Is Quicken for Mac 2007 (QM2007) Compatible with Mojave (macOS 10.14)?

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  • smayer97
    smayer97 Quicken Mac Other SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2018

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  • Scott Schmidt
    Scott Schmidt Member ✭✭
    edited October 2018
  • smayer97
    smayer97 Quicken Mac Other SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2018

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  • Ruth Hirsch
    Ruth Hirsch Member ✭✭
    edited October 2018
  • John Prewitt
    John Prewitt Member ✭✭✭
    edited October 2018
    Before Time Machine was on the Mac, the auto backup feature in Quicken 2007 was necessary. Now since Quicken 2007 can't preform Autobackup you can go to the Preferences for Quicken 2007 and uncheck the auto backup feature.  You can obtain backup version of your data file via Time Machine. Remember that Quicken 2007 would create a backup once to either quit Quicken 2007 or opened a new data file. It may take Time Machine up to an hour to create a backup.
  • smayer97
    smayer97 Quicken Mac Other SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2018

    Before Time Machine was on the Mac, the auto backup feature in Quicken 2007 was necessary. Now since Quicken 2007 can't preform Autobackup you can go to the Preferences for Quicken 2007 and uncheck the auto backup feature.  You can obtain backup version of your data file via Time Machine. Remember that Quicken 2007 would create a backup once to either quit Quicken 2007 or opened a new data file. It may take Time Machine up to an hour to create a backup.

    Time Machine may work for some but not others. It needs an external drive, which not everyone has. So automatic backups are still useful.

    For those uses, they may still opt to create an HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) format partition or drive and store their data files and backups there to continue to use this feature.

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  • John Prewitt
    John Prewitt Member ✭✭✭
    edited October 2018
    Moving just the Quicken Backup Folder to an external USB drive whose format is MS-DOS (FAT32) and selecting it via the Choose icon in Quicken 2007 preference does not work. Moving both the original and backup data files to an external drive works.
  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited October 2018

    Before Time Machine was on the Mac, the auto backup feature in Quicken 2007 was necessary. Now since Quicken 2007 can't preform Autobackup you can go to the Preferences for Quicken 2007 and uncheck the auto backup feature.  You can obtain backup version of your data file via Time Machine. Remember that Quicken 2007 would create a backup once to either quit Quicken 2007 or opened a new data file. It may take Time Machine up to an hour to create a backup.

    Two comments...

    (1) Quicken 2007 can still perform auto-backups, for those who want them, as long as the data file is installed on an HFS+ formatted drive. For those who have upgraded to Mojave and had their internal drive changed over to APFS format, this can be done either by partitioning an internal drive into a small second partition formatted as HFS+ and moving the Quicken data file there, or putting the Quicken data file on an external drive formatted as HFS+.

    (2) Time Machine is great, and I recommend it for all Mac users. Yet as inexpensive as external hard drives are, not everyone has an external disk they use for Time Machine. And even or those of us who do, I believe there is no such thing as too many backups. I make manual backups of my Quicken data file from time to time, just to have copies that will outlive Time Machine deleting old ones. (Remember that while Time Machine starts out making hourly backups, after a day it retains only the first backup per day, and after a month, only the first backup per week. And if your Time Machine hard drive gets full, it deletes the oldest files to create free space.) I also make a whole-disk backup on an external hard drive periodically and store it in a different location than my home as protection against a disaster that could claim my computer and Time Machine drive in one incident.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited October 2018

    Moving just the Quicken Backup Folder to an external USB drive whose format is MS-DOS (FAT32) and selecting it via the Choose icon in Quicken 2007 preference does not work. Moving both the original and backup data files to an external drive works.

    Yes, as noted multiple times above, the Quicken data file and backup folder must be on a non-APFS drive. (I'd normally say it must be on an HFS+ drive; I'm surprised it works okay on a FAT32-formatted drive; I'd still strongly recommend HFS+.)

    Speaking of FAT32, I'd mention that it's not wise to put your live Quicken data file on a flash drive (which often come formatted as FAT32) -- they're fine for moving a file from one computer to another, or even for short-term backup, but flash drives are not well-suited to running database programs which do a lot of writing to a disk. (Inexpensive flash drives are typically slower, but more importantly, flash solid-state media has a finite number of erase cycles, and a database that's constantly updating data does a lot of erasing/rewriting to the drive.)
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    edited October 2018
  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited October 2018
    LeRoy, yes the automatic backup functionality fails on any hard drive formatted in Apple’s new APFS format; this started last year with the High Sierra operating system.As you note, the easiest solution is to make manual backup copies from time to time. If you use Apple’s Time Machine for automated backups, that’s an extra layer of protection. (Or you can put your Quicken data file and backups on an external drive formatted in the older HFS+ format.)There is a *zero* percent chance of Quicken releasing an update to Quicken 2007. That program has long since been discontinued, and all their efforts are focused on enhancing the current Quicken Mac program. Quicken 2007 will completely stop running on Apple’s next operating system next fall. By then, the Quicken Mac developers hope to have addressed the key features a significant number of remaining 2007 users are still holding out for.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    edited October 2018

    This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Does Quicken for Mac 2007 run on macOS Mojave (10.14) released September 24, 2018....


