Loss of data with recent Quicken updates

Question

Windows 10, experienced Quicken user since 2000

Quicken updated itself a week or so ago, but when I went to check some reports that I had, laboriously, recently created, they were gone. I was able to re-create some of them, but the results seemed odd, in that they didn't seem to pull out some entries that i was SURE were there.

Today I got another Quicken update, and also got a fresh bank statement (10/7/2020) in the mail. When I went to enter the data from the new statement, I discovered that my Quicken account data had no entries newer than last May! Faced with re-entering 4 months of lost data, I looked to see what I had in the way of backups, and found one from September. That restored most, but not all, of the missing data.

It appears that the update from a couple weeks ago set me back to a May data set, and that was probably why my old reports were missing and the new reports did not show all the entries I was expecting. I had not looked at the individual account entries at that time.

My SWAG [Removed-Language]  is that the Quicken update, upon restart, brought up the data file it found in the place where it, and Windows 10, usually stores its data, but I prefer to keep my data in a place of MY choosing, somewhere I can always find it, which also happens to be close to where I keep my backups.

So, a bit of feedback: Quicken does not seem to have any problem starting up with the same data file I was using the last time it was running. It manages to keep track of that. Quicken updates should do the same and not assume the Windows/Quicken default location.

OTOH, I realize that this may be a wider, more general problem, but a Google search didn't come up with any similar Quicken complaints in 2020.

Has anyone else seen this problem?

jrich75 · Answer

What is your current file name?  Have you searched to see if other data files exist?  When backups are generated, they have QDF - backup file extensions and are generally restored rather than opened.  The File menu gives you several options for finding various data files and should include a list of the last few files names and locations opened.

jadney · Answer

> @ps56k said:
 > And... of course - being an experienced Quicken user since 2000- 
 > you probably have learned that Quicken is somewhat fragile 
 > and create several Auto Backups and also create Manual Backups - 
 >  AND copy them off for safe keeping - 
 > (Image)

Thanks for the image of the Quicken Preferences page. I'd never seen that before and this allowed me to set up automatic backups. I'll look thru some of the other options, too. I wonder how long Quicken has had that feature. I tend to upgrade as my old Quicken software expires (no longer allows stock price downloads) while ignoring new features unless I feel I need something.

I've probably not been as good about backups as I should be, and that's surely due to the fact that Quicken has never "burned" me before. I'll keep a closer eye on it from now on.

In 20 years of using Quicken, this is the first time I can remember where I've had  a problem like this. I think part of the blame lies with Windows, which now prefers to hide data files in places where even saavy PC users can't find them. I prefer to keep all my data files in a home directory I maintain in a separate partition. This makes it easy for me to find what I want and transfer useful files to another computer at any time. it also makes periodic backups of all my data straightforward.

jadney · Answer

> @Sherlock said:
 > Unless we explicitly open a specific Quicken file, the Quicken program always attempts to open the most recent Quicken file listed in the QUSER.INI file maintained in the user's hidden AppData\Roaming\Quicken\config folder.  If Quicken fails to open a Quicken file, we are prompted to open, create, or restore a Quicken file.

That sounds like perfectly reasonable and desirable behavior, but it appears that in my case, it did not always happen. For some reason, Quicken chose to open a different, older file a couple weeks ago. I don't know why, and I can only speculate that it had to do with an update that occurred just before then.