getting started on OS X

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 5/6/2017 6:25 PM, Jake MacWilliams wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I also have recently downloaded GNU on OS X and am having similar problems to Eric. Frequently I receive the same error message: "file could not obtain the lock for the file" but recently I have simply not been able to open my old files, and it says the file cannot be found, even though I've saved the file minutes ago.
>
> Best,
> Jacob MacWilliams

"could not obtain lock" problem
      1) The cause, is abnormal termination of gnucash, leaving the lock 
file behind.
      2) The cure, if you are SURE you do not have an instance of 
gnucash running accessing the file, go into the directory (aka "file 
folder" where your file lives and look for a file with the same name 
except ending with file extension .lck  and delete this. The way gnucash 
(and many other programs prevent multiple simultaneous access is that 
when gnucash wants to open a file, it looks in the directory for the 
.lck file, and if it finds one, says "can't obtain the lock". If the 
.lck file does not exist, it creates it and then opens the data file. 
When it terminates NORMALLY it deletes the .lck file.
          Applications like gnucash CAN have a mechanism to let you 
override instead of having to manually delete the left behind lock.

"file not found" problem
       1) The causes are various so we will need more details. For 
example, do you know the name of the file (it's FULL name, so that would 
include the chain of directories? Is THAT what you are trying to open? 
Is all of that chain currently mounted? << for example, if you are 
keeping your gnucash data on a USB stick and you don't currently have 
that stick inserted, of course "not found".

Michael D Novack