    I would like to hear your experience.

    I have been able to do everything as before (including going nuts over periodic crashing) but am no longer able to back-up my data in any way, neither externally nor on my desktop.
  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited October 2018

    This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Does Quicken for Mac 2007 run on macOS Mojave (10.14) released September 24, 2018....


    I would like to hear your experience.

    @DD Lloyd: Automatic backups from Quicken 2007 do not work on any hard drive formatted in the new Apple APFS format. But it's easy to manually make backups: just quit Quicken, find your data file in the finder, and Duplicate it. (You may want to edit the name to reflect the date of the backup, such as "10-22-2018 My Data". Also, if you use Apple's Time Machine to back up your Mac on an ongoing basis -- you do this, don't you? (grin) -- your Quicken data file is being backed up. Another option: if you have or get an inexpensive external hard drive, and format it as HFS+ instead of APFS, and put your Quicken data file and backup folder on the HFS+ drive, then Quicken 2007 automated backups will continue to work.

    The loss of the automated backup from within Quicken 2007 is a minor inconvenience. For those still using Quicken 2007, it's remarkable that this is the only part of Quicken which doesn't work on the modern High Sierra or Mojave operating systems. 
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    edited October 2018

    This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Does Quicken for Mac 2007 run on macOS Mojave (10.14) released September 24, 2018....


    I would like to hear your experience.

    I too got the 'Quicken was unable to automatically backup your file' message on closing Quicken 2007 for Mac 16.2.4 after upgrading to Mojave 10.14.  Auto Backup was working fine before the upgrade.

    Re-opened, made changes and selected File / Backup to disk from the pull down menu - the backup completed successfully and file size increased from 43.9M to 44.5M.
    Re-opened and confirmed the changes made were saved.  Wish I'd checked this forum before upgrading to Mojave - brain cramp.  Yes, I have Time Machine doing regular backups too.
  • smayer97
    smayer97 Quicken Mac Other SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2018

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  • Ruth Hirsch
    Ruth Hirsch Member ✭✭
    edited October 2018
  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited October 2018
    All the data is fine in your actual Quicken data file. If you have your data file on a drive formatted as APFS — which is the case for most people with Mojave —Quicken attempts to make a backup but fails. (If you have your data file and backup folder on HFS+ formatted drive, the automatic backup will still work.)Ruth, I’m skeptical that your Quicken is actually generating a complete backup file. Are you saying that you have opened one of the automatically-generated backup files, and found it to be intact, and then gone back to your live data file? Or are you just seeing a file with the date and time you quit Quicken? If the latter, the file you’re seeing like isn’t a complete backup at all.You can manually make a backup in Quicken, or simply quit Quicken and then duplicate the data file in the Finder. In Quicken, you can go to preferences and turn off the automatic backups, since they’re not working anyway.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Ruth Hirsch
    Ruth Hirsch Member ✭✭
    edited October 2018
  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited November 2018
    Ruth, if it's a document that exists before you launch Quicken, and gets an update time after you quit Quicken, that sounds like it is your live Quicken data file, not a backup copy. (Backups are new files created in a designated folder after you quite Quicken.)

    The naming of your file is interesting. Quicken prepends a digit when it makes backups. So if your data file is named "QuickenData.qdfm", when Quicken 2007 makes a backup, it will be named "1QuickenData.qdfm". The next day*, it will rename that file "2QuickenData.qdfm" and create a new backup called "1QuickenData.qdfm". The next day, it will rename "2QuickenData.qdfm" to "3QuickenData.qdfm", rename "1QuickenData.qdfm" to "2QuickenData.qdfm", and create a new backup called, again, "1QuickenData.qdfm". This continues up to the maximum number you have set in your Quicken Preferences for backups, a maximum of 9. (*Quicken 2007 creates backup files with a frequency set in Preferences: you can have it set to make a backup every 'x' times you quit Quicken, so if you have it set to "every 1 time", and you open and quit Quicken 5 times in one day, it will make 5 backups that day. I have mine set to "every 2 times", and to retain 9 backups.)

