Moving Data to a New Computer

[John Ralls]

On Apr 19, 2012, at 8:12 PM, Robin Canfield wrote:

> Greetings,
> 
> Simplified Question:
> What files do I copy/export to move all of my GnuCash data from an old
> computer to a replacement/new computer?
> 
> 
> 
> Longer version:
> I am in the process of moving all of my data from an older Mac computer to
> a new one, and am having trouble moving my GnuCash data over.
> (unfortunately to migrate my data with the built in migrate function on the
> mac's would require 90 hours, so I am moving everything on my own). The old
> computer is running GnuCash 2.4.8 and the new computer is running GnuCash
> 2.4.10 - both operating on OS X Lion. If the info I need is listed in the
> FAQ section online, then I am not seeing/understanding it. Otherwise, lack
> of info in the FAQ section online leads me to believe that moving this data
> should be a simple process, and unfortunately searching the help section
> (and the internet in general) for info on exporting data from GnuCash comes
> back with all manner of results not actually related to my task.
> 
> By exporting data through File>Export>Export Accounts and selecting the XML
> format, I end up with two files - *filename*.gnucash and *filename*.gnucash.
> YYYMMDDSSSSSS. On the new computer, I can open the *filename*.gnucash file
> and all of my accounts appear, but they are empty - no data. I then try
> File>Import>GnuCash .log file and nothing happens. I see no other way to
> import the data from the log, nor can I discover anything else to copy or
> export, so that I can bring the data into GnuCash on my new computer.

You're making it way too hard.

Copy over the foo.gnucash file(s). The rest are either backups or log files. It won't do any harm to copy them too, but it's not likely to do any good, either.

Copy ~/Library/Application Support/gnucash, ~/.aqbanking, and ~/.gconf*.  These are your settings, custom reports, and what have you. If you don't use online banking, you won't have .aqbanking.

That's it. Fire up Gnucash on the new box, and it should open the last accounting file you used on the old one.

Regards,
John Ralls