[GNC] How to save Gnucash and Lock file issues

Colin Law clanlaw at gmail.com
Sun Dec 2 11:52:32 EST 2018


On Sun, 2 Dec 2018 at 16:40, Lorrie Laskey <lrlaskey at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> This message is for two topics. If you respond, please either select one
> topic or divide the message by topic to make it easier for me to follow the
> messages.
>
> #1 Saving
> I don't understand how to save Gnucash or properly close it, it seems. I
> have used Gnucash for years and used the "save" option.
>
> In the past, I selected "save" but recently ran into "lock file" issue.

Save is the right way to do it.  That will save back into whichever
file you have open.  Just the same as MS Word or other applications.
If you use Save As then it will create a new file with the name you
give it (or overwrite any existing file with that name. When you next
open GC it will open *that* file not the original.  If you want to
open a file other than the last one used then use File Open and browse
to it.  While on this subject, I hope you are making a regular backup
of your accounts file in case of computer failure.

> Next I tried "save as" but then a pop up window appeared asking me to save
> it as an xml file.

For most users just using the default xml is the right way.  Don't
worry about the other options.  If you needed them you would know what
they mean.

>
> #2
> Recent "lock file" issues forced me to troubleshoot and find other methods
> to open and save. Note that I am the only person using Gnucash, on one
> computer. So I don't understand how this file is being generated.

If you get the Lock file warning when you open GC that means that GC
probably did not close down properly the last time you used it.
Either GC or Windows crashed for example, or you did a forced
powerdown of the PC rather than a normal shutdown.  It is only a
warning, you can just say Open Anyway, provided you have not already
got the file open in another GnuCash instance or on another computer.
If it happens regularly there is something wrong though.

Colin


More information about the gnucash-user mailing list