Basics of mobile & sync'ing

Unknown

Can someone give me the lowdown on the mobile app?  I have been using Quicken desktop version for a LONG time, upgrading on the usual 2 year cycle.  However, I haven't toyed much with the mobile app.  Always just save up receipts and enter whenever I have a few minutes in front of the desktop computer.  My main concern is synchronization.  My QDF file is well over 100 MB in size, which honestly makes no sense.  I don't attach receipt photos or anything like that to eat up HD space.  Simply fill in check register information.  I've requested multiple times for some type of "Quicken File De-bloat Tool" but been mercilessly flamed every time I brought it up!

Anyway, that's not the intent of this note.  The few times I tried mobile were early in its life and I kept running into sync problems.  Yes networks are faster now which should help, but before I think maybe I opened the home file & started using it too fast for it to catch up with whatever I had done on mobile.  Not sure:

[a] How often that sync occurs.  Seems it would be automatic on mobile, but probably not until actual software was launched on desktop.  Is there a recommended step-by-step checklist of things to watch when switching between the 2 platforms to make sure all is well?

[b] Is the software smart enough to just transfer a simple laundry list of changed items, OR does it re-sync the entire 100MB file every single time it's accessed?  That could eat up some serious band width, not to mention huge chunks of a limited mobile data plan.

Thanks in advance for any tips or "gotchas" that others experienced.  My previous mobile attempt failed horrifically, but man that convenience would sure be nice.

Quicken Sarah

Hello Vol4Ever,

Those are great questions and thank you for reaching out to the Community! A lot of changes have happened with the Mobile App and I'm excited to hear that you are open to giving it another chance.

To answer your questions,

  a. A sync is initiated automatically on the App when you sign in or refresh the App.  On the Windows Desktop side, a sync must be initiated by you through the One Step Update or Sync Now on the Mobile & Alerts tab.  For the Mac Desktop, the sync happens automatically when Quicken is opened or can be manually initiated.
 
  b. The first initial sync will transfer the most recent 4 months of transaction history.  Each sync after that will transfer the new or changed transactions plus small additional chunks of the transaction history until there is a year's worth of history visible in the Mobile App.  The amount of history is intentionally limited to reduce time out errors, band width issues, limited data plans, etc.

I would recommend starting small, add the first account or two that are used on a daily basis, such as a everyday checking account.  Sync each time new transactions are added to either the Desktop or Mobile App.  If the new transactions were entered in the Mobile App, when back to the desktop version, manually run a sync to bring in that new data prior to entering any new transaction information.
Once you feel comfortable, add another account or two until you have all accounts synced that you wish to view on the Mobile App. 

If syncing investment accounts, again start small, add one account and slowly add others to help reduce the amount of data being transmitted which will help to eliminate those time out errors.  I also highly recommend signing out of the App each time when you have finished working in it.  There's a couple of reasons for this; the big one being in case of loss or theft.  The data file is protected by your Quicken ID and if anyone who shouldn't gets access to your Mobile device, unless they have your Quicken ID password, they cannot access your Quicken financial information.  The second reason, signing out forces a sync and ensures that any new information that was entered is synced to bring into your desktop data file.

I would also recommend creating a blank "test" file to try the Mobile App and syncing with.   This way, if anything does happen to go wrong, it's not in your main, working data file but instead a test file that can be discarded, no harm no foul.

If you use the budgets feature, the last thing to be aware of is the budgets are not able to be synced.  That feature was removed with the migration to the Quicken ID, it will be restored in the future however I do not have a concrete date of when exactly they will be available again.

I hope this information is helpful but please let us know if you have any further questions.

Thank you,

Sarah

Unknown

Only one followup.  Let's say I entered a credit card transaction through the app.  Then logging back into desktop totally forgot about it and entered a DIFFERENT transaction there.  Would both ultimately show up in both locations, or would the one(s) entered last simply overwrite?  I can almost guarantee there will be tons of cases where that would accidentally happen.

And that actually does bring up one more followup.  What if my brain was really fritzed out, and I entered the exact same receipt twice, once on each platform?  Is the system smart enough to pull them together realizing they are one and the same?

Really nervous about the mobile sync issues & the associated problems it could cause if the user wasn't EXTREMELY careful.....

Unknown

It does raise 2 questions:

- What if I enter on mobile and then enter a different transaction on desktop, accidentally forgetting to sync first?  Will it ultimately keep both, or will the latest entry simply do an overwrite?

- What if I enter on mobile, forget, and then enter same receipt again on desktop?  Or maybe I enter on mobile and my wife enters on desktop.  Is system smart enough to recognize they are the same thing, or will it create 2 individual entries?

Quicken Sarah

Hello Vol4Ever,

If entered on mobile and a different transaction is entered in the desktop prior to syncing, you will see the single transaction entered on the desktop in the desktop version.  On the mobile, you will only see the mobile entered transaction.  When a sync is done you will then see both transactions in both locations.

The system will create 2 individual entries.  Quicken is coded to look for duplicates or matches with transactions that are downloaded from the Financial Institutions but not synced transactions, I apologize.

Thank you,

Sarah