Jens, Please remember to copy the list on all replies.
You didn’t answer most of the questions, which are intended to help you understand how you managed to get an empty file on the wrong USB and have GnuCash open that instead of the one with your data. The dialog box on opening a file is that the file is locked, not read-only. Read-only is offered as an alternative in case the file is actually in use from another instance of GnuCash and you want that other instance to keep ownership. A common reason for getting that dialog is GnuCash crashing, which prevents the file from being unlocked. A less common reason that might apply in your case is ejecting the USB drive before GnuCash has finished quitting the session. macOS will usually prevent you from doing that if GnuCash has the file open, but it can’t stop you from physically disconnecting the drive before it’s unmounted, though it does put up a message reproving you for not ejecting the drive properly. As to the field for a comment for the accounts like there was in Quicken: I’ve never used Quicken so I have no idea what you mean, but if you are looking for a way to annotate splits in a more generic account, I suggest using the Memo field. That’s only visible in Split View so you’d use the Show splits button if you’re using Basic View or use Auto-Split or Transaction Journal view. Regards, John Ralls > On Mar 12, 2026, at 06:25, Jens Ingemann Jensen <[email protected]> > wrote: > > John > The file time stamped the 13th was a primary file and from the same folder. > GNC now works better than it used to; when I open it the file comes right up > from the USB drive which has a name. I used to get a message that the file > was read only, but did I wish to open it anyway, which I always did. > What I miss is a field for a comment for the accounts like there was in > Quicken (which I used on Windows machines and I do not miss). The > alternative would be to set up an account that I may use once and end up with > a very long list of accounts to scroll through for every transaction. > Jens > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Ralls <[email protected]> > Sent: Mar 6, 2026 1:54 PM > To: Jens Ingemann Jensen <[email protected]> > Cc: David T. <[email protected]>, <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [GNC] All data gone > > > Jens, > > “The standard expense categories and zero balances” sounds like you ran > “File>New” and clicked through the New Account Hierarchy Assistant accepting > all of the defaults. Do you have any accounts (we don’t call them categories > in GnuCash) in the file with data that don’t come from the New Account > Hierarchy Assistant? Are those accounts present (but empty) in the file with > no data? > > Was the file timestamped the 13th a backup or primary file? Was it in the > same directory as the file from the 15th? > > When you mount the USB drives do they have different names in /Volumes or > only on Finder’s sidebar? > > Regards, > John Ralls > On Mar 5, 2026, at 14:46, Jens Ingemann Jensen <[email protected]> > wrote: > David, > What I did was to take the USB stick on which I had saved the GNC file, > plugged it into my MacBook, and then opened GNC. It said it could not find > the usual file, so I went to "File" → "Open" clicked on the file on the > USB stick, and it opened a file with the standard expense categories and zero > balances and telling me it was "read only". Then I went back to my iMac and > now when I opened GNC the same happened. Both computers run GNC 5.1 > There was a second USB drive plugged into the iMac of which I had been > unaware, and it turned out that the files had been saved there too, but > trying to open them from there resulted in the same scenario. > This all happened on the 15th, and today I plugged in only the second USB > stick on my iMac, and I was able to find a file with a time stamp from the > 13th on this drive. I opened GNC and opened this file via the file menu. It > opened and came up with all the missing information. Miracle. The first USB > stick did not have any files with time stamps earlier than the 15th. Now I > am leary of trying again to run GNC on two computers, but I will try to copy > that good file onto a third USB stick and see if it will open on the MacBook. > I travel a bit, therefore the desire to run it on two computers, so I can > stay on top of my finances. > Even if I got my data back, I am still curious what I did wrong. > Thank you to everyone who has tried to help. > Jens > > _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] 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.
