very weird quirk noted, copying one computer to another

[John Ralls]

On Oct 12, 2014, at 4:10 PM, Simon Bryant <simonbry at telus.net> wrote:

> Okay, let's put this another way. After deleting ALL gnucash files that I could find from the receiving computer (using Finder, Max OSX), and the downloading a new gnucash app, when I open the new app it STILL shows a list of ostensibly-available old gnucash files I created files (none of which actually open, because they no longer exist. WTF, how can I abolish gnucash traces from my computer forever and completely?) This all started because when I attempted to move a gnucash file from a different machine,it opened with incomplete account entires but a complete general ledger and I'm thinking hey, who's in control of this? I'm just a user, understand, not a developer, and trying to get an accounting not a programming job done. All your efforts to create a usable piece of software and inputs are much appreciated, no mistake, and what i've seen of gnucash i like except this… thanks again. i'm leaning towards finishing the fiscal year on gnucash and then jumping ship; this is scary.
> -si-
> 
> On 2014-10-12, at 4:20 PM, Simon Bryant <simonbry at telus.net> wrote:
> 
>> Okay, after deleting ALL gnucash files from the receiving computer (buy opening Finder, searching for all Gnucash files and deleting all) I downloaded a brand-new today gnucash app from the web, app, opened it and it immediately it shows (without ANY double-clicking or path selection) my old gnucash file, full complete register showing all transactions form January 1st but in the individual account (e.g. "checking") just a couple of recent transactions. WTF?


Finder normally hides some stuff from you, including your user Library folder. You can change that by navigating to your home folder in Finder, selecting Show View Options from the gear menu, and checking the "Show Library Folder" checkbox. Gnucash's configuration and state files are in Library/Application Support/gnucash.

Gnucash's preferences, including the history list, are stored in the "defaults" preferences system. The file holding them is in Library/Preferences/org.gnucash.Gnucash; you can also manipulate them using the "defaults" program from a Terminal window. GnuCash doesn't check for the existence of those files before displaying them in the menu, so simply deleting the files won't remove them from the list. Nothing spooky about it, and it's the way most programs work.

The fact that GnuCash opened a file means either that the file was on your disk and you failed to delete it or that the file was on the thumb drive and that you had the thumb drive mounted on the mac. In the latter case it might not be the latest file that you saved on the thumb, so you should open that file explicitly by using File>Open from the GnuCash menu.

Regards,
John Ralls



>> -Simo
>> 
>> On 2014-10-12, at 1:20 PM, Geert Janssens <geert.gnucash at kobaltwit.be> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Sunday 12 October 2014 11:15:59 Simon Bryant wrote:
>>>> Thanks for the replies.
>>>> Please bear with me, I'm a "user" not a "developer" and if there's
>>>> someway to screw up something, I'll find it. Here's the situation:
>>>> What  mean is I copy the .gnucash files as per the directions from
>>>> the guide, section 2.7. To do this I "Save As" to a location. This is
>>>> supposed to be my entire data file, correct?
>>> Yes, it will save your entire data file.
>>> 
>>>> I then copy that file to
>>>> a USB, walk over to a second Mac computer with the same operating
>>>> system (OS10) and pop in the USB and open the file.
>>> You're glossing over a small but important detail here: how did you open 
>>> the file ?
>>> 
>>> If you double-clicked it, you didn't open the file. Instead you opened 
>>> gnucash which automatically will load the last file it was saved.
>>> 
>>> This is a bug specific to the Mac OS X version of gnucash.
>>> 
>>> To remedy: once in gnucash, choose File->Open and navigate to the file 
>>> on your usb stick to open it.
>>> 
>>> Can you try this ?
>>> 
>>> Geert
>> 
>> 
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