[GNC] GnuCash SQLite: file attachments not recognized across platforms.

[tarik semrade]

I have the idea of installing the latest version on a Windows virtual 
machine, and it seems to me that special characters are not an issue there.
I’ll install the new version, clean |%APPDATA%|, then clone my SQLite 
database and open it. Hop it resolve the first issue!

I didn’t find a solution for Pathos.


Le 29/12/2025 à 15:55, tarik semrade a écrit :
>
> Hello Jim,
>
> Let me explain in more detail. On my Windows machine, I wanted to 
> upgrade to the latest release version, maybe 5.14 and not 5.15.
>
> When I installed this version, the SQLite file would not open because 
> it was using the old folder in |%APPDATA%| that had been created by 
> the old version (5.5).
>
> When I removed (or renamed) this folder and let the new version create 
> its own folder, the SQLite file finally opened. However, some 
> characters in the accounts appeared incorrectly, such as “,” because I 
> use the French version.
>
> It looks like an encoding issue.
>
> I don’t know how to fix this or how to make both my GnuCash 
> applications on Linux and Windows use the same encoding. After this 
> experience, I went back to the old version, restored the old 
> |%APPDATA%| folder, and everything was fixed naturally.
>
> That being said, the second issue I mentioned is the path problem:
>
> I want to use an absolute path so that attached files can be opened on 
> both Linux and Windows.
>
> I know that the path separator is not the same character on Linux and 
> Windows. For now, I only manage attached invoices on my Windows 
> machine, and this has been done from the beginning using an absolute path.
>
> I have remote access to this machine, so using relative paths would 
> also be fine. I think GnuCash may not handle the Windows path 
> separator correctly, because on my Linux machine I looked at a path 
> stored by my Windows machine and the “/” was replaced by “_”, which 
> cannot work anyway.
>
> The idea is that if I clone my repository on a Windows machine, the 
> files can be found easily. If it also works on Linux, that would be a 
> plus.
>
> I think my first post was not clear. I am sorry for the misunderstanding.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tarik
>
> Le 28/12/2025 à 22:23, Jim DeLaHunt a écrit :
>>
>> Hello, Tarik:
>>
>> Welcome to GnuCash. I hope you will be able to get useful help on 
>> this list.
>>
>> On 2025-12-28 08:31, tarik semrade wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I am a GnuCash user and I use GnuCash on two machines: Linux and 
>>> Windows.
>>>
>>> I switched to the SQLite file format in order to use a Python 
>>> library and be able to test and parse the SQLite database.
>>>
>>> One issue I am facing concerns the use of *absolute paths on 
>>> Windows*. When I started using GnuCash on Windows, I attached files 
>>> using absolute paths. After some time, I realized that Windows paths 
>>> could cause problems: when I open my book on another machine, the 
>>> linked files are not recognized.
>>>
>>> For this year, after resetting all the accounts, I want to start a 
>>> new year with a more flexible method, since I use GnuCash from both 
>>> Linux and Windows.
>>>
>>> I used to use GitHub to synchronize the files. The GnuCash version 
>>> on Windows is 5.5, while on my Ubuntu 25 system I use version 5.15. 
>>> The book opens correctly without issues on both systems. However, 
>>> one thing I tested was updating the Windows version of GnuCash to 
>>> the latest release to match my Linux machine. I noticed that when I 
>>> open the book with the latest Windows version, some strange 
>>> characters appear. I reinstalled the 5.5 version since it works good.
>>>
>>> If you have any recommendations to help resolve the issue with 
>>> linked file paths, I would be very grateful.
>>
>> I did some work on the file paths for my transaction attachments, so 
>> I have some idea of how these paths work in GnuCash. I can offer 
>> hints, but not a full solution.
>>
>> It would help if you could give examples of these "strange 
>> characters". Can you give a screen of what they look like, and what 
>> you expect to see if there are no "strange characters"?
>>
>> What originally saved the paths with these strange characters to your 
>> GnuCash file?  Was it GnuCash 5.5 on Windows, and now GnuCash current 
>> version shows strange characters on those same paths? Or is it just 
>> paths which you saved using GnuCash on Linux which appear with 
>> strange characters in GnuCash on Windows current version?
>>
>> I don't know if the GnuCash app makes promises that attachment paths 
>> work across platforms. I do know:
>>
>>   * Absolute paths are unlikely to work, because the roots of
>>     absolute paths are different on Windows and Linux (e.g.
>>     "C:\Users" and "/usr/".  So, using relative paths to attachments
>>     is more likely to work.
>>   * Windows and Linux use different path separator characters ("\"
>>     and "/").
>>   * Windows and Linux use different character code conventions to
>>     store path names (16-bit UTF-16LE and 8-bit UTF-8).
>>
>> It is possible that GnuCash code makes an effort to smooth over these 
>> differences. It is also possible that it makes no particular effort. 
>> If you are comfortable reading software source code, you could read 
>> the GnuCash source code to try and find out.
>>
>> I hope this helps you take some steps forward. Best regards,
>>     —Jim DeLaHunt
>>
>>