Donna, I use the same Gnucash, but Windows 11. 1st, let me say that Geoff info was helpful. There are several folders on my system for gnucash, but all the data and backups reside in gnucash in my documents folder. There are other files associated with gnucash that it puts in other places that I would not put in my main data files location. When you say you have files in 3 locations, which files are you referring to?
your questions: 1. gnucash saves all data files in one location by default. This includes your main data file, as ????.gnucash. The log files that Goeff mentioned ????.gnucash.datetime.log and the lock file he mentioned ????.gnucash.LCK. 2. As long as you didn't delete the ????.gnucash or any newer log files you should have been OK, but you probably deleted your current file and that is why you lost data. 3. In the "Edit/Preferences/General", there is an Auto Save time Interval that you can set for it to create backups and a "Retain log/backups" for the number of days to save these backups. This way it can do the deletions for you automatically and you don't have to worry about what files you are deleting. 4. As Geoff said it will save the file to the same place it was retrieved from, unless you use "save as" and specify a different location. 5. Geoff is also correct here that gnucash saves backup so you don't lose data, but backuping up to another media is always a good idea. Another helpful place to look is in "Help/Tutorial and Concepts Guide". In the search box type "backing up and recovering data" enter and it will take you to the page explaining how to restore and helpful information about how every thing works. Thank You, Gyle McCollam Gyle McCollam gmccol...@live.com<mailto:gmccol...@gyleshomes.com> email ________________________________ From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+gylemc=gmail....@gnucash.org> on behalf of gra...@shaw.ca <gra...@shaw.ca> Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2022 2:37 PM To: gnucash-user@gnucash.org <gnucash-user@gnucash.org> Subject: [GNC] new to Gnucash - help with general information I am new to Gnucash and have a few questions regarding saving data. I use Windows 10 and Gnucash Version: 4.11 Build ID: 4.11+(2022-06-25) 1. I would like to save everything in one folder named Gnucash. I think I will use the xml format. Currently it seems there are files in three different folders. How do I make sure to save everything to one folder? 2. Can I move everything I have (which is in 3 different folders) to a folder named Gnucash without harm to the data I have entered. (I previously had entered data for 2021, then deleted a bunch of files and most of the data disappeared. The file types were text and gnucash financial data) 3. How long do you need to keep the different files? Are there certain files needed to keep the data in the Gnucash system? I have looked at the FAQ but still not clear. 4. When you click the save button when entering transactions, how do you know where it is being saved to? I'd like it to be saved in Gnucash folder, as indicated above. 5. Back ups - I have read a lot about the back ups but still unsure what to do. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks all Donna _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
