Quicken drops credit card payment transactions every time I log in.

robert schenker

I have had these problems for well over a year and it keeps getting worse. Quicken keeps dropping all my previous posts despite the fact that I never receive a solution that works.

I have quicken deluxe with windows 10. In short, each time I open quicken previous reconciled accounts no longer include transactions (always credit card bank payments) that had been entered.

It takes major amounts of time to find and reenter the transactions. Furthermore, one step update works for fewer and fewer credit card accounts.

Lately, quicken does not allow me to manually download the transactions from these accounts. I have to go through a cumbersome process to export and then import the transactions.

If I did not have 20 years of financial data in Quicken, I would find a new product. About 2 years ago, I never had these problems. What has happened to Quicken?

Sherlock

If you haven't already you, you may want to review: https://www.quicken.com/support/advanced-data-file-troubleshooting-correct-problems-quicken-windows

robert schenker

Thank you for your response, but before I follow I start I have a question. First, as this problem has persisted on and off for 1-2 years, I cannot go back to an earlier version. It would take forever to reenter the last 1-2 years of activity. My question: I have already backed up my data (as I do all the time) on a thumb drive. Does this mean I can skip steps 1-3 under "copy your file and validate"? (and start with step 4 on my hard drive version)?

Sherlock

robert schenker said:

Thank you for your response, but before I follow I start I have a question. First, as this problem has persisted on and off for 1-2 years, I cannot go back to an earlier version. It would take forever to reenter the last 1-2 years of activity. My question: I have already backed up my data (as I do all the time) on a thumb drive. Does this mean I can skip steps 1-3 under "copy your file and validate"? (and start with step 4 on my hard drive version)?

Do not skip any of the steps.  If the issue persists, I suggest you attempt the super validate: press the Ctrl and Shift keys when you select File > File Operations > Validate and Repair...

robert schenker

Thank you. I performed the validation and the data log shows no errors and all internal consistency checks passed. Normally, I download and reconcile bank and credit card account info every month or two. Sometimes no transactions are dropped (the exception), although this past weekend all payments for the year were dropped rather than the usual one or two per account. So it will be at least a month or two before I know if the problem reoccurs. By then Quicken Community will have dropped this whole discussion thread even though there will be no confirmation that the problem has been resolved. One more question: The link you gave me says at the top to check settings and preferences. What should I be looking for when I check? Thanks again.

Quicken_Natalie

Hello robert schenker,

We will be sure to leave this thread open so that you can check back in with your results.

-Quicken Natalie

Greg_the_Geek

@robert schenker You can also Bookmark this conversation by clicking the gold star at the top of it. It makes finding it easier.

Sherlock

robert schenker said:

Thank you. I performed the validation and the data log shows no errors and all internal consistency checks passed. Normally, I download and reconcile bank and credit card account info every month or two. Sometimes no transactions are dropped (the exception), although this past weekend all payments for the year were dropped rather than the usual one or two per account. So it will be at least a month or two before I know if the problem reoccurs. By then Quicken Community will have dropped this whole discussion thread even though there will be no confirmation that the problem has been resolved. One more question: The link you gave me says at the top to check settings and preferences. What should I be looking for when I check? Thanks again.

The suggestion to review your settings and preferences is to consider whether the behavior you're experiencing is expected.  For example, have you set a filter on the register that causes the payment transactions to be excluded?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

robert schenker

Quicken- Deluxe 2019. Version R19.55 Build: 27.1.19.55.

Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions. It will take a bit of time to analyze and consider them all.

1- First, I have never even looked at preferences much less set them myself. Whatever is there was set by Quicken. I just buy a new version every few years and update whenever prompted. While I have a strong knowledge of finance, I am far from being a computer software expert. I have gone many years without these problems and (presumably) the preferences were the same in the past now. I have not set a filter on the register that causes the payment transactions to be excluded. I wouldn't know how. There is not a consistent pattern......on downloads some payments are excluded some of the time on some accounts. After looking at Preferences (for the first time), I did not see any particular one related to excluding payment transactions. If you can tell me the specific one I will check.

