[GNC] Unable to open GnuCash file: "No suitable backend was found for <FILE>."

[john]

> On Jul 12, 2023, at 16:16, Tomer Altman <me at tomeraltman.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> Due to filesystem errors, I had to reinstall MacOS on my 2015 Macbook Air (current OS version: Monterey 12.6.7). After doing so, and restoring my files from a TimeMachine backup using Migration Assistant, I started getting this error when trying to open my accounting file:
> 
> "No suitable  backend was found for <FILE>."
> 
> (where "<FILE>" is a stand-in for the actual file name)
> 
> I was at the time using a version of GnuCash from December 2022. I then reinstalled using the installer available from gnucash.org (current version: "5.3+(2023-06-26)" ). Unfortunately, the error persists.
> 
> Looking at this error message in the mailing list archives, it seems like this has something to do with using the SQLite back-end. I looked at the 'environment' text file, and it is implementing already the environment variable recommended as a fix:
> 
> GNC_DBD_DIR={SYS_LIB}/dbd
> 
> It seems like my install is still unable to find the libraries that it needs, though.
> 
> It's unclear to me how to diagnose which version of the back-end my file is using, since I cannot open it. Using 'file' and 'head' shows that it is not XML, and I am unable to decompress the file using Gzip. I'm also unable to open it using the sqlite3 command line tool.
> 
> So, two questions:
> 
> 1. What's the correct way to verify the back-end type using something other than GnuCash itself?
> 
> 2. What is wrong with my fresh install that is preventing me from opening up the file?
> 
> Thanks in advance for any and all advice and assistance!

If it's a SQLite file you can open it with sqlite3, provided by macOS. Just open Terminal and run
   sqlite3 /path/to/my/gnucash/file
You can use the `.tables` command to list the tables and `.schema <tablename>` to show the structure and compare it with https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/SQL.

99% of the time when users report this problem it's because they're trying to open a log file or a .gcm file instead of their actual book.

Regards,
John Ralls