Cannot delete a file that formerly had an online connection

Barry Berkov

This is another issue that Quicken chat support has not been able to answer. I have several accounts that have no entries at this point but I cannot delete the account. When I go through the delete process, I get a message about the need to contact the institution to really cancel the account. I click ok, but the account doesn't get deleted from Quicken. There is no online connection show for the account. Creating a completely new file isn't an answer because I have investment accounts and cannot export and import them using a QXF file. II tried creating a QIF file as an experiment and then importing it into a new file but there are a lot of transactions and the import became non-responsive. Note that I've done a validate and supervalidate. There doesn't seem to be a way to force Quicken to delete an account.

As always, any suggestions will be much appreciated. Replies I've received on other topics haven't always solved my issues but have occasionally helped me find a solution.

NotACPA

Try deactivating those accounts from download prior to deleting them.

And what the message really says is that deleting the account does NOT end, at the bank, the ability to download ... and if you're paying to download from that bank the charges will continue until you notify the bank to stop.

Barry Berkov

Thanks for your reply.

I understand what the message says when deleting but the accounts are not in the list of accounts for downloading. They don't show any connection method. Quicken apprently thinks they have a connection but none is set.

NotACPA

Making sure that we're speaking the same language.... when you do TOOLS, Account List, what appears in the "Transaction Download" column adjacent  to each of those accounts is only "---".  Is that correct?

Also, for each of those accounts, what shows in the "Last Download" column?

Barry Berkov

The two accounts both show "not available" in both "transaction download" and "last download" columns. I got rid of one other account by re-establishing an online connection for it and then disabling it before trying to delete but I haven't been able to do that with the other two although I'm going to try again.

NotACPA

Looking over my accounts, the only place where I see "Not Available" in both the "Transaction Download"  and the "Last Download" columns is in a closed account ... as signified by a red circle with a red slash thru it\ immediately adjacent to the account name.

Does this appear  with any of your problem accounts?

Barry Berkov

No red circles for either account.

Chris_QPW

Try holding down Shift+Ctrl while going through the delete operation.  Sometimes there are special functions like this to bypass blocks like this.

Chris_QPW

If you are forced at creating a new data file from QIF export/import, this should help you in getting a better result:
http://www.quicknperlwiz.com/changetransfers.html

Barry Berkov

Chris, thanks very much for your suggestions. The link in your document that begins with "getsatisfaction" doesn't work but I'll see if I can find the post in the community.

Barry Berkov

Again thanks to all who have provided suggestions and again, while none was an actual solution, they helped me find a solution that worked for me although it may not work for others.

I deactivated the new accounts I had created and which left the old ones around and then reactivated the old accounts' online connections. Having done that, I deactivated the old accounts and was then able to delete them.

Chris_QPW

Barry Berkov said:

Chris, thanks very much for your suggestions. The link in your document that begins with "getsatisfaction" doesn't work but I'll see if I can find the post in the community.

Yes I know that and I have reported it in another thread, but the Moderators haven't fixed it.  When they "archive" old threads that happens.  That thread has (had) lots of information about the pitfalls of QIF exports/imports.  Mostly what is "left behind", but I there wasn't anything in it that was a "better way" that I remember.  So the information on my webpage still applies.

I'm glad that you found a way to get this done without that drastic approach.
Quicken and its problems like this do require a lot of "creative thinking".  

Barry Berkov

Chris,

There are lots of gotchas in Quicken. I don't think there is yet a real alternative.

There should be a way to process a .QDF file and create a new one with only the accounts the user selects with the further capability of specifying a date range individually or globally. If you think about, the archive process selectively creates a new file except there isn't a way to include only certain accounts. I don't know the internal structure of a QDF file and even if I did, I haven't written any code for years but it should be easy for the Quicken folks to add the capability to the archive process. Transferring an account that has a reference to an account that isn't been transfered adds a complexity but even that shouldn't be difficult to provide for.

FYI...a replacement link for the one in your document is probably:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7450045/i-just-succeeded-in-recreating-my-data-file-using-a-qif-export-import

Chris_QPW

Thanks, yes that was what I was looking for, and now I see that it all my fault.  For some reason I spaced out that it was "getsatisfaction", which was what the last Quicken forum was using, and then they were converted to "community" when they changed over and I didn't update my link!

QXF export/imports are what they use in the Quicken Mac world to do this (but it is an all or none operation), but Quicken Inc has never seen fit to put in the importing of investment transactions/accounts by QXF even though it does export them.  That format was in fact created to go from Quicken Windows to Quicken Mac, but was mostly done by the Mac users to support their users.  The Quicken Windows developers haven't seen the "need" to really develop it, even though there are a few people that have asked about it trying to change from a Mac to a Windows machine.

And then of course this is the need for like how it would be used in this thread and many others like it.

I went looking for the idea thread for this so you could add your vote, but I see that they have already put it to "planned", which turns off the voting.
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7850837/need-a-tool-to-really-truly-repair-data-corruption-13-merged-votes