*******By far, my biggest headache is transactions that are dropped after being downloaded and reflected in a successful reconciliation.**** **The number of dropped transactions (credit card payments) increased significantly after my last set of downloads and reconciliations.

2- Quicken preference is set to automatically add downloaded transactions to registers. The only way transactions are added to my register is via download or export/import when necessary. Manual entries are only made when a reconciliation reveals that a payment was either not included in a download or subsequently deleted at a later date. I have no problems with duplicate transactions.

3- I (now) see that my preferences are set to "Automatically create transfers when detected". However, I have never seen that actually happen in practice. The only transactions in a particular account are those directly downloaded, imported or manually entered for the reason mentioned above.

4- I am very hesitant to download more frequently than every month or two because it is very time consuming (I have many credit card accounts), I don't need to monitor my finances more closely and (after all these issues) I feel that creates more chances for transactions to be dropped. I do create a back-up after every session in which I have any activity. After this recent set of downloads/dropped transactions I have created a spreadsheet with account balances at the end of each session and started checking if the balances are the same at the beginning of the next session.

5- Again, thanks to everyone for your comments and attempts to help. However, unless these settings/preferences have unintended consequences unrelated to their description, I do not see anything that tells me why transactions are deleted after they have been entered and part of a successful reconciliation...…..Again, although I have mentioned other problems, that is by far the biggest headache.

UKR

Are you Syncing to Mobile/Web?

Do you use the Mobile app on your smartphone or the Quicken on the Web feature?

If no, turn Sync off completely. You don't need it. A bad Sync could cause problems similar to what you reported.

If yes, try to Reset Sync so that the current cloud sync file is replaced with a fresh complete copy
Do note that a full Sync process may take many minutes to complete.

Log out of your mobile app, then do this on your desktop / laptop:

How to reset Sync to Cloud

1. Go to Edit / Preferences / Quicken ID, Sync & Alerts
2. Under the "Mobile and Web" group to the right, if present, click the "Reset your cloud data" link and follow the instructions until it is complete.

How to turn off Sync to Cloud for the current data file

1. Go to Edit / Preferences / Quicken ID, Sync & Alerts
2. Click the "Sign in as a different user" link immediately above the "Mobile and Web" group.
3. Sign out, then sign back in to your Quicken account using your current (correct) Quicken ID, but on the following screen make sure you select the "Don't use mobile" option and move through the remainder of the process. 
   [Please note: The mobile sync option is the default here.]

Also see https://www.quicken.com/support/troubleshooting-quicken-mobile-companion-app

robert schenker

Thank you for your comment. I have never used a mobile app or quicken on the web. I looked at my preferences and it (correctly) said that the mobile app had never been used. My preferences say I have a cloud file (unbeknownst to me)…..apparantly from when I was prompted by Quicken to do a back-up prior to validation two days ago.

robert schenker

Should I delete the cloud accounts? I certainly never intentionally set them up. I back up to a thumb drive every time I have activity on Quicken.

Quicken Sarah

Hello @robert schenker

A cloud account is automatically created when a data file is registered in the Quicken software.  The Cloud Account is used for syncing your data to the Mobile/Web Apps for access "on the go".

The Cloud Account also facilitates the use of Online Services such as Online Billers, Credit Score, Zillow, etc. 

More information about the Quicken Cloud, including steps to delete, are available here.

I hope this information is helpful and please let us know if there are further questions/concerns.

Thank you,

Sarah

Rocket J Squirrel

robert schenker said:

1- First, I have never even looked at preferences much less set them myself. Whatever is there was set by Quicken.

2- Quicken preference is set to automatically add downloaded transactions to registers.

3- I (now) see that my preferences are set to "Automatically create transfers when detected". However, I have never seen that actually happen in practice.

4- I am very hesitant to download more frequently than every month or two because it is very time consuming (I have many credit card accounts)

I've taken the liberty of excerpting your post. First, let me say, I have never heard of your particular issue of credit card payments vanishing, and I've been around here a long time. It may be that your data file is hopelessly corrupted. It happens. But let's hope not. Some thoughts follow.

