Remove Constant Internet Connection Requirement in Quicken 2018 (4 merged votes)

Quicken Community

I would highly recommend that Quicken have the capability to operate, at least occasionally, without an internet connection. There are many times that an internet connection is not available or the connection is not a desirable one and yet work needs to be done on data locally. I understand the need to periodically "call home" but no other subscription software I have requires that "constant" connection. This constant connection is a very limiting and annoying requirement on Quicken's part and is crippling at times.  This is poor design without insight into customer use of the product.

mshiggins

Allegedly after Quicken 2018 is activated, it does not need an internet connection to operate.



Are you finding it requires an internet connection? What actions are triggering the internet connection?

splasher

Allegedly after Quicken 2018 is activated, it does not need an internet connection to operate.



Are you finding it requires an internet connection? What actions are triggering the internet connection?

Concur with mshiggins, I can disable my internet connection and still run subscription Quicken.  I've never done it for an extended length of time, so I don't know when it would require the connection again.

I do not have Quicken setup to do any scheduled downloading of any sort; no Credit Score; no QMobile and I do not have any Express Web Connect account connections.

Unknown

I stand corrected.  It is evidently not a constant problem.  Since i just now disconnected from the network and brought up Quicken.  However, this morning when Quicken was having connection issues, once I discovered there was an issue, I could not bring up Quicken standalone.  It may have been in some weird state since it had already failed connecting. I will say I have had other instances when I couldn't start Quicken without the internet connection also.  This morning's experience triggered my suggestion here.  Perhaps those other instances were similar "stuck in the middle" situations also, I have no data to support that.  I will try to gather better information.  I am a retired "IT type" so I know intermittent, inconsistent experiences are very difficult to troubleshoot.  I thought I had the conditions nailed down this morning but evidently not.  I will attempt to gather better information about the conditions when the problem is encountered. Even so, I feel the periodic requirement (is it monthly?) to manually log in to Quicken is clumsy and should be unnecessary.  Let the software do the talking when necessary and when it can communicate automatically.  Bug the user only when there is some abnormal condition that can't be handled automatically and explain why.

Unknown

I stand corrected.  It is evidently not a constant problem.  Since i just now disconnected from the network and brought up Quicken.  However, this morning when Quicken was having connection issues, once I discovered there was an issue, I could not bring up Quicken standalone.  It may have been in some weird state since it had already failed connecting. I will say I have had other instances when I couldn't start Quicken without the internet connection also.  This morning's experience triggered my suggestion here.  Perhaps those other instances were similar "stuck in the middle" situations also, I have no data to support that.  I will try to gather better information.  I am a retired "IT type" so I know intermittent, inconsistent experiences are very difficult to troubleshoot.  I thought I had the conditions nailed down this morning but evidently not.  I will attempt to gather better information about the conditions when the problem is encountered. Even so, I feel the periodic requirement (is it monthly?) to manually log in to Quicken is clumsy and should be unnecessary.  Let the software do the talking when necessary and when it can communicate automatically.  Bug the user only when there is some abnormal condition that can't be handled automatically and explain why.

From what I can tell (I also never run with Quicken disconnected from the Internet for any length of time) there seems to be about "once a month" call home requirement.
And if that is triggered there is no way to use Quicken until you again get on the Internet and let it call home.

Note the "call home" is more about the computer/Quicken Id, than any given data file.  At one time (when it was the Intuit Id) it was stated that if the location of the computer changed, that also might "invalidate" the machine, and require a "call home".  It was never clear to me if this part of it was removed when they went from the Intuit Id to the Quicken Id, so that might be a factor too.

And I have a feeling that switching Quicken Ids will probably be a trigger too.  But that isn't something that most people will face.  I see that kind of thing though when doing beta testing.  But then it again it might be the installs that trigger it.

I would certainly be very interested in knowing the exact triggers for the "call home" requirement", but so far that question has always gone unanswered by Quicken Inc.

And yes I consider this a poor design too.  And in fact when Quicken 2018 was about to be released the head moderator claimed that it was going to be that once registered you could use Quicken 2018 offline, indefinitely.  That has been proven to be a false statement.

I just realized that I have a laptop with Quicken 2018 on it that I use for beta testing that I haven't turned on in a while.  Looking at the dates on some of the files I think it was last used on 2/15/2018, so it has even been a full month, even though the calendar month has changed.

And here is the result of trying to load in a data file:

Unknown

The need to log into the main Quicken Server periodically is a nuisance but if Quicken is going to insist this is required to protect their license, why not have our copy of Quicken at least memorize that password so I don't have to go look it up.

