Could not obtain the lock

moirag at web.net moirag at web.net
Tue Nov 21 21:32:23 EST 2017


David...

> The lock file is always in the same folder as the data file and it always
> has the same name as the data file with the suffix .LCK  Unless you are
> doing something very unusual, the files will be visible in your file
> explorer as long as you put them somewhere in your user folder on your
> local machine ('C' Drive) or on a removable device.  If you are using
> cloud storage, you may have a problem with the configuration.

I looked in the same folder as the data file, there is no .LCK file there.

> In Windows the user name matters when there are more than one user on
the same machine, but on single user machines it does not matter if the
files were created in another machine under a different user name.

Then that is not the problem; these files were created in another file
under a different user name; both machines were single user.

> What do you mean by "it asks me to save the file as a new file"?  Have
you been clicking on "File > Save" and immediately getting a message to
"Save As.." or does the "Save" button go grey and the asterisk that was
in front of the file name in the top banner disappear?. If you do get
the "Save As..." prompt, just save it to a different folder under your
desktop temporarily until you can find the problem.

The actual error message I get when I click Save is "Could not make a
backup of the file C:\Users\User\Documents\blahblahblah.gnucash"

I then click "Close" (the only option in the error window), and it open
the Save window.  Regardless of how or where I save it, I get an error
message "GnuCash could not write to C:\Users\User\Documents\Temporary
Gnucash\blahblahblah.gnucash. That database may be on a read-only file
system, or you may not have write permission for the directory." If I try
to overwrite the existing file, I get the warning message that it alredy
exists, and after that "Could not make a backup of the file
C:\Users\User\Documents\blahblahblah.gnucash" The changes don't save.

> Exactly how do you exit the program?  Are the transactions you entered
> recently reappearing when you re-open the file?  Do you start the
program by clicking on the program icon or on the data file icon or a
shortcut to the data file?

I exit by clicking on Save, and then when that is done, either clicking on
the X in the upper left corner or with File - Quit. Same results either
way.  I start the program from the descktop shortcut, but get the same
results when I open it from the Start menu.

Help!




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