What are files named something like Filename.gnucash.tmp-a00396

[Fred Bone]

On 3 February 2015 at 16:28, Dennis Shimer said:

> I understand the backups and the log files but recently I had friend with
> a gnucash file just disappear. One day it's there, the next it isn't I'm
> not done helping him trace down what actually happened but there was a
> file with the extension .tmp-a00396. I know he is using a fairly recent
> version on Windows 7 and the file looks like something ver near the last
> saved version of the .gnucash file.
> 
> What is this file, where does it come from, and how likely that it is in
> fact a complete copy of what he was last working on?

It will be a complete copy of the data at the point he tried to "save".

When you "save", the program does this: 
- create a temporary file (as shown)
- rename the previous version to something with a datetime in the name
- rename the temporary to the previous version's original name
This is, AIUI, a precaution against losing data in the event of (e.g.) 
power failure or system crash.

If something (antivirus? autobackup?) prevents this, it will try to put 
things back the way they were.

However, in such cases you can work out from the filenames and datestamps 
what has happened.

My recommendation would be to rename this file to the "proper" name and 
open it, then check carefully for the last alteration that was made 
before the problem arose.

The alternative, or the next choice if the above doesn;t satisfy, would 
be to copy the latest backup version (the one with the newest datetime) 
to the "proper" name, and open that. Then redo the last batch of updates, 
either manually or from the corresponding ".log" file.

Of course, a full backup of the data directory (either as part of the 
normal backup schedule or manually) has already been taken, hasn't it? So 
if the above goes wrong, he'll be able to restore and try again.