Where is the accounting file?

I’ve seen a few references on this forum to the accounting file, especially in posts about transferring computers or asking Lubos for help. But where, actually, is it? When I go to About Manager, I see something like:

 /Users/Tut/.local/share/Manager

But being something of a “retail” user, I can’t translate that to a location I can find on my Mac. I’m clueless what “.local” or “share” refer to. And I don’t see anything like them within Tut’s space within Users. Can someone help?

The backup file is another story. Because I selected a network location for it, I can see it on a drive, copy it, move it, etc.

Thanks!

Hi Tut

On a Mac the .local folder is normally hidden so you cannot see it in Finder (although it is definitely there). Open Finder and then from the Go menu select Go To Folder… enter /Users/Tut/.local/share/Manager and click OK and you should then see the contents of the folder.

I didn’t like the fact that Manager was storing the files there so I created a Manager folder in my normal documents location, copied the files there and then changed the path in Manager to the new location (if you do this close Manager as soon as you have made that change and restart it to make sure it is using the file from the new location).

Terry

Thanks very much, Terry. Sure enough, there are 5 files there, 4 with lengthy alphanumeric names. Now I have several more questions. I suppose Lubos may have to answer some of them.

  1. Three of these files are 3KB or smaller. One of their names is all zeros. If I look at them with TextEdit, the legible portions seem to be account titles, but mostly neither accounts I have set up nor the default ones. (For example, there is Electricity, probably an expense account, but I never created one with that title.) Some of the legible content of these three files contains the same, unknown account titles. Are these files necessary? Or are they left over from previous updates or mistakes? Can they be deleted?

  2. One file, named Size, is only 8 bytes, containing only a paragraph symbol and a colon. Is this file necessary? Can it be deleted?

  3. The final file is hundreds of KB, so that must be the actual accounting file. If I want to move storage to a new location, is that the only file I must actually copy/move?

  4. When I look at my backup file (in a separate location), it is only 78KB, much smaller than the large file described above. So it seems doubtful that can be a copy of the accounting file. Is the backup file compressed in some way?

  5. If I were to follow Terry’s instructions for changing location of the accounting file, what should I do after I move the necessary file(s)? Should I delete the files at the default location?

Thank you.

1 Like
  1. Manager never deletes any businesses from hard-drive. Even if you use Remove business function, the business will be removed from your list of businesses in Manager but it will remain in data folder. This is to make sure people don’t lose data easily. The 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000.manager is index file. It simply stores list of businesses you have. In case of server edition, it also stores list of users and other information. It doesn’t contain any accounting data.
  2. Size file contains height and width of Manager window when it was last time closed. So when you open Manager next time, your window size is the same as last time.
  3. Yeah, that would be the most important file if you have only one business. If you have multiple, each business would be in its own .manager file.
  4. No, the files in data folder are not compressed for performance reasons.
  5. You can but there will be new file called data which will contain path to your new location. Manager will look for this file to see where to probe for your data.

Do you have any idea why my backup file would be less than ¼ the size of the primary accounting file? Should I be worried about that?

When upgrades occur, some old data is deleted, new data created. This can create voids in data file. This is common occurring in any database, many databases have “shrink” or “vacuum” features which will create your database with data from scratch without voids. This is what happens when you click Backup button in Manager. Database is re-created from scratch with your data, not copied from file-system bit-by-bit.

If you are concerned, you can re-import your backup file which is ¼ the size into Manager through Add business. It will contain all your data which should give you enough assurance that ¼ the size doesn’t mean something is missing.

Of course you were correct. But that was a reassuring drill to go through, in case I ever need the backup. Thanks very much, as always, for your responsiveness.

When first starting out I had a “dummy company” that I used for playing around. I removed the company, but it’s still in the data folder. Is it okay to delete it from within Finder (Mac)?

Even if you remove the file from Manager, the system will just remove the entity from the index but the data will remain on HDD just in case the entity was removed in error. You can manually delete that file from data folder, just make sure you are really deleting the correct file.

I opened Manager and my company is NOT THERE!! What is going on with this program!!?

No one can help you without information, @Tony_Clark. What edition of Manager: desktop, server, or cloud? What version, or approximately how long since you updated? Have you ever modified the default location for Manager or its data files?

Manager 16.1.58, Laptop, I have never updated the software. I am using a free version. I’ve never modified the default location. I’ve done nothing except use the program for my staffing business. Now with my company being gone, every invoice, check, statement, etc… all of my data is not there…

Windows 7

Go to this folder and see what’s in it:

C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Manager

where [Username] is name of your Windows account under which you use Manager.

a MANAGER File w/a name of all zeros: “000000-00000-000-00000…”

a MANAGER FILE w/a name of “b59b4c…”

a File w/a name of “data” dtd, 1/26/16…

looks like my original data source…

and…a File w/name of “size”

What’s in your file called data? The fact you have this file indicates you have indeed changed the directory where Manager should look for data.

If this was a mistake, delete this file and start Manager again. Manager will go look for your data in default location.

Nope, I have over 10 customers that I have inoviced. The program says I have one customer. We also use this program on another laptop. I uploaded the backed-up data from the other computer to my laptop. Does that override every thing I’ve done on my computer since Janurary?

Yes, restoring a business through the Add Business function replaces everything with the contents of the backup file. The fact that you’ve been using the program on multiple machines raises potential problems, if both were using the desktop edition. The data does not cross between machines. You could end up with part of your transactions/suppliers/customers on one machine and part on another, effectively as two separate businesses. There is not currently a way to merge that data.

If you want to run from two machines, you should be using either the server or cloud editions.

Alright, Thanks. Fortunately we have all of the hardcopy paper work that we entered the data from. Looks like there will be some major data entry going in in order to get all of the data back into the system as well as setting up all of our clients once again. Damn! Thank you all for the assistance. This is a good program, simple, but not to friendly when it comes to things like this. I have no earthly idea why our “company” disappeared from the system…

You may want to provide your accounting file to @lubos. Manager never actually loses anything, or isn’t supposed to, including deleted businesses. He may be able to recover it for you.