My data is lost?

Help
1

Hi,

I’ve been using gramps for many years somwehere between 2000 and 2015. I believe i used it also at least once after 2015, but I don’t remember exactly. I’m getting old. I used it mainly for getting some info about a particular entry, since I had no new data to add to the family tree. And this lookup didnÄ’t happen very often, maybe once in a year.

Anyway, it always seemed to work fine. But today, when I wanted to start it up after a few years of abstinence, I (or better gramps) opened up as a virgin, with no database at all. There is no option to open an existing database, I can only create a new one.

I am certain that I have not deleted the database (family tree), unless it happened accidentally, which would be almost impossible since I usually do not delete data unless I know what I am deleting.

I found a folder with a very old gramps database, which seems to date back to 2008. That is definitely not including all the entries I added in the following years, but is rather some kind of leftover of former times, I guess. I couldn’t access it, I would have to install version 3. I tried that, but it complains that there is no python >=2.5, even though I have python 3.14 installed. But I know that python 2 and python 3 aren’t compatible with each other, hence it probably won’t work.

But where would I find the database which I had used last? I checked ~/.local/share/gramps, but the files there are almost empty, I guess they have been created when opening gramps today.

I apologize if this has been asked and answered before, I didn’t find it. In that case I would be grateful for a pointer to where to continue digging. If not, please tell me where the database for previous versions might be kept (and what to do in order to get them opened in the current gramps version).

My PC is running Manjaro Linux stable, 64 bit, the Gramps version is 6.0.8.

2

Welcome @DrMartinus

First, for an older tree, it is important to know that beginning with Gramps 5.0, we had to move away from BSDDB database engine.

BSDDB was the primary database engine from Gramps 2.0 (May 2005) to the Gramps 5.0 (July 2018) version. It was the ‘legacy’ engine for 5.1 (August 2019) and became ‘read-only’ with the 5.2 (February 2024) release.

The bsddb module is incompatible with modern Linux and newer Python versions (Python 3.10+) because it was removed from the standard library, and legacy Berkeley DB system libraries mismatch older bindings

It becomes increasingly difficult to support in 6.0.x release. The new default is SQLite.

I recommend downgrading to Gramps 5.1.6 (June 2023), find the database folder (more on that later), make a backup, and either :

  1. “convert” the tree to SQLite in Gramps 5.1.6, or
  2. import the backup file into a newly created empty tree using Gramps 6.0.8

Finding the old database path:

Search your computer for the old gramps.ini plain text file that contains (among other things) your settings from the Gramps Preferences… including the Database path. Since you may have different versions of Gramps installed, there are probably multiple gramps.ini files, each in a subfolder labeled with the Gramps version number. (e.g. /home/districtsupport/.gramps/gramps51/gramps.ini)

Look in the gramps.ini file for the [database] chunk. And note the path= string. (Also note the backup-path= to discover if there is a newer backup file available.)

example:

[database]
;;autobackup=0
;;backend='sqlite'
backup-on-exit=0
backup-path='/home/districtsupport/Documents'
;;compress-backup=1
;;host=''
path='/home/districtsupport/.gramps/disable/grampsdb'
;;port=''

In the Family Tree tab of the v5.1 preferences, set the Family Tree Database path: to the path shown in the gramps.ini file.

After setting the correct path, the Family Trees → Manage Family Trees… dialog should now list the saved trees.

3

Thank you for your detailed reply! I’ll try to do it tomorrow, today it’s too late, my brain gets clogged at this time of the day and I might break something…

and I have to water the plants in the garden (it’s hot around here). :sweat_smile:

I’ll let you know tomorrow how it works out!

Thanks for now!

DrMartinus