1- Quicken has an annoying habit of quietly changing user preferences when upgrading from one release to another. It doesn't happen terribly often, but it happens. So you need to keep an eye on your preferences because Quicken's defaults are sub-optimal.

2- I don't recommend automatically adding downloaded transactions. Things happen too fast. Better to eyeball each transaction before accepting it.

3- Automatically create transfers is another non-recommended setting. Quicken can get this wrong and you wouldn't even notice. In general, trusting Q to "auto" anything is probably not in your best interest.

4- The more often you download, the less time each download takes. I download once every day from 7 bank accounts, 8 credit cards, and 6 investment accounts. It takes only a couple of minutes per day. How many of each account type do you have?

4.1- Are each of your credit cards properly represented by Accounts in Quicken? We have seen users fail to understand that each credit card should be a Quicken account, resulting in all kinds of sub-optimal behavior leading to headaches.

robert schenker

Thank you for the comments Quicken Sarah. I do not use the mobile app or any of the other apps you mentioned. Thus, I do not see any reason to retain any information on the cloud.

robert schenker

Thank you for your comments Rocket J. Squirrel. A while back someone mentioned the possibility of my data being corrupted. I have run the suggested validation programs (at two different times) and they do not indicate a problem. Regardless of the those results, it seems like the most logical explanation I have heard. This leads me to two questions: How does one's data become corrupted?
Is there anything I can do to rectify the information? I certainly don't want to abandon over 15 years of financial data and this problem has gone on long enough so that it is impossible to go back to an earlier saved data base.
1- I never set any preferences myself (whatever is there from Quicken). I have not seen any adverse consequences relating to these preferences, *******unless it causes something totally unrelated to the plain English description of the preference.*******
2- I do look at every downloaded transaction, albeit after it is accepted. In all the years I have done this I have never found an incorrect downloaded transaction (other than a vendor name ---century theatres instead of century 21....or an incorrect category characterization. The latter happens a lot, but for now I am trying only to address my main problem on this forum (dropping of previously reconciled transactions).
3- Regardless of the preference settings auto set by Quicken, I have never seen even one automatically created transfer.
4- I have one active checking account and around 8-9 credit card accounts. All are set up in different accounts on Quicken. There are many defunct accounts on Quicken from past years which have no new activity.
Thanks again. In summary, the most logical analysis I have seen for my primary problem is corrupted data.....I have no idea how that could happen or how to fix it (beyond that mentioned above).

Rocket J Squirrel

robert schenker said:

1- I never set any preferences myself (whatever is there from Quicken). I have not seen any adverse consequences relating to these preferences

4- I have one active checking account and around 8-9 credit card accounts. All are set up in different accounts on Quicken. There are many defunct accounts on Quicken from past years which have no new activity.
Thanks again. In summary, the most logical analysis I have seen for my primary problem is corrupted data.....I have no idea how that could happen or how to fix it (beyond that mentioned above).

One could argue point 1. You are seeing adverse consequences of something. You have gotten recommendations about Preferences, what can it hurt to try them?

So, anyway, when your credit card payments vanish, do they vanish from both sides of the transfer (i.e., from both your checking and credit card accounts)? Or does one side of the transfer remain with a newly changed Category field?

None of us ordinary users know what causes data corruption (other than the obvious, such as a power outage in the middle of writing to the file, or 2 users accessing the same file simultaneously). Nor do we have any reliable way to fix it if Validate & Repair fails.

My file has minor corruption which I cannot fix, but I know where it is and how to work around it when it manifests. It is more minor than what you're experiencing. Every year I tell myself I'll start a new Quicken file, but I never do because of the amount of work involved.

