[GNC] Help please. Upgraded from 2.3.4 to 4.12. Worked fine. But database does not load. Win 11.

[David T.]

I don't profess to have any great ideas, but I see from the one screenshot that your file opens, but appears to be empty, and I see from the other that you have numerous large log files (9mb or so) on every day of the display. Many of them appear to be only a few days old. 

Personally, my log files are very small (measured in kilobytes, not megabytes), so I am curious what you have been doing to get such large files. 

⁣David T. ​

P.S. -- I can't imagine how you ended up using a development version of GnuCash, and am sad to hear you've been using it all these years. 

On Oct 20, 2022, 2:05 PM, at 2:05 PM, Rosepetals <pogichinoy at gmail.com> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Yes it was silly of me. I recall years ago checking if I could update
>to a
>newer version but the official site said it was not advised. Then I
>checked
>recently and it said yes it was possible so I went on my merry way
>thinking
>it would be more streamlined.
>
>I may have a backup from 2 years ago on version 2.3.4 but of course
>that
>would mean I wouldn’t have the recent 2 years of transactions.
>
>The file type is simply File so it may be XML but upon opening it in
>Notepad it mentions SQLite among the garbled text.
>
>I’ll try the trace tonight. For now I’ve left it running on 4.12 for
>about
>30 mins and no result in opening the file as shown in the pic below.
>I’ve
>reinstalled 2.3.4 and tried opening the file but it’s stuck on reading.
>Will leave this for a while.
>
>Thank for your reply.
>
>
>On Thu, 20 Oct 2022 at 4:12 pm, David Cousens
><davidcousens49 at gmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>
>> As Adrien pointed out anytime you do an upgrade of GNuCash you should
>> ALWAYS
>> make a backup copy of the data file before starting the upgrade and
>keep
>> it at
>> least until everything is working. It is a good practice to regularly
>make
>> a
>> backup copy of your data file in any case, preferrably to another
>computer,
>> network storage or a cloud (online) storage, usb stick etc. If you
>have
>> problems
>> then you can always copy (not move) the file from your backup to your
>data
>> directory and start again. Are you using the xml file (a text file) 
>or an
>> actual database backend?
>>
>> The datafile format sometimes has to be changed to accomodate new
>features
>> and
>> fix some bugs. If such changes occur it is usually when changing from
>the
>> last
>> version of a major series to the first version of the next. Version
>4.x
>> will
>> assume that the file has already been upgraded from version 2 to
>version
>> 3. Each
>> new major version of GnuCash includes a procedure for updating the
>> datafile the
>> first time it is run with a higher version.
>>
>> As well as changes in the datafile itself, there are sometimes
>changes in
>> the
>> locations where stored reports and user preference data etc are
>located.
>> These
>> are usually translated by the installation procedure for the first
>install
>> of a
>> higher major version (2->3->4). The locations are also different on
>> different
>> operating
>systems.https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations
>> has
>> details of the locations for various versions on Linux/Windows/Mac.
>The
>> page can
>> be hard to read but there are some diagrams accessed form links about
>> halfway
>> down the page
>>
>> Not sure how you can recover without a backup of the original file.
>>
>> With a 30Mb file it may take some time to convert the datafile  at
>startup.
>> GnuCash will be unresponsive while this is taking place so don't
>assume it
>> has
>> stopped/crashed - use the task manager
>>
>(https://www.howtogeek.com/405806/windows-task-manager-the-complete-guide/)
>> to
>> check that it is no longer runnning as Adrien suggested and if so let
>it
>> run to
>> completion or until it actually crashes.
>>
>> If GnuCash is actually crashing, i.e. it stops running completely,
>then
>> generating a trace file and stack trace file as described in
>>  https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Tracefile and posting them here may
>help in
>> working out if your file can be fixed and how.
>>
>> If you can get your datafile to open, before doing anything else run
>the
>> Actions->Check & Repair->All transactions from the menu.
>>
>> Hope this helps.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 2022-10-19 at 23:11 +1100, Rosepetals wrote:
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > I’m running Windows 11.
>> >
>> > I was running Gnucash 2.3.4 for years and finally decided to
>upgrade to
>> the
>> > latest stable release of 4.12 so I can export to a spreadsheet.
>> >
>> > The setup needed to uninstall 2.3.4 which went fine and then 4.12
>> finished
>> > installing.
>> >
>> > I opened Gnucash 4.12 and opened my Gnucash database. It notified
>me I
>> > needed to upgrade the database to the new version which worked fine
>and I
>> > was able to access all my data. I made a few entries and closed
>Gnucash
>> > without any issues.
>> >
>> > Later I opened Gnucash again but this time it didn’t auto open the
>> database
>> > and I'm left with a blank screen. I proceed to locate and open the
>> database
>> > but after waiting for it to load, nothing appears. I try to load it
>> > manually in other ways but eventually Gnucash crashes.
>> >
>> > If it helps, the database is 30MB in size.
>> >
>> > Please help. I have 13 years of data here.
>> >
>> > Thanks for looking!
>> > _______________________________________________
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