When I open quicken, I am always prompted for a file

jim4

after a recent update, I always get the attached screen. quicken doesn't remember the file I was last using.

splasher

Check your filename length. Quicken can get picky about it if it is longer than eight characters, 12345678.QDF. 
Also check that there is not a space at the end before the period.

Rename it in Windows Explorer with Quicken closed. Once renamed, double click on the file to start Quicken with that file, after that, it should find it on its own.

UKR

You misunderstood. I was asking about the QDF file:

Did you make sure, using either File Explorer or a DOS DIR command, that your QDF file does NOT have a blank space after the file name?
"2020_.QDF" where the underscore character is a blank space in reality ... that's incorrect and tends to cause this problem.

Sherlock

Quicken should be maintaining the four most recently accessed files in the QUSER.INI file in the user's hidden AppData\Roaming\Quicken\Config folder.  If you are opening the Quicken program, Quicken should be attempting to open the first file in the [RecentFiles] section's list.  If Quicken fails to open the file, you'll receive the prompt you provided.  If you are not able to view the C:\USERS\[your username]\AppData folder, you may want to review: https://www.quicken.com/support/show-hidden-files-and-folders 

If you are using a Windows shortcut to open the Quicken file, you may want to verify the shortcut's target is still set properly: right-click on the shortcut and select Properties

splasher

Check your filename length. Quicken can get picky about it if it is longer than eight characters, 12345678.QDF. 
Also check that there is not a space at the end before the period.

Rename it in Windows Explorer with Quicken closed. Once renamed, double click on the file to start Quicken with that file, after that, it should find it on its own.

UKR

Check if Windows Defender feature Ransomware protection is enabled.
If so, configure it to add Quicken as an "allowed app" without turning off Ransomware protection. Perform the last step in:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7857675/faq-windows-defender-controlled-folder-access

jim4

Thank you for your suggestions. The file name is 4 Characters. I checked the QUSER.INI file, and the recent files info is there. I deleted the QUSER.INI file and started quicken, giving my file. As you can see below, the QUSER.INI file is being written, but it is ignored on startup.

[Window]
State=Maximized
Height=859
Width=1599
Top=1
Left=1
[Quicken]
ExecNum=4
CatReminder=1
[RecentFiles]
1=C:\Stuff\Financial\Quicken\2020
2=C:\Stuff\Financial\Quicken\2020
3=C:\Stuff\Financial\Quicken\2020
4=
[RecentBackupPaths]
BackupPath5=
BackupPath4=
BackupPath3=
BackupPath2=
BackupPath1=E:\Financial\

UKR

Which exact path did you find the QUSER.INI file in?
"C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Quicken\config\QUSER.INI"
or

"C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Intuit\Quicken\config\QUSER.INI"

What is your exact version and release of Quicken, as shown in Help / About Quicken?

Did you make sure, using either File Explorer or a DOS DIR command, that your QDF file does NOT have a blank space after the file name?
"2020_.QDF" where the underscore character is a blank space in reality ... that's incorrect and tends to cause this problem.

Sherlock

jim4 said:

Thank you for your suggestions. The file name is 4 Characters. I checked the QUSER.INI file, and the recent files info is there. I deleted the QUSER.INI file and started quicken, giving my file. As you can see below, the QUSER.INI file is being written, but it is ignored on startup.

[Window]
State=Maximized
Height=859
Width=1599
Top=1
Left=1
[Quicken]
ExecNum=4
CatReminder=1
[RecentFiles]
1=C:\Stuff\Financial\Quicken\2020
2=C:\Stuff\Financial\Quicken\2020
3=C:\Stuff\Financial\Quicken\2020
4=
[RecentBackupPaths]
BackupPath5=
BackupPath4=
BackupPath3=
BackupPath2=
BackupPath1=E:\Financial\

How are you opening Quicken?  As I said earlier, if you are using a shortcut, you may want to verify the shortcut's target is still set properly: right-click on the shortcut and select Properties

jim4

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Quicken\config\QUSER.INI

Directory of C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Quicken\config

11/20/2020 12:20 PM 334 QUSER.INI
1 File(s) 334 bytes
0 Dir(s) 625,101,852,672 bytes free

UKR

You misunderstood. I was asking about the QDF file:

Did you make sure, using either File Explorer or a DOS DIR command, that your QDF file does NOT have a blank space after the file name?
"2020_.QDF" where the underscore character is a blank space in reality ... that's incorrect and tends to cause this problem.

jim4

1. I checked the shortcut.
Then I went directly to qw.exe in C:\Program Files (x86)\Quicken,
double clicked and got the same result

jim4

Thank You UKR, and everyone for your help! I don't know how the blank got into the filename, but there it was. It's an interesting feature that the program doesn't either support blanks in a file name, or check and warn the user :}

Chris_QPW

There seems to be something strange about the way Quicken is running for you.
I removed my Quicken.INI file and recreated it to be sure.  With automatic backups and with manual.


Notice that my QDF file name appears only once.  And that is true no matter how many times I open my data file.
Yours on the other hand repeats three times.


That shouldn't happen.  It is like Quicken believes each of the above are at a different path.

I would suggest trying this uninstall procedure (do the second part where you get rid of all of the directories) and then reinstalling.
Using QcleanUI to Fix Installation Issues with Quicken for Windows

jim4

You typed:
>>>>There seems to be something strange about the way Quicken is running for you.
I removed my Quicken.INI file and recreated it to be sure. With automatic backups and with manual.


Notice that my QDF file name appears only once. And that is true no matter how many times I open my data file.
Yours on the other hand repeats three times.


That shouldn't happen. It is like Quicken believes each of the above are at a different path.

I would suggest trying this uninstall procedure (do the second part where you get rid of all of the directories) and then reinstalling.
Using QcleanUI to Fix Installation Issues with Quicken for Windows<<<<<<

That seems to be an artifact of the blank in the file name. Apparently qw doesn't recognize that the name matches a real file, so it adds it to the {recents] list. I deleted the [recents] files, and restarted qw several times, and only one [recent] file is shown.

Thanks,