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why do I have a large config directory tree in the Windows folder (directory)?

LandofCope52

I'm using the desktop program Quicken Premier for Windows year 2020 R29.22.
I found that I have a large config directory tree in the Windows directory, 256 levels. I tried to copy the entire folder to another computer and it fails with a "out of memory" error on this directory tree. Can anyone tell me how I got these folders (directories) and why? I deleted all but the top folder. I hope I didn't hurt anything. Thanks.

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LandofCope52

Thanks go to all who responded to my problem. Concerning the question "Are there any files of any kind anywhere in this mess ?", I can't answer it. In File Explorer I had to click 2 times each time to display the next lower folder and my finger gave out before long. I might have gone 100 levels deep; not sure but at any rate I never saw any actual file. Anyway, thanks to Chris_QPW, I am confident there would be no file in this Config folder that I need anyway. By way of explanation, what I was trying to do was to copy my entire Documents folder from my desktop computer to my laptop for backup and for on-the road use. That's how I discovered I had this problem that I didn't even know was there. From all of your responses I'm confident that by deleting the top level Config folder, I'll be ok and didn't break anything. I have used my favorite program (Quicken) since then and haven't seen another Config folder magically appear. :-)

All comments

GeoffG

You will need to be more specific about the exact folder(s) in question. A screenshot would be helpful. And yes, this is highly irregular.

LandofCope52

Thanks GeoffG. I already deleted all but the highest level Config folder so I can't provide a screen shot but it looked like this:
\Documents\Quicken\Config\Config\Config\Config\Config\Config\Config\Config\Config... etc.... and I believe there where more-or-less 256 \Config folders in total; although I didn't see all of them because I got tired of clicking on the sub-folders. I do know that OS could not contain all of them hence the error "not enough memory". I don't know what the Windows memory limit is for a directory tree but whatever it is, it wasn't enough.
Thanks.

Ps56k2

LandofCope52 said: it looked like this:
\Documents\Quicken\Config\Config\Config\Config\Config\Config\... etc....

if the long version of the path is something like this -

C:\Users\Owner\Documents\Quicken-Files\

I see nothing that has a "config" sub-dir ....
but will look around the other Quicken sub-dir areas.

C:\ProgramData\Quicken\config\
C:\ProgramData\Intuit\Quicken\Config

Certainly seems like something is in a loop - and creating things wrongly -

Are there any files of any kind anywhere in this mess ?

Chris_QPW

Here is my take on this. At times Quicken has been know to write config files to where your data file is. Sometimes this is the log file or other such configuration files.
It isn't unconceivable that it did the save thing with this folder:
C:\ProgramData\Quicken\Config

And then something put it into a recursive loop and it kept creating the Config folders inside the Config folder, and on and on until finally Windows stopped it because the path name was too long.

On the problem with trying to move it to another machine and getting an out of memory fail. I have run into this problem before (not on Quicken, in a different setting) and it seems that when a program is doing it, it can create a path that is longer than can be handled by File Explorer and even from the command prompt!

You can move that folder to another folder on the same drive, but you can't copy it any where else (moving to another drive is a copy and remove, moving on the same drive is just changing a link in the directory record).

You need to use Robocopy to delete this folder. Note there shouldn't be any real data in this folder that you have to keep. The real config files are in the path I gave above.

https://helpcenter.gsx.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002767907-How-to-Clean-Folder-Contents-when-a-Filename-or-File-Path-is-to-long

If you continue to run into problems I would suggest a clean uninstall and reinstall (deleting the existing directories stated in this article, under "If the steps above do not resolve the issue"
):
https://www.quicken.com/support/using-qcleanui-uninstall-quicken

LandofCope52