Why the multiple and different Quicken for Windows passwords all of a sudden

Perry Kincy

I am a very long time Q Win user. All of a sudden in the new update Q wants two different passwords and calls both of them Q passwords, but they are not. One is the password to log into Q software itself. That is the normal one. Then it will ask for another password if you are downloading data or reconciling or possibly other things I have yet to discover. Although it asks for the Quicken Password it really doesn't want the Q software password it wants your password for the Quicken website, which for some reason is not the same. Took me some time to figure this out today. If they think this is the way to do two factor authorization they are wrong. It is simply annoying.

Sherlock

We may create a password to restrict access to a Quicken file.
We may create a password to restrict access to transactions in a Quicken file.

We must provide a password to access the Password Vault.

The Quicken ID password is used to authenticate the Quicken ID associated with the data file for all Quicken's Online Services.  A certificate is maintained so that we do not need provide the Quicken ID password frequently when we use one Quicken ID for a file on a machine.  If we move a file to another machine or use another Quicken ID, we're prompted to authenticate to obtain a new certificate.

Perry Kincy

I read the words in the answer but have no idea what you are saying. Why are their two different passwords for one piece of software on one computer that is clearly note two factor authorization?

Sherlock

Perry Kincy said:

I read the words in the answer but have no idea what you are saying. Why are their two different passwords for one piece of software on one computer that is clearly note two factor authorization?

You're correct.  This has nothing to do with multi-factor authentication.

There are four distinct passwords and they are not for one piece of software on one computer.  

The first three passwords described earlier are specific to a Quicken file.  We may use different passwords for different files.  Each of these passwords provides distinct access rights to the Quicken file: the right to open the Quicken file, the right to change transactions in the Quicken file, and right to access the Password Vault within the Quicken file.  The file password and the transaction password are optional.  If we preserve financial institution passwords in a Quicken file's Password Vault, then we're required to create a Password Vault password to access the Password Vault.

A Quicken ID may be associated with multiple Quicken files and is used to authorize access to remote services.  The Quicken ID password is used to authenticate a Quicken ID.  The authenticated Quicken ID is used to authorize the subscription, etc.. 

Note:  None of these passwords are required to log into Q software itself. 

I suspect the file password may be the password you think of is the normal one and 
 the Quicken ID password may be the password you think of as for the Quicken website.

Perry Kincy

Ok, I can go with all of that as needed. But you need to come up with unique names of what you are asking for. You can't have four different ice creams and call them all Vanilla. So you need to call one the File Password and one the Vault password and one the authentication Password so we are not confused about which password to enter when you ask for a Quicken Password which can apparently mean you want a specific one of the four yet won't tell us which one you want.

Sherlock

Perry Kincy said:

Ok, I can go with all of that as needed. But you need to come up with unique names of what you are asking for. You can't have four different ice creams and call them all Vanilla. So you need to call one the File Password and one the Vault password and one the authentication Password so we are not confused about which password to enter when you ask for a Quicken Password which can apparently mean you want a specific one of the four yet won't tell us which one you want.

Quicken does use four distinct names and prompts for each of the passwords so we shouldn't be confused:

Perry Kincy

Thank you for your help. What I got was the last one, which I took to be the file password but as I found out and you have confirmed is the Website password. Why would I get a website password request when I am not in a browser but instead trying to use Q software? By the way, I have quit using One Step whatever you call it as there were too many passwords involved and frankly did/do not trust Q or any other company with my bank or brokerage passwords so I go to each financial entity and download a q file. I cannot count the number of times an organization I used to trust has been successfully hacked. I don't believe Q has yet but so many have that trust in keeping passwords safe in the "cloud" is not something I will ever do again.

So what I call a Quicken Password is really a Data File password. I think I can remember that. Hopefully I will never use a transaction or vault password

thecreator

Hi @""Perry Kincy" ,

You may never use a Transaction Password, but you need to use a Vault Password, or you need to enter the Banking Passwords, every time you do a One Step Update to download your transactions into Quicken. The Passwords are not stored in the Cloud, but on the computer, within the Password Vault.

The Quicken Website is not part of the Quicken Program.

This forum is not part of Quicken, neither.

Perry Kincy

Correct. That is why I do not do One Step Updates. I always manually download Q files from the websites of my financial partners. That way I have the passwords not some vault somewhere I don't control it. Thank you again.

Sherlock

Perry Kincy said:

Thank you for your help. What I got was the last one, which I took to be the file password but as I found out and you have confirmed is the Website password. Why would I get a website password request when I am not in a browser but instead trying to use Q software? By the way, I have quit using One Step whatever you call it as there were too many passwords involved and frankly did/do not trust Q or any other company with my bank or brokerage passwords so I go to each financial entity and download a q file. I cannot count the number of times an organization I used to trust has been successfully hacked. I don't believe Q has yet but so many have that trust in keeping passwords safe in the "cloud" is not something I will ever do again.

So what I call a Quicken Password is really a Data File password. I think I can remember that. Hopefully I will never use a transaction or vault password

So my suspicions were correct...

While it is true we may sign in to the Quicken.com web site using a browser by providing a valid Quicken ID and Quicken ID password, the credentials are not limited to use by a browser.  

The Quicken program does communicate with Quicken servers over the internet and will use the authenticated Quicken ID we associate with the Quicken file to authorize the use of the subscription whether or not we are using any of the Online Services. 

Perry Kincy

I see what you are getting at in your last sentence. But it never has been necessary before this week's update. I would just go to my bank website, hit download in Q format and then "open." and it would open and I would accept and we would be done. So an extra step was added this week.