Move from one Apple User ID to another
Comments
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Thanks. That's great and I've got the file zipped now and on a thumb drive. Could you give some guidance on exactly to place the file?
When I go into the user id I am moving it to, I see "documents," "application," "desktop," "all files," etc. Should I put it in "all files" or another location?0 -
Thank you so much. This has been something I have wanted to do for a long time and was really intimidated by the process. It has all gone so smoothly. Am up and running under the new user ID.Thanks. I'll download transactions tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I have a few final questions.
First question regards the user ID under which the new file has been copied. I copied the Quicken data file into my documents folder; now that it is running, can I move the data file out of my documents folder and put it somewhere else? I'm nervous keeping it in there because I could see doing a mass copy of the documents folder for some reason and not remember that the Quicken data file is in there. If I can move it out, where would I move it to?
Second question regards the user ID under which the quicken data file originally resided. Now that the file has been copied to the new ID, can/should I delete the data file that was under the original ID?
Third question piggybacks off that last one and regards using Quicken when two apple user IDs are on one computer. My husband and I share the computer, hence two apple IDs. I'm guessing that whichever ID houses the most current data file should be the ID that the person working on Quicken should use. Does this sound correct? Since Quicken is located in a common application folder, what will happen when the person is signed into the user ID that doesn't house the most current Quicken data file and then tries to open Quicken?0 -
First question: you can move the data file wherever you want. You can either do this using the Move To... command under the File menu when Quicken is running, or you can drag it to another location in the finder when Quicken is NOT running. Where to put it? That's really up to you and where you have other data of your stored. You could simply create a Quicken folder in your home folder (e.g. navigate to Macintosh HD > Users > [your user name], when're you'll see such things as Applications, Desktop, Documents, etc., then to File > New Folder and name it Quicken or Personal Finances or whatever you want. Then move your Quicken data file there by one of the two previously mentioned methods.Dorothy H said:Thank you so much. This has been something I have wanted to do for a long time and was really intimidated by the process. It has all gone so smoothly. Am up and running under the new user ID.Thanks. I'll download transactions tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I have a few final questions.
First question regards the user ID under which the new file has been copied. I copied the Quicken data file into my documents folder; now that it is running, can I move the data file out of my documents folder and put it somewhere else? I'm nervous keeping it in there because I could see doing a mass copy of the documents folder for some reason and not remember that the Quicken data file is in there. If I can move it out, where would I move it to?
Second question regards the user ID under which the quicken data file originally resided. Now that the file has been copied to the new ID, can/should I delete the data file that was under the original ID?
Third question piggybacks off that last one and regards using Quicken when two apple user IDs are on one computer. My husband and I share the computer, hence two apple IDs. I'm guessing that whichever ID houses the most current data file should be the ID that the person working on Quicken should use. Does this sound correct? Since Quicken is located in a common application folder, what will happen when the person is signed into the user ID that doesn't house the most current Quicken data file and then tries to open Quicken?
Second question: I always like to keep a few older copies of my Quicken data file (an old habit from my Quicken 2007 and earlier days), so I simply have a Quicken Backups folder I created, and every few months I make a copy of my Quicken data file here. (You can do that in the Finder by *Option-dragging* the file to your backup folder when Quicken is not running, or by using the File > Save a Backup to the folder you've created. I always rename the file with the date I copied it, so I can see at a glance my history of backup files. So if you want to play it safe with your old Quicken data file on your old user, just keep it around -- and keep the copy on the new user's folder, so you can delete it from the previous user, if you prefer. None of this is probably necessary, but disks space is cheap and plentiful, so why not keep some backups for peace of mind in case something bad should happen to your data file? (Note that I'm talking about making manual backup copies, not the ones Quicken automatically makes when you quite the program. To me, those 5 latest backups are not enough security; if you open and quit Quicken once a day, your automatic backups could go back less than a week.)
Third question: Only the user with the Quicken data file should launch Quicken. Period. If you launch Quicken in the old user, it will open your old data file, and you will quickly get confused or out-of-sync. This is why it would be good to save your old data file in a folder of the new user, and delete it from the old user's folder. If you then try to launch Quicken while logged in as the old user, Quicken will prompt you to create or import a new file, which will be your clue you're in the wrong place and show quit Quicken. Do NOT try to use Quicken across multiple Mac users. If you really want to do that, your best solution would be to create a new, third user just for Quicken that you and your husband could both log into when you want to use Quicken.Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930 -
Thanks all. Was able to successfully download this morning under the new ID. Feel very accomplished!
