Online Financial Data Out of Date

Unknown

About yesterday, I was notified about Quicken's new Quicken On The Web software and tried it.  The software looks as though it might be very nice.  Unfortunately, the data shown for my checking account and credit card are more than a month out of date.  I didn't check other balances for the On The Web software, but I did check my Quicken app on my smartphone, and it also showed old data. I recently had to do something to get the app to provide up-to-date data.  What must I do to get the online software to work properly and stay that way?

splasher

If the data is out of date, it because it hasn't been updated/synced from the data file in your desktop Quicken program.

Go to the Mobile & Web tab and initiate a sync and the Quicken Cloud Account will be updated.

Unknown

Thanks, that worked. I had forgotten how to do the syncing.  That said, it seems to me synching should be done periodically automatically.  The user could select how often syncing should occur.  If I am in the wild and want to use my tablet to run the web version of Quicken, I would have no way to refresh my account data if I hadn't used Quicken for a few days.

Unknown

Gingersnap said:

Thanks, that worked. I had forgotten how to do the syncing.  That said, it seems to me synching should be done periodically automatically.  The user could select how often syncing should occur.  If I am in the wild and want to use my tablet to run the web version of Quicken, I would have no way to refresh my account data if I hadn't used Quicken for a few days.

Note that Quicken Web/Mobile (actually the backend Quicken Cloud) syncs with your financial institutions, and as such that is how you would stay up to date without having to first sync from the Desktop.

But because Quicken Cloud isn't "self contained/Full" there are some times when a sync from Desktop is needed.  For instance when you have made changes in the Desktop like manual transactions.  And there was a quite a bit rewrite of the "cloud" utilities recently that seems to have needed a full sync to "get it started".

Normally the procedure would be to just include syncing to the cloud whenever you do One Step Update, and there is also a prompt to do it when you exist Quicken Desktop.

Unknown

Note that Quicken Web/Mobile (actually the backend Quicken Cloud) syncs with your financial institutions, and as such that is how you would stay up to date without having to first sync from the Desktop.

I guess you are saying Quicken Web/Mobile is supposed to sync with my financial institutions automatically but sometimes doesn't.  What does "the backend Quicken Cloud" mean? Also, in my experience, financial software syncing with associated institutions hasn't been very reliable.  Further, I don't see any way on the Web/Mobile software to sync with associated institutions manually.  So, it looks like Web/Mobile Quicken can't be synced in the wild should something require it.

But because Quicken Cloud isn't "self contained/Full" there are some times when a sync from Desktop is needed.  For instance when you have made changes in the Desktop like manual transactions.  And there was a quite a bit rewrite of the "cloud" utilities recently that seems to have needed a full sync to "get it started".

What does "self contained/Full" mean?  Yes, in addition to whatever else went on, I did make manual changes to upcoming transactions.  And, as you point out, the cloud utilities were rewritten, I guess.

Normally the procedure would be to just include syncing to the cloud whenever you do One Step Update, and there is also a prompt to do it when you exist Quicken Desktop.

I didn't see any prompt when I exited Quicken Desktop.  Quicken simply quit, and the desktop appeared.

Unknown

Sorry I need to define my terms.

You start with Quicken Desktop and its data file.  It is a "full" copy of all your accounts, reports, and other data.  It is kept up to date by downloading transactions from financial institutions, and getting security quotes, and maybe Zillow integration, and it is possible to also update it through a sync with "Quicken Cloud".

Quicken Cloud is just the dumbed down "new term" for a server and your account data on it.
Quicken Mobile (app) is one of the GUI interfaces that let you look at the data on the Quicken Cloud.
The other GUI to the Quicken Cloud data is the new Quicken Web.

You "sync" your data from the Quicken Desktop data file to the Quicken Cloud data account.
This sync isn't all your data.  It is limited in the number years (2 years back, and then goes from there keeping all data), and limited in what data (doesn't include things like saved reports or reminders).

