Help!

[Derek Atkins]

Hi Sandie,

On Thu, February 28, 2013 3:18 am, Sandie Mady wrote:
> Hello
> I have recently downloaded gnucash 2.4.11 for use with my household and
> business accounts. I entered data for a household file and all seemed
> well. I then created a new file and went through the same process again
> for my business account. To my horror I found that data from my new
> business files had completely overwritten the original household files.
> The original file name still existed but both sets of files now had the
> same data in. Comprehensive searches of the computer including Time
> Machine (Mac) didn't find any of the previous data.
>
> As I am not particularly tech oriented I assumed that I had done something
> wrong. I checked again on the net that the programme allowed you to have 2
> sets of independent accounts and tried again following the instructions
> carefully. The new file again overwrote the existing file and my days of
> work come to nothing! So please can you tell me where I went wrong? Or is
> there a bug/glitch.
>
> The other thing I noticed when I was setting up the new files is that in
> the first page when you create the file name, folder, opening balances
> etc., the 'Save As' process did not save the opening balance figure
> entered on the set-up page, so I had to enter this in manually in the
> equity (I think) account. It also did not create a 'new folder' in the
> set-up as I had asked, simply putting all the individual files on the desk
> top.
>
> Please help! Very frustrated!

I'm sorry this is being so frustrating.  Please take a deep breath and
relax while we work on your issue.  I can assure you that yes, GnuCash can
use multiple data files.

First, are you saving your first data file before you create your new data
file?
Second, how are you creating the new data file?
If you use File -> New File, are you then saving it to a different target
or are you choosing the same file name?

Also, keep in mind that on a Mac I don't think you can double-click on a
file to open it with GnuCash (although I may be wrong).  GnuCash will
always open the last used file, so when you want to switch files you can
choose one of the recent files under the File menu.  Or you can File ->
Open another file.

I hope this helps.

> Sandie Mady
>
> iMac Snow Leopard 10.6.8

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-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant