[GNC] New User - 1st Question

[Adrien Monteleone]

On 12/4/25 7:10 PM, murray at murraycomber.com wrote:
> I am thinking that I may have done something when I originally downloaded the program. I didn't download it from the GNUCash site...it seemed to complicated so I found a site that seemed much easier. I MAY have set it up wrong from the 'get-go'.

Absolutely, always download from the GnuCash site. (really, just a link 
to Sourceforge - see more direct link way down below) I'm not sure how 
you found that complicated. Perhaps you got into the weeds reading too 
far instead of simply downloading and installing? (the download links 
are in a box near the top-center of the home page - see attached image)

> ALSO, because this program, though it is being built on my computer was intended to have our church treasurer download the program on her computer then import the program that I built. Perhaps I should ask, Is that even possible, otherwise there is no sense in moving forward with this project this way. Because of that, though the program is on my computer and I was saving the data to a USB flash drive' perhaps that is an issue as well.

There is no need to 'build' anything. You just download the .exe 
installer, and run it to install. Your treasurer can simply do the same 
to install GnuCash (downloaded from the official website) and install on 
her computer, then put the flash drive in and open the file — 
easy-peasy. You could even put the installer you download on the flash 
drive so she has it handy instead of having to download it herself.

> I managed to set up my Income and Expense accounts more accurately without a problem, however, there were times that before I was able to press Save, it began to buffer. The only way I was able to close the program, quickly anyway was by using the Task Manager. When I reopened the program, everything had been Saved up to the point of the buffering. That clearly shows that I did something wrong as explained in one of the above paragraphs.

You effectively 'crashed' the app by doing so. You forced it to close. 
Thus, you'll likely not see all or any changes as they weren't saved, 
and you might even get the warning message about the lock file (where 
you get the 'open anyway' button, seems you mention this below...)

I'm not sure what you mean by 'began to buffer' but if your save to the 
USB drive is taking more than a split second or possibly even two, you 
either have a bad USB drive, or Windows just doesn't like it for some 
reason. Try a different one, or rather, save the file locally first and 
get everything set up, *then* move it to the USB drive.

Next, your screenshot is very clear that you are trying to enter a 
transaction in a 'place-holder' account. (the 'Income' account) As it is 
a top-level place-holder, you cannot do so. (Other top-level 
placeholders are 'Expenses', 'Equity', 'Liabilities', & 'Assets') You 
should create a sub-account and enter your transactions there. You can 
even name it "Income" if you like, but might want to find something more 
specific so as not to get confused. You can of course have more than one 
sub-account to track different types or sources of income. It is 
possible to create lower-level placeholder accounts with sub-accounts 
under those. And in those cases, those placeholder accounts are 
'read-only' also. (that's what a 'place-holder' is for - just an 
organization level - not an actual account to hold transactions) If you 
later find you really need to also put transactions in a place-holder, 
you need to do like the dialog box says and clear that checkbox. Note, 
as I noted above, you cannot do so for the top-level accounts. They are 
permanent place-holders.

> Regardless, I am thinking of complete deleting the program then reinstalling it from the GNUCash site. Will that create any complications because I had already downloaded it to my laptop or should there be a clean uninstall with the ability to reinstall using the same email for the 2nd download as the 1st.

!! - An e-mail address is *NOT* required to either download or install 
the app. Can you give us the website you downloaded from? Where was an 
e-mail address requested? That sounds extremely suspicious and might 
have compromised that e-mail address.

With that out of the way, as mentioned by others, it is probably safer 
to download 5.12 for now. 5.14 will be out in a couple of weeks. You can 
get to 5.12 by going to the Files tab on SourceForge once you click the 
proper download link on the GnuCash homepage.

Unfortunately, while the developers made getting the 'latest' version 
really easy with a direct link from the GnuCash homepage, if you want to 
install a previous version as in this case, it is a bit more cumbersome 
since SourceForge automatically starts the download requiring you to 
cancel that and then it isn't obvious where to click next.

Here is a direct link to the folder for version 5.12:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnucash/files/gnucash%20%28stable%29/5.12/

Click the link to download the .exe installer on that page.

(I did not link directly to the file itself as I don't know if the 
mailing list software would allow it.)

As Windows lately has demonstrated some issues with 'installing new over 
old', it might be safer to uninstall the existing app *and* delete the 
GnuCash folder in "C:\Program Files". (might be in "C:\Program 
Files(x86)") Then do the install with the official download.

> I should also mention, that when I opened the program, I got the attached pdf screenshot. When I clicked on the 'Open Anyway' button, the program did open but as mentioned, buffered in some functions before saving.
I don't see the dialog box you are referencing here in your screenshot, 
but I know the one you are talking about. That is normal when you 
force-quit or when it crashes on its own. As long as you choose 'Open 
Anyway' and not 'Open Read-Only' you should be fine to proceed with your 
work in the file. You may want to check your Preferences concerning the 
File Save interval and adjust as needed. I think the default is every 5 
minutes which is probably fine, but perhaps you'd like more often while 
you're learning and setting up. (less chance of losing work) Avoid 
killing the app with Task Manager unless it has entirely locked up and 
is unresponsive. (and then report that condition back here on the list 
with the steps that led to that happening)

Regards,
Adrien

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