As soon as I complete a couple of cycles of downloading transactions and feel confident that everything is flowing smoothly under the new ID, I plan to clean up the original user ID by removing old files. I found files dating back to Quicken 2007 and I'm now on Quicken 2017. Suffice it to say, there are alot of old files under that ID.
Over the course of the past week, I have worked with/seen four different types of Quicken files that I thought had the same data and would be roughly the same size. When looking at the size of them, they are different. Out of curiosity, what is the difference in the content of the following types of files: Manually Made backup (24.2 MB), Exported (28.7 MB), Zipped (48.4MB), and Data File (76.9MB)?0 -
When Quicken has an update that affects the format of the database, it usually makes a copy of your data file before making any changes -- and that copy is stored inside your data file. Not to get too technical: a Quicken data file is a Mac "package", which is basically a wrapper that makes a series of files look to users like it's just one file. So your data file is actually lots of files -- and one of them is often a copy of your data file prior to an update. This is why earlier versions of Quicken 2015 and 2016 often had data files which could sometimes be roughly double the size of a previous data file or backup. More recently, Quicken 2017 no longer embeds a data file copy inside your data file, because it creates "Pre-Update" backups in your automatic backup folder. So I have a Quicken 2016 data file which contains less data than my current Quicken 2017 data file, yet it's twice as large because it contains an older copy of my data file, while my Quicken 2017 data file no longer carries an older pre-backup copy.Dorothy H said:Thanks all. Was able to successfully download this morning under the new ID. Feel very accomplished!
As soon as I complete a couple of cycles of downloading transactions and feel confident that everything is flowing smoothly under the new ID, I plan to clean up the original user ID by removing old files. I found files dating back to Quicken 2007 and I'm now on Quicken 2017. Suffice it to say, there are alot of old files under that ID.
Over the course of the past week, I have worked with/seen four different types of Quicken files that I thought had the same data and would be roughly the same size. When looking at the size of them, they are different. Out of curiosity, what is the difference in the content of the following types of files: Manually Made backup (24.2 MB), Exported (28.7 MB), Zipped (48.4MB), and Data File (76.9MB)?
A .zip file is another sort of wrapper for a group of files which employs a compression algorithm to reduce the size of the file. Text files typically compress to a much smaller size, while binary files (some databases, photos, videos, applications) don't get much smaller. In the case of a Quicken data file, a reduction in size of about half -- in your case from 77 MB to 48 MB -- is pretty typical. (Mine reduces from 53 MB to 21 MB).
Backups that Quicken itself makes (automatic ones, or manually made ones via the File > Save a Backup command) are actually zipped files, too, but Quicken puts them in a ."quicken2017backup" wrapper so it can find and open such backups from within the program using the Restore from Backup command.
But here's the bottom line: you don't need to worry about such file size differences. These are all, in current day computing, relatively small files. Just figure out which files you want to retain, change their filenames, or put them in folders so you'll know what they are (e.g. "Quicken Data before update to v4.5" or "Quicken Data 2017-08-02" or whatever will make sense to you in the future.)Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930 -
Thank you. Up until this point, I've always just opened Quicken and used it, without diving too much into what is happening behind the scenes. It has been interesting to learn about some of the inner workings of this program that I've relied upon for the last 10 years.Dorothy H said:Thanks all. Was able to successfully download this morning under the new ID. Feel very accomplished!
As soon as I complete a couple of cycles of downloading transactions and feel confident that everything is flowing smoothly under the new ID, I plan to clean up the original user ID by removing old files. I found files dating back to Quicken 2007 and I'm now on Quicken 2017. Suffice it to say, there are alot of old files under that ID.
Over the course of the past week, I have worked with/seen four different types of Quicken files that I thought had the same data and would be roughly the same size. When looking at the size of them, they are different. Out of curiosity, what is the difference in the content of the following types of files: Manually Made backup (24.2 MB), Exported (28.7 MB), Zipped (48.4MB), and Data File (76.9MB)?0