Unknown

"Constant" connection is not required.  But, a "manual" log in is required at least at the first of every month.  If for some reason the internet connection is not made, Quicken is locked up with no access until that connection and log in is made.  It is difficult for me to consistently replicate the situation to provide a more definitive description of the conditions.  When it happens, though, it is very aggravating.

Unknown

THIS needs to be be corrected right away by Quicken people. I can understand the initial connection but monthly to do what ever it wants to do is really annoying. Took me almost an hour to get onto quicken today. And after getting home from work I've rolled back to my 2014 version. This morning was the second time quicken would hang up trying to start up because my one PC with Quicken on it is not connected to the internet.  There are a lot of people who are afraid to have their pc with this kind of data connected to the internet, especially after being hacked or fooled into letting outsiders on to fix their PC. Yes they should no better to begin with but they still exist. I work at a retail store and the past month I've been informing many people looking for quicken of this problem and turning them off from buying it. That's dozens of lost sales for them just for this behavior with many more to come.

Keith B

Today I lost my internet connection (phone co. problems) and could not open Quicken.  The problem still exists as far as I am concerned.  I'd like to hear from Quicken (the company) about
the issue.  After the phone co. fixed their network, I can again use Quicken.  PS In order to submit this reply I relcuctantly gave "getsatisfaction.com" access to some of my personal information.

Unknown

Today I lost my internet connection (phone co. problems) and could not open Quicken.  The problem still exists as far as I am concerned.  I'd like to hear from Quicken (the company) about
the issue.  After the phone co. fixed their network, I can again use Quicken.  PS In order to submit this reply I relcuctantly gave "getsatisfaction.com" access to some of my personal information.

Note I tried this again by setting my system clock into the future and have my Internet connection disabled.  I got the same dialog as I reported above, but what tried is closing it using the X box.  It took a few times closing it like that, but eventually I was able to get into my data file.

mshiggins

Today I lost my internet connection (phone co. problems) and could not open Quicken.  The problem still exists as far as I am concerned.  I'd like to hear from Quicken (the company) about
the issue.  After the phone co. fixed their network, I can again use Quicken.  PS In order to submit this reply I relcuctantly gave "getsatisfaction.com" access to some of my personal information.

How many users are going to try that?

Unknown

Today I lost my internet connection (phone co. problems) and could not open Quicken.  The problem still exists as far as I am concerned.  I'd like to hear from Quicken (the company) about
the issue.  After the phone co. fixed their network, I can again use Quicken.  PS In order to submit this reply I relcuctantly gave "getsatisfaction.com" access to some of my personal information.

I'm not trying to defend it.  I was just reporting on what was possible (a workaround).

jacknpaula`

I have been using quicken 2001 since, well, 2001. I needed to update to 2019 deluxe, (accountant). I do not need or want it to access the internet at startup. I achieve this by unplugging the ethernet cord. quicken then loads up rapidly and I then plug the ethernet cord back in. How can I stop quicken from even attempting to accessing the internet? Is there an executable file I can remove?

Chris_QPW

jacknpaula` said:

How can I stop quicken from even attempting to accessing the internet? Is there an executable file I can remove?

Yeah it is called qw.exe.  

Don't do that I was just kidding, but no there isn't an executable file you can remove it is Quicken that is accessing the Internet, not some "external executable" you can delete.

About the only thing I you could do is setup rules in you firewall to block Quicken from accessing the Internet.

On the other hand I see no performance gains/or loss over say a 1 or 2 seconds at start up while allowing Quicken to access the Internet.

Dan Glynhampton

jacknpaula` said:

I do not need or want it to access the internet at startup. I achieve this by unplugging the ethernet cord. quicken then loads up rapidly and I then plug the ethernet cord back in.

It's interesting that you can get Quicken to start up without an internet connection, that doesn't work for me.  All I get is a message saying "please check your internet connection" and Quicken won't open my data file.  When I restore the internet connection I have to enter my Quicken ID and password before it will open the data file.  I don't use Quicken Mobile and I have Sync set to "Off" so I don't understand why it needs an internet connection to start up every time.

Chris_QPW

@Dan Glynhampton I don't know why it is working that way for you, it shouldn't.  I just tried disabling my network adapter and starting it, and it works fine (no prompt for Quicken Id).  BTW I can't really tell any difference in start up time. I would have to get out a stop watch to tell.

