Backup/Transfer Help (Larry and Judy Long)

[RoseW]

On 12/19/13 12:00 PM, gnucash-user-request at gnucash.org wrote:
>We wish to transfer all of our financial information to a new computer 
but I don't know how to do it. I have all the GnuCash files backed up 
and have copied onto a thumb drive, but don't know what to do with it
> There seems to be three groups of files associated with our GnuCash program:
. > "GnuCash Financial Date" (located in C drive root directory) > "Text 
Document" (located in C drive root directory) > "GCM File" (located in 
Documents and Settings folder on C drive) >


I have used gnucash for one year recording a local horticultural society 
revenue and expenses (no customers or invoices)
To take the year for an auditor report I copied the files to a laptop.
As for reports I had been exporting any report as an html  type.
This copy was done with a home network Windows 7 setting. ( The 
computers are linked so I copied across but copy to an external usb will 
do the same thing)

There are global settings folders with various and a %gconf.xml files in 
the root of the User account.
(#1).gconf/apps/%gconf.xml
with subfolders
dialogs  then  general, history, window folders
(#2).gconfd
#3).gnome2
#4).gnome2_private
#)5 .gnucash

I copied the above to my user account. They are not in specific folder 
so any other software that starts with .g  gets intermingled. In my case 
the graphics software .gimp is there
The specific account for my club was located on another drive and in 
that folder I copied ONLY the main file (Chs-Expenses Account.gnucash) 
There are many other files with .log as the extension and files with a 
number series compacted but its like a date.
The current stable version was installed in the laptop.

Starting up Gnucash gave the pop up error that it couldn't locate the 
path E:\CHS-Account\Chs-Expenses Account.
This info was embedded as a record in the xml file located in the 
history folder
<entry name="file1" mtime="1387161175" type="string">
     <entry> 
<stringvalue>E:\MyDocs\CHSrecords\CHS-Account-Treasurer\CHS-Expenses 
Account.gnucash</stringvalue>
         </entry>
I closed Gnucash, opened that xml file, deleted all <entries> 
referencing the above path, reopened gnucash and it found the correct 
path, the accounts were there, the html reports could be opened.
I interpreted that the global folders in the root of the user account 
were overall preferences but the 'gotcha' is that HISTORY folder....

In retrospect I wouldn't copy that folder...and just  use the OPEN 
command in the Gnucash menu to get the new location of the actual account.
My goal was to avoid having to reset the chart of accounts and/or any 
preferences that had been established.

John Gowing responded to my request on this list and he said;
'THE GNU Cash file is actually the single file with just the name you 
assigned and maybe a suffix like gnucash.
THe other files with date-timestamps and .log and .gnucash suffixes are 
backup and transaction log files.

GNUCash also doesn't really have a default location for your account 
files. it will happily work with them wherever you care to put them.

So you should be able to copy just the one file to your laptop in a 
convenient location.
If you give it a suffix of gnucash it will open if you double click it.
Otherwise use File-Open and browse to the location.
GC will then create new backup & log files in that same location as you 
use it.

I recently discovered that GNUCash will "remember" all your open account 
and report tabs between launches (I always used to religiously close 
them all before quitting GC)
So to prepare for your trip to the Accountant, open all the relevant 
accounts, Run your Income statement, Trial balance and other reports,
Then simply quit GC. '
-----------------
With respect to John's instructions my choice to copy those global user 
root files was likely not necessary.

If you have customers(clients), invoices etc. some one else more 
experienced with the program will have to add further info. I'm just 
using Chart of Accounts & chequing general ledger for Ins and Outs.

-- 
Rose
http://rwalbum.gogaxdns.com/index.html



-- 
Rose
http://rwalbum.gogaxdns.com/index.html