Quicken. Windows on Mac via Parallels &. Dropbox

OceanBreezes

I have been using Quicken WIndows on my MacBook via Parallels with the QDF stored on Dropbox for over 6 years. Storing the QDF in the folder that syncs to Dropbox is purely for backup purposes (i.e., not to share files...which I did during the first year between 2 Macs and had to be very careful not to get data corrupted). I assume sharing is really the problem and the reason for the new warning. Is there really a reason for me to change to save my quicken in a different mac folder given that I only use the files on one computer and dropbox is solely for backup purposes? Changing worries me as I travel up to 3 months at a time without being able to back up my quicken file to my home backup system.

Chris_QPW

The warning is about two different possibilities of problems.
One is that there isn't any error correcting in Quicken if you are storing data on a network drive and it isn't 100% reliable.
The second is that a program might mess with the data file while Quicken still wants to access it.  The lock Quicken puts on the data file mostly works to prevent this if the programs like Dropbox or a backup program respect that lock, but Quicken also releases that lock from time to time like when is doing a backup or Validate and Repair and another program like Dropbox and jump in and block Quicken and cause problems.

The recommended way to have a backup on Dropbox would be to do a manual backup to the Dropbox folder instead of having your "active" data file in Dropbox.

Sherlock

The issue with using Dropbox (and other Cloud storage sync services) for backup is reliably preventing their service from accessing the Quicken file when it is being used by Quicken.  The Quicken recommended approach is to allow Dropbox to synchronize the Quicken backup files - not the active files: https://www.quicken.com/support/how-do-i-backup-my-quicken-file-using-dropbox-windows