Quicken 2007 transaction file is full

jacobs · April 2018

Today while entering transactions in my mostly-trusty old Quicken 2007, I was surprised to hit an apparent wall: it wouldn't let me enter a transaction because "The transaction file is full." Uh oh.

While I wish I could just switch over the Quicken 2018 once and for all, limitations with reports still keeps me from doing this, although I hope that day will come sometime soon.

In the meantime, is there any alternative other than doing a Save As and eliminating the first year or two of data from my 25 years of data? Would deleting a few accounts I no longer use make it easier to re-import that data into Quicken 2018 when I'm ready to?

jacobs · April 2018

Paging @smayer97...

mshiggins · April 2018

It's a file limitation, not an account limitation?

jacobs · April 2018

The message says it's a file limitation. I did a Save As and eliminated the first year of transactions in my file, and it was happy accepting new transactions again. Looking toward the day I'll make my final migration to Quicken 2018, I'm just wondering if I'd be better trying to delete a couple old credit card accounts for now, and import them separately from the old Quicken 2007 file. Or maybe I'll just decide I don't need these old transactions at all. I'm not sure how much space I created in my transaction file, so I suspect I'll run into this again a few months.

smayer97 · April 2018

Glad you figured it out....but yes, Save As does get around a 10,650 transactions per file limitation (I think it resets and eliminates gaps in the transaction count from deleted entries).

I only wish there was an easy way to tell how many transactions there are in a QM2007 file. One of my existing concerns... :-\

BTW, QM2018 does have the ability to merge multiple QM2007 files into one QM2018 file. You simple create the first file, then when you try to create the second, you do NOT select NEW FILE...Quicken then merges the 2 files BUT it does not remove duplicates, so you want to make sure ahead of time that there are none to avoid clean-up after.

HTH

smayer97 · April 2018

BTW, to confirm it is a file limitation and not an account one, simple try to enter transactions in other registers. But I do suspect the message is correct, though it is not documented anywhere for Mac Quicken files.

The link I had to this issue was to the old QLC and I know there was a purge of many entries related to QM2007...so I cannot seem to track it down in GetSat.

Do report back so we can all learn...

P.S. I feel bad you ran into this. I have no idea how close I am too...

John_in_NC · April 2018

What you are seeing isn't unexpected. Your file is failing not so silently, so I would get ready for Plan B. From experience here, purging out old transactions is a merely a pause for the inevitable. The number of accounts, categories, transactions, classes, etc. all come into play when the file has reached a bound of what it will work with. I know a lot of people who nurse files along in this state, thinking everything is OK. But, they have all sorts of strange issues. I find it hard not to believe those strange issues are because their file is going South.

That 2007 file pseudo flat file database structure was a marvel in the 1980s. It was quite fault tolerant and self diagnosing/healing, but that was required because computers crashed far more back then. That said, the database in newer versions of Quicken is farm more reliable.

It might be time to move on.

smayer97 · April 2018

But like jacobs points out, the biggest limitation is reports in QM2018. I know I am stuck until that matures enough...

Unknown · November 2018

I finally got my Quicken 2007 program over to my Mac OS X El Capitain newer computer.
It's been working fine for the last month. I just got the Transaction file full notice and I
am beside myself! Could some one please, pretty please tell me how I go about deleting old files
from my program. This program has transactions that go back to 1990. I don't need all those years. I do need to keep my job though......

Unknown · November 2018

I finally got my Quicken 2007 program over to my Mac OS X El Capitain newer computer.
It's been working fine for the last month. I just got the Transaction file full notice and I
am beside myself! Could some one please, pretty please tell me how I go about deleting old files
from my program. This program has transactions that go back to 1990. I don't need all those years. I do need to keep my job though......

Unknown · November 2018

Could you please help me figure out how to delete a couple of years of data from my Quicken 2007 files without changing current totals? I hit the transaction full screen and I barely breathing! I finally got my date off my old Mac and into OS X El Capitain a month ago and now this. My job stops right here if I can't fix this.

Unknown · November 2018

Thanks you for replying RickO. I tried for 9 straight hours of tech support to change to 2018 only to find that I couldn't run payroll reports.

Would you mind terribly telling me how to delete the transactions because I don't see that here.

Unknown · November 2018

Thank you. All the accounts are needed. It's only used for work. I guess I am nervous to delete anything, but I don't really have a choice right now. I guess I'll try it on the old computer first that still has all the data minus the last month. Ugh!

Unknown · November 2018

Paging @smayer97...

