Hi, thanks for this reply and others. It could have been that GnuCash did not close down properly as mentioned after a power failure, but the error message stuck around. It could also be that I opened GnuCash before Dropbox had synchronised, although I was aware that could be an issue so generally waited a while. However , if Dropbox had not opened on one of the machines, and I did not notice, that could have happened, so will be more aware from now on. As suggested, I have now updated to the latest version of GnuCash. Where I am now is that one of the machines (thats the desktop at home), would not open GnuCash at all, even with the latest version of GnuCash, and this is the machine I had been using most recently. Even if I selected an old backup file, it briefly opened and then closed. I restarted my Desktop also, but still I could not open GnuCash. Then, I opened GnuCash on my laptop I use when travelling, and it opened the file even though it was running an old version of GnuCash. I saved the file under a new name. My Desktop was able to open the newly named file with no error message. I updated GnuCash on my laptop after updating to the latest version. It was also able to open the file with no error message. So I think my lessons from this are: Save, if I take a break from GnuCash and not leave GnuCash idle for a long time when there could be some kind of a disruption to cause an improper close down. Make sure Dropbox has fully synchronised on both machines before switching machines and check the time of the saved file is the same on all machines. Have the same and latest version on both machines. David
On Wed, Apr 16, 2025 at 7:01 PM R Losey <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Tue, Apr 15, 2025 at 2:18 PM David Long <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I am using GNucash on 3 machines, who share the file on Dropbox. I make >> sure only one version is open at any one time. When opening GnuCash, I get >> the message * GnuCash could not obtain the lock to( folder\filename). That >> database may be in use by another user, in which case you should not open >> it." I always ignore the message and open it anyway, as the backups give >> me the same message. I am worried that this might give me problems at some >> stage. What should I do? >> thanks >> David >> > > Hello! > I'm also running GnuCash on three machines - three operating systems > (MacOS, Windows 10, and Linux [Ubuntu]). > > You should not be getting that message on a regular basis... when GnuCash > starts, it creates a "lock" file that is deleted when GnuCash is shut > down. If you start GnuCash and the "lock" file exists, it implies that > GnuCash is running somewhere else, and you get the warning. > > Therefore, if something happened such that GnuCash didn't shut down > cleanly, the "lock" file may stick around. > > Or perhaps one of the machines doesn't have write access to the GnuCash > directory? > > Perhaps you're running an older version of GnuCash that isn't shutting > down cleaning. (What version are you running?) One of the earlier 5.x > versions had an issue in which GnuCash did not shut down all the way and > left the lock file in place. > > > -- > _________________________________ > Richard Losey > [email protected] > Micah 6:8 > _______________________________________________ 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.