When we get to this point, we start guessing. Quicken is a mystery. So here's a guess, for what it's worth: perhaps Quicken gets confused when the time between downloads exceeds the time between payments, generally one month. I've never heard of anyone going 2 months between downloads before. As an experiment, you could make a copy of your data file and try weekly downloads. You can maintain your original file in parallel. If the data copy no longer removes your credit card payments, continue with that file and abandon the original.

robert schenker

Thanks again Rocket j. Squirrel. Regarding your comment on point 1, I am not the most tech savvy person and I have a concern that by changing preferences that don't appear to be the source of the problem, I may create new difficulties for myself. However, I will try to adjust the preferences (one at a time) and see if it makes a difference.
Transfer transactions (the only ones that disappear) don't normally disappear from both accounts......only one. (I can't say that it has never happened, but it is not the norm). Category is not changed on the remaining side of the transfer.
I am the only user and I can not recall a power outage or other such incident (which would corrupt the data) while using Quicken.
Like you, I believe starting a new Quicken is not an option. I would lose years of history.
I am retired and often away from home, so it is not always possible to download more frequently than I do. One-step download used to be simple and quick, but one-by-one my credit card accounts no longer download via one-step (or most recently won't download at all....must use export and import). (I won't get into that problem on this post). Furthermore, I can only reconcile an account once a month and can't necessarily detect dropped transactions unless I reconcile. However, as you say it probably can't hurt and I will give more frequent downloading a try.

robert schenker

To Rocket J. Squirrel: I turned off the preference to scan downloaded transactions for possible transfer (it never actually did that anyway). I manually downloaded transactions (actually downloaded normally again) from 3 credit card accounts that no longer work with one-step (another story) about two weeks after last download. New reconciliations and balance checks came out okay (no dropped transactions). As this was an intermittent problem, there is no way to know it is solved. But this activity is a small hopeful sign. Hopefully, when I reopen quicken, balances will be same as when I closed it before.

Rocket J Squirrel

robert schenker said:

Transfer transactions (the only ones that disappear) don't normally disappear from both accounts......only one. (I can't say that it has never happened, but it is not the norm). Category is not changed on the remaining side of the transfer.

This is concerning. You are left with half a transfer? With the surviving half still pointing to the other account (i.e., with [Other Account] in brackets in the Category field)? That shouldn't happen and could be an indication of severe, ongoing, data corruption.

Sherlock

Rocket J Squirrel said:

robert schenker said:

Transfer transactions (the only ones that disappear) don't normally disappear from both accounts......only one. (I can't say that it has never happened, but it is not the norm). Category is not changed on the remaining side of the transfer.

This is concerning. You are left with half a transfer? With the surviving half still pointing to the other account (i.e., with [Other Account] in brackets in the Category field)? That shouldn't happen and could be an indication of severe, ongoing, data corruption.

I used to experience this symptom if I manually matched a transfer transaction in an account with automatically entered downloaded transactions.  

robert schenker

Let me make sure I am explaining this clearly. Virtually, all my checking account payments made to pay my credit card bank are generated automatically (initiated by the credit card bank) on the due date. The payment from the checking account enters Quicken (into its own separate Quicken account) when I download transactions from the checking account. The cash receipt by the credit card bank (usually another bank, but some are to the same bank as my checking account) only enters Quicken (into its own separate Quicken account) when I download transactions from the credit card bank.

( I presume that is what is happening. I guess when I download the accounts that still work with one-step the cash receipt side could theoretically have been matched. I have never specifically looked for it, but I have never noticed a credit card cash receipt in Quicken before downloading the activity from that account (and thus having hit Quicken via the checking account download and been matched by Quicken in the credit card account). )

In the future, when I download my checking account transactions I will look to see if any credit card payments have been matched by Quicken as a cash receipt in a credit card account that I have not yet downloaded. However, as I mentioned above, I do not think that is the case. Also, I turned off that preference...….so I guess if it was happening unbeknownst to me it should not happen anymore.

If my understanding of how the credit card cash receipts enter the credit card Quicken account is correct, I don't see how my problem may be worse because both sides of the transaction are not dropped.