You've saved me once before!

Unknown · November 2018

Thanks....I'm going to drag myself home so I don't do anything stupid tonight.

When I copy my files I manually drag my checkbook folder to an external hard drive.
I've never done it from the menu if that's what you mean. Sorry, I've just used it with my fingers crossed...for years. Thanks for trying to help. I really appreciated it.

smayer97 · November 2018

I see that you have seen one possible solution above here.

The only other alternative I can think of if the above does not work for you is to export data using QIF and import that data into a new data file; much more work, and not as effective and powerful as it will probably leave gaps in your data, has trouble dealing with transfers, and a few other issues. YMMV.

Please do report back to see how you made out.

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

Unknown · November 2018

Thanks so much for your reply. I don't understand what QIF is and have not ever created a new data file.....I've just used the program for decades.

I was thinking that if I put in a "Starting Balance" at the end of the transactions for 1991 and then manually delete all the checkbook transactions from that year that I might create more room and not change reports. What do you think?

jacobs · November 2018

Isma, I did what you're proposing: deleting the oldest year (more than 20 years ago) from a few accounts -- transactions I was sure I really didn't need. Going through a year of transactions and clicking delete on each one was actually surprisingly fast -- except for one wrinkle. If you delete transactions that are transfers to other accounts, then you'll be affecting other account balances as well. For instance, one account I deleted a year's worth of transactions from was my personal cash account. But some transactions in that account were transfers from my checking account, when I withdrew money from the ATM; others were transfers to/from my wife's cash account. So I needed to record the year-end balance for ALL involved accounts, such that after I deleted transactions, I could adjust the opening balance transaction to make sure each account's running balance was back where it belonged. Similarly, when I deleted transactions from my checking account, I had transfers to pay my credit card bills and a loan. In those cases, I did NOT delete the transfer transactions to the other accounts, so I didn't affect their balances; I just adjusted the checking account starting balance so that the ending balance remained unchanged after my deletions.

The key is writing down the account balances before you delete anything, and doing a little math to force your ending balance to what it should be by editing/adding an opening balance adjustment. editing And, of course, working on a copy of your data, so you can revert if you mess up! It's not a particularly elegant solution, but I figure I'm just buying a little more time until I can retire Quicken 2007 and move entirely to the modern product.

Even though Quicken 2019 doesn't fully meet my needs yet, it's getting close enough that I might do the work to make the transition over the holidays when I have some free time; Quicken 2007 is giving me enough warning bells and notices that I need to recognize my time with it needs to come to an end sooner rather than later. For those who have reports in Quicken 2007 that you absolutely cannot do without, and that you can't create in some way between Quicken 2019's built-in reports or temporarily exporting data to a spreadsheet and manipulating it there, I understand this might not be possible yet, and I join you in hoping 2019 brings sufficient improvements in the reports capabilities of the program to enable to you make the leap forward.

smayer97 · November 2018

Isma Kronk That is effectively what the Save a Copy as of a date is supposed to do to maintain your balances. Just give it a try. No harm will happen to your original, so there is no harm in trying and seeing the results.

QIF export is just a simplified file format to move data around. So exporting and importing it back into a new data file is quick simple BUT also limited.

Again, you can simply try it and see if you like the results.

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

Unknown · November 2018

Yes, thank you so much!. I would have to be careful of the transfers to registers like sales tax and payroll taxes and note all their balances. I certainly don't need all the information going back to 1991, but if I split it doing a "Save a Copy" it won't ever be able to go to a newer Quicken so the split should include not just the year, but 7 years. Can't thank you enough for your help!!!!! I'll pick a path and give it a try tomorrow when I won't be interrupted. Know that you may have saved 4 jobs, 1 tuition and 1 nervous breakdown if this works! : )

smayer97 · November 2018

Hope it works out for you.

Why do you say it would not be possible to go to a newer Quicken? Read the above post about being able to merge multiple QM2007 files into one modern QMac file and see if this applies.
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/quicken-2007-transaction-file-is-full?topic-repl...

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

Unknown · November 2018

Good to be reminded about the duplicates since this would not be a clean year end new file. Thanks you!

CharPatton · March 2021

Thanks to all for their help supporting this (still very useful) legacy product.

I'm trying to free up space by deleting unused accounts per the above. However, one very old account will not let me do this, with an error message of "Cannot delete an account enabled for CheckFree".

How do I turn off "CheckFree" and delete this account?

Many thanks!

Quicken 2007 transaction file is full

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