Phantom transactions appear in report

[David Carlson]

On 1/17/2014 8:01 AM, Valerio Monti wrote:
> Hello everybody,
> many thanks to the developers of GnuCash for this useful tool.
>
> I recently installed GnuCash version 2.6.0 on my Windows Seven Laptop and I
> created a small set of GnuCash accounts to get acquainted with the program.
> Some days ago my pc suddenly stopped while Gnucash was open. I restarted
> the Pc and tried to open the Gnucash file: I got a warning saying that the
> file was locked and I was able to open it as a read-only file. Since
> everything seemed to work properly I saved a copy of the file, overwriting
> the old locked version. Then I was able to work normally, adding and
> deleting transactions and so. However a few days after I created a report
> of an account and some transactions that were previously deleted were
> listed in it (they appeared with no amount however, so that the balance is
> correct). I inspected directly the xml file with the text editor and there
> was no evident (to me) difference in the xml tags between the phantom
> transactions and the others, so I don't understand why they do not appear
> in the normal account tab. I tried also the tool 'Check and repair' with no
> luck.
>
> Of course the relationship between my pc crash and this problem is just a
> conjecture of mine. Moreover I know that there automatic backups of gnucash
> files, so in case of another crash I won't open the locked file as a
> read-only but I will open one of the most recent backups and insert again
> the last transaction. I am not asking how to get rid of these transaction
> (I have inserted just a few transactions for test so I can create a new
> file from scratch). My question is: I have a gnucash file which is
> corrupted but this emerges only when you perform some operations and you
> inspect carefully the output. Is there another way to be sure that a file
> is correctly formed? I realize that a copy of my file could be necessary
> for detecting the problem so I can provide a copy to the developers.
>
> Best wishes,
> Valerio
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First, since you mention that your PC crashed when GnuCash was open, I
wonder if you are closing GnuCash when you are not using it?  The
program assumes that you close it when you are not entering data.  There
are certain things that only happen when the program is closed or when
it is opened.

When you do find that the file is locked, if you know that it is not in
use by another user, you can select Open Anyway instead of opening it as
read only (in release 2.6.0).

Regarding the reports, they do not automatically refresh the data if
they are left open on the tab bar while transactions are being entered,
for example.

Lastly, there are a couple of bugs in release 2.6.0 that only appear in
the Windows version, and I would recommend either reverting to 2.4.13
which has withstood the test of time or waiting for release 2.6.1 which
will come out as soon as the developers are comfortable that they have
fixed the most nasty bugs, but probably not tomorrow.

David C