Op woensdag 7 april 2021 02:30:30 CEST schreef Roger Oliver: > I'm running GnuCash 2.6.21 on a Windows 7 computer. I need to migrate the > system to a Windows 10 computer. Just need to be sure I understand any > complications I may encounter. Some questions. > > 1. Will I have any problems updating to version 4?
Depends on how you will go about the update. I would certainly suggest to make a test conversion using a copy of your datafile (or have a backup of that data file just in case). The general procedure is to migrate from one major version to the next and not skipping one. As you are coming from 2.6, you should first update to the last 3.x version (3.11), and only then update to 4.5. Your situation is slightly more complicated because you also switch computers at the same time. > 2. Reading about version 4 on the GnuCash website, I think the only thing > we won't be able to migrate will be the saved customized reports and > preferences. Is that correct? "Saved customized reports" is slightly ambiguous to me. It can refer to reports you have written yourself in the scheme language (perhaps starting from a pre-existing report), or it can refer to the report configurations you have tweaked while using the program and saved there via "Saved report configurations". For the former, you can just copy over the scheme files (*.scm). You may have to tweak them as our scheme interface has had a few changes from 2.6.x to 4.5. For the latter, the migration could take care of them. The tricky part is you are migrating from one computer to another so you have to make sure the migration runs in an environment that has the old data available. Our migration tool is also quite picky so the order in which you do things matters. Preferences can be copied over but it requires some advanced Windows registry manipulation (that is, you'll have to export part of a registry tree and import it in the registry on the new PC). Depending on your skills it may be easier to just reconfigure your preferences manually on the new PC. The preferences aside there are two possible ways forward to arrive with GnuCash 4 on your new PC: 1. You do the updates via 3 to 4 on your Windows 7 PC and once that's to your satisfaction you copy over all data and metadata. 2. You start by copying your data and metadata to the new PC and do the updates there. The latter has the advantage your original data and GnuCash program on the Windows 7 PC remain untouched. That way you are sure you have a working backup. I'll write steps for this second approach later. > 3. Am I reading the manual correctly that all we need to migrate our data > is to copy the current data file to the location where version 4 keeps > these files. Is that still Documents/GunCash? Yes and no. GnuCash doesn't "keep" data files anywhere in particular. You can store your data file anywhere you like and then use "File->Open..." within gnucash to use it. Just like you would in a word processor or a spreadsheet. There is a bit more to it though, so I'll summarize here, describing the steps for method 2: 0. Important! Under no circumstance open gnucash on the new PC before you have copied data and metadata from your Windows 7 PC to the appropriate locations on the Windows 10 PC. If you did, you'll have to manually remove the following directory from the Windows 10 PC for the migration to kick in: C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Roaming\GnuCash Replace <yourusername> with the appropriate name. Also note AppData may be a hidden directory on your system. Use whatever tricks available to make it visible. The easiest I have found so far for me is to enter "%APPDATA%" in the location bar. It may be useful to check beforehand anyway whether that directory already exists or not and remove it if so. Removing or renaming this directory is also the way to reset any previous metadata migration. If this directory doesn't exist, the migration tool will run the next time you start gnucash. 1. For your accounting data, you can copy the data file to somewhere you find convenient on your new PC. You will later be able to locate it using "File->Open" as written above. 2. For your metadata (as you're still on GnuCash 2.6.x) copy the directory C:\Users\<yourusername>\.gnucash from your Windows 7 PC to your Windows 10 PC. Note this directory starts with a '.'. That dot is important so be sure the directory name on the new PC has that as well (Windows may complain about extensions). 3. If you feel like it you can use the RegEdit tool to export the registry tree HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/GSettings from your old PC and import it in the new PC. That will take care of your preferences. 4. Optionally, if you're an Online banking user you can also copy your Online banking settings by copying the directory _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
