[GNC] problem obtaining lock

[Paul Kroitor]

This question gets asked every few weeks and, despite being front and centre in the FAQ, this has been the case for years and years.

It occurs to me that a “More Info…” button in the dialog yielding a text similar to Steve’s reply might help. Should be pretty trivial to implement. Thoughts?

Paul

> On Aug 12, 2026, at 10:41 AM, Marty Landman <martster at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Thanks, that makes perfect sense.
> 
>> On 8/12/2026 10:38 AM, Steve Butler wrote:
>> When you open a file, the lock is established.   When you close the program or switch to a different file, the lock is removed.  If you fail to close the program before reboot,  the file may not be updated and the lock isn't removed.  The file will be in whatever state it was in when the last save was done.
>> 
>> So, be sure to exit GnC before each system update.
>> 
>> On Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 07:57 Marty Landman <martster at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>    My wife and I have been using Gnucash for a few years now for our
>>    small
>>    business, and the one problem that keeps happening is after my
>>    Windows
>>    11 Home edition updates and I have to restart Gnucash I get the
>>    following message:
>> 
>> 
>>    Gnucash could not obtain the lock for C:
>>    \Users\Admin\AppData\Local\GnuCash.gnucash
>> 
>>    That database may be in use by another user, in which case you
>>    should not open the database. What would you like to do?
>> 
>> 
>>    I select 'open anyway', then open, close, and then reopen it and the
>>    error goes away.   What is going on? How can I prevent this error
>>    from
>>    happening in the first place?
>> 
>> 
>>    Marty
>> 
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