When I try to batch create exchange rates, I get the following message:
And then my file is gone. Fortunately I had my file backed up before importing.
First, try updating your software. I couldn’t find it, but I think I remember someone else recently with a similar problem.
If that doesn’t fix things, we need much more information:
- Operating system
- What “file” are you referring to, and why do you think it is gone?
- Exactly how far in the Batch Create process did you get? When did this error message occur?
- What did you do to clear the error message? Or did the program quit, crash, freeze, or something else?
I updated to the latest version, but get the same results.
Additional information:
Operating system: MacOs High Sierra
What “file” are you referring to, and why do you think it is gone?: The company file. If I open it again, the report page is blank and if I open the exchange rate page I get the same error message again and the app freezes again.
Exactly how far in the Batch Create process did you get? When did this error message occur?
I get as far as this screen:
If I click on “Batch Create” I get the message posted before and the app freezes
However, it only happens if I add two or more rates. If I only add one rate at a time, it works fine
What did you do to clear the error message? Or did the program quit, crash, freeze, or something else? The app freezes. I then quit the app and restart it. If I open the same company file, the main report is blank and if I open the exchange rates page, it freezes again with the error message. I have to go to the company selector and delete the company and then restore from backup, and then it works fine again.
Can you clarify this more? First, what are you referring to when you say you “open it again?” Do you mean open the program itself? Or do you mean click on the business name on the Businesses page?
Second, what do you mean by “the report page is blank?” Are you referring to the listing of available reports in the Reports tab? Are you saying that no reports are available? Or are you referring to the Summary page that appears when you select a business?
Also, have you been transacting in the relevant business only by accessing it from the Businesses page, or did you save a copy somewhere else and then open that copy to enter transactions?
First, what are you referring to when you say you “open it again?” Do you mean open the program itself? Or do you mean click on the business name on the Businesses page?
Opening the program, and then clicking the business name
Second, what do you mean by “the report page is blank?” Are you referring to the listing of available reports in the Reports tab? Are you saying that no reports are available? Or are you referring to the Summary page that appears when you select a business?
The Summary Page
Also, have you been transacting in the relevant business only by accessing it from the Businesses page, or did you save a copy somewhere else and then open that copy to enter transactions?
Only from the Business page
Resolving your problem remotely will be very difficult. The symptoms you describe seem to relate to continually opening an empty version of your business. This likely is the result of adding and removing businesses from the Businesses page without fully understanding what is happening. (No slur intended; it’s an almost impenetrable subject.) So let’s start with some simple questions:
- As background, when did you first create the business that is giving trouble?
- Do you have any other businesses, or just this one. I ask because it will influence how we interpret the contents of your application data folder.
- Have you ever imported any version of any other company besides the one in question?
Now, for some simple protection. Find the latest, most up to date version of the company’s records and make sure it is in a safe place. If this is a backup file, with the name of the business and a date, make sure it is in a safe location. That can be temporarily on your desktop, but I would put it on a flash drive just so it doesn’t accidentally get lost in the shuffle. If the latest version of your records are accessible through the Businesses page, open the business and make a backup, then proceed as above. Be sure as you do this that you actually look at the transactions and content of the business so you know which is most up to date.
Next, read this Guide on managing contents of the application data folder: Manage application data folder contents | Manager. Following its instructions, navigate to your application data folder and post a screen shot of its contents. There shouldn’t be anything proprietary there, but if there are names of businesses you do not want to reveal, obscure them using Preview’s markup tools on the screen capture image. (If you’re not familiar, use Cmd + Shift + 4 to capture the image. Open the captured image and use Preview’s markup tools to obscure only the name by inserting a rectangle to cover it.)
If you are really ambitious, you can start identifying the active business files according to instructions in the Guide. Or you can wait until I see how crowded the folder is with all the files you’ve imported and removed to/from the Businesses page.
As background, when did you first create the business that is giving trouble?
I created this business a few months ago. Previously, I had another file that I removed.