    If you at some point open one of those backup files instead of your live "QuickenData.qdfm" data file, the naming gets interesting. Let's say you open "1QuickenData.qdfm" by double-clicking on it. It looks exactly as you'd expect, because it's an exact copy of your Quicken data file. Now when it makes its automated backup, it again prepends a digit, creating "11QuickenData.qdfm". The next backup will be "21QuickenData.qdfm", then "31QuickenData.qdfm" and so on. As long as you open a backup that begins with a 1, you're opening the most recent backup, so you're probably not losing any transactions; if you open a backup that begins with a 2, then you will have lost any changes you made -- if any -- since that backup was made 2 times ago.

    Is sounds like you have repeatedly -- over time that may span months or years -- opened Quicken backup files. The "111222121" in front of your data file name seems to indicate you have opened a backup on 8 different occasions over time. You started with "QuickenData.qdfm" and then opened a backup file named "1QuickenData.qdfm". That file created a "11QuickenData.qdfm" backup followed by a "21QuickenData.qdfm" backup. You opened that "21QuickenData.qdfm" data file, so the next backup it created was "121QuickenData.qdfm". You opened that file, so the next backup it created was "1121QuickenData.qdfm", followed by "2121QuickenData.qdfm". You opened that backup, and Quicken created the next backup named "12121QuickenData.qdfm" -- and so on until you reach the file name you have today.

    Here's my suggestion. Identify the most recent file, and rename it to simply "QuickenData.qdfm". Going forward, make sure that's the only file you're opening, and that the date modified is changing for this file after you've used it. If you weren't on an APFS-formatted disk, Quicken would go back to naming backups "1QuickenData.qdfm", "2QuickenData.qdfm", "3QuickenData.qdfm", etc. -- but because this feature doesn't work on High Sierra or Mojave systems with APFS hard drives, you'll just get the error message that Quicken was unable to make an automatic backup.

    Now go into Quicken Preferences, and in the File Backup setting, uncheck the checkbox to automatically make backups. This tells Quicken not to try to make backups, so you won't get the error message. Now, adopt a system for periodically making manual backups. What I do is create a folder called "QuickenData Backups". After you quit Quicken, right-click on your "QuickenData.qdfm" file and select Duplicate (or click on the file to select it and press Command-D to duplicate). This will create a copy named "QuickenData copy.qdfm". I edit the name to include the date: "2018-10-23 QuickenData.qdfm", and then drag this file into the backups folder.

    Is it necessary to make the manual backups? No. You're using Time Machine to backup your Mac's files, which is good, and you're making SuperDuper whole disk backups as an additional layer of security, which is great. Do you need yet another layer of backups of your Quicken file? Maybe not. Probably not. But I'll explain why you might want to do it anyway. I like to do it because (a) you can never have too many backups when something goes south, and (b) since Quicken 2007's database is prone to occasional data loss or corruption, having manual backups every week or so going back in time could prove helpful in the event Quicken mangles some of your data. (I have a chunk of transactions in one particular account which Quicken inexplicably moved to dates a few years earlier; I was only able to pin down what happened by going back through my manual backups to find when the corruption occurred and what data had changed.) Time Machine is great, but it's important to know that it isn't always retaining a backup you might want. Time Machine backups up your files hourly, but it only retains the first backup of a day for the next month. so if you used Quicken for awhile, or several times, on a day, the Time Machine backup of your Quicken data file for that day isn't a backup of your ending data file for that day, it's the backup it made in the hour after you first modified it. Then, after a month, it only preserves the first backup of a week. If your Time Machine disk ever fills up, it then starts deleting the oldest weekly backups. so I like to manually make a backup when I want to -- particularly if I've just done a lot of data entry work -- than to assume the Time Machine backup will bail me out should I need to go back to it.

    Sorry for being so long-winded, but I wanted to try to provide a full explanation and not just say "do xxxx" without explaining why. Hope it helps.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    edited October 2018
    jacobs said:

    Ruth, if it's a document that exists before you launch Quicken, and gets an update time after you quit Quicken, that sounds like it is your live Quicken data file, not a backup copy. (Backups are new files created in a designated folder after you quite Quicken.)

    The naming of your file is interesting. Quicken prepends a digit when it makes backups. So if your data file is named "QuickenData.qdfm", when Quicken 2007 makes a backup, it will be named "1QuickenData.qdfm". The next day*, it will rename that file "2QuickenData.qdfm" and create a new backup called "1QuickenData.qdfm". The next day, it will rename "2QuickenData.qdfm" to "3QuickenData.qdfm", rename "1QuickenData.qdfm" to "2QuickenData.qdfm", and create a new backup called, again, "1QuickenData.qdfm". This continues up to the maximum number you have set in your Quicken Preferences for backups, a maximum of 9. (*Quicken 2007 creates backup files with a frequency set in Preferences: you can have it set to make a backup every 'x' times you quit Quicken, so if you have it set to "every 1 time", and you open and quit Quicken 5 times in one day, it will make 5 backups that day. I have mine set to "every 2 times", and to retain 9 backups.)

