Recover gnucash mysql database transactions following cancelled import

Question

I aborted (cancelled) an import of a small QIF file (< 50 records), and when cancelled that import fairly far along in the import dialog (the import seemed to be taking extremely long compared to the many previous file imports I've done, and made me nervous that something was amiss) it seems to have had devasting results for my 20-year thousands of records gnucash database. While the account structure still exists, all transactions have been deleted. I have a backup, but it is not as recent as I had hoped, and thus I am trying to recover the records/transactions on all of my extensive accounts.

I believe the data still exist, as in my gnucash data folder (Win 11, via windows explorer) I see that splits, slots, transactions tables (.ibd files) are still very large (30+ MB). However when I try to access the database via mysql (mariadb actually) all tables also show up with zero records (and thus small size) as they do via the gnucash interface.

The little I've read makes me think perhaps the innodb table space/id is misaligned. But that is just a wild guess. I do still have large ibd and frm files as I said, and a massive log file created when I did the "import" action I took.

Any suggestions/clues on the problem, a fix, or where I might turn are much appreciated!

Answer 1

You could load up the last good backup file, and replay (in the correct sequence) all of the log files created during your data entry sessions since then.

I haven't had to do this myself, but my understanding is that the GnuCash log files will let you recreate all of the transactions (contained in the log files) that are not yet committed into the main database.

Obviously, the final 50 transactions that failed may require a different approach.

Fingers crossed, good luck!