Help! Lost files

[Anita Graves]

This is the best information in case of future catastrophe!  Thanks, John!


"Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?"  -- A. A. Milne

> On 3 Apr 2017, at 5:15 PM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Apr 3, 2017, at 2:30 AM, Maf. King <maf at chilwell.net> wrote:
>> 
>> On Monday, 3 April 2017 11:16:48 BST Anita Graves wrote:
>>> God bless you for your quick reply.
>>> 
>>> I had all my data for the fiscal year in one file and I renamed the Gnucash
>>> data file, but don’t remember in which location I saved it.
>>> 
>>> I searched every file to see if it would open but nothing will.
>>> 
>>> After I renamed my main data file, I moved all the files from one folder
>>> into another, but still, I cannot find the file with my data that will
>>> open.
>>> 
>>> I use a MAC.  I tried the file>open, but as you say Mac opens the previously
>>> open file, and said it could not find the background material or could not
>>> locate the file.
>>> 
>>> I have 3 main data files, and only one of them will open for me, but not the
>>> one I lost.
>>> 
>>> What can I do?  One thing that sometimes saves my skin is that I backup to
>>> external hard drives.  I had one connected yesterday when I did the work on
>>> the data.  That’s all I remember.  but this morning I renamed the file and
>>> now can’t find my lost data.
>>> 
>>> Apparently there is no safe way to rename a file or a folder or anything;
>>> Gnucash remembers only the exact file name and its location?
> 
> 
> Anita,
> Start GnuCash and tell it OK when it whines about not finding your file.
> 
> Open a Finder window. Click in the "search" box at the top right and enter "gnucash". 
> The window will change a bit: There will be a line beginning with "Search in". At the end of that line will be a tiny '+'. Click it.
> You'll get a new line with two drop-down boxes and a entry box. Change the first dropdown to "Name" and the second to "ends with".
> Type ".gnucash" into the entry box. Finder will display all of the GnuCash data files on your mac. Now control-click in the list and select "View>Arrange By>Date Last Opened" and your newly renamed file should be first in the list. Single-click on that and the path to it will be displayed at the bottom.
> 
> Now go back to GnuCash, select File>Open from the menu, and navigate to the path at the bottom of the Finder window.
> 
> Regards,
> John Ralls
>