Unable to Delete Securities

Chris5 · March 2018

I can't delete securities that have no transactions associated with them. I get an error message when trying that says "These securities can't be deleted...These securities are used by active transactions and cannot be removed." I've used every possible method of searching for transactions that reference the security to be deleted but none to be found in any register, list, report, portfolio view, etc.

Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: Can't delete securities.

Sherlock · March 2018

If you really used every possible method of searching for transactions that reference the security, then the datafile is corrupt: https://www.quicken.com/support/advanced-data-file-troubleshooting-correct-problems-quicken-windows

I suspect the security is referenced in a hidden transaction list or placeholder you have yet to identify.

Chris5 · March 2018

Thanks for the suggestion Sherlock. Appears I have this posted in the wrong spot since I'm using QM18. I checked the link but there is no "file operations" menu on the Mac version.

I do suspect that you are correct though that there must be some stray references in the datafile

Concordman · March 2018

In Qm18 securities cannot be deleted. There needs to be the option to hide unused securities when searching thru the security listing.

Chris5 · March 2018

Are you saying inability to delete a security is a QM18 limitation, regardless of if there is a transaction or not? And the message is not accurate regarding "active transactions"? Odd that there would be the menu option to select "Delete" if this is the case. But at least that would be encouraging that it will be enabled at some point in an update rather than an issue with my datafile...

Concordman · March 2018

dont see it as a limitation but Quicken should allow for hiding unused securities

smayer97 · March 2018

To me, it must be an oversight that you can add a security but not remove it if it never gets used.

Chris5 · March 2018

There are no hidden accounts and many steps taken to ensure no individual transactions are using the security. I've even done exports to search the datafile using Text Wrangler. No use of the security.

So it is either that somewhere in the datafile there is some old reference that is not part of any account/register (but I've even changed the security name several times) or it is a problem specific to the delete function

Concordman · March 2018

Which is why It would be good to hide securities which have been used in the past but are no longer needed to review in the security list

Unknown · March 2018

May I add...try buying the security in question that you want to delete.

I would make it 1000 shares at $10 each.

Then see in the Portfolio window if there are any small fractional shares of the security in addition to the 1000 shares.

Quicken Mac has difficulty in seeing shares to the fifth decimal place or more sometimes. If you have 0.00001 shares, Quicken Mac will show it as zero shares.

Chris5 · March 2018

Thanks for the additional troubleshooting ideas. I did try adding new transactions with the security (actually several to check different registers) and checking the # of shares (I always keep the Shares column visible)--no fractional shares (at least down to 3 decimal places).

I guess I'm a bit OCD and it's actually 6 different securities so hiding them doesn't appeal to me. It's more that I know something somewhere isn't right with my datafile that bugs me.

Unknown · March 2018

Okay, try adding 0.001 share of the security and see what happens. Quicken may show more decimal places of shares than three if it's a small fractional amount.

Of course, I'm just taking a stab at things to see if they help.

Like you, my OCD would drive me crazy over something as trivial as that.

Chris5 · March 2018

Now things have gone past being a nuisance... the suggestions to hide were more than OCD since when downloading transactions from my brokerage account, any new transactions are downloaded under the old security name. So I have to manually change each one to the real security.

But now over the past week, whenever I sync with my account it is adding the old security as the first transaction in the register (2004) with the same share balance as currently in the account. Quicken is doing this as a manual adjustment to match with the online account share balance. So somehow, QM17 has the old security locked to the brokerage security even though I've changed the symbol to nonsense along with the name. And QM17 is ignoring the right security with the real symbol...

I just disabled the online setup for the account and re-established it to see if that would help. No dice. Old security is still added as the first in the register when synced.

Quicken_Tyka · March 2018

Hey Chris,

I would try merging the old security with the new security.

You can find detailed steps at https://www.quicken.com/support/merge-securities-quicken-mac.

Let me know how it goes!

Chris5 · March 2018

Thanks for the tip Tyka. I was able to successfully merge three of the securities I was trying to delete. So far doesn't look to have any unexpected consequences... Jury is still out until I have new transactions from my brokerage to ensure they are linked correctly. I'll report back

Unable to Delete Securities

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