Can I access a .quicken file from 2-Macs?

Frank McLellan

I'd like to be able to access the .Quicken file from either my iMac or my Laptop. Rather than storing the file in ~/Application Support/Quicken/Documents/"myMoney".quicken is it possible to store the file in iCloud or OneDrive?? This would give me the ability of accessing "MyMoney" from either machine.

Quicken Anja

Hello @Frank McLellan,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community with your question.

Yes, it is possible. However, we do strongly advise against doing so and using backups to restore instead to move data between the two Macs.

The reason being is that when data files are stored on external drives such as USB or cloud-based drives, it puts your data file at risk of data file corruption. If/when this happens, you will no longer be able to access your data or it can cause you to lose data over time.

Let us know if you have any additional questions.

-Quicken Anja

jacobs

@Frank McLellan Just to add a little more of the "why" to Anja's response… 

Your Quicken data file actually isn't a single file. It's a structure in macOS called a "package" which puts a wrapper around any number of files and folders and makes them appear as a single file. You can see this, if you wish, by Control-clicking on your data file and selecting Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu; what you'll see is a bunch of folder and files that make up your Quicken data file. When you move the .quicken file to cloud storage, or even from one Mac to another, it can happen that the permissions for one of the folders or files within it can get set to a different macOS user number -- resulting in you being locked out of your data file entirely. Unfortunately, we've seen this reported here a number of times, and there's no way to recover if it does.

The only safe way to use Quicken across multiple computers is to only move either a backup generated from within Quicken (.quickenbackup) or to use File > Compress in the Finder (.zip); both of these put a "wrapper" around the Quicken file such that file and folder permissions can't be altered. That may sound like a pain, but once you do it a few times, you'll find it just adds a few seconds after you're done using Quicken to generate the backup or .zip file and move it to iCloud. And you need to make sure you always open only the most-recent file, or you can mess yourself up!

Quicken Anja

Hello @Frank McLellan,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community with your question.

Yes, it is possible. However, we do strongly advise against doing so and using backups to restore instead to move data between the two Macs.

The reason being is that when data files are stored on external drives such as USB or cloud-based drives, it puts your data file at risk of data file corruption. If/when this happens, you will no longer be able to access your data or it can cause you to lose data over time.

Let us know if you have any additional questions.

-Quicken Anja

jacobs

@Frank McLellan Just to add a little more of the "why" to Anja's response… 

Your Quicken data file actually isn't a single file. It's a structure in macOS called a "package" which puts a wrapper around any number of files and folders and makes them appear as a single file. You can see this, if you wish, by Control-clicking on your data file and selecting Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu; what you'll see is a bunch of folder and files that make up your Quicken data file. When you move the .quicken file to cloud storage, or even from one Mac to another, it can happen that the permissions for one of the folders or files within it can get set to a different macOS user number -- resulting in you being locked out of your data file entirely. Unfortunately, we've seen this reported here a number of times, and there's no way to recover if it does.

The only safe way to use Quicken across multiple computers is to only move either a backup generated from within Quicken (.quickenbackup) or to use File > Compress in the Finder (.zip); both of these put a "wrapper" around the Quicken file such that file and folder permissions can't be altered. That may sound like a pain, but once you do it a few times, you'll find it just adds a few seconds after you're done using Quicken to generate the backup or .zip file and move it to iCloud. And you need to make sure you always open only the most-recent file, or you can mess yourself up!

Frank McLellan

G’day Anja
Thank you for the reply, it’s quite helpful.
If I understand this correctly I can place the “MyMoney.quicken” file in a common place such as iCloud BUT that I run the risk of possible data corruption. So more than likely I will not go this route. It does, however, make using the same data from two separate locations somewhat more problematic (work here, live there - home on weekends). As you say using backups may be a more viable and safer method. Quicken does offer the option of storing the backups to a location of your choosing which could be on iCloud or OneDrive. So restoring to another device, desktop or laptop, would be relatively painless. You would simplely have to remember to restore each time you are using a different device. Call me paranoid but I do create a backup weekly to the cloud of the data file using other software. Thankfully I have never had to do a restore from it.

Frank McLellan

G’day Anja
Thank you for the reply, it’s quite helpful.
If I understand this correctly I can place the “MyMoney.quicken” file in a common place such as iCloud BUT that I run the risk of possible data corruption. So more than likely I will not go this route. It does, however, make using the same data from two separate locations somewhat more problematic (work here, live there - home on weekends). As you say using backups may be a more viable and safer method. Quicken does offer the option of storing the backups to a location of your choosing which could be on iCloud or OneDrive. So restoring to another device, desktop or laptop, would be relatively painless. You would simplely have to remember to restore each time you are using a different device. Call me paranoid but I do create a backup weekly to the cloud of the data file using other software. Thankfully I have never had to do a restore from it.

jacobs

If you adopt a workflow where you always create a backup to your cloud service each time you finish using Quicken, on whatever computer you're on, and always grab the backup from your cloud service to your computer and start Quicken from that local file each time you use Quicken, you'll be able to manage with Quicken in multiple locations without messing up. The key is that you always start from a backup and end by creating a new backup, in the same place each time.

Frank McLellan

G’day Jacobs
Thanks for the clarification. I see what you mean about the “Show Packages…”. Initially I thought you were talking about the App itself but was able to see the “Show…” using a Right-Click (cntl-click did not work for me). As I replied to Anja, I will probably NOT go the iCloud route but instead to the restore from backup method. I would centralize the backups as this would give me access from either device.

Oh. I just saw your additional reply. Good advice.
Thanks Again!!!

jacobs

Frank: For what it's worth, on a Mac, Control-click is a right-click. Unless you've got a mouse configured for right-clicking, Control-click is the only way to bring up contextual options when clicking on something. 

Quicken Anja

Hello again @Frank McLellan,

I also do want to mention to you that an alternative option would be to sync your Quicken data to the Quicken Cloud which will allow you to access your data either from a mobile phone or from a web browser through our website. This way will also no longer require you to save and restore backups constantly either.

Let me know if that is something you would be interested in and I will be happy to provide you with further information on that as well.

Thank you,

-Quicken Anja

jacobs

Frank, just know that what you can do on the mobile app or web interface which Anja mentioned is a subset of what you can do on desktop Quicken. Also, know that you cannot use the Quicken Cloud to sync between two Macs. It can be useful if you want to enter transactions as they happen, or look something up; just don't view it as an equivalent second device solution.