Validation should specify what it changed [+32 Merged Votes]

Rocket J Squirrel

In general, Validate doesn't tell the user what it changed. Its messages are vague to the point of uselessness. Today I got this one:

QDF:
Validating your data.
Repaired your data file by removing a damaged category. Please check your category list for missing categories by going to Tools>Category List.

Which category was removed? I have no idea. I searched for uncategorized transactions and found none.

Please, when Validate changes something, provide the information to the user.

RichMD

I have had many issues in the past with corrupt transactions that when I tried to fix them manually, I found that reconciled transactions had been updated accidentally. Therefore, for well over a year, I have followed the habit of One-Step Update, categorize, etc., then File-Operations - Validate and Repair before I run a backup. I used to always run "Super Validate" but I don't know that it is any different now. Anyway, I constantly get 1, 2, or 3 scheduled transactions corrected (such as copied from the log below). Scheduled bills and transactions are also something that has been problematic in the past so I would really like to see WHAT is being corrected. If there is an error, include more logging on what was found and fixed. I can read xml, json, etc. so that isn't a problem.
[Sun Feb 23 13:49:02 2020]
1 scheduled transactions corrected
Validation has completed.

Quicken_Natalie

Hello@RichMD,

Thank you for providing the details of this issue to the Community, although I apologize that you have not yet received a response.

It seems that the Community may need a bit more information to be able to further assist with this. Please take a moment to review the information available here and post back to let us know what version/release of Quicken you're using.

The more information you can provide regarding this issue will help the Community to better understand and assist.

Thank you,

Quicken Natalie

JustMeHere

@Quicken_Natalie I believe this is more of an "idea/suggestion" than a request for help.

"Scheduled bills and transactions are also something that has been problematic in the past so I would really like to see WHAT is being corrected. If there is an error, include more logging on what was found and fixed. I can read xml, json, etc. so that isn't a problem."

Quicken_Natalie

Hello @JustMeHere,

Thank you for pointing out the suggestion portion of this post.

I have gone ahead and turned this discussion into an Idea thread so that other users are able to vote on it.

@RichMD, please be sure to add your vote by clicking on the gray triangle right above the current vote count, located in the blue box at the beginning of this thread:

Thank you,

Quicken Natalie

UKR

Validate log shows:
[Sun Feb 23 13:49:02 2020]
1 scheduled transactions corrected
Validation has completed.

Let's just simply say that I concur with this idea / suggestion.

The programmers really need to review the Validate process and

1. figure out why said scheduled transaction was not corrected, if the same error message recurs when one runs Validate again.
2. display a line of text with information about the scheduled transaction (payee name, next due date, memo, amount)

UKR

To hopefully get rid of the damaged reminder please perform all the steps in Step (2) of this document:
Troubleshooting 101 - Fixing Software Installation and Data File Problems

Boatnmaniac

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree.  The information about what was changed regarding investment accounts/transactions is usually sufficient for me but for everything else I can usually never find what was change/corrected.  It's sometimes enough for me to forget about the validation and reluctantly restore a backup file.

UserDavidC

Rocket you are absolutely correct.

The detail provided is insufficient to verify or correct the errors encountered.

I remember a report I got several years ago that listed 10 or so error messages. Each message was identical with no way to know what record each referred to.

family.05.johnson

Got same message today and not sure what category removed... UGH

Snowman

I validate my file once a week.  Last week it showed 977 transactions with unspecified accounts.  I started opening backup files and searching for "unspecified accounts".  Every backup file from 10/20/2020 back to 01/03/2020 had unspecified accounts even though validate did not "find" them in those files when it was run.  I did this using the search box.  I had to go back to my 01/01/2020 (it was the first backup that did not have any unspecified accounts in it) backup and then restore that.  I then had to reenter every transaction (I printed the registers for all accounts from the old file totally 175 pages of transactions) for the year,  a process which has taken over 25 hours to do.  I have about 14 pages left to do.

Quicken needs to write a true validate data file that is run before a backup is done and if there are errors explain what they are.  I will now keep my backups for up to 2 years instead of the 1 year I used to do.

I have no idea why suddenly validate finally found there were 927 transactions with unspecified accounts.  I never "delete" and account, I always hide it instead.  I had something similar happen 4 years ago but I only had to reenter 6 months of data instead of 11 months. 

D-Two

I can accept that crashes happen and that data files need to be recovered / filechecked. (I wish they didn't, they shouldn't, but they do). This post is JUST about improving the messaging coming from there.

A recent validation of my file showed scores of:
* Quicken repaired damaged transaction index. No action required.
and
* Quicken found an invalid transaction and removed it. "ACCT_dac55a85" 0/ 0/1900

Both of these send chills down my spine, as neither one gives me *any* insight as to *what* account or *date* of transaction or *amount* -- Any one of those items, or more ought to still be available, that can give me some Information to work with so that I can go back in and re-add the transaction that Quicken decided it could Remove or Repair.

When this happens, I am left to scour my quicken database (YEARS of data) trying to figure out what data it may have incorrectly "fixed" or removed.

QUICKEN TEAM: Please, please, please: can you give us any/all data that you have about the entries that you are correcting/removing so that we can fix them up manually later? Finding the errant/missing data is a scavenger hunt and if you could at least provide some clues, it would greatly help us keep our financial "picture" in Quicken as accurate as possible.

