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transactions duplicated in another quicken file

Cynthia Lagueux

Quicken Starter 2018 (online subscription)
I have two separate quicken files, one for my personal accounts, and one for accounts I manage for a local non-profit. I was recently showing my replacement in the non-profit the various accounts and their transactions.
Much to my embarrassment, there were hundreds of transactions from my personal chequing account - right up to the current date - in one of the non-profit's accounts. This non-profit account is an account that has been closed and had no activity since February 24, 2011! The personal transactions started going over on January 1, 2017.
As a test, I deleted one of the transactions in the non-profit account, and it was also deleted in my personal chequing account - again, in a completely separate Quicken file, not open at the time.
The duplicate transactions have the pencil indicating they haven't been matched to an online transaction. I don't use that pencil feature in Quicken. I tried looking at the downloaded transactions, and I don't see anything unusual there but they do have different ID numbers. I've never had a problem with downloaded transactions not being displayed in my chequing account when I download them, so I have no idea how they got copied to the other account in the separate file.
This is so weird. Has anyone else experienced this?

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unknown

Are you using Quicken Mobile?

That is about the only way I can think of where two data files can get "cross linked".

NotACPA

Please confirm that you have 2 separate FILES ... not just separate accounts.

Because, what you're describing (personal transactions in the non-profits data file) is impossible ... unless you created the personal accounts in the non-profit's data file also.

In the non-profit's data file, do CTRL-A to see what accounts exist there. Then click on EDIT next to the account, in the non-profit's file, that has the personal transactions and verify that your personal account is NOT listed there.

Cynthia Lagueux

Yes, as I said in my post I have 2 separate FILES with no crossover on accounts or account names. When I do ctrl-A in the non-profit file, it shows the correct list, and the non-profit account has a different account number than the chequing account in my personal file. I displayed the account list in my personal file as well, and the list is correct.
Thanks for trying though.

Cynthia Lagueux

No I'm using Quicken 2018 subscription on my laptop. I do not have the mobile app. Thanks for your response.

unknown

Even though you aren't using the Mobile app, I would make sure you aren't syncing the the Quicken cloud. Edit -> Preference -> Quicken ID, Mobile & Alerts, you should see a Get Started button. If not you are syncing to the Quicken cloud.

You can also look at Edit -> Preferences -> Cloud Accounts, and you should see Last Sync: Never

Cynthia Lagueux

Thanks! I will check that out and post the result. I'm curious though, because having my files in the Cloud - though worrisome - would be very convenient for me. Is the cloud version just a backup, or can they be updated as well?

UKR

If, as you said, you don't use the Quicken Mobile app, anything sent "to the cloud" is worthless to you. And it's NOT usable as a backup of your Quicken data file.
Please follow QPW's advice, check to make sure you are NOT accidentally syncing to the Mobile app on both files. If you do, turn it off for both files.

unknown

I want to add I'm very interested in the results of what you find, because I want to be sure I really understand how all of this is working.

As such I would like you to do one more thing to get some information on this.
In each data file select: Edit -> Preferences -> Cloud Accounts
Hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys and click on Edit cloud account name.
A dialog will give you the Dataset Id:

Are the dataset numbers the same?

Cynthia Lagueux

Yep, I see "Get Started", and "Never". Thanks

Cynthia Lagueux

OK, now we're getting somewhere. Yes, the two dataset ids are the same as is the Account Name - for the file? It's not any of my account names. the actual file names are different.
Any suggestions as to what to do?

unknown

Well the fact that the two dataset numbers suggest that the way you created the second data file is by copying the first one. I can certainly see people doing this as they use one data file as a template for another (or many) data files.

But the only case I can see where this would matter is if a cloud sync was done at some point. It might be that the data on the cloud account is "left over" from some old sync.

Given that the same Quicken Id is being used and the same cloud account name is the same and the dataset name is the same, I could certainly conceive of the possibility that the "Cloud server" thinks they are the same data file and as such is syncing the accounts it has from one data file to the other.

