hours transferring my household accounting over to this program. HELP!
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/Error-parsing-file-tp3714139p3714139.html
> Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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