[GNC] ABC.gnucash iCloud availability status "excluded not synced"

Kalpesh Patel kalpesh.patel at usa.net
Thu Dec 4 16:01:40 EST 2025


GNUCASH writing a new one with the same name in the iCloud folder is the initial culprit to trigger the loop – possibly infinite. 

 

The sync delay creates a self-feeding loop as length of time to sync never becomes less than how fast the next new file is created by GnuCash. So iCloud tries to retrieve all versions of same file that is in the cloud but it must renumber as it tries to catchup without clobbering any existing one, thus the number.

 

From: John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> 
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2025 2:15 PM
To: Kalpesh Patel <kalpesh.patel at usa.net>
Cc: jhoeter at googlemail.com; sunfish62 at yahoo.com; gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: Re: [GNC] ABC.gnucash iCloud availability status "excluded not synced"

 

This discussion seems germane: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6637807

 

Sync delay might account for the problem too: GnuCash renames the existing file and writes a new one on each save. If iCloud hasn’t performed the rename or doesn’t recognize it then it will treat the new file as a duplicate and assign a serial number. It seems like a pretty common problem based on the number of threads on discussions.apple.com <http://discussions.apple.com> .

 

Regards,

John Ralls

 





On Dec 4, 2025, at 06:10, Kalpesh Patel <kalpesh.patel at usa.net <mailto:kalpesh.patel at usa.net> > wrote:

 

I am seeing similar problem with iCloud Drive but I am on Windows. Some files are not getting synched or are taking long time (like in days) to sync up while Google Drive and OneDrive are synced up in seconds. Its tertiary backup but nonetheless it is a concern. It might be the case where Jobs wants everyone to use nothing but Apple hardware for Apple services ...

-----Original Message-----
From: jhoeter at googlemail.com <mailto:jhoeter at googlemail.com>  <jhoeter at googlemail.com <mailto:jhoeter at googlemail.com> > 
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2025 7:55 AM
To: sunfish62 at yahoo.com <mailto:sunfish62 at yahoo.com> ; gnucash-user at gnucash.org <mailto:gnucash-user at gnucash.org> 
Subject: [GNC] ABC.gnucash iCloud availability status "excluded not synced"

Well, it seems to have been a temporary fix, only. Even in a new iCloud folder, I again have "ABC.gnucash" not being saved properly on iCloud and instead "ABC xx.gnucash" (xx = consecutive numbers) being created, which results at the next start of GnuCash to  "ABC.gnucash could not be found", of course. This happens also when I manually remove the " xx" but I had some luck doing the removal in a different folder and copying the resulting "ABC.gnucash" back to the normal GnuCash file folder, but not consistent. 

I looked at the status of a thus copied "ABC.gnucash" file and file explorer states the iCloud availability status "excluded not synced" which per Apple "indicates that certain files are not being uploaded to iCloud Photos due to unsupported file types" which doesn't help as the relevant folders are under iCloud Drive, not iCloud Photos.

Ideas anyone?

Thanks, Jan

-----Original Message-----
From: sunfish62 at yahoo.com <mailto:sunfish62 at yahoo.com>  <sunfish62 at yahoo.com <mailto:sunfish62 at yahoo.com> >
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2025 8:15 AM
To: jhoeter at googlemail.com <mailto:jhoeter at googlemail.com> 
Cc: David Cousens <davidcousens49 at gmail.com <mailto:davidcousens49 at gmail.com> >; gnucash-user at gnucash.org <mailto:gnucash-user at gnucash.org> 
Subject: RE: [GNC] ABC xx.gnucash on iCloud leads to "... ABC.gnucash could not be found"

Cloud can be tricky. I have one cloud note app that only works with Dropbox and not with my off brand cloud. I'm glad you found a workaround.

