I am getting an "unknown security" for all my newly downloaded Etrade transactions -- ideas?

Joe Guthart

I have three Etrade account in Quicken for Mac. Started on Aug 8, 2020 that whenever I update the Etrade accounts it downloads what I'll call "duplicate" transaction and calls them "unknown security. I am on the latest Quicken for Mac version and have deactivated the Etrade downloads and then set it up all over again. Any ideas? Thanks

Quicken_Tyka

Hello all,

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community to report this issue.

This is a known issue with E*Trade, if you are experiencing duplicate "unknown" securities, you will need to merge these new securities with the existing securities.

For more steps and information, please takes a moment to review the steps and information on merging securities.

Thank you,
-Quicken Tyka

Joe Guthart

here you can see a screen shot of what is going on -- the problem is it downloads each time I do an update for those transactions that already exist under the proper security symbol -- it also does this for two other Etrade accounts

John_in_NC

Judging by the 2007 dates, those appear to be Placeholder transactions that get auto-generated as balance adjustments (as the earliest transactions) to correct the mismatch between what you have in your account, and what your brokerage reports. 

If your positions were all correct beforehand, and now are off, the first thing I would examine is the Portfolio View to see what Quicken is showing you hold. You might see near duplicates for these funds if ETrade is now reporting them differently.

Make backups before you attempt any tinkering. You can delete those placeholders if they are indeed duplicates, and see if they get recreated upon the next update. If they do, it would be wise to go into Window:Securities and verify the tickers of held funds, etc. It might be that you have to "merge funds" if the same funds are now being reported differently.

Joe Guthart

thanks John

Based upon you post I did the following for each account

-Identified the "Unknown Securities" for each transaction and then deleted them.
-I then performed the "Merge Securities" for each "Unknown Security" with the good security that already existed.
- Performed an update

So far so good -- everything balances out and no more "Unknown Securities" are being downloaded.

I just hope that I don't have to go through this with every downloaded security in the future. This fixed it for now. We'll see after next week if it is still working.

Thanks again!

John_in_NC

Good to hear, and thanks for the update.

I don't suspect you will be having the problem (with the same funds) if you have merged them. Hopefully, you should be good to go. 

Ron Mellum

I had the same problem with "unknown security" showing up in multiple ETrade accounts. I followed the above steps and afterwards found that Quicken then showed incorrect quantities of the merged securities in the accounts. I had to go in and add shares to correct. I wonder what caused the initial issue?

Mark Kwong

I have the exact same problem. It's happened a few times in the last week or two. It's weird because the symbol name of the security is exactly the same between the two. I'm not sure why Quicken thinks they are different securities.

Quicken_Natalie

Hello All,

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community and share your experiences regarding this issue, although I apologize for any frustration or inconvenience incurred.

At this time, I would suggest reporting the problem via the Help>Report a problem menu. This will provide our Teams with the necessary data to begin investigating.

Please be sure to leave all boxes checked, as well as include a description of the issue that's occurring.

Thank you,

Quicken Natalie

Joe Guthart

I've downloaded several securities from ETrade that have been bought/sold this week and have had no problems thus far. Thanks

Tim Gackstetter

I am having this issue as well for the past three or four days. I have filed a report via Help>Report a problem

Quicken_Tyka

Hello all,

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community to report this issue.

This is a known issue with E*Trade, if you are experiencing duplicate "unknown" securities, you will need to merge these new securities with the existing securities.

For more steps and information, please takes a moment to review the steps and information on merging securities.

Thank you,
-Quicken Tyka