Dan Glynhampton

@Chris_QPW
Hmmm, interesting, it must be something in my setup.  I don't have time right now to investigate further but when I can I'll try with a new file and a few other things to see if I can narrow it down.

smayer97

The KEY is not just unplugging the ethernet cable. Quicken DOES try to connect to the internet if it detects an active networking port. You have to turn off the network adapter via Windows settings... THEN Quicken will not attempt to connect.

Dan Glynhampton

smayer97 said:

The KEY is not just unplugging the ethernet cable. Quicken DOES try to connect to the internet if it detects an active networking port. You have to turn off the network adapter via Windows settings... THEN Quicken will not attempt to connect.

That's not what jacknpaula reports above, in that post it says "I achieve this by unplugging the ethernet cord".

To investigate I have performed an Uninstall > QCleanUI > Reinstall and patched up to the latest release.  If I now unplug my ethernet cable Quicken starts without prompting me for my Quicken ID. So either it was an issue in my installation which was corrected by the reinstall, or it's a fix in the lastest Mondo patch.

smayer97

@Dan Glynhampton good to know it works this way now.

Quicken Anja

Hello All,

The Community Support team regularly reviews long-standing posts and Ideas for relevancy and current interest. This Idea seems to have stalled and we would like to gauge the current interest in this request. 

If you would like to see this idea implemented, please add your vote and a comment explaining how this idea would be beneficial for you. More information, including steps to vote and how to submit your own Ideas for future product features/improvements, is also available here.

Thank you,

Quicken Community Support Team

mshiggins

I still strongly dislike that Quicken used even entirely in manual mode requires an internet connection. 

splasher

I just voted this up and the count went from 4 to 1.  Something is amiss with the counter.

thecreator

mshiggins said:

I still strongly dislike that Quicken used even entirely in manual mode requires an internet connection. 

Hi @mshiggins ,

When Quicken Subscription Product was being developed, you are the User that pushed for Quicken to update itself, when installing Quicken, which requires being connected to the Internet. The User can't remove the check, not to update itself, during the install process.

Quicken Anja

splasher said:

I just voted this up and the count went from 4 to 1.  Something is amiss with the counter.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention! I checked the vote count, and it should be at 7 votes and not 3 votes as it currently shows. I will go ahead and forward this to have it looked into and fixed! Thank you.

mshiggins

thecreator said:

mshiggins said:

I still strongly dislike that Quicken used even entirely in manual mode requires an internet connection. 

Hi @mshiggins ,

When Quicken Subscription Product was being developed, you are the User that pushed for Quicken to update itself, when installing Quicken, which requires being connected to the Internet. The User can't remove the check, not to update itself, during the install process.

I have no idea what you are referring to. 

xmnboy

@"Quicken Anja" -- the vote counter says "five" and does not allow me to add to the vote count.

The problem I am having trouble with is under those conditions when there is an active network connection (e.g., my local network is operational) but the Internet is not available (e.g., Comcast is down). Under those conditions it can take Quicken up to five minutes just to start. It would be _very_ helpful if Quicken could be improved so that this situation does not interfere with the use of Quicken, locally.

Starting Quicken when there is no Internet connection works but is unnecessarily burdensome. On my system it requires about five minutes before Quicken decides there is no Internet connection and will then allow me to work with my _local_ data. One of the reasons I use Quicken is because I want my data to be local and not burdened by a requirement to always have an Internet connection.

How do we get a message to the Quicken developers to ask that they separate the process that checks for an Internet connection from using the application, and turn the "check for Internet" into an asynchronous process at startup? In those instances when the Internet fails (which in 2021 is still too often), I should not be required to wait five minutes to access my local data. Obviously, yes, if the Internet is not available it will limit some of the features in the Quicken application, but bringing up the GUI, reading local data and adding transactions to that local data should not be impeded by this condition.

mshiggins

@Quicken Anja vote count is still not working. Can you let us know if you were able to find out anything about the cause of this issue?

leishirsute

This is still a problem. I am totally blocked out of my data file even though quicken opens it, displays it briefly and then locks access with the login screen display. 

Greg_the_Geek

What version of Quicken are you using?

leishirsute

27.1.43.32

Let me clarify.  If I successfully accessed Quicken while on a wifi network, then move to a location with inaccessble wifi networks, Quicken attempts to connect to a wifi network, can't and brings up up the online login popup window.  Once that window is displayed there is no way around it, accept to find a wifi network to connect.  That, to me, is a design flaw.  I should be able to use my local datafile file regardless of a wifi connection.  There should be a button or option on the login popup to just use the local datafile.