Possible "corrective actions" would be to delete the cloud accounts. The way to do that is by going into:
Edit -> Preferences -> Cloud Accounts and select the "Cloud accounts associated with this Quicken ID (x)" link. From there you can delete the cloud account from data files that you aren't in. So you would just do that from the other data file too, to get them both. The cloud accounts will be recreated the next time you run One Step Update, but they will be empty, they are used for other things besides mobile data, like the Zillow integration in the Premier and above versions use it.

If you don't see this link, that is even more reason to believe they are cross linked.
And what you should do is create a new data file, and then connect it to the same Quicken Id and follow the same procedure to remove the cloud account.

Note that this means that given that they are both using the same dataset number this is prone to happen again as long as both of these data files are being used by the same Quicken Id.

In this case where you are going to turn over the data file to someone new, they should have a different Quicken Id/subscription and that should separate the two data files.

Cynthia Lagueux

Thanks for your detailed response. I have responded below. I'm not sure if it applies to my situation.
You are correct about how I created the second file. I did a backup then copied the file to a new name, not realizing they might be linked. I didn't know there was a dataset id until it was mentioned here.
Both files say no cloud sync has ever been done.
I do not run One Step Update ever.
I don't know what link you are talking about that if I don't see it, there's more chance of cross-over in the files.
I see nowhere on the Cloud Accounts in Preferences where there is a method to delete the Cloud Account.
Is there a way to get a second dataset id for the other file, or am I really only supposed to have one? I suppose I should have started a separate file when I took over the non-profit's accounting, but I wasn't smart enough to do that.

Cynthia Lagueux

I should add that although I don't use One Step Update - I always initiate manually from the bank's website - when I open the transaction file in Quicken, I do get the One Step Update dialog box every time, although I have many times checked off "only display when there are errors".
Perhaps that is enough.

Cynthia Lagueux

If this is correct, however, it's pretty discouraging that transactions are being replicated in a different account than in the original file. I assume that's because the account of origin doesn't exist in the second file.

unknown

Well before I couldn't think of any way that you could get the account data into the other data file other than a crossed linked cloud sync. But that seems very unlikely given what you have stated about not using One Step Update and both files saying they were never synced. It is only with the cloud sync that the dataset Id should come into the picture. Or on a off chance maybe Express Web Connect even though I have never seen that happen and you say you aren't using it.

So, that means there has to be another reason. The only one I can come up with is that in fact you imported those transactions into that data file.

If you open a QFX file in your web browser or File Explorer it will pass that file to Quicken to import. If Quicken isn't running it will start it (selecting the last data file you were in).

The import will go into whatever data file happens to be open.

I really can't think of any other way it can happen.

Cynthia Lagueux

Thanks - I don't recall ever having one file open and accidentally opening the QFX file for an account in the other one, but it could have happened once and I don't recall. However, since the transactions go back to January 2017, that implies i've done it many times and that is not possible.
Big sigh here - another Quicken "mystery" unresolved. I've been a loyal Quicken user since the early nineties, but PLEASE, would someone else write a decent personal financial software package so I can ditch this?
It has many wonderful features, but I'm tired of being blindsided by ridiculous things like this.
Again, thanks for all your info and analysis of my problem QPW.

unknown

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Migration of accounts from one set of books to an entirely separate set of books.

I am running Quicken Home and Business 2018 with Windows 10. I have several businesses so I keep completely separate books for each project. I am suddenly seeing accounts from one business magically appear in another. For example, the books for my dress shop has a vendor called Jacks' s Dresses. A separate set of book for a dog care company does business Fido's Treats. Fido's Treat account suddenly appears in the books for the dress shop. Why is this happening and more importantly how do I stop it? It has occurred multiple times.

I even went out and purchased a new computer thinking this was an issue within my machine. This computer is not a month old.