[GNC] How to Disable AutoComplete?

[Patrick James]

Two comments:

First:

"In my case though, my typical transaction might have 10 to 20 splits or more.  (Don't ask why.)  And the problem with that is that for some reason it takes GnuCash a really long time before it's able to pull up the most recent transaction for the AutoComplete operation."

Nothing to do with autocomplete, but for these transactions, I almost always use CSV multi-split import. I find it much easier to enter the data on a spreadsheet, and then import. The process includes lookup tables for much of the data, such as accounts.

Second:
"I might have to wait 8 to 10 seconds or more before the 
system responds to let me edit that transaction.  If it was just a 
single transaction like that now and then, it might not be a big deal.  
But if you're entering multiple transactions one after another -- and 
having to wait 10 seconds or so each time for each transaction before 
you can even start to edit it -- that gets real old real quick."

I would consider that to be a bug and report it at bugs.gnucash.org

I too have some transactions with many splits, and GnuCash brings those right up right away, so maybe it's something specific to your system or data file. By "right away" what I mean is that it's so fast that no one should complain, so fast that I don't have a good way to time such, so fast that I have no desire to time such.

> On 11/25/2025 4:51 PM PST Tom Route36 <tom.route36 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>  
> Hi Michael,
> 
> I hear what you're saying about the convenience of AutoComplete. And if 
> your typical transaction only involves a single split (e.g., 
> Expenses:Groceries), it's not that bad.  In my case though, my typical 
> transaction might have 10 to 20 splits or more.  (Don't ask why.)  And 
> the problem with that is that for some reason it takes GnuCash a really 
> long time before it's able to pull up the most recent transaction for 
> the AutoComplete operation.
> 
> I'm using GnuCash on a fairly high-powered gaming desktop system. Yet 
> when I let AutoComplete try to pull up one of those detailed 20-split 
> transactions, I might have to wait 8 to 10 seconds or more before the 
> system responds to let me edit that transaction.  If it was just a 
> single transaction like that now and then, it might not be a big deal.  
> But if you're entering multiple transactions one after another -- and 
> having to wait 10 seconds or so each time for each transaction before 
> you can even start to edit it -- that gets real old real quick.
> 
> For comparison, when I was entering these kinds of transactions into an 
> old version of Quicken (not that long ago) it would AutoComplete entries 
> as well.  But for whatever reason, the AutoComplete operations on 
> Quicken happened almost instantaneously with almost no lag at all.  So 
> coming from that kind of responsiveness to what I'm seeing with GnuCash 
> is really annoying.  That's why I think having a Preference setting to 
> enable or disable AutoComplete would be a nice user-friendly program option.
> 
> Tom