⁣David T.​

On Nov 22, 2025, 1:46 PM, at 1:46 PM, jhoeter at googlemail.com <mailto:jhoeter at googlemail.com>  wrote:



Thanks, David C and T. My problem does not seem to be related to backup 
files. It's the main GnuCash file that is not saved properly (probably 
more an iCloud than a GnuCash issue, but possibly both have a part in 
it). As mentioned in my original post, things have been working 
correctly again after saving the GnuCash files in a new folder, still 
on iCloud.

-----Original Message-----
From: sunfish62 at yahoo.com <mailto:sunfish62 at yahoo.com>  <sunfish62 at yahoo.com <mailto:sunfish62 at yahoo.com> >
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2025 3:17 AM
To: David Cousens <davidcousens49 at gmail.com <mailto:davidcousens49 at gmail.com> >
Cc: jhoeter at googlemail.com <mailto:jhoeter at googlemail.com> ; gnucash-user at gnucash.org <mailto:gnucash-user at gnucash.org> 
Subject: Re: [GNC] ABC xx.gnucash on iCloud leads to "... ABC.gnucash 
could not be found"

David C.,

It looks like you are linking to outdated documentation. The current 
version of the chapter you cited is 
https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-guide/chapter_basics.html

⁣David T.​

On Nov 22, 2025, 1:58 AM, at 1:58 AM, David Cousens 
<davidcousens49 at gmail.com <mailto:davidcousens49 at gmail.com> > wrote:



Jan,

The creation oof Backup lock and log files in the sme directory as

your



data file is explained here
https://code.gnucash.org/website/docs/v1.8/C/gnucash-guide/basics_back
u p1.html however I noticed that this may be out of date as at least 
on Linux systems the formatof the backup a files no longer has the 
extension ".xac" but uses the extension ".gnucash", the same as the 
main data file but preceded by the date time format extension.

So if your main data file is

myfile.gnucash

then the backup files will be

myfile.yyyymmddhhmmss.gnucash

where yyyymmddhhmmss is the date timestamp created when the main data 
file was saved. Similarly the log file

myfile.yyyymmddhhmmss.log

will have a record of any new transactions entered  during the

session.




You can use these files to recover from data crashes during a session.

If GnuCash exits improperly there will be a file myfile.LCK created in





the directory with the main data file. It is created when you start a 
session with GnuCash and is normally deleted when GnuCash is exited 
properly.

You can also clear it with the "Open Anyway" option in the popup 
dialogue which comes up when you restart GnuCash after it has exited 
incorrectly.

It also serves to indicate that an instance of GnuCash has the data 
file open for read/write access while you have a session open and 
serves to warn a user trying to open another instance operating on the





same data file.


On Fri, 2025-11-21 at 10:41 -0500, Jan via gnucash-user wrote:



Hi guys!

For a few days now, I have a persistent problem with my gnucash file





that's being stored on my iCloud Drive (GunCash 4.13 on Win11; file 
size is 498 KB): Instead of ABC.gnucash, ABC xx.gnucash is being 
stored and "rebuilt" automatically when I manually remove the "xx"

in



the filename. I've had this before every once in a while, usually 
after an improper computer shutdown, but the manual fix removing

"xx"



always worked. Now GnuCash regularly starts up with the "...
ABC.gnucash could not be found" error which makes sense as the 
ABC.gnucash file is still in "sync pending", not the normal 
"available on this device". It seems this delayed sync is limited to





my GnuCash folder on the iCloud Drive, i.e. if I copy ABC xx.gnucash





to a different folder and remove the "xx", it syncs right away. When





I move ABC.gnucash from that different folder to the GnuCash folder,





the long and often unsuccessful syncing starts, often leaving me

with



another ABC xx.gnucash in the end. Same with copying ABC.gnu  cash 
from that different folder to the GnuCash folder. My temporary





solution is to create a new GnuCash folder on my ICloud drive, copy 
ABC xx.gnucash to that folder and remove the "xx". If I start

GnuCash



from there, all is good again - for now.

What could be going on here? 

Thanks for any help, Jan

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--
David Cousens
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