Are you backing up to Dropbox?

RCinNJ

I'm curious how/if people are using Dropbox or other online storage to backup their files. 

Are you pointing the Quicken Backup Folder location (set in Preferences) to the Dropbox folder on your Mac? Currently I am using the default location in Preferences> Application Support> Quicken> Backups> Automatic Backups. 

I know I'm slow, but I'm just now looking at using dropbox for backups rather than for sharing files (which is what I've used it for in the past). I'm using QM2018.

NotACPA

My automatic backups go to the Quicken/Backup folder on my hard drive.
My Manual backups go to a USB drive.

I don't use DropBox/etc.

Unknown

I manually copy the Quicken .qdf file from Windows Explorer and then paste to my backup folder in Dropbox.

I have one folder in Dropbox for each day of the week.

Thus, I have seven Quicken backups in Dropbox at any given time. 

splasher

Hopeful1 said:

I manually copy the Quicken .qdf file from Windows Explorer and then paste to my backup folder in Dropbox.

I have one folder in Dropbox for each day of the week.

Thus, I have seven Quicken backups in Dropbox at any given time. 

Unless you can change it not to, Dropbox does file versioning (if the filenames are identical), so you actually have more than that, since it stores versions for 30 days.

Unknown

Note this question was asked by a Mac user, so the answer can be a bit different.  The above users (and I) are Windows users.  For one thing Quicken Mac allows the user to set where the automatic backups go.  Quicken Windows doesn't allow this, they always go to a folder Backup in the same folder as the data file.  Making automatic backups not nearly as good.

And it isn't supported run either Quicken Windows or Mac from a "cloud folder", so for Windows users that means that the only way they can use a "cloud folder" as a backup is if they store their manual backups there.  Or have some way to copy data files there.

RCinNJ

Hopeful1 said:

I manually copy the Quicken .qdf file from Windows Explorer and then paste to my backup folder in Dropbox.

I have one folder in Dropbox for each day of the week.

Thus, I have seven Quicken backups in Dropbox at any given time. 

Hopeful1. Thanks for sharing. I appreciate your willingness to take on backing up manually. My hope would be to avoid taking something that is automated (making backups when I quit Quicken) and turning it into something I need to do manually (copying them to Dropbox every day).

RCinNJ

QPW said:

Note this question was asked by a Mac user, so the answer can be a bit different.  The above users (and I) are Windows users.  For one thing Quicken Mac allows the user to set where the automatic backups go.  Quicken Windows doesn't allow this, they always go to a folder Backup in the same folder as the data file.  Making automatic backups not nearly as good.

And it isn't supported run either Quicken Windows or Mac from a "cloud folder", so for Windows users that means that the only way they can use a "cloud folder" as a backup is if they store their manual backups there.  Or have some way to copy data files there.

I didn't realize that the Windows version doesn't allow you to choose a backup folder different from the default. Since Dropbox works with both Mac and Windows I assumed using Dropbox would be the same. Note that I wasn't asking about running Quicken from Dropbox only about whether people were using an online automatic backup for their Quicken backups.

Unknown

To answer the question.  I personally use OneDrive for my off site backup because I have Office 365 and it include 1 TB of storage per user.

Currently I believe a backup strategy should have a local copy and and off site copy.
It should have multiple versioning, especially for the Quicken data file (especially on Windows with its "data corruption").

One feature that would be really nice that I don't think even Quicken Mac has, would be to do automatic backups to two folders.  And of course letting the user set each of these folders to where they want them.

RCinNJ

QPW said:

To answer the question.  I personally use OneDrive for my off site backup because I have Office 365 and it include 1 TB of storage per user.

Currently I believe a backup strategy should have a local copy and and off site copy.
It should have multiple versioning, especially for the Quicken data file (especially on Windows with its "data corruption").

One feature that would be really nice that I don't think even Quicken Mac has, would be to do automatic backups to two folders.  And of course letting the user set each of these folders to where they want them.

+1 "One feature that would be really nice that I don't think even Quicken Mac has, would be to do automatic backups to two folders.  And of course letting the user set each of these folders to where they want them."