Do you have any other businesses, or just this one. I ask because it will influence how we interpret the contents of your application data folder.
I have another business, and I have also created a “template” business, kind of a localization file. I have also removed a previous similar file that I created as a template.
Have you ever imported any version of any other company besides the one in question?
Yes, I have.
This is a screenshot of the folder where I have the files. It may be worth noting that I have a Dropbox folder with a symlink that points to this folder. I have opened this file from another computer (but not from both computers at the same time).
It could have been worse. 
What we need to do is figure which of these is your active business. Reread the Guide I linked to familiarize yourself with what each might be.
The first file with all the zeroes is the index that tells the program which businesses are active. Leave it alone.
The 8th file in the folder, 238097db.... is an audit file. Move it to your safe temporary location. You will probably delete it later. Manager will recreate it, if necessary, but it shouldn’t be for the desktop edition.
Use your Mac’s Get Info command or modify your window view so you can see dates created and modified. Open the business causing trouble (I’m going to call that the main business) from the Businesses page. If, by chance, you don’t see what you expect in this business, STOP and tell me what you see. Assuming things look good, make a test entry into it. Then look to see which file in the application data folder was most recently modified. That will tell you which of the alphanumeric files is the main business. Delete the test entry once you have identified the main business.
Do the same thing for the other active business.
Do the same thing, separately, for your template business.
Move all the other 5 alphanumeric files to your temporary location.
Now close the application and relaunch it. You should see the two active businesses and the template business on the Businesses page. Open each one and make sure you see what you expect. If not, STOP and tell me what you see.
Assuming all that goes well, post a screen shot of the modified contents of the application data folder and we’ll go from there.
Tried this. everything looked fine, until I tried to import the exchange rates. This time, it crashed while importing a single line. This is a screenshot of the folder contents.
What happens now after the crash? You should be ablate relaunch the program, click on the business that was affected on the Businesses page, and immediately see the up to date Summary page?
What I’m trying to determine here is whether any issues with incorrect data files have been resolved. Then we’ll examine the cause of the crash.
Same as before. If I close the app and relaunch, then I see the Business list, and if I click on the same business, this takes me to an empty Summary page:
Oh! When you said “empty” before, I thought you meant no transactions and balances all zero, possibly only showing the default tabs. But you literally meant empty.
This is puzzling, because your counters in the tab windows show that you have bank accounts, with transactions. This is beyond my knowledge. So let’s do this:
If you can hold off entering transactions, do so for now. I’d like to preserve your data file in this corrupted state. If you absolutely have to enter transaction to run your business, I understand. Make a backup of the business in this condition. (I’m assuming you can still see the Backup button above.) Then, import your last good backup and use it for entering transactions. But as soon as you do, look in the application data folder to see what the new version of your business is named.
With the original version still in this corrupted state, drag its data file out of the application data folder so it can be examined. I’m going to contact @lubos, the developer, and ask him to look at that file. He will provide instructions to you.
If you have already imported a backup to resume operation, all is not lost. You now know how to recover the business and clean up the application data folder. So if necessary, you produce another corrupted version of your data file for @lubos to look at.
When he contacts you, he will want to look at the corrupted file I just had you drag out of the application data folder.
OK, I saved the corrupted file somewhere else for reference.
I had the exact same problem today and would like to share the probable cause in case someone else run into this:
After batch creating rates on different subsets, crashing Manager then restoring my business from backup too many times, I finally found out what was wrong:
The exception is “key not found” and Manager is right, one of the currency key I was using was different because I mistakenly incremented it while copy-pasting!
Using the correct key, the import worked fine, duh!
The mistake in the currency key reference:
Now why would this crash Manager and corrupt the biz database is a bit disappointing considering the rest of this great app work very smoothly. Moreover, after updating, the informative error message has been removed leaving no clue as to what went wrong…
The error before updating:
The error after updating:
I hope the app will be able to cancel the import without crashing the DB in a future release. Corrupt DB was the major reason I left GNU Cash for Manager 