Regarding your final comment, my checking account has always been the first to be downloaded. Thus, I would never have to manually enter a credit card cash receipt that was automatically downloaded (via the now disconnected matching process).

robert schenker

Sherlock, I see I probably thought your comment was made my Rocket J. Squirrel.

Sherlock

Too many cooks...

In my environment, transfer detection is disabled.  I prefer not to use automatic entry but there is one check register I have not been able to coerce into not using automatic entry.  I always enter a credit card payment using a bill reminder well in advance of the actual payment.  Normally, when the downloaded transaction is imported into this register, the transaction is matched and ready for review (aka blue pencil).  However, if the amount doesn't match (aka blue dot and red pencil), I usually need to correct the transaction I entered and perform the match manually.  This is when Quicken would break the transfer.  It would appear as though the blank category of the downloaded transaction replaced the credit account in the category of the transfer transaction I entered.  The other end of the transfer transaction in the credit card's register persisted referencing back to the check register but was no longer paired with a transaction in the check register.

To avoid the issue, I learned not to manually match a downloaded transaction to a transfer transaction in an account with automatic entry enabled.  It's possible the issue has been addressed but I haven't verified it.  It is also possible, there were other ways to trigger the effect.

Note:  This is far cry from Quicken drops credit card payment transactions every time I log in.

robert schenker

Thank you Sherlock. I do not use bill reminder....none of my transactions are entered until the actual transaction is downloaded. Thus, I do not think I am encountering the issue you describe. I think we are "a far cry" from my core issue because (in addition to corrupted data) a few responders have suggested the dropped transactions may result from certain preferences whose straight English description would seemingly have nothing to do with dropped transactions.

robert schenker

In my first update since the comments in this forum THE PROBLEMS PERSIST and had some new twists. All 2019 payments from my checking account to one credit card account were dropped. One new payment on that same credit card account did not download. All 2019 payments into another credit card account were shown as uncleared (but not dropped) when reconciling. A few credit card accounts downloaded and reconciled without a problem.

Sherlock

That is sad news.  It likely means the Copy and Validate did not resolve the issue.  The next approach I would suggest is to recreate the data file.  If you have backup saved from before you started experiencing the issue, you could use that backup as a starting point.  You may attempt to export the data from the corrupt data file and import the data into the new file. 

robert schenker

Thanks for your suggestion. I have had this problem for a year or two....maybe longer. If I went back a few years and exported the data from the (probably) corrupt data file wouldn't the newly updated file be just as corrupt?

Sherlock

robert schenker said:

Thanks for your suggestion. I have had this problem for a year or two....maybe longer. If I went back a few years and exported the data from the (probably) corrupt data file wouldn't the newly updated file be just as corrupt?

The newly updated file would not be just as corrupt.  If the data file backup you restored was not corrupt and the data exported from the corrupt data file was not corrupt, the newly updated file would not be corrupt.

The behavior you've described is quite unusual.  If you aren't already, I suggest you maintain the data file a local folder on an internal drive and do not allow other processes to access the data file while the data file is use by Quicken.

robert schenker

Thanks very much for your suggestions. I am not the most tech savvy person in the world and this sounds a bit complicated. I am pretty sure that none of my back-ups precede the problem, so I guess they are just as corrupt. My back-up are in a file on my hard drive and also backed up in a thumb drive. I do not understand how "other processes can access the data file while the data is in use by Quicken" (other than new downloads), but I do not believe that is happening.....I am certainly not intentionally doing anything that would make it happen.

I am about halfway through my 3 year quicken purchase. When I get a new version of Quicken......how about if I just started anew and did not transfer the historical data. Would I be able to maintain two quicken data files on my computer? The year of transition would be much less useful, but after that might I be problem free. I monitor the account balances from the end of one session to the beginning of another and they seem to be stable....i.e the transactions are dropped during the download updates. Would I be able to work with the old quicken data file when I want to see some historical information, but use the new file going forward (and not corrupt it with the old file? (I really don't remember the process when I buy an updated version.....is the old data automatically transferred upon installation? Is the old Quicken and/or the old Quicken data automatically deleted?