    If you at some point open one of those backup files instead of your live "QuickenData.qdfm" data file, the naming gets interesting. Let's say you open "1QuickenData.qdfm" by double-clicking on it. It looks exactly as you'd expect, because it's an exact copy of your Quicken data file. Now when it makes its automated backup, it again prepends a digit, creating "11QuickenData.qdfm". The next backup will be "21QuickenData.qdfm", then "31QuickenData.qdfm" and so on. As long as you open a backup that begins with a 1, you're opening the most recent backup, so you're probably not losing any transactions; if you open a backup that begins with a 2, then you will have lost any changes you made -- if any -- since that backup was made 2 times ago.

    Is sounds like you have repeatedly -- over time that may span months or years -- opened Quicken backup files. The "111222121" in front of your data file name seems to indicate you have opened a backup on 8 different occasions over time. You started with "QuickenData.qdfm" and then opened a backup file named "1QuickenData.qdfm". That file created a "11QuickenData.qdfm" backup followed by a "21QuickenData.qdfm" backup. You opened that "21QuickenData.qdfm" data file, so the next backup it created was "121QuickenData.qdfm". You opened that file, so the next backup it created was "1121QuickenData.qdfm", followed by "2121QuickenData.qdfm". You opened that backup, and Quicken created the next backup named "12121QuickenData.qdfm" -- and so on until you reach the file name you have today.

    Here's my suggestion. Identify the most recent file, and rename it to simply "QuickenData.qdfm". Going forward, make sure that's the only file you're opening, and that the date modified is changing for this file after you've used it. If you weren't on an APFS-formatted disk, Quicken would go back to naming backups "1QuickenData.qdfm", "2QuickenData.qdfm", "3QuickenData.qdfm", etc. -- but because this feature doesn't work on High Sierra or Mojave systems with APFS hard drives, you'll just get the error message that Quicken was unable to make an automatic backup.

    Now go into Quicken Preferences, and in the File Backup setting, uncheck the checkbox to automatically make backups. This tells Quicken not to try to make backups, so you won't get the error message. Now, adopt a system for periodically making manual backups. What I do is create a folder called "QuickenData Backups". After you quit Quicken, right-click on your "QuickenData.qdfm" file and select Duplicate (or click on the file to select it and press Command-D to duplicate). This will create a copy named "QuickenData copy.qdfm". I edit the name to include the date: "2018-10-23 QuickenData.qdfm", and then drag this file into the backups folder.

    Is it necessary to make the manual backups? No. You're using Time Machine to backup your Mac's files, which is good, and you're making SuperDuper whole disk backups as an additional layer of security, which is great. Do you need yet another layer of backups of your Quicken file? Maybe not. Probably not. But I'll explain why you might want to do it anyway. I like to do it because (a) you can never have too many backups when something goes south, and (b) since Quicken 2007's database is prone to occasional data loss or corruption, having manual backups every week or so going back in time could prove helpful in the event Quicken mangles some of your data. (I have a chunk of transactions in one particular account which Quicken inexplicably moved to dates a few years earlier; I was only able to pin down what happened by going back through my manual backups to find when the corruption occurred and what data had changed.) Time Machine is great, but it's important to know that it isn't always retaining a backup you might want. Time Machine backups up your files hourly, but it only retains the first backup of a day for the next month. so if you used Quicken for awhile, or several times, on a day, the Time Machine backup of your Quicken data file for that day isn't a backup of your ending data file for that day, it's the backup it made in the hour after you first modified it. Then, after a month, it only preserves the first backup of a week. If your Time Machine disk ever fills up, it then starts deleting the oldest weekly backups. so I like to manually make a backup when I want to -- particularly if I've just done a lot of data entry work -- than to assume the Time Machine backup will bail me out should I need to go back to it.

    Sorry for being so long-winded, but I wanted to try to provide a full explanation and not just say "do xxxx" without explaining why. Hope it helps.

    Very well explained. I too in the past have opened a numbered backup file after the working file was corrupted, then found my numbered backups with the 33, 43, 53 etc prefixes. Now I know why.
  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    edited November 2018
  • smayer97
    smayer97 Quicken Mac Other SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2018

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    (Canadian user since '92, STILL using QM2007)

  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited October 2018
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • smayer97
    smayer97 Quicken Mac Other SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2018

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  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    edited November 2018
  • smayer97
    smayer97 Quicken Mac Other SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2018

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  • Ange
    Ange Member ✭✭
    edited October 2018
  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited October 2018
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • smayer97
    smayer97 Quicken Mac Other SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2018

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  • Scott Schmidt
    Scott Schmidt Member ✭✭
    edited October 2018
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