Help! "An error occurred while installing Quicken." (2020, Mac)

Unknown

Can anyone help? In a new install of Yosemite (finally having to upgrade from Q2007...). That's the only message I get.

The tech support team can't help. Shrugging their shoulders.

I created a new OSX user account, and was able to successfully install in Applications from there. But when I try to run that app from my usual user account, it crashes on launch.

I *think* I've deleted all old Quicken files in my user account.

I've got 20+ years of Quicken data, been loving the program all those years. Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Quicken Anja

Hello @Steve Roth,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community regarding your issue, though I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing this.

Unfortunately, Quicken 2020 does not run on Yosemite (10.10). The minimum supported Mac OS required is El Capitan (10.11) or higher. Please, refer to this support article for more information on Quicken System Requirements.

Thank you, and I apologize for not having better news to provide you with.

Quicken Anja

Hello @Steve Roth,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community regarding your issue, though I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing this.

Unfortunately, Quicken 2020 does not run on Yosemite (10.10). The minimum supported Mac OS required is El Capitan (10.11) or higher. Please, refer to this support article for more information on Quicken System Requirements.

Thank you, and I apologize for not having better news to provide you with.

Unknown

Darn it, I mis-typed. I just installed Catalina.

jacobs

[deleted -- irrelevant based on new OS information]

jacobs

Let's go back to the beginning and walk through every step to see if we can figure out where something is going south.

Log into your regular macOS user account. Open the Applications folder. Is there a Quicken.app there? If so, Trash it. (Don't empty the Trash if you're concerned you might want it.) That's just for clarity; old Quicken applications, data files and support files shouldn't interfere with a fresh install. 

Log in to Quicken.com. Do you get to the My Account page, showing your name, your Quicken ID, etc.? In the third section of that page, to the right of the "Download Quicken" heading, click on "Download for Mac". You should now have a Quicken.dmg file in your Downloads folder or Desktop (wherever you've configured your downloads to go). Are you with me so far? 

So now, double-click on the Quicken.dmg file. You should see macOS say it's opening, and then you should see a red Quicken logo drive icon on your desktop, along with a Window with a big red Q that says Quicken Installer underneath, and the instruction "To Install, Double-click the icon below" above it.

Now double-click the Q icon. You should first see the macOS dialog that Quicken Installer is an application downloaded from the Internet; click Open. You should then see a small dialog box with says "Installing Quicken". Once it's done, the Installer window should disappear, along the the Q disk icon, you should see Quicken.app in your Applications folder, a red Q icon should appear on you Dock, and Quicken should launch to show a window with a cartoon family and Take A Tour and Get Started buttons.

You clearly didn't get that far, but I'm curious where, exactly, what you did deviated from the sequence I described above. 

Unknown

Thanks, Jacobs!

> Now double-click the Q icon. You should first see the macOS dialog that Quicken Installer is an application downloaded from the Internet; click Open. You should then see a small dialog box with says "Installing Quicken"

This is where I get the dialog box with "An error occurred while installing Quicken." Two buttons: Cancel or Try Again. You can guess that Try Again doesn't work; why I'm here.

What could it be about my user account (even in Safe Mode) that causes this, when the install works fine in a new account. I just can't figger it!

jacobs

Hmmm. It's clearly a macOS issue, not a Quicken issue. I'm not using Catalina on any of my Macs, so I can't test or offer help on what's going on. I would look at System Preferences > Security, but I'm not sure what could be causing the installer to fail. 

There's a different problem we've seen before that's worth checking to see if it presents differently under Catalina. Open your Applications folder. Sort by Date Added. Press Command+Shift+Period. (That command makes macOS temporarily show invisible files and folders.) Is there a hidden folder called Background, with a hidden file named background.png? If so, this is known to prevent Quicken from installing; discard it/them in the Trash. Now run the installer again. I don't think this is your issue, but it's worth checking.

Unknown

Nope, no background. (But thanks for the Command-Shift-Period tip; can't believe I never knew that!) I find there is exactly such a folder&file in the mounted-dmg quicken installer "disk." Which doesn't help anything, just interesting...

Unknown

Apologies, reposting because I mistyped in a post yesterday; the problem's in Catalina.

