File FormatsTable of Contents
Unless you choose to use a relational
database, KMyMoney will store all your financial information in a file.
Most commonly, the file name will end in .kmy. Also, when you launch KMyMoney, unless you
use a command line option that tells it not
to do so, it will open the last file it had open. However, it is important to know
that there is actually more than one type of file KMyMoney can use to hold your
financial data.
This chapter describes the file formats in which KMyMoney can store its data in permanent form. It also discusses backing up your data.
In general, KMyMoney stores its information in form of an XML document. Depending on the actual format, which is set in KMyMoney's configuration, this XML document will be written:
as a plain text file, encoded in UTF-8,
as a compressed file, using GZIP compression,
as an encrypted file, using GPG encryption, or
as an anonymous plain text file, encoded in UTF-8 but with all your personal data scrambled.
Each of these is described in more detail in the following sections.
This is the most space consuming format supported, as no compression is
performed. It is not intended for normal use, and is provided to support
debugging purposes and the capability to modify the file manually. If you end
a filename in .xml, the file will be
stored in this format.
Note
Manual modification of the file is not recommended to the normal user, and should only be performed if the internal working of KMyMoney is fully understood or if instructions from the developers tell you what to do. Don't blame the KMyMoney developers if you damage or destroy your data: You have been warned!
This is the normal format used by KMyMoney when you store a file with the
extension .kmy.
Note
If encryption has been selected in the configuration, the file will be stored encrypted, as described in the next section.
If you want to look at the contents of a GZIP compressed file, rename it to a
filename ending in .gz (e.g., rename
myfinances.kmy to myfinances.kmy.gz),
then use gunzip to uncompress the file and look at it. You
don't have to compress it before loading it into KMyMoney the next time, because
KMyMoney can read the uncompressed data as well. Nevertheless, if you save it
thereafter, it will be saved compressed again. Use the .xml
extension to write it in uncompressed format.
Using the GPG-encrypted file format is a very secure method of storing your personal finance data on your storage device. When KMyMoney has been instructed through the settings dialog to store your data encrypted, it will cipher the data using GPG and the key you provided before actually storing it. When opening an encrypted file, you have to provide the passphrase necessary to open your keyring. The encrypted file itself will be stored in GPG's ASCII armored format.
Note
When using GPG encryption, GPG also compresses the file using gzip, so no extra compression is necessary.
If you have not done so already for mail encryption, you need to generate a key-pair in order to use the GPG encryption feature of KMyMoney. Also, GPG must be installed on your system.
The details about how to generate a key-pair and how to take care of it are beyond the scope of this document. A Mini Howto on this subject can be found at https://www.gnupg.org/documentation/howtos.en.html. The web sites of most Linux® distributions also contain instructions on using GPG in that distribution.
On the encryption page of the settings dialog, there is a dropdown list where you can select the key that should be used for encryption and decryption. Additionally, there is a field where you can enter the key-id of a key not in the listbox. You can use either the key-id, the email address associated with this key, or any other valid GPG key identification as the value for this field. When you enter the key-id, KMyMoney will check its validity and display a green LED icon in the dialog if a key is found.
Caution
Make sure you have both the public and the private key for this id. If you do not own the private key for the id entered, you will not be able to open the file again.
Also on this page of the settings dialog you have the choice of selecting supplemental encryption with the KMyMoney recovery key. This option is available to you if that key is stored in your GPG keyring. Selecting this option will allow you to recover your data even in the case you lose your own private key. This is possible because the data is not only encrypted for your own key, but also for the KMyMoney recovery key. This key is only available to selected KMyMoney developers (at the time of writing only to the author.) As of the May, 2024, the recovery key is set to expire on 7 January 2025.
Under normal circumstances, you will open/save/close your file as usual. In the
abnormal case of loss of your key, you have the chance to contact one of the
developers who has access to the KMyMoney recover key and request help to recover
your data. You may contact the developers via email to the KMyMoney developer
mailing list at (kmymoney-devel kde.org).
To get the recovery key, go to The KMyMoney recovery key page of the KMyMoney web site. Copy and save the “PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK” (including the “BEGIN” and “END” lines) to a text file and then import it with gpg.
Remember that the developer can only help recover your data file if you actually do encrypt it with the recovery key, in addition to your own key.
This format is not intended to be used for normal data storage. It is supported so that in case of a problem, you can supply the KMyMoney development team with your file without disclosing any of the confidential details in your financial data. For example, it changes institution, account, payee, and category names to strings such as "I000001" and "A000001"; it makes similar changes to all data such as account numbers, and it also randomly changes the amounts of transactions.
If instructed by the developers, use the menu
item to store your data in anonymous format by selecting Anonymous files as the filter. This also changes the file
extension to .anon.xml.
To verify that your problem still exists, reload this anonymized file and try to
duplicate your problem. If the problem is still present, send the file to the
developer mailing list at (kmymoney-devel kde.org) for further investigation. If the problem does
not show ... well, I don't want to think about this scenario right now.
All of the above file types can be stored on a local hard drive, a removable device such as a usb thumb drive, or a network location. Depending on your Operating System, a remote location may need to be mapped or mounted prior to use.
Limitation on Windows
On Windows®, in order to use a network or remote file location, that mapped location must be mapped to a drive letter.