Error Message "No suitable backend was found for file:...."

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 10/24/2016 8:20 PM, John Mitchell wrote:
>   Closed my GnuCash program yesterday and restarted my Windows 10 PC. Tried
> to open my program later and am getting the above error message. Can anyone
> help me recover my data?
>
> Thanks,
>
> John W. Mitchell
> Lillian Services LLC
> (251) 597-9257
  I take it that by "open" you clicked on an icon that was a pointer to 
your saved file. If not, tell us, because what follows won;t be relevant.

When you click on a file (to open it) what happens depends on your 
computer being able to recognize what sort of file that is. That's what 
the "file extension" part of the name is for, to tell the computer what 
sort of file it is and to use the program associated with that extension 
if any has been. So one of two things has one wrong. Either:
1) The name you gave the file did not include the extension which your 
computer stored as being associated with gnucash.h
2) You did include a file extension but that isn't associated to 
anything << your computer is asking you "which should I use">>

Meanwhile, you CAN open the file. Look at that icon (properties) to see 
the file name, write that down. Now go to gnucash itself and start the 
program. It may bring your data right up (last file used). If not, 
select "open" and type in the name of the file you want it to open (what 
you wrote down). << my gnucash will always give me the "what do you want 
to open" since I have it with the "no file) parameter since I keep books 
for several organizations and "last opened" a poor guess for the next 
one I want to work with >>


Michael D Novack