Unknown

Note one way to get around Quicken's shortcomings is to have a script that does this:

start Quicken and wait for it to exit.
copy data file to folder1
copy data file to folder2

Unknown

Hopeful1 said:

I manually copy the Quicken .qdf file from Windows Explorer and then paste to my backup folder in Dropbox.

I have one folder in Dropbox for each day of the week.

Thus, I have seven Quicken backups in Dropbox at any given time. 

Doesn't take more than a few seconds to access Finder, navigate to my Quicken Data folder, highlight and right click on my Quicken file, select "Compress" and "drag and drop" to the proper folder for the day in Dropbox.  

But then again, I'm retired so I have plenty of time on my hands.

But seriously, probably takes way less than a minute total.  

BTW, sorry about the Windows instructions earlier.

I DO use both Quicken Windows and Quicken Mac... and I DO backup manually BOTH data files to Dropbox.  

The instructions in THIS post is how I backup manually for Quicken Mac.

The previous post is instructions for Quicken Windows. 

Unknown

QPW said:

To answer the question.  I personally use OneDrive for my off site backup because I have Office 365 and it include 1 TB of storage per user.

Currently I believe a backup strategy should have a local copy and and off site copy.
It should have multiple versioning, especially for the Quicken data file (especially on Windows with its "data corruption").

One feature that would be really nice that I don't think even Quicken Mac has, would be to do automatic backups to two folders.  And of course letting the user set each of these folders to where they want them.

Quicken Mac DOES allow you to backup to a Dropbox folder.

Select FILE > Save a Backup, and select the location you want to backup the Quicken data file to.  

Unknown

QPW said:

To answer the question.  I personally use OneDrive for my off site backup because I have Office 365 and it include 1 TB of storage per user.

Currently I believe a backup strategy should have a local copy and and off site copy.
It should have multiple versioning, especially for the Quicken data file (especially on Windows with its "data corruption").

One feature that would be really nice that I don't think even Quicken Mac has, would be to do automatic backups to two folders.  And of course letting the user set each of these folders to where they want them.

Also, in Preferences you can select the default backup folder so that the Dropbox folder WILL be the default backup location.  

Preferences > General > File Backup and click on Backup Folder...

Unknown

I also use OneDrive to perform daily and monthly backups.  

Once a day I automatically run a script containing:

          robocopy c:\dorn\Finances "x:\OneDrive\Backup\dorn\Finances"  /np /mir /log+:backupIncremental.log 

to sync my finance directory with my OneDrive directory.  So it ensures OneDrive has the latest version, but doesn't copy if no changes.  It will also delete from OneDrive any files I have deleted from my directory (e.g., temp copies when I'm trying something).

I also automatically run the following the beginning of every month:

copy \Dorn\Finances\Quicken\QDATA.QDF \Dorn\Finances\Quicken\BACKUP\QDATA.QDF-backup-LongTerm%date:~4,2% >> QuickenLongTermBackup.log       

This creates a copy of the Quicken file with an extension ending in LongTermNN, where NN is the month.  So I have a year of checkpoints I can fall back to.

Finally, notice that I copy the files to x:\OneDrive.  The "x" drive is created by BoxCryptor, which is a free product (for personal use).  This causes the file to be encrypted, so if anyone steals my OneDrive credentials, the Quicken file is useless to the thief.  I copy all my important files (eg 1040s) this way.  Once set up, it is transparent to your work.  Just be sure you have a way to get the BoxCryptor key in case your house burns down.

RickO

A thought about security when backing up to Dropbox... Keep in mind that a Quicken file, even if it has a file password, is not encrypted. Any backups Quicken creates are also not encrypted. It is an easy matter for someone with some basic knowledge of the file structure to get all the details contained therein. Therefore, storing a Quicken generated backup on Dropbox is essentially no more secure than storing your financial info, account numbers, etc. on Dropbox in a text file. If you trust Dropbox enough to do this, then fine. 

Personally, I don't trust Dropbox to that extent. Therefore, I have a script that automatically runs when I quit Quicken that locally encrypts my file, compresses it, and stores copies that to a Dropbox folder. I feel more comfortable doing it this way.