When I run the Installer it says "An error occurred while installing Quicken." Options are Try Again and Cancel. Obviously the latter doesn't work, which is why I'm here.

The tech support team can't help. Shrugging their shoulders.

I created a new OSX user account, and was able to successfully install in Applications from there. But when I try to run that app from my usual user account, it crashes on launch!

So two problems here, maybe related.

I *think* I've deleted all old Quicken files in my user account. (There is no hidden Background folder in my Applications folder.)

I've been forced to upgrade to 10.15, predictably dealing with many issues but this is the show-stopper for me. I've got data back to '93 for many businesses and personal, have been a keen Quicken user since then...

Thanks all.

Unknown

Hey Jacob:

Will Q2020 Install on El Cap 10.11.6? Thought I might go back and do that, THEN upgrade to Catalina, see if that works.

??

Thanks,

Steve

jacobs

It should install on El Capitan.

But before you roll back to on older OS, which is a pain and time-consuming, I think there are easier options.

You said you go it to install successfully in another macOS account? If so, try grabbing that copy of the app and putting it in your main user account. (Quicken Mac requires only the application; all the required support files will be created/downloaded when you start using it.)

• log into the other macOS account
• open the Applications folder and find Quicken.app
• Click on it and do File > Compress to make a .zip file copy
• Open your Macintosh HD and navigate to Users > Shared 
• Drag the .zip file to the Shared folder  (Alternatively, you could drag the .zip file to a flash drive, if you have one available)
• Switch back to your regular macOS user account
• Open your Macintosh HD and navigate to Users > Shared
• Drag the .zip file to your desktop
• Double-click on the .zip file to decompress it.
• Drag the Quicken.app file to your Applications folder (it may ask you to authenticate to do this)
• Verify that you see Quicken.app in the Applications folder
• Double-click it to launch Quicken

That should work; does it?

Unknown

Thanks so much Jacob(s?).

(I tried installing in El Cap using a bootable backup disk I have, [from Carbon Copy Cloner], but same Install Error failure. So Catalina's not the problem! Something in my user account.)

Also tried your nifty method, dragging the copied app into Users:Me:Applications as opposed to the top-level Applications where the installer puts it. Still crashes on launch.

Now pondering moving my whole life into the newly created user, with everything that would entail. Sigh. Losing the ability to use Quicken is pretty much not an option for me...

UKR

(Removed- Self-Referencing Link)

Unknown

@RickO, thanks for asking.

>Can you launch Quicken successfully from the new user account?

Yep, and 25mb Q07 file converted.

>Is your regular user account an admin account?

Yes.

>What happens if you try, from your regular account, double clicking the Quicken.app while holding down the shift key?

Same thing. So it's not the data file that's the problem. Some setting or file in my user account...

Unknown

Thanks, good suggestion. Sadly, no change...

(I've reverted to El Cap for the moment, btw, because the problem's the same as in Catalina.)

The installer (run from the new user account) puts Quicken in the top-level Applications folder. Over in Catalina, I tried moving the app, via zipping, to my user-level Applications folder. Also gave my real account read/write permissions on it.

No change. Haven't tried that in El Cap but seems unlikely.

I wonder if I should try the permissions thing for the files inside the Quicken.app "package"/folder/directory. Also seems unlikely.

Thanks some more...

jacobs

And just to reiterate something mentioned earlier in the thread, Quicken really wants to be installed in the main system Applications folder, not your user Application folder. It should run anywhere, but it may bug you whether you want to move it to /Applications.

Speaking of different locations, do you have a different hard drive you can drop the application on, temporarily, just to see if it launches successfully?

I'm equally puzzled and curious. It seems to clearly be a macOS thing, but I don't know what it is or why. And we've never seen reports of anyone else having this problem, either. 

Unknown

Rick and Jacob, thanks some more. The installer puts the app in the top-level Apps folder, though I've also tried (in Catalina) moving it to the Apps folder in my user account. No change.

I'll try putting it on a thumb drive and running it, though I doubt it will change anything. Problem seems to be *something* about my user account...a setting, a file somewhere, or...

For now the best I can think is to keep a separate user account just for running Quicken. A pain, but...