[GNC] Backup recovery

[Colin Law]

I can't see the images you presumable posted for some reason, but I
suspect what happened was that some time ago you, for some reason,
opened one of the backup files (so
whatever.gnucash.longdatestring.gnucash) and didn't then re-open or
save as the original file name.  Ever since then you have bee using
that file as your working file so it has been making backup files with
the the second timestamp added too.  Thus it may well be that the file
with the latest single date string is actually your latest data.

As for your comment that you are used to applications opening the last
used file, that is exactly what Gnucash has been doing.

Colin

On Mon, 11 Feb 2019 at 13:28, Finbar Mahon <mahon.finbar at neuf.fr> wrote:
>
> Wow, this is getting (more) complicated -
>
> You said -
>
> [When Gnucash starts, it *normally* opens the file that was open when
> you shutdown last time around,
>
> so it is fairly easy to get the wrong one by mistake if you've been
> digging in the folder.]
>
> I just booted up GNUcash without any 'digging' and got  -
>
> On the bottom of the screen.
>
> which follows your information, as the 'second' file? right ? so, I go
> to file>open and I get -
>
> etc., etc. None of which have the date that is on the open GNUcash file.
> Maybe it is one of the files marked 'wed'? but the dates don't match.
>
> So I look further down the list of files under file > open and I finally
> come to -
>
> The only file on these two grabs which fits your name criteria is the
> very first one above but the date is almost a year ago, and none of the
> others in the second grab seem to fit the criteria.
>
> :-( I am truly sorry for the long sequence of q&a but I am accustomed to
> assuming the file I last used opens again after I 'save' and 'quit'
>
> Thank you very much for your patience.
>
> Finbar
>
> On 11/02/2019 12:08, Maf. King wrote:
> > On Monday, 11 February 2019 10:35:30 GMT you wrote:
> >> OK, thanks. So, it is 'normal' to be using it?
> >>
> > No, you risk data loss at the point of opening the backup.
> >
> > let me clarify.
> >
> > Your data file is called (for example) "mybooks.gnucash" All timestamps are
> > made up (but plausible)
> >
> > you enter a transaction and save and quit.  GC renames the old
> > "mybooks.gnucash" to "mybooks.gnucsh.201901022345.gnucash" and saves the
> > changes into a new file on disk called "mybooks.gnucash"
> >
> > you later open the backup (by mistake) and enter another transaction, save and
> > quit again.  GC creates the backup mybooks.gnucash.201901022345.gnucash.
> > 201901081256.gnucash
> >
> > GC now has 3 files in the folder:
> >
> > mybooks.gnucash    <-- has the 1st edit in it
> > mybooks.gnucash.201901022345.gnucash  <-- has the 2nd edit in it
> > mybooks.gnucash.201901022345.gnucash.201901081256.gnucash <--no edits in it
> >
> > as you can see, by using a backup, you loose the previous edit session - go a
> > few edits down the road and you can be in proper mess with transactions
> > seeming to go missing from months ago!
> >
> > When Gnucash starts, it *normally* opens the file that was open when you shut
> > down last time around, so it is fairly easy to get the wrong one by mistake if
> > you've been digging in the folder.  On Windows & Linux, you can make GC open
> > with a different file by clicking... but not so on mac.  No matter what file you
> > try to open GC with, it WILL use the previous one. So if you've been looking
> > at backups, on a Mac you NEED to File->Open once GC is running.
> >
> > HTH,
> > Maf,
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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