If at some point Quicken introduces the ability to encrypt its files when password protected, then my script will no longer be necessary (for me).

UPDATE: Quicken 5.8.0+ adds the ability to encrypt the file (and therefore its backups) if password protected.

Unknown

RickO said:

A thought about security when backing up to Dropbox... Keep in mind that a Quicken file, even if it has a file password, is not encrypted. Any backups Quicken creates are also not encrypted. It is an easy matter for someone with some basic knowledge of the file structure to get all the details contained therein. Therefore, storing a Quicken generated backup on Dropbox is essentially no more secure than storing your financial info, account numbers, etc. on Dropbox in a text file. If you trust Dropbox enough to do this, then fine. 

Personally, I don't trust Dropbox to that extent. Therefore, I have a script that automatically runs when I quit Quicken that locally encrypts my file, compresses it, and stores copies that to a Dropbox folder. I feel more comfortable doing it this way.

If at some point Quicken introduces the ability to encrypt its files when password protected, then my script will no longer be necessary (for me).

UPDATE: Quicken 5.8.0+ adds the ability to encrypt the file (and therefore its backups) if password protected.

Hey RickO.

Care to share the script you've generated for encrypting a Quicken Mac data, compress and backup to Dropbox?

I think this would be something extremely useful to have for Quicken Mac users.

I am a complete dope when it comes to creating Mac scripts.  I would have zero clue.  

RickO

RickO said:

A thought about security when backing up to Dropbox... Keep in mind that a Quicken file, even if it has a file password, is not encrypted. Any backups Quicken creates are also not encrypted. It is an easy matter for someone with some basic knowledge of the file structure to get all the details contained therein. Therefore, storing a Quicken generated backup on Dropbox is essentially no more secure than storing your financial info, account numbers, etc. on Dropbox in a text file. If you trust Dropbox enough to do this, then fine. 

Personally, I don't trust Dropbox to that extent. Therefore, I have a script that automatically runs when I quit Quicken that locally encrypts my file, compresses it, and stores copies that to a Dropbox folder. I feel more comfortable doing it this way.

If at some point Quicken introduces the ability to encrypt its files when password protected, then my script will no longer be necessary (for me).

UPDATE: Quicken 5.8.0+ adds the ability to encrypt the file (and therefore its backups) if password protected.

I use Keyboard Maestro (KM) to trigger an Apple Automator workflow whenever I use Command-Q to quit Quicken. It asks me if I want to back up, opens the folder in the Finder so I can see what's there and triggers the workflow. 

That said, the KM macro is really not necessary... it's the Automator workflow that does the job. You could trigger the workflow by setting it as a folder action to watch for the local backup file to get generated, for example.

Here's what the Automator workflow looks like:



The workflow gets the Quicken file, creates an encrypted archive, adds date/time stamp and moves it to the Dropbox folder.

The encrypted archive step relies on Stuffit Deluxe, a third party product that you would have to purchase and install. You could probably use the Automator "Create Disk Image" (encrypted) step instead, but this would require to type in the password each time rather than have it saved in the workflow. There may be other third party tools that could do this as well.

RCinNJ

RickO said:

A thought about security when backing up to Dropbox... Keep in mind that a Quicken file, even if it has a file password, is not encrypted. Any backups Quicken creates are also not encrypted. It is an easy matter for someone with some basic knowledge of the file structure to get all the details contained therein. Therefore, storing a Quicken generated backup on Dropbox is essentially no more secure than storing your financial info, account numbers, etc. on Dropbox in a text file. If you trust Dropbox enough to do this, then fine. 

Personally, I don't trust Dropbox to that extent. Therefore, I have a script that automatically runs when I quit Quicken that locally encrypts my file, compresses it, and stores copies that to a Dropbox folder. I feel more comfortable doing it this way.

If at some point Quicken introduces the ability to encrypt its files when password protected, then my script will no longer be necessary (for me).

UPDATE: Quicken 5.8.0+ adds the ability to encrypt the file (and therefore its backups) if password protected.

RickO, thanks for sharing in such detail!