[GNC] longtime user suddenly unable to open gnucash

[Sherlock]

Jacob,

Have you tried opening recent backups saved of the gnucash file saved 
before the issue appeared?

Regards,

Sherlock


On 8/4/25 7:19 PM, Jacob Wegelin wrote:
> I have been using gnucash for about 20 years on macos for personal
> bookkeeping.
> Suddenly today, it refuses to open with the following message:
> 
>      GnuCash could not obtain the lock for /Users/qg/u/Household/ 
> GnuCash/wip/JAW.gnucash (which is my file which it also opens).
> 
>      The database may be in use by another user, in which case you 
> should not open the database.  What would you like to do?
> 
> When I clicked "open anyway," the application looked like it was loading
> and then it went away---the application was not open.
> 
> I tried deleting gnucash.LCK and it just made another one.
> 
> I reinstalled gnucash, updated my macos and rebooted the computer.
> 
> I changed the permissions on JAW.gnucash so it is readable and
> writeable by everybody. Exactly the same message.
> 
> I tried reinstalling it again after the macos reboot, as follows:
> 
> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Installation
> 
> https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnucash/files/gnucash%20%28stable%29/
> click: download latest version Gnucash-Arm-5.12-1.dmg (184.3 MB)
> 
> I made gnucash.LCK read,write,execute by everybody, but the same result.
> 
> How do I get GnuCash working again? I use it every day.
> 
> Thank you
> 
> Jacob Wegelin