[GNC] ABC xx.gnucash on iCloud leads to "... ABC.gnucash could not be found"

[sunfish62 at yahoo.com]

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 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 <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> 
>Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2025 3:17 AM
>To: David Cousens <davidcousens49 at gmail.com>
>Cc: jhoeter at googlemail.com; 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It looks like you are linking to outdated documentation.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> 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_backu
>>p1.html however I noticed that this may be out of date as at least on 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
>>_______________________________________________
>>gnucash-user mailing list
>>gnucash-user at gnucash.org
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