file won't open

[John Ralls]

> On Oct 1, 2015, at 4:26 PM, Wm... <tcnw81 at tarrcity.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Thu, 1 Oct 2015 16:48:09 <332c791d93b5842a28f49371e9a5e1e4.squirrel at mail2.ihtfp.org>
> Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote...
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> On Thu, October 1, 2015 10:46 am, Philip Alexander wrote:
>>> I had to reset my PC yesterday and now after reinstalling Gnu Cash I can't
>>> seem to open my Gnu file.
>> 
>> I'm sorry to hear about your system issues.  It's always time consuming to
>> recover.
>> 
>>> I found the file with a .gcm extension and when I click it I get this
>>> error message:
>> 
>> Unfortunately this is not your data file (which is why you're getting this
>> message).  The .gcm file is the GnuCash Metadata file, which contains
>> things like open windows and reports, etc.
>> 
>>> If this isn't my file, where else might the file be saved? Or if it is my
>>> file what am I doing wrong.
>> 
>> Your data file is saved wherever you told GnuCash to save it (the same way
>> you need to tell Word where to save your .doc files).  It would be called
>> <something>.gnucash, so look for that.
> 
> Looking at the file path and name and of the .gcm file I suspect there may be a greater problem here, namely the .gnucash file may not be in an expected place because the .gcm name is *very* strange and should be an alert of itself.

It’s not strange, it’s the result of opening backups 5 times instead of the primary file. That *is* a problem, but much less of one than not being able to find the file at all.

Regards,
John Ralls