Quicken Data Files

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: It would be nice if Quicken had a "developer" API like QuickBooks does for reading and writing data.

skeleton567

I believe that by default the data files will be located probably in your Quicken install directory whether you chose the default or created your own. Possibly it will be a sub-directory under that location. I can't remember because I have never taken the default. But there is a much better way than the 'standard' Windows way, as I will explain:

My whole Windows 10 system is built with a main directory called C:\Data\ within which I have a sub-directory for the data files for ALL installed applications. Thus, my Q data files are located at C:\Data\QW2014Premier\.

Within that directory I have a separate folder for the data files for each year, such as c:\Data\QW2014Premier\RQ1986\, c:\Data\QW2014Premier\RQ2019\, etc (RQ indicating 'Rick's Quicken')

If you follow this scheme, then your backup and validate files will by default be located in subdirectories beneath each year directory.

You can also direct other applications to place their data files in subdirectories within the C:\Data\ directory which greatly simplifies backing up all your application data at once by copying C:\Data\ with all sub-directories to a different location, preferably a different hard disk or, even better, to a NAS storage device.

My regular backups are directed to my C:\Data\ QWxxxx...\locations, and then I back up all my app data in one operation to dated directories on my NAS storage such as X:\DataBackup_2019_12_08\ , etc providing me with as many backup generations as I have space for. My NAS device currently gives me 16TB of space that can be shared from all our computers by simply mapping drives in Windows Explorer. You can configure the NAS drives as RAID volumes or, as is my preference, standard shared drives to which you may give various access privileges.

My advice: Backup your backup of your backup. It may seem like a waste, but only until you need it once. Remember that the default Q backup location is on the same drive as you data file, so a hardware failure will lose your backups too.

Now, regarding version updates/upgrades ( which I don't do any more due to not liking the new things they have done to Q).

Don't just install and let Q upgrade your existing files. If you have followed the above scheme, create a new directory C:\Data\QuickenPremiere20xx\ and COPY all your C:\Data\QuickenPremier2014\ files and subdirecories to this new folder, install the new Q version in a different program directory, then open the new version and sequentially open and upgade this new copy of all your data files in the data directory for this new version. You may then easily archive or leave in place the existing files for the old version - JUST IN CASE. If the developers have done a good job, this should allow you to keep both the old and the new versions installed on the same machine. I haven't done this recently, but it did work for earlier versions.

And, while you are at it, your C:\Data\ directory is also a great place to save all your copies of electronic billings. I do this with a sub-directory for each vendor, i.e.
C:\Data\AllStatements\MyBank\2018\
C:\Data\AllStatements\MyBank\2019\
C:\Data\AllStatements\MyMC6041\2018\
C:\Data\AllStatements\MyMC6041\2019\

The simple reason for the \All Statements\ folder level is to bring it to the top of my \Data\ directory because it is my most frequently used data location.

splasher

skeleton567 said:

I believe that by default the data files will be located probably in your Quicken install directory whether you chose the default or created your own. Possibly it will be a sub-directory under that location. I can't remember because I have never taken the default. But there is a much better way than the 'standard' Windows way, as I will explain:…

Wrong on default data file location.

Quicken creates a folder named Quicken under Documents and is no where near the program and installation files.  Automatic backups are in a folder under that named BACKUP.

Properly made manual backups should be to some media not permanently attached to or in your local computer for data safety.  Fires, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods are all possibilities. 

Plan for the worst, hope for the best.