[GNC] Logs and Backups
Tom Route36
tom.route36 at gmail.com
Fri Jun 19 04:06:18 EDT 2026
David,
Actually, I was more trying to remind Ken that he could just turn off
AutoSave altogether by setting the Interval to zero. That way he has
complete *manual* control over how many saves are done, and when --
rather than being dependent on user activity or the calendar. One thing
that might have caused confusion is calling those save files "backups".
The reason I like having those saves is because it gives me the chance
to go back in time in a granular way if I need to see what a certain
action or transaction of mine might have done to possibly cause a
problem. But it's definitely not a recourse in the event of a
catastrophic failure. If the disk dies, those saves die right along
with it. I think we all realize that. My backup program copies those
90 some files off to a completely separate physical disk at the end of
each day. That other disk is the *actual* backup.
Tom
On 06/18/2026 11:21 PM, David T. wrote:
> ... And as most long time subscribers to this list will note, the
> developers and the general user group have emphasized that it is the
> user's responsibility to provide necessary backups using proper backup
> tools.
>
> GnuCash's log files and backups provide a modicum of recourse in the
> event of a catastrophic failure, but users should be in the habit of
> creating reliable backups separately.
>
> Tom, you missed Ken's point about the creation of backup files, which
> is that their creation is dependent on user activity (how and when the
> user opens GnuCash), whereas the setting is strictly calendar based.
> We could go on and on about how GnuCash manages these files, or we
> could spend the time identifying a proper backup program that
> preserves user data in the way we seek to have it preserved. I suggest
> engaging in the latter.
>
> David T.
>
>
>
> On June 19, 2026 9:44:12 AM GMT+05:30, Tom Route36
> <tom.route36 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Ken, The number of backups you have is dependent on your
> Auto-Save Time Interval and how long GnuCash is open (and also
> depends on if you're manually doing saves). If you set the
> Auto-Save Interval to zero, then you've disabled Auto-Save, and
> the number of backups will be totally determined by you --
> whenever you decide to do a save. BTW, I'm not sure that you need
> to be concerned about limiting backups. I have over 30 years
> worth of data in my GnuCash data file; and it's only 11 MB in
> size. So disk space isn't really an issue. I have my backup
> retention time set to 21 days; and currently I have about 90
> backups. For me, having multiple backups is more reassuring than
> a bother. Just my opinion. Tom On 06/18/2026 07:48 PM, Ken Pyzik
> wrote:
>
> OK - I think I may have found the answer to my own question.
> In the EDIT>>Preferences>>General, there is a setting to
> Retain Logs/Backup files with three options - Never, For X
> number of days or Forever. The default appears to be 30 days.
> Now this is interesting. If this is true - which I believe it
> is - this means that if you go into Gnucash every day, you can
> end up with up to 30 or 31 logs and backup files. So, someone
> could assume that they could just change it to 3 days and that
> would be fine. However, if you do NOT open Gnucash everyday -
> but instead open it up once a week, you would need keep the
> logs for 21 days in order to have 3 backups. By the same
> token, if you are someone who only opens Gnucash once a month
> - or only once every couple of months, you would need to keep
> the files for up to 60 or 90 days in order to get 3 full
> backups. I am guessing that this is the behavior and that it
> has probably been this way forever. I am also guessing that if
> you only want 3 backups definitively - you have to adjust the
> days accordingly to the way you use the system - i.e., how
> often you open and work with the files. And if you go into the
> system multiple times a day - you could end up with A LOT of
> backups and logs files. Is this behavior correct? If yes,
> would changing it to be a definitive number be difficult? I
> assuming it is, otherwise I would have thought it would have
> been changed by now. Ken
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From:
> gnucash-user<gnucash-user-bounces+pyz01=outlook.com at gnucash.org>
> on behalf of Ken Pyzik<pyz01 at outlook.com> Sent: Thursday, June
> 18, 2026 6:05 PM To: Gnucash Users<gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> Subject: [GNC] Logs and Backups This may have been mentioned
> in the past - and if so - sorry for the repeat. However, I
> noticed today 10 ".log" and 10 ".<<date>>.gnucash" files. So,
> I am assuming that gnucash is keeping 10 transaction and log
> file backups. Is this correct? If so, is this the default and
> if it is the default, can this be changed to only 2 or 3?
> Thanks for the reply.
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