How to clean up corrupted database

Christine L

I am a 20+ year user of Quicken for Windows. Around the first of December, I downloaded the latest update, then transactions, and reconciled my accounts. When I went back in a week later, many of my recent transactions had disappeared or were changed. For instance, paychecks became deposited with an expense category of "education". All of my transfers between accounts also became "education" expenses. I attempted to use a backup file and that seemed to work at the time, but when I went in again this week, my files were messed up again. I attempted another restore from an earlier file and now my data is messed up back to the middle of September. I resigned myself to re-entering my transactions, but when I attempted to import them from my bank, Quicken says there's no new records to import - even though I can clearly see they are not there. I've wasted hours I don't have on this already and am worried that even once I do figure it out, it'll just happen again. Where do I even start with this?

UKR

1) Let's start with some "Troubleshooting 101" to ensure the Quicken software is installed and updated properly.

What is the exact release number for your version of Quicken?
If clicking on Help / About Quicken does not show one of the following you are missing required software updates.

Quicken US version

• 2017 ... support terminated as of 4/30/2020. See the Quicken Discontinuation Policy https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-discontinuation-policy

• 2018 - 2020 Subscription version ... Release R 27.1.30.14*, 
  https://www.quicken.com/support/update-and-mondo-patch-20182019-release-quicken-windows-subscription-product

Quicken Canada version:

• 2017 - 2020 Subscription version ... Release R 27.1.28.15* , 
  https://www.quicken.com/support/update-and-mondo-patch-20182019-release-quicken-windows-subscription-product

( * minimum required release number, may be higher, subject to change without notice)

Please do this even if you are on the latest release already:
Locate the US or Canada Mondo Patch file applicable to your version of Quicken in the links above.
Download it and save it to disk.
Open the Downloads folder. Right-click the downloaded patch file. Click "Run as Administrator" to execute the installation program.
This will replace any Quicken software modules with a known consistent release level and, hopefully, eliminate any software corruption or errors during installation as a cause of this issue.

Reboot Windows when done with the above and try Quicken again.

2) When done, restore your Quicken data file from a Manual or Automatic Backup taken prior to the problem first occurring, if necessary going back to older backups until you find a file that does not exhibit these symptoms.

https://www.quicken.com/support/how-backup-or-restore-your-quicken-data

Ps56k2

Also.... have you ever performed - .... 

- File --> File Operations --> Validate & Repair --> [X] Validate

splasher

Christine L said:

