[GNC] could not obtain lock message when opening GnuCash

[R Losey]

On Tue, Apr 15, 2025 at 2:18 PM David Long <davidvernonlong at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am using GNucash on 3 machines, who share the file on Dropbox. I make
> sure only one version is open at any one time. When opening GnuCash, I get
> the message * GnuCash could not obtain the lock to( folder\filename). That
> database may be in use by another user, in which case you should not open
> it."  I always ignore the message and open it anyway, as the backups give
> me the same message. I am worried that this might give me problems at some
> stage. What should I do?
> thanks
> David
>

Hello!
I'm also running GnuCash on three machines - three operating systems
(MacOS, Windows 10, and Linux [Ubuntu]).

You should not be getting that message on a regular basis... when GnuCash
starts, it creates a "lock" file that is deleted when GnuCash is shut
down.  If you start GnuCash and the "lock" file exists, it implies that
GnuCash is running somewhere else, and you get the warning.

Therefore, if something happened such that GnuCash didn't shut down
cleanly, the "lock" file may stick around.

Or perhaps one of the machines doesn't have write access to the GnuCash
directory?

Perhaps you're running an older version of GnuCash that isn't shutting down
cleaning. (What version are you running?) One of the earlier 5.x versions
had an issue in which GnuCash did not shut down all the way and left the
lock file in place.


-- 
_________________________________
Richard Losey
rlosey at gmail.com
Micah 6:8