Thank you

gvcoj1ms

I just did a File Validation and report said that a Category had been deleted and I should check my Categories List for the missing one. No offense, but "Come on, man". With a Category list as long as it is (>100) this is not really a practical suggestion.

I would suggest that the report tell the user which Category(ies) were deleted by name. There might be times when the name is the corrupted field, but I'm guessing that would be the fewer of the number. Most times it would be possible?
Best, Jim

Roger M

Voted Yes. I would also like to know WHICH scheduled transactions have been corrected after running a file validation.

steven.kerns

I agree it's dumb that it doesn't list the deleted categories. I, too, have a ton of categories. My work-around is that when I see that message, I print the category list to a file from both the current file and a recovered file. Then I use a text compare utility (Beyond Compare) to see what's changed. It works, but it's a hassle.

An even better solution than simply telling us what category was deleted would be to assign all those deleted category transactions to a new category during the validate process -- ideally "[deleted category]_new". Then we'd know which transactions were affected.

Rocket J Squirrel

[Removed-Self-Referencing Link]

pls

When validation deletes a transaction it should leave a dummy transaction in place of the removed one. Silently removing transactions is a lot of work to track down and fix. Having a marker left behind would help a lot.

[Merged Post]

davezechnich

Agree with above comments. In fact, rather than deleting a category, please just tell me what error quicken thinks it found and let me decide how to fix the error. This is very frustrating to try to fix out what Quicken did to "fix" my file. If indeed a fix was required at all.

davezechnich

Same goes for "repaired" accounts. Just tell me what Quicken thinks needs repairing then let me repair it. I am a CPA and believe I am in a better position to decide how to "fix" or "repair" my accounting.

Chris_QPW

davezechnich said:

Agree with above comments. In fact, rather than deleting a category, please just tell me what error quicken thinks it found and let me decide how to fix the error. This is very frustrating to try to fix out what Quicken did to "fix" my file. If indeed a fix was required at all.

It is highly doubtful that they would ever put in such an option.  A database like Quicken's is going to have all kinds of cross referencing and such.  The purpose of Validate and Repair is to bring the database back to a "consistent state".  The user doesn't even have any idea of what that is, let alone direct how to fix things.

movingelys

I agree. This and I have gotten a message that says: "Duplicate category name. Try another name." I have looked and can't find a duplicate so it would be helpful if quicken would tell me what it is seeing instead of this vague message.

Quicken Anja

Hello All,

The Community Support team regularly reviews long-standing posts and Ideas for relevancy and current interest. This Idea seems to have stalled and we would like to gauge the current interest in this request. 

If you would like to see this idea implemented, please add your vote and a comment explaining how this idea would be beneficial for you. More information, including steps to vote and how to submit your own Ideas for future product features/improvements, is also available here.

Thank you,

Quicken Community Support Team

UKR

UKR said:

Validate log shows:
[Sun Feb 23 13:49:02 2020]
1 scheduled transactions corrected
Validation has completed.

Let's just simply say that I concur with this idea / suggestion.

The programmers really need to review the Validate process and

1. figure out why said scheduled transaction was not corrected, if the same error message recurs when one runs Validate again.
2. display a line of text with information about the scheduled transaction (payee name, next due date, memo, amount)

I repeat my earlier comment. The programmers really should give us more details about the reminder in question and they should review their code, to figure out why the message keeps popping up every time Validate is run. Did someone forget to update the database with the correction?

UserDavidC

This idea does need to be implemented.

Any time an error is reported, there needs to be enough information supplied to know what exactly was found or repaired.

RichMD

Agree 100%

MHSwizzleStick

Agreed. Also, similar to this suggestion: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7880500/validation-should-specify-what-it-changed-8-merged-votes

cesarvinocur

It's actually puzzling to find the same message every time super validation is ran, when no scheduled transactions seem to be altered at all.
[Tue May 04 06:46:39 2021]
2 scheduled transactions corrected
No out-of-range security references found.
This needs to be investigated.

Rocket J Squirrel

Let's show some love for this suggestion! Today I got the oh-so-helpful

QDF:
Validating your data.
Quicken repaired damaged transaction index.  No action required.
Quicken found an invalid transaction and removed it. "ACCT_133c3"  0/ 0/1900
Quicken repaired some transaction information.  No action required.
 "ACCT_133c3"  0/ 0/1900

I defy even the most seasoned Quicken programmers to make sense of this. Much less Joe User.

oldngrmpy1

Even if they don't fix the problem, maybe at least validation could change the clr status to C for cleared, from what was probably a R for reconciles transaction, then a search for cleared transaction can be done to find the transaction ...possibly!

FlyerFran

Agree that details would be useful.  My favorite is "deleted a category"   gotten this one a few times and never could find which one it was.  

Quicken SangeethaS

Hi all, We are looking into this and https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7850837/need-a-tool-to-really-truly-repair-data-corruption-13-merged-votes#latest

Those of you who use Validate and Repair often, can you please give me some information:

• How often do you Validate and Repair your files?
• What prompts you to run a Validate and Repair? Is it a periodic schedule or do you run it when you see some issues? If so, what issues?
• What benefits do you see by running Validate and Repair?