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For Long-Time users, what do you do with your data?

abittman

I have realized, now that I have joined the "community", there are quite a few people who have used Quicken for 10, 20, 30 years. I myself have been on since 1995 on the DOS versions.

Many of the times I have had issues with Quicken it seems to go back to having data this long and all the changes along the way. I am looking for advice on what people have done with the data. Intuitively, I would like to archive it so if I ever needed to, I could get back to it. But there is no way to do this as far as I can see.

Are you folks doing anything to keep your data fresh and clean but still access to the old data? I have thought about simply starting over with a clean install and data.

It just seems when I do have issues it goes back to a transaction in 1996 when I wasn't quite sure how to enter something.

Just looking for ideas.

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Comments

volvogirl

I just keep using it in one data file. No problems. What issues are you having? If you find you entered something wrong way back when you can change it. Like I started out entering credit card transactions wrong. Every once in a while I'll dig out my old paper statements and recategorize things. Or set up new accounts/categories like for house improvements done 20 years ago. Making sub categories, etc. Might be a good project since we're stuck at home right now and have lots of time to fill.

splasher

All of mine is still in a single data file and I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't do Year-End-Copy. I make and keep lots of backups

abittman

@volvogirl Thanks for the responses. Regarding the problems, over the last ten years when a major change happens, it seems like I always end up on the phone with support. Then support takes me through several levels of repair and validation (beyond what is available on the menus) and it seems to fix the issues. It seems like the reports generally point to things back in the 90's. For me, I don't need that data, so was curious if others are seeing issues like this and / or if folks have started over / stored data in different ways.

Snowman

20+ years in one data file no issues. I do not use any of the web/cloud features and I do not use the feature to attach receipts/statements for a transaction. I do download checking and credit card transactions.

Ps56k2

splasher said:

All of mine is still in a single data file and I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't do Year-End-Copy. I make and keep lots of backups

Same here.... I therefore have ALL my transactions,
from banking to more importantly ALL the investment transactions
and related transfers....
- Chase, PNC, BoA, Capital One

- Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, TRowe, 529 plans, 403b plans

And NO Sync or usage of Mobile / Cloud - seems to be a cause of messed up data.

Chris_QPW

You will not find anyone that posts on here on a regular basis that has a different answer.

The only time you will find such questions is by users coming in to ask about "archiving" in one way or another. Some claim to be using it for many years.

Most coming in to complain that it doesn't work (mostly because they don't understand how it works and its limitations), sometimes because of problems with their data files. Or coming in to complain that they can't put their data back into one file, or get reports from many files. Many of times their goal is to improve performance, which is almost never the case since about the only thing that would be affected by that is investment transactions/securities, and year end copy doesn't do anything with them.

As for corruption, I haven't seen anything that suggests a bigger file is more likely to get corrupted than a little one. And as for corruption in a give account. For non investment accounts I would probably handle that by copying the transactions to a new account, and deleting the old account. You can also delete accounts, but have to watch out for all the transfers that might affect other accounts.

abittman

Thanks for the responses Everyone. My guess is back in <insert long-time ago here> I did something wrong. I should have stated, I don't have a lot of quicken issues, probably every 2 - 4 years.

The latest issue which apparently is a known issue with the new Bill Manager, but only happens to a small percentage of users. We validated a couple of times didn't work and then had to go to a backup and restart from a few weeks ago.

I do sync my accounts but have always avoided the mobile version connection.

Thanks again for the thoughts.

Chris_QPW

abittman said:

The latest issue which apparently is a known issue with the new Bill Manager, but only happens to a small percentage of users. We validated a couple of times didn't work and then had to go to a backup and restart from a few weeks ago.

In my opinion whenever you use a new feature like the Bill Manager you increase your risks have something corrupting your data file. One but in the Bill Presentment caused by data file to be totally unusable a year or so ago. It would have remained that way too except I gave it to Quicken Inc to be used to track down the bug. It took them many passes and fixing it over many days. This isn't the kind of thing that the average person can expect, it was a very unusual circumstance. In the same amount of time I had rebuilt my data file from QIF exports/imports and used both of them in parallel for a couple of months.

My personal recommendation on the new Bill Manager (or the old one for that matter) would be not to use it, but instead do what I have been doing for over 20 years without any problems. And that just setup the bills for automatic payments. I set all I can to be paid using my credit card, which gives me cash back. Then there a couple of utility bills that come directly out of my checking account, and of course the credit cards are automatically paid from my checking account. For the most part cash flow is a breeze since mostly all I have to do is make sure there is enough to pay off the credit cards, and I know their amounts at least 20 days in advance.

AccountingSuperstar

I have been using Quicken since 2014 (so long time user) & yes, I would like to Create a new file with just 7 years or so worth of data. I have old accounts, houses, cars, credit cards accounts, etc. that i do not use and Quicken is not the greatest. So each time i need to find create a new catagory, I have to scroll thru in a tiny little box all these items. And when I try to create a 2022 report, the report often checks all these in hidden accounts . . that again I am no longer using - which creates quite a mess for a report and is super hard to clean up bc again Quicken is sub-par. . . I did find this article on how to create a new file, I tried to post a link to it but the site will not let me. After tax season i am planning on givine it a shot.

AccountingSuperstar

search for creating a partial / template file or year end back up

Ps56k2

@AccountingSuperstar - I have been using Quicken since 2014 (so long time user) & yes, I
would like to Create a new file with just 7 years or so worth of data.

Well…. if you read all the postings - you will see a "long time user" is from WAY back - not just yesterday like 2014 -

And - most savvy users probably don't archive or chop up their Quicken QDF file - makes no sense.
I like to have ALL my data in one place, not having any corruption issues in finding anything - Chase, PNC, Schwab, Fidelity, TRowe, Vanguard, etc -
AND - there is no performance hit - as Quicken is a direct access DB - not a sequential deck of cards.