Move .DAT files out of Documents and into AppData

Rocket J Squirrel

QWin clutters my Documents\Quicken folder with SyncLog.dat and OFXLOG.dat files.

I suggest placing these files in %APPDATA%\Quicken\Log with the other log files. My automatic backup process backs up my Documents folder but these .DAT files aren't worthy of backup.

Chris_QPW

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Quicken\Log might the more appropriate place to put them.

These are in fact the "scrambled" form of the Sync and OFX log files, and there is one of each per data file.  So these like the data file more belong to the user than they do to the "whole system".

Rocket J Squirrel

Chris_QPW said:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Quicken\Log might the more appropriate place to put them.

LOL. You should check to see where %APPDATA%\Quicken\Log really is.

Chris_QPW

Oops!  For some reason I was thinking %APPDATA% was %ALLUSERSPROFILE%.

Rocket J Squirrel

Bumpitty bump.

TTSguy

Would help keep backup file list clean!

Chris_QPW

If they ever get to this one, it would be nice if they also took care of moving the other various log files and folders that show up where the data file is stored:

Rocket J Squirrel

GPUCache and LOG appear in the startup folder, which you can set in your shortcut icon. I use %APPDATA%\Quicken and that's where those two items appear.

Chris_QPW

Rocket J Squirrel said:

GPUCache and LOG appear in the startup folder, which you can set in your shortcut icon. I use %APPDATA%\Quicken and that's where those two items appear.

I know, but they shouldn't be there.  There are proper places for such files, and neither the "startup folder" or "where the data file is", is the proper place.

Rocket J Squirrel

Chris_QPW said:

There are proper places for such files, and neither the "startup folder" or "where the data file is", is the proper place.

Agreed.

Rocket J Squirrel

Time for an annual BUMP.

UKR

Reviewing this discussion, I'm of the opinion that these files should stay with their related Quicken data file in the respective data file folder, because they are are variably prefixed with the name of the QDF file. See examples, UKR.QDF and test.qdf:

Moving these files into a different folder just creates more clutter, IMHO.

Rocket J Squirrel

IMNSHO, the .dat files are clutter where they are. If they were in my AppData, I would never have to see them. Plus they would not be wasting time and space getting backed up because I don't backup that folder.

UserDavidC

Both @UKR and @Rocket J Squirrel have valid points and I can see both sides.

However, I have to go with moving these files to the log folder. Under normal circumstances, these are rarely referenced and to my way of thinking, these ARE log files even if they are labeled .DAT.

Phil Burton

I take a different approach. That said, I still upvoted this request.

I keep ALL my data files in a separate D: partition, which gets backed up every evening.

I also check my Documents and Downloads folders, and any data files there are moved to the right folder on D:

Ps56k2

and maybe the different programmers could follow the same simple "standard" naming scheme….
like someone acting as a manager to get all on the same page - they can't even get the "name/text" to be the same together,
how could they ever be expected to create a software Release without bugs -

UPPER vs Lower vs MiXeD vs underscore _ or not -