[GNC] longtime user suddenly unable to open gnucash
John Ralls
jralls at ceridwen.us
Thu Aug 7 20:22:21 EDT 2025
Jacob,
Unfortunately neither is useful. The trace file has only the notice from the DBI backend that the file isn’t a SQLite one (because GnuCash checks for that before checking if it’s an XML file). No indication of any error.
The diagnostic file you shared isn’t a crash report: A crash report will be named gnucash-<timestamp>.ips. “gnucash” may be capitalized and it might be in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Retiired/.
Regards,
John Ralls
> On Aug 7, 2025, at 16:00, Jacob Wegelin <jacobwegelin at fastmail.fm> wrote:
>
> John,
>
> Here are 2 files, zipped up to preserve timestamps, on dropbox.
>
> It had been a couple days since I tried to run GnuCash. The "ralloldtrace", I got first. It has at least something in it.
>
> I think I tried to find the 2nd file, i.e., the Crash Report, and found
> none.
>
> Then I again tried to open GnuCash.
> Subsequently, the trace file was empty, i.e., zero bytes.
>
> But I got a crash report. But it seemed to have too early of a
> timestamp; I attempted to open GnuCash within the past hour and the
> crash report seems to be from 25-Aug-07 12:27.
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ngg75sp4ezqolklrrvhau/rall.zip?rlkey=cuwi3jcffu2vf4zjlnq5ko6zx&st=x9k2ny6y&dl=0
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/6gkueee1qdfz87sedb94b/ralloldtrace.zip?rlkey=m1910nx2f763ds3qb66gydsu3&st=rtaqg3ox&dl=0
>
> Do these files look like I found the right files?
>
> Thank you again. Let me know what next I should do.
>
> Jacob Wegelin
>
> On 2025-08-05 Tue 10:07, John Ralls wrote:
>> Let’s find out where it’s crashing. Please open a bug report at https://bugs.gnucash.org/enter_bug.cgi and attach (as files using the attach box, don’t paste them in to the description) the trace file (https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Tracefile) and macOS Crash Report (https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Stack_Trace#macOS).
>>
>> Regards,
>> John Ralls
>>
>>
>>> On Aug 5, 2025, at 8:34 AM, Jacob Wegelin <jacobwegelin at fastmail.fm> wrote:
>>>
>>> My computer is MacBook Pro. Chip Apple M4 Pro. MacOs Sequoia 15.6
>>>
>>> I have now done the following:
>>>
>>> rm JAW.gnucash *LCK
>>>
>>> open /Applications/Gnucash.app
>>>
>>> dialogue box says
>>>
>>> The file/URI /Users/qg/u/Household/GnuCash/wip/JAW.gnucash could not be found.
>>> The file is in the history list, do you want to remove it?
>>>
>>> click yes
>>>
>>> then I get "Unsaved Book -- GnuCash" with nothing in it.
>>>
>>> File, Open and I get a dialogue box with nothing in it. It does not show the backup files, although they all end in *.gnucash.
>>>
>>> Then I try an earlier backup than the most recent:
>>>
>>> cp -p JAW.gnucash.20250803162946.gnucash JAW.gnucash
>>>
>>> and we see it now in the dialogue box. The type is listed as "unknown,"
>>> size 2.1MB. I click that file in the dialogue box, click open, and
>>> GnuCash goes away. The application is no longer open.
>>>
>>> Repeat the procedure, this time using JAW.gnucash.20250802200000.gnucash
>>> from 1st August. Again, GnuCash goes away as soon as I try to open the
>>> file.
>>>
>>> Repeat using JAW.gnucash.20250730234537.gnucash, from 30 July, same
>>> result. GnuCash was working just fine back then.
>>>
>>> How can I fix this?
>>>
>>> Jacob Wegelin
>>>
>>> On 2025-08-05 Tue 01:55, pete hopkins wrote:
>>>> What type of MAC do you have - is it running an ARM chip or an Intel chip as you have installed the ARM version.
>>>>
>>>> I am running v5.12 on MACos 15.5. I run the ARM version as my MAC has an M1 chip. I don’t see the problems you are reporting?
>>>>
>>>> Pete
>>>>
>>>>> On 5 Aug 2025, at 05:19, R Losey <rlosey at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> That's why I suggested shutting down GnuCash and then renaming the files
>>>>> before starting it.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Aug 4, 2025 at 10:38 PM sunfish62 at yahoo.com <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> R,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Your instructions are thorough, but do not make clear that on Macs,
>>>>>> GnuCash always opens the last file it had open--even if you double click a
>>>>>> different GnuCash file in Finder. Or at least, that's always how it used to
>>>>>> work. And if the file is corrupt, then OP will have a difficult time
>>>>>> opening GnuCash up to find an earlier good file. That's why I suggested
>>>>>> opening GnuCash without a file.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Of course, by renaming the original file, you force GnuCash to open
>>>>>> without the file it can no longer find, but it would be clearer to note
>>>>>> that it will then be necessary to File->Open the backup.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> David T.
>>>>>> On Aug 4, 2025, at 11:20 PM, R Losey <rlosey at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I run GnuCash on my Mac as well; I have an M1 Mac running Sequoia 15.5 -
>>>>>>> there was a discussion here about some people having problems with 15.6 --
>>>>>>> what are you running?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> When GnuCash starts, it first looks for a .LCK file; if one exists, you get
>>>>>>> the error message; otherwise, GnuCash creates the .LCK file and opens your
>>>>>>> data file. When you shut down GnuCash, it closes your data file, and
>>>>>>> deletes the .LCK.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> So, when GnuCash is running, there should always be a .LCK file. If GnuCash
>>>>>>> is shut down, there should be no .LCK file.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If GnuCash crashes, it doesn't go through the normal exit process, and the
>>>>>>> .LCK file can stick around. The choice to "Open Anyway" is the right choice
>>>>>>> when you only and always use GnuCash from one computer. (I have my data
>>>>>>> files stored on a network storage device, and I can access it from multiple
>>>>>>> computers, so I have to make sure that if I get the error message that I
>>>>>>> really don't have it running elsewhere).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> From what you wrote, it sounds as if your data file has something in it
>>>>>>> that is causing a crash. To verify this,
>>>>>>> 1) Shut down GnuCash
>>>>>>> 2) Delete the .LCK file
>>>>>>> 3) Open GnuCash; you shouldn't get a warning, but Gnucash will probably go
>>>>>>> away (that is, "crash").
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This is almost certainly an issue with your data file. So...
>>>>>>> 1) Delete the .LCK file
>>>>>>> 2) Rename your existing data file to something - perhaps
>>>>>>> JAW.gnucash-CORRUPT and then create a copy of the most recent backup file
>>>>>>> and rename it to JAW.gnucash
>>>>>>> 3) Open GnuCash - you should not get any warning; if GnuCash opens, you're
>>>>>>> good. If it crashes, delete the lock file, and try the next oldest backup
>>>>>>> file. Repeat this until GnuCash opens without crashing. If you get to a
>>>>>>> file that you KNOW was good, then there is something else going on - the
>>>>>>> log files may be able to help you.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Best wishes!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Mon, Aug 4, 2025 at 9:20 PM Jacob Wegelin <jacobwegelin at fastmail.fm>
>>>>>>> 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
>>>>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> gnucash-user mailing list
>>>>>>>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
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>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> _________________________________
>>>>> Richard Losey
>>>>> rlosey at gmail.com
>>>>> Micah 6:8
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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