[GNC] new to Gnucash - help with general information

[Gyle McCollam]

Donna,
I use the same Gnucash, but Windows 11.  1st, let me say that Geoff info was helpful. There are several folders on my system for gnucash, but all the data and backups reside in gnucash in my documents folder.  There are other files associated with gnucash that it puts in other places that I would not put in my main data files location.  When you say you have files in 3 locations, which files are you referring to?

your questions:

  1.  gnucash saves all data files in one location by default.  This includes your main data file, as ????.gnucash.  The log files that Goeff mentioned ????.gnucash.datetime.log and the lock file he mentioned ????.gnucash.LCK.
  2.  As long as you didn't delete the ????.gnucash or any newer log files you should have been OK, but you probably deleted your current file and that is why you lost data.
  3.  In the "Edit/Preferences/General", there is an Auto Save time Interval that you can set for it to create backups and a "Retain log/backups" for the number of days to save these backups.  This way it can do the deletions for you automatically and you don't have to worry about what files you are deleting.
  4.  As Geoff said it will save the file to the same place it was retrieved from, unless you use "save as" and specify a different location.
  5.  Geoff is also correct here that gnucash saves backup so you don't lose data, but backuping up to another media is always a good idea.

Another helpful place to look is in "Help/Tutorial and  Concepts Guide".  In the search box type "backing up and recovering data" enter and it will take you to the page explaining how to restore and helpful information about how every thing works.


Thank You,

Gyle McCollam

Gyle McCollam

gmccollam at live.com<mailto:gmccollam at gyleshomes.com>           email

________________________________
From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+gylemc=gmail.com at gnucash.org> on behalf of grambo at shaw.ca <grambo at shaw.ca>
Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2022 2:37 PM
To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
Subject: [GNC] new to Gnucash - help with general information

I am new to Gnucash and have a few questions regarding saving data.  I use
Windows 10 and Gnucash Version: 4.11 Build ID: 4.11+(2022-06-25)

1.      I would like to save everything in one folder named Gnucash.  I
think I will use the xml format.  Currently it seems there are files in
three different folders.
                How do I make sure to save everything to one folder?

2.      Can I move everything I have (which is in 3 different folders) to a
folder named Gnucash without harm to the data I have entered.  (I previously
had entered data for 2021, then deleted a bunch of files and most of the
data disappeared.  The file types were text and gnucash financial data)

3.      How long do you need to keep the different files?
Are there certain files needed to keep the data in the Gnucash system?  I
have looked at the FAQ but still not clear.

4.      When you click the save button when entering transactions, how do
you know where it is being saved to?  I'd like it to be saved in Gnucash
folder, as indicated above.

5.      Back ups - I have read a lot about the back ups but still unsure
what to do.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks all
Donna

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