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[Fixed] Latest Portable GnuCash not portable.

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June 22, 2018 - 8:21am
#1
mak352
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[Fixed] Latest Portable GnuCash not portable.

Hello,

I updated GnuCash Portable to the latest version, 3.1.2 that came out on 6/18/18, and found that all my previously saved reports vanished and GnuCash created a new configuration directory on my C:/ drive at C:/Users/me/.gnucash. I had to restore my GnuCash Portable files from a backup in order to get my reports back. I think GnuCash has changed the way they store reports now in version 3 and this might have broken the GnuCash Portable to make it not so portable anymore. I updated from GnuCash 2.6.19 and was working on Windows 7, 64bit version. Has anybody else seen this issue?

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June 22, 2018 - 1:18pm
jck667
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I'm seeing the same thing -

I'm seeing the same thing except it's using /users/(me)/AppData/Roaming/GnuCash. Windows 7, 64 bit

And I think I allowed my home Vista machine to update its GnuCash as well, which I understand won't run on anything older than Windows 7...

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June 22, 2018 - 3:52pm
John T. Haller
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Database?

Where did you store your GnuCash database? If you didn't store it in the App directory, it's in the same place, though GnuCash Portable may forget where the location was.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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July 8, 2018 - 8:55pm
John T. Haller
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Report, Settings, Checks, and Logs portablization fixed in 3.2.0

The GnuCash Portable 3.2.0 release fixes an issue with report and settings portablization introduced in 2.6.x and 3.1.2. The settings portablization issue occurred sometime in the 2.6.x releases and resulted in some settings, checks, and logs stored within %USERPROFILE%\.gnucash if the path GnuCashPortable\Data\Profile did not exist. The report portablization issue occured with 2.6.x release series and resulted in custom report settings being stored within %USERPROFILE%\.gnucash. The 3.1.2 release resulted in custom reports and some settings stored within %APPDATA%\GnuCash.

The installer for 3.2.0 will update your settings from the portablized location for 2.x (GnuCashPortable\Data\Profile) to 3.x (GnuCashPortable\Data\GNCDataHome) if they already exist. If there are no reports within your settings but they exist locally, they will be copied in as well. If there are no settings/reports/logs/checks in your portable profile but they exist locally in 2.x format, they will be copied in. If none of those exist but local 3.x settings/reports/logs/checks exist, they will be copied in. You will receive a notification message during install if any actions resulted reports/settings/logs/checks being mistakenly stored locally that were copied to the portable data store including the local location of the data found.

This should resolve the existing issues noticed in the 3.1.2 release as well as issues that were not reported earlier with 2.6.x that I discovered while working on a fix for 3.1.2. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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July 23, 2018 - 1:44pm
(Reply to #4)
jck667
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Thank you JTH, I updated and

Thank you JTH, I updated and GNUcash saw no saved reports. But as soon as I copied my report file ("saved-reports-2.8") over to the location you mention and restarted GNUcash, it worked. (I am unable to update apps on my work PC due to the inability to download any *.exe files so the automatic copy you mention above did not go.) All fixed!

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January 17, 2023 - 2:45pm
jck667
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Not portable again?

Love GnuCash but it seems to be dropping files on my (work computer's) hard drive again, in the same place as before (c:/users/(me)/AppData/Roaming/GnuCash). I run PA off a flash drive and upgraded to a new one - fresh install of PA and GnuCash. Any ideas on how to re-portable-ize?

Also, I copied my custom reports from the prior PA installation into the new and they are not recognized. But when I copy the custom reports file into the Roaming folder mentioned above, the custom reports are all there.

I don't want to leave a bunch of files on my work computer if I can help it. Thanks in advance for any advice!

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January 17, 2023 - 5:44pm
(Reply to #6)
John T. Haller
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Specific Files

What specific files, what version of Windows are you on, what are the specific steps to recreate this for you? According to their documentation, we have all the necessary environment variables set: https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations#In_GNC_DATA_HOME

They may have changed something without documenting it. GnuCash is really messy in terms of file and config locations (15 environment variables, 4 registry keys)

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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January 18, 2023 - 2:30pm
(Reply to #7)
jck667
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Sorry, I forgot myself - long

Sorry, I forgot myself - long time since I've posted. Windows 10 64-bit. I run the PA platform off an SD card stuck in the side of my work laptop. My data file is on a flash drive. Both PA and GnuCash were freshly installed to a new SD card yesterday and I only noticed the issue when my saved reports (copied into the new GNCDataHome) were missing.

What's happening is the expected contents of ../PortableApps/GnuCashPortable/Data/GNCDataHome (e.g. /books, /checks, /translog, accelerator-map, expressions-2.0, stylesheets-2.0, saved-reports-2.8, etc) are found in C://users/(my id)/AppData/Roaming/GnuCash.

As an experiment, I removed the GnuCash folder off the C drive and emptied GNCDataHome as well. The hard drive folder was re-created the next time I started GnuCash and GNCDataHome stays empty. So it feels like the GNC_DATA_HOME variable is not pointed where it should be. Is this a config setting I can tweak myself?

I hope this is helpful in diagnosing. Thanks in advance for having a look.

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January 18, 2023 - 2:59pm
(Reply to #8)
John T. Haller
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Working Here, Try a Reboot?

It is working here without issue on both Windows 7 and 10 x64. How are you starting GnuCash Portable? Are you running GnuCashPortable.exe directly or launching via the platform? Pinned to taskbar or start menu? Have you tried rebooting the computer?

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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January 19, 2023 - 12:25pm
(Reply to #9)
jck667
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Didn't seem to make a difference

I'm starting GnuCash Portable from the PA menu, which I start from a desktop shortcut (pointing to the SD card) and sits in the taskbar notification area (what I think used to be called the "tray"?). The lower right corner.

Today I not only rebooted, but I also un-installed GnuCash from PA, rebooted again, re-installed GC. When I fire up GC (from the menu, i.e. the "right" way) on the fresh install, the /GNCDataHome, /GTKDataHome, /profile, /settings folders are created, along with the folder on the hard drive under /AppData/Roaming. Just like before. GNCDataHome has no contents (no /books /checks etc).

I suspect there's something about my PC that's the cause. It may not be related but a few weeks ago I noticed my "work" instance of Chrome, which I had never signed into before, suddenly knew who I was. And the instance of Chrome that I ran from PA suddenly had my work bookmarks in it. When I sign out of one Chrome I'm signed out of both. Prior to that time the two had coexisted separately perfectly well.

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January 19, 2023 - 12:42pm
(Reply to #10)
John T. Haller
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Registry

That usually means that your IT dept has updated your laptop with registry keys specific to Chrome that set that up. They could have done something to somehow prevent apps from setting environment variables at the same time. I've only seen this previously on a corrupt Windows install, though, if I recall correctly. As a temporary workaround, you can open the launcher's GnuCashPortable.ini config file within App\AppInfo\Launcher and add the following just before the [Activate] section:

[DirectoriesMove]
GnucashMove=%APPDATA%\GnuCash

That will move stuff to and from your local machine.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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