GNUCASH writing a new one with the same name in the iCloud folder is the initial culprit to trigger the loop – possibly infinite.
The sync delay creates a self-feeding loop as length of time to sync never becomes less than how fast the next new file is created by GnuCash. So iCloud tries to retrieve all versions of same file that is in the cloud but it must renumber as it tries to catchup without clobbering any existing one, thus the number. From: John Ralls <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2025 2:15 PM To: Kalpesh Patel <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [GNC] ABC.gnucash iCloud availability status "excluded not synced" This discussion seems germane: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6637807 Sync delay might account for the problem too: GnuCash renames the existing file and writes a new one on each save. If iCloud hasn’t performed the rename or doesn’t recognize it then it will treat the new file as a duplicate and assign a serial number. It seems like a pretty common problem based on the number of threads on discussions.apple.com <http://discussions.apple.com> . Regards, John Ralls On Dec 4, 2025, at 06:10, Kalpesh Patel <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: I am seeing similar problem with iCloud Drive but I am on Windows. Some files are not getting synched or are taking long time (like in days) to sync up while Google Drive and OneDrive are synced up in seconds. Its tertiary backup but nonetheless it is a concern. It might be the case where Jobs wants everyone to use nothing but Apple hardware for Apple services ... -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2025 7:55 AM To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ; [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Subject: [GNC] ABC.gnucash iCloud availability status "excluded not synced" Well, it seems to have been a temporary fix, only. Even in a new iCloud folder, I again have "ABC.gnucash" not being saved properly on iCloud and instead "ABC xx.gnucash" (xx = consecutive numbers) being created, which results at the next start of GnuCash to "ABC.gnucash could not be found", of course. This happens also when I manually remove the " xx" but I had some luck doing the removal in a different folder and copying the resulting "ABC.gnucash" back to the normal GnuCash file folder, but not consistent. I looked at the status of a thus copied "ABC.gnucash" file and file explorer states the iCloud availability status "excluded not synced" which per Apple "indicates that certain files are not being uploaded to iCloud Photos due to unsupported file types" which doesn't help as the relevant folders are under iCloud Drive, not iCloud Photos. Ideas anyone? Thanks, Jan -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2025 8:15 AM To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Cc: David Cousens <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Subject: RE: [GNC] ABC xx.gnucash on iCloud leads to "... ABC.gnucash could not be found" Cloud can be tricky. I have one cloud note app that only works with Dropbox and not with my off brand cloud. I'm glad you found a workaround. David T. On Nov 22, 2025, 1:46 PM, at 1:46 PM, [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> wrote: Thanks, David C and T. My problem does not seem to be related to backup files. It's the main GnuCash file that is not saved properly (probably more an iCloud than a GnuCash issue, but possibly both have a part in it). As mentioned in my original post, things have been working correctly again after saving the GnuCash files in a new folder, still on iCloud. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2025 3:17 AM To: David Cousens <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Cc: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ; [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [GNC] ABC xx.gnucash on iCloud leads to "... ABC.gnucash could not be found" David C., It looks like you are linking to outdated documentation. The current version of the chapter you cited is https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-guide/chapter_basics.html David T. On Nov 22, 2025, 1:58 AM, at 1:58 AM, David Cousens <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Jan, The creation oof Backup lock and log files in the sme directory as your data file is explained here https://code.gnucash.org/website/docs/v1.8/C/gnucash-guide/basics_back u p1.html however I noticed that this may be out of date as at least on Linux systems the formatof the backup a files no longer has the extension ".xac" but uses the extension ".gnucash", the same as the main data file but preceded by the date time format extension. So if your main data file is myfile.gnucash then the backup files will be myfile.yyyymmddhhmmss.gnucash where yyyymmddhhmmss is the date timestamp created when the main data file was saved. Similarly the log file myfile.yyyymmddhhmmss.log will have a record of any new transactions entered during the session. You can use these files to recover from data crashes during a session. If GnuCash exits improperly there will be a file myfile.LCK created in the directory with the main data file. It is created when you start a session with GnuCash and is normally deleted when GnuCash is exited properly. You can also clear it with the "Open Anyway" option in the popup dialogue which comes up when you restart GnuCash after it has exited incorrectly. It also serves to indicate that an instance of GnuCash has the data file open for read/write access while you have a session open and serves to warn a user trying to open another instance operating on the same data file. On Fri, 2025-11-21 at 10:41 -0500, Jan via gnucash-user wrote: Hi guys! For a few days now, I have a persistent problem with my gnucash file that's being stored on my iCloud Drive (GunCash 4.13 on Win11; file size is 498 KB): Instead of ABC.gnucash, ABC xx.gnucash is being stored and "rebuilt" automatically when I manually remove the "xx" in the filename. I've had this before every once in a while, usually after an improper computer shutdown, but the manual fix removing "xx" always worked. Now GnuCash regularly starts up with the "... ABC.gnucash could not be found" error which makes sense as the ABC.gnucash file is still in "sync pending", not the normal "available on this device". It seems this delayed sync is limited to my GnuCash folder on the iCloud Drive, i.e. if I copy ABC xx.gnucash to a different folder and remove the "xx", it syncs right away. When I move ABC.gnucash from that different folder to the GnuCash folder, the long and often unsuccessful syncing starts, often leaving me with another ABC xx.gnucash in the end. Same with copying ABC.gnu cash from that different folder to the GnuCash folder. My temporary solution is to create a new GnuCash folder on my ICloud drive, copy ABC xx.gnucash to that folder and remove the "xx". If I start GnuCash from there, all is good again - for now. What could be going on here? Thanks for any help, Jan _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[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. -- David Cousens _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[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. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[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. _______________________________________________ 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.
