Marc -- First decide if you want to keep the old transactions in an archive file. If yes, then you will have 2 files, one of the archived transactions and one with the latest transactions. If you decide you do not want the old transactions, then you can just delete the old ones from your current files.
Now -- deleting several hundreds or thousands of transactions can be painstaking -- so below is what I did: For me I made a copy of my current file. Then on the copy I deleted any transaction after 1/1/2019 (chose any date you want). This file now becomes an archive file. Now re-open my current file. Delete any transactions in it prior to 1/1/2019. Before deleting, make note of account balance amounts so I can make sure I am balanced once I delete. Enter new "Opening balance amounts" as needed to ensure balances are current and balanced. Now I have a file with just the last 2 years transaction. Did a search on the net and found this: "As a workaround I made a shortcut key for deleting transactions. I modified the C:\Users\username\.gnu-cash\accelerator-map file (with gnucash closed) by changing the line ; (gtk_accel_path "<Actions>/GncPluginPageRegisterActions/DeleteTransactionAction" "") To: (gtk_accel_path "<Actions>/GncPluginPageRegisterActions/DeleteTransactionAction" "<Primary>Delete") Now I could delete transactions by pressing ctrl+delete. Pressing and holding this key combination allowed continuous deleting at a predictable rate so it was quite easy to delete a few hundred transactions quickly. Might not be the best solution if you have many thousands of transactions that you want to delete but for a few hundred it was quite painless. As a follow-up to this very useful info, on a Windows PC, the file is located in: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\GnuCash\accelerator-map The way the edited line is displayed in the above answer is correct but it may not be immediately obvious to everyone that like some other languages, the semicolon needs to be removed as well. The semicolon is a comment tag that disables the line it is on. Notes: <Primary> is the same as "Command" on macs and "Ctrl" on Windows. Other modifiers are <Shift> and <Alt> and they can be combined so to make it a bit more difficult to do accidentally, my new line is: (gtk_accel_path "<Actions>/GncPluginPageRegisterActions/DeleteTransactionAction" "<Primary><Shift>Delete") AKA: Control + Shift + Delete This works in all versions of GNUCash for Windows (what I am using). If you need or want to delete multiple transactions - this is very handy. The end result for me was two files -- all older transactions in one file -- and all transaction from a particular start date to now. Ken -----Original Message----- From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+pyz01=cox....@gnucash.org> On Behalf Of Marc Lacroix via gnucash-user Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2021 8:24 AM To: gnucash-user@gnucash.org Subject: [GNC] How to remove oldest transactions I am using gnucash for many years, and the database is becoming huge. Is it possible to remove the oldest transaction? How? _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.