Splasm Software Discussions

I am a new user. I noticed that Checkbook automatically duplicates the data entered on my main hard drive on the disc on my external HD. Quicken (which I have just thrown out after multiple losses of data files) did the same thing. Am I in for the same kind of grief with no independent backup? Would appreciate your comments.

Lou

I'm not sure I understand. Can you confirm you've observed CheckBook placing data on your external hard drive without specifically telling it to? That shouldn't happen in the usual user's environment. Data loss is also not typical - it's pretty rare, really.

Here's a rundown of the data that CheckBook writes to disk. Unless your home folder is physically located on your external hard drive I would think #5 is the only opportunity for data to turn up anywhere but on the startup disk.

1. Your Account data lives at /Users/[your username here]/Library/CheckBook/Accounts.plist.

2. Your Preferences live at /Users/[your username here]/Library/Preferences/Splasm/CheckBook Preferences.

3. Very few preferences, such as window positions, are stored in /Users/[your username here]/Library/Preferences/com.splasm.checkbook.plist.

4. Automatic backups, created approximately once per week, are stored in the /Users/[your username here]/Library/CheckBook/Backups/ folder.

5. Your manual backups, created by selecting Backup Accounts... from the File menu, and your exported QIF and/or Text, created by selecting one of the Export options in the File menu, are written with the name of your choosing, stored in the folder of your choosing.

_________________
Keith Gugliotto
Primordial Sea Captain
Splasm Software
https://www.splasm.com

Thanks for the reply, Keith. Yes, I can confirm the data from my main HD is transferred to my external HD without my initiating a command to do so. This same thing used to happen with Quicken also. I don’t understand it but there it is.
Unfortunately, when I Opened checkbook this AM all my input data was no longer there. There is a readme version of some of the data in the plist file but hardly of much use. How does this happen? How can I recover the data in the register? I run a Mac Users group and I was going to report on Checkbook at our next meeting. Can you help? I’m using OS 10.4.8 on a 1 yr. Old iMac.
Lou

We spoke with Lou on the phone earlier and helped him resolve both issues. We only needed to explain that CheckBook will locate its data file automatically regardless of where it is launched from, so users will see the same data whether the application is launched from the startup drive or an external drive or even a CD/DVD. We also found that Lou's Accounts.plist file had been renamed to Accounts.plist.old while he explored the original issue. He renamed the file to Accounts.plist and all of his data returned.

_________________
Keith Gugliotto
Primordial Sea Captain
Splasm Software
https://www.splasm.com