bring back QIF export support

danmax

While there are some limitations of QIF as a format - it remained the simplest method of exporting data from Quicken Mac, and was the best means of sharing data with other people or applications. I think it is very important to support interoperability. I would strongly urge Quicken to bring back .QIF export (even with its limitations). Thanks.

Quicken_Tyka

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smayer97

Unless an alternative is provided like Add Ability to Select Content of QXF File for Export, QIF import still has its place.

Gaspasser

I stayed with Quicken for Mac 2007 for as long as I could but ultimately migrated to another product. Have been following product development since Intuit sold Quicken & would like to try the current Mac version, but the inability to export the data file as QIF is concerning as this deficiency would essentially lock me into the Quicken ecosphere with no viable exit path. It is my understanding that the QFX format does not allow acceptable export of investment account data, and my data file contains banking & investment activity going back to 1992. Adding QIF export capability would give me the peace of mind of knowing that I could get my data out if necessary down the road. My research leads me to believe that there are many others sharing my concern, and adding QIF export to your product could entice that group of individuals to become Quicken users. Please consider adding this capability to your program!

jacobs

@Gaspasser  First, to clarify: there is QXF (Quicken Transfer Format) and QFX (Quicken's slightly-modified version of the OFX financial data transfer format). The former is used to move Quicken data between installations of Quicken; the latter is used by financial institutions to download data to Quicken. You wrote QFX, but I think you were referring to QXF.

The good news is that the QXF export from Quicken Mac actually does include investment account data. Exporting and then re-importing data in this format is often used as a rescue course of action with Quicken Mac if some inexplicable connectivity problem is present in a user's Quicken data file. What I suspect you may have read that QXF doesn't work to move Quicken Mac data to Quicken Windows. But that's because Quicken Windows doesn't have an importer built to import investment data in a QXF file. (It was built for the Quicken Mac predecessor Quicken Essentials for Mac, a program which did not store investment transactions. It seems inexplicable to me that the Quicken Windows team has never resisted their importer to properly work with Quicken Mac exports, but I guess they felt that most people were moving from Windows to Mac and not the other way around.)

Bottom line: you can export your Quicken Mac data in QXF format. However, whether you can turn that into something which another application can import is a question I can't answer. I'm not sure any competing personal finance software has reverse-engineered QXF in order to be able to import it.

As for adding QIF export to Quicken Mac, I definitely understand why you're asking for it. And I think some standards-based "escape" from Quicken Mac would be desirable for users. But I just don't see the developers devoting time to designing, coding and testing a feature with the sole purpose of helping users flee Quicken to a competing software product. With all the feature requests the developers have from users, I'd expect the one would fall pretty far down their priority list. (And the fact that this thread has received only 3 votes over the past two years makes it unlikely to rise up on that list.) 

smayer97

One advantage that the QIF export/import routines in Quicken had was the ability to select what data to export. QXF currently lacks this ability.

For that idea, see Add Ability to Select Content of QXF File for Export in Quicken

Arguments aside about priorities or whether Quicken is willing to devote time to redevelop the export and import using QIF, it is a mischaracterization to say that it is for "...the sole purpose of helping flee Quicken to a competing software product". QIF served many more scenarios than that.

odysseus

@smayer97. I agree with you completely on the need for a lossless export or file interchange format. [Removed-Disruptive/Speculation]
I think that there isn't much explicit demand for this feature because most people don't think about the need for export -- it's like backup in that you don't use it very frequently, but you're glad to have it when the need arises.
[Removed-Speculation]

jacobs

@odysseus I'm sorry you are "dismayed" by me simply expressing an opinion that the developers aren't likely to build such functionality. I was not arguing against it, just saying I didn't think they'd do it. (This idea post now has 5 votes in 2+ years, so it hasn't even been submitted to the development and product teams for consideration at this point.)

telemachos

@jacobs, I’m sure your support for this feature would carry some weight. 

jacobs

telemachos said:

@jacobs, I’m sure your support for this feature would carry some weight. 

Thank you for your faith in me, but I only wish I had the level of clout or impact you believe I might!

I still view this as basically being an "escape" provision, whether for a user to escape Quicken Mac to move to another product or to escape Quicken Mac in the unlikely event Quicken closes and disappears without providing any way for users to get their data out -- and I do agree it would be beneficial for Quicken to add a more robust way to export data than the closed QXF format (which some other developer would need to reverse engineer). 

However, this would not yet rank in or near the top 10 of my feature wishes for Quicken Mac. And because all product enhancement ideas are competing against each other for limited development time, it's not something I'd go out of my way to lobby for.