Quicken Crashes when I try to access a large investment account

JoeFox

I have two managed accounts in Quicken that have multiple securities that they are always buying and selling so they're pretty darn big.  Recently when I download to Quicken,one of these account is causing Quicken to crash.  I tried archiving the whole file but that does not do much to this file.

I suspect my best bet is to delete this account from Quicken.  What is the best way of handling this?

JoeFox

mshiggins

My first troubleshooting step would be to validate my data:

File | File Operations | Validate & Repair: Validate 

JoeFox

Correct.  Did that two days ago. 

QDF: Repaired your data file by removing a damaged category

QEL: No read errors

Removed a bunch of qel records

Lots of transfer errors to be removed but all dating back to before 2010 and not just in account in question.

NotACPA

Please click HELP, and then hold down the CTRL key while you click About Quicken.

Take a snapshot of the resulting dialog, and post it in your reply using the "landscape" icon above.

miklk

Also I would suggest:

File/ File Operations/ Copy File (sometimes fixes during copy) Use a different file name

Open The new file

Start a New Account at same FI 
Go back to the old Account and Move ALL Securities from old account to new account and then do cash if left over (This should retain all cost basis info AND only moves currently held securities so old account will not even be looked at unless requested in report etc..) If working, disable online for old account and hide on account bar.

If not good, just open the original file again

JoeFox

Size of QDF  file  76493K

Accounts 15

Categories 256

Securities/Max REf  1029/1029

Transactions 41271

Available Memory  221952K

Total Memory 2087156K

NotACPA

Why is your Available Memory so small, compared to your Total Memory?  That could be the cause of the crashes right there.

JoeFox

At the moment I'm okay.  I was able to accept 3 new securities into the account without crashing - that was the where the problem lay and I've discontinued download for that account - it was an IRA account anyway.

Your suggestion for eliminating securities not held now sounds good.

JoeFox

As for available memory.  This is an old computer with 2GB of RAM.  I have a laptop with twice the RAM and still have the same problem with Quicken.

NotACPA

I'd say that most, if not all of the SuperUsers are running either 8GB or 16GB of memory.  Both of your computers are underpowered for optimal Q.

JoeFox

I've been using Quicken for 25 years (different computers) and never had this problem.  It occurs when a new security appears in a download and Quicken asks whether it is an old security or a new one to be added.  This has always worked correctly until recently.  Now it causes Quicken to crash.  How many SuperUsers have 1030 different securities in their file?

I tried miklk's suggestion but it appears that a securities file is kept and is not altered by eliminating active securities.  For the moment I'm going to set up a banking file and stick to that.  I think someone should notify Quicken.

Joe

UKR

@JoeFox
what version (year, release and edition level) of Quicken do you use?

If you're on Quicken 2019, have you heard about the new Archive Investment Transactions function?

Working on a copy of your active Quicken data file and using a computer with lots of RAM, how about giving that a try?

markus1957

No program of any size is going to run with 221Mb of available memory; you sure that's not a typo?. The fact that you had damaged categories and QEL records means your data file is a mess. 

q_lurker

@JoeFox I have similar Total memory to you (2,097,000 K) but that also works to that same value for available memory whereas your available is 1/10 the total.  I agree with others that is a significant issue for you.  

I have 1354 in my security account.  That is not a problem -- on my system, with my QW2017.  I also have 59,000 transactions in my file, in 27 accounts.  

You might need to try restoring a backup from a few sessions ago.  Doing so might indicate there is some recent damage to your data file.  

JoeFox

Thanks to all who gave advice.  I now know about archiving an investment account though I could not get it to work.  I did manage to move a lot of securities no longer being held from two accounts.  This validated the accounts and sped up Quicken but I still have to reconcile the accounts.  It did not reduce the number of securities monitored and I've had a couple more crashes when trying to add a new security.  I was interested to see that lurker has even more securities in his file and the same total memory situation and does not have my problem.

Available RAM depends on what other programs are running in the background and I picked an unfortunate time to check.

Jim_Harman

Certainly if your computer is short on RAM you should not have any more applications running than necessary.

Right click on the toolbar at the bottom of your screen and open the system monitor to see what is running and how much RAM is available. 

JoeFox

Thanks, Jim

My conclusion is that my securities file being a large one I should check on my available RAM and shutdown other programs, if necessary, before adding new securities.