[GNC] Error Message on trying to Open a gnucash file "There was an error parsing the file...."

[DaveC49]

Francis,

If you look in the folder which contains your gnucash file there should be a
set of backup files. Gnucash creates a backup file. I am assuming you are
using the XML format files and not a database. The file will have a name of
the form 
<filename>.gnucash
  and the backups will have the form 
<filename>.gnucash.<date-time-stamp>.gnucash . 
There will also be logfiles of the form 
<filename>.gnucash.<date-time-stamp>.log .
<date-time-stamp> is a number with the format yyyymmddhhmmss eg
20180529153426.

You should be able to open any of these files using the File->Open menu item
provided the GnuCash program is opening. If it is not, if you start gnucash
from a shell opened at the directory which contains your gnucash data files
and then enter at the prompt 
gnucash ./<filename>.gnucash.<date-time-stamp>.gnucash
you should be able to start GnuCash with the specified file substituting as
appropriate for <filename> and <date-time-stamp>

You could look at opening the most recent backup to see if that opens and if
it doesn't move back through the backups until you find one that opens
successfully. You may then have to examine the log files to see whether you
recorded any transactions after the last backup file you can open was
created and reenter them. You can also use the log files to recover any lost
data as described in the guide:

see https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-guide/basics-backup1.html  for
more information.

If you are using a database, someone else who uses the database backends may
be able to help.

David Cousens



-----
David Cousens
--
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