[GNC] Backup recovery

[Adrien Monteleone]

Yes, if you just launch GnuCash from its launcher it will open the last file you had open when you did a ’Save’ and ‘Quit’.

But apparently, you intentionally at one point opened a backup file instead of the current working file, twice. (each time a different backup file)

You normally do *not* want to see any dates in the name of the currently open file. (unless you intentionally put that in the file name, such as the year if you open new files each year)

If you have a file open and there is a GnuCash generated date in the file name (like what you’ve shown previously, I can’t see the attachments either) then you very likely have a mess on your hands.

You’ll need to figure out which file is the ‘most correct one’ and contains the *most* transactions that you expect to be there. If you find another file with transactions you thought to be missing, you can open them side-by-side and copy/paste into the ‘most correct’ file. (Business Feature transactions will have to be done manually) Then I’d do a Save As on the ‘most correct’ file to reset the filename to something simple without the date—e.g., ‘mybook.gnucash’ When you are trying to figure this out, be sure to set your file manager to show last access date for each file. That will be eye opening. I’d suspect the last access date of mybook.gnucash to be on or before the last GnuCash generated date in the file name you are working in.

When you are confident you have everything straight, then delete ALL other files in the folder leaving only mybook.gnucash.

Do a backup to BackBlaze manually and make sure older backups are erased. (so you don’t accidentally restore one of the incomplete ‘messy’ files in the future)

Finally, don’t open any files with a GnuCash generated date again, unless you are trying to resolve an issue and don’t enter ANY transactions into that file. Only open such files for inspection and research. Enter transactions only in the ‘mybook.gnucash’ file.

Regards,
Adrien


> On Feb 11, 2019, at 7:24 AM, 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