Quicken Cloud can also download transactions from the financial institutions, just like Quicken Desktop can if the accounts are linked to financial institutions.

The Quicken Cloud and its GUIs (Mobile app, and Web) are also limited in functionality (that is why they aren't "full/self contained programs).  For instance you can't create an account using either Quicken Mobile or Quicken Web.  That has to be done on Quicken Desktop and then synced to the Quicken Cloud.

And with all this "syncing" it is possible for things to get out of sync, especially when they have just done a major change to the system like they have recently.

In all of this the Quicken Desktop data file is the "master".  It is the most complete set of your data, and it is the one supplying the most information.  So "when in doubt" most of procedures like "Reset cloud data" are going to assume that they need to blow away the data on the Quicken Cloud server and replace it with "good data" from the Quicken Desktop data file.

The hope of course is that it will not get "out of sync" and as such Quicken Mobile will do its job of getting transactions from your financial institutions to keep that data up to date even if you have not downloaded transactions/synced to the Quicken Cloud in a long time (one person is syncing on their Desktop only once a month).  Note that changes you might make in Quicken Mobile/Web (which are stored in the Quicken Cloud) should also be pushed/synced to the Quicken Desktop data file when you sync it.

Quicken Cloud periodically (once a day) will download transactions from your financial institution.  And there is an "Update" in both the Quicken Web and the Quicken Mobile app.  On Quicken Web it is the "Circle" Icon.  When you log you should notice it going around in circles, showing it is updating.  You can also click on it to update.

On the prompting to sync when you exit Quicken Desktop.
You might have turned it off before.


To get it to prompt again select:
Edit -> Preferences -> Alerts -> Reset Quicken Warnings -> OK

Unknown

"You start with Quicken Desktop and its data file.  It is a "full" copy of all your accounts, reports, and other data.  It is kept up to date by downloading transactions from financial institutions, and getting security quotes, and maybe Zillow integration, and it is possible to also update it through a sync with "Quicken Cloud"."

Got it.

"Quicken Cloud is just the dumbed down "new term" for a server and your account data on it.
Quicken Mobile (app) is one of the GUI interfaces that let you look at the data on the Quicken Cloud.  The other GUI to the Quicken Cloud data is the new Quicken Web."

"You "sync" your data from the Quicken Desktop data file to the Quicken Cloud data account.
This sync isn't all your data.  It is limited in the number years (2 years back, and then goes from there keeping all data), and limited in what data (doesn't include things like saved reports or reminders)."

Got it.

"Quicken Cloud can also download transactions from the financial institutions, just like Quicken Desktop can if the accounts are linked to financial institutions."

Got it.  However, I tried linking to my financial institutions and didn't like that feature for some reason I don't recall.  Perhaps the feature didn't work well for me in all cases.  So, I manually post transactions and set up my monthly payments at the start of each month.  Then, I monitor Quicken to ensure payments are being made and for any unusual activity.  Credit card payments are not a problem.


"In all of this the Quicken Desktop data file is the "master".  It is the most complete set of your data, and it is the one supplying the most information.  So "when in doubt" most of procedures like "Reset cloud data" are going to assume that they need to blow away the data on the Quicken Cloud server and replace it with "good data" from the Quicken Desktop data file."


"The hope of course is that it will not get "out of sync" and as such Quicken Mobile will do its job of getting transactions from your financial institutions to keep that data up to date even if you have not downloaded transactions/synced to the Quicken Cloud in a long time (one person is syncing on their Desktop only once a month).  Note that changes you might make in Quicken Mobile/Web (which are stored in the Quicken Cloud) should also be pushed/synced to the Quicken Desktop data file when you sync it."

Got it.  However, as I think we discussed, things do get out of sync for various reasons, and resyncing must be done from the Quicken Desktop.

