[GNC] Gnucash 206.21 crashing when accessing reports

Sun Mar 23 20:37:13 EDT 2025

Diana,

I usually migrate to the latest version of GnuCash within a week of its
release and have been doing so since around 2010. I also build GnuCash
from the source code on Linux ( and have previously built it on Windows
as well) mainly so I don't have to wait for the latest version to be
released by the OS packagers. 

The downloaded  Windows version of GnuCash is usually the latest
release and it will usually uninstall previous versions during the
installation procedure. I did use GnuCash on Windows 10 and 11 as well
until a couple of years ago, sharing the same data file between GnuCash
on Linux and Windows. I have never encountered any problems.

Occasionally there may  a glitch with the first version of a major
release, but those sort of problems are usually fixed very rapidly in a
quick second release by John Ralls and are not usually with the core
functionality in any case.

The main thing with upgrading is just to take it step by step
methodically. Printing out a full balance sheet and checking that the
balances don't change after each upgrade step is also useful for
detecting problems. If you can it, is probably a good idea to suspend
entering new data until you have completed the upgrade to a recent
version and have it running happily (although perhaps a bit more slowly
on anolder machines).

Good Luck

On Sun, 2025-03-23 at 20:04 -0400, Dianna Broughton wrote:
> Thanks for your feedback, David. I've tried several times to upgrade
> to a newer version of Gnucash, but there's always been glitches. That
> why I thought I'd archive my current version (and accounting data
> through 2024), and start fresh on my new laptop with the newest
> version of Gnucash, and new books starting from January 1, 2025. I'm
> not sure if it's the best move, though. Maybe I should try to update
> one more time and see if it works better for me.
> 
> Kind regards,
> Dianna
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Cousens [mailto:davidcousens49 at gmail.com] 
> Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2025 6:54 PM
> To: Dianna Broughton <dbroughton at comporium.net>;
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: [GNC] Gnucash 206.21 crashing when accessing reports
> 
> GnuCash 2.6.21 is now well out of date. If you are going to update to
> a newer machine but are already running Windows 11, it will likely
> pay to also update to the latest version of GnuCash before migrating
> to a new machine
> 
> Changes to the main GnuCash datafile structure mainly occur at the
> major version changes 2->3->4->5. The update procedure will usually
> modify the datafiles as necessary the first time GnuCash is run after
> a change to the next major series version
> 
> In addition to the main data file(s) the location and storage of book
> preferences, user preferences , stored reports and any online banking
> settings you have saved also changes. The update procedure will
> usually migrate most of theses to the new locations but it does pay
> to check that any settings and preferences you rely on have
> successfully made it into the next major version.
> 
> This migration is covered in a post
> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2021-January/094773.html
> 
> and the steps to follow from that post with the additional steps to
> get to 5.11 are 
> 
> If you follow the upgrade path, the recommended method is to:
> > 1) Make a backup of your data file and keep any backups of the
> datafile you make until finished.
> 
> > 2) Upgrade to 2.16.21, open your file and perform a check & repair
> (Menu_>Actions_>Check and Repair ) on the entire file and save the
> file. Check that your preferences, saved reports can be accessed and
> any online banking setup can be accessed if applicable. Make a new
> backup.
> 
> > 3) Upgrade to 3.11, open your file and perform a check & repair on
> the entire file and save the file.Check that your preferences, saved
> reports can be accessed and any online banking setup can be accessed
> if applicable. Make a new backup.
> 
> > 4) Upgrade to 4.4, open your file and perform a check & repair on
> > the
> entire file and save the file.Check that your preferences, saved
> reports can be accessed and any online banking setup can be accessed
> if applicable. Make a new backup.
> 
> > 5) Upgrade to 5.11, open the file perform a check and repair on the
> entire file and save the file.Check that your preferences, saved
> reports can be accessed and any online banking setup can be accessed
> if applicable. Make a new backup of the data file.
> 
> If you have problems at any point come back to the list and ask for
> help proceeding
> 
> David Cousens
> 
> On Sun, 2025-03-23 at 12:37 -0400, Dianna Broughton wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > I'm running Gnucash 2.6.21 and recently updated to Win 11. I think 
> > that triggered an issue with Reports. Any time I try to access 
> > anything in the Reports menu, Gnucash closes. Everything else seems
> > to 
> > be working fine.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Here's the windows error message:
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Faulting application name: gnucash.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time
> > stamp:
> > 0x5acd42ff
> > 
> > Faulting module name: libfreetype-6.dll, version: 0.0.0.0, time
> > stamp:
> > 0x578413f8
> > 
> > Exception code: 0xc0000005
> > 
> > Fault offset: 0x0001467e
> > 
> > Faulting process id: 0x4668
> > 
> > Faulting application start time: 0x1DB9BFA5946A038
> > 
> > Faulting application path: C:\Program Files 
> > (x86)\gnucash\bin\gnucash.exe
> > 
> > Faulting module path: C:\Program Files
> > (x86)\gnucash\bin\libfreetype- 
> > 6.dll
> > 
> > Report Id: 068f7043-2080-47b1-a249-c7a425549dfa
> > 
> > Faulting package full name: 
> > 
> > Faulting package-relative application ID: 
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this issue?
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Ever since I updated to Win 11, everything has gotten sluggish. I
> > was 
> > going to get a new laptop after the new year, so I'm thinking I may
> > just get it now and avoid the sluggishness and Gnucash problems 
> > altogether.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > If I get a new laptop, I'm thinking about downloading the latest 
> > version of Gnucash (instead of holding on to my 2.6.21 version that
> > I've had trouble updating), and starting "fresh." Just close out
> > with 
> > December 2024 on my current laptop, and start with January 1, 2025
> > on 
> > my, instead of transferring my gnucash files to my new laptop. (I 
> > remember having issues the last time I upgraded laptops.)
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > I'll keep the laptop I'm currently using for a while for historical
> > data,
> > and I have hard copies of income statements. Would that be good
> > enough? Any
> > problems with doing things this way?
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > I hope all of this makes sense. I was up late last night trying way
> > too many
> > fixes and my brain is fried.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Thanks for any advice,
> > 
> > Dianna
> > 
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