"Quicken Cloud periodically (once a day) will download transactions from your financial institution.  And there is an "Update" in both the Quicken Web and the Quicken Mobile app.  On Quicken Web it is the "Circle" Icon.  When you log you should notice it going around in circles, showing it is updating.  You can also click on it to update."

When I log on to Quicken Web, I've briefly seen a big rotating circle in the Recent Transactions portion of the display.  The action was brief probably because there wasn't anything to update.  I'm guessing the circle to click on is the small circle with arrow next to the nine-dot icon in the upper right corner of the display.  The Mobile app has a similar rotating circle when logging on but no circle to click on for manual syncing so far as I know.

"On the prompting to sync when you exit Quicken Desktop.
You might have turned it off before.


To get it to prompt again select:
Edit -> Preferences -> Alerts -> Reset Quicken Warnings -> OK"

I did as you instructed but did not get the above display.  I did get a similar display, prompting me to backup, which I use regularly.  That backup, however, goes to (is synced with) Microsoft's OneDrive.  So, what do you think prevented me from getting the above display, which I'd love to have?

Unknown

"Got it.  However, I tried linking to my financial institutions and didn't like that feature for some reason I don't recall.  Perhaps the feature didn't work well for me in all cases.  So, I manually post transactions and set up my monthly payments at the start of each month.  Then, I monitor Quicken to ensure payments are being made and for any unusual activity.  Credit card payments are not a problem."

Just to be clear on this. If you setup an account in Quicken Desktop to download transactions, and you sync that to the Quicken Cloud, it is also going to try to download those transactions.  There isn't a way to shut it off just for Quicken Cloud.  Here is a suggestion to change that (you can vote on it):
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/allow-users-to-turn-off-syncing-between-quicken-cloud-account-and-fianancial-intitituions

"When I log on to Quicken Web, I've briefly seen a big rotating circle in the Recent Transactions portion of the display.  The action was brief probably because there wasn't anything to update.  I'm guessing the circle to click on is the small circle with arrow next to the nine-dot icon in the upper right corner of the display.  The Mobile app has a similar rotating circle when logging on but no circle to click on for manual syncing so far as I know."

Yes that is the button I was referring to.

"So, what do you think prevented me from getting the above display, which I'd love to have?"

Well that was my best guess at what the problem was.  I'm not sure why you aren't seeing that prompt at log out.

Unknown

Thank you very much for the information you've provided. I'm much more knowledgeable about the latest Quicken ensemble than I was before your help.  That said, I think I'll stay with my hybrid auto/manual approach to using Quicken.  I've used several products that attempted to download data from my services, and they've always failed to do some downloads gracefully.  I think the problem is the source services continue to evolve, necessitating periodic relinking.  I do agree, however, it would be lovely to have a fully automatic system.  As an aside, due to continual changes, I spend a lot of time "fixing" problems with my computers, smartphone, and smart home.  Set it and forget it doesn't work for me.

Unknown

Gingersnap said:

Thank you very much for the information you've provided. I'm much more knowledgeable about the latest Quicken ensemble than I was before your help.  That said, I think I'll stay with my hybrid auto/manual approach to using Quicken.  I've used several products that attempted to download data from my services, and they've always failed to do some downloads gracefully.  I think the problem is the source services continue to evolve, necessitating periodic relinking.  I do agree, however, it would be lovely to have a fully automatic system.  As an aside, due to continual changes, I spend a lot of time "fixing" problems with my computers, smartphone, and smart home.  Set it and forget it doesn't work for me.

Well I will tell you straight up that from what I can see next to none of the SuperUsers (long time users in the know) here will touch "Quicken Cloud" for anything other than beta testing.  And I'm in that camp.

The sync is totally hidden from the user, and couple that with the fact that it has free rain on all your transactions and budget, it a bit "scary".

And other than Express Web Connect downloading transactions problems, it has to be the feature pointed out to cause the most problems.

And with "Quicken Cloud" we are talking more than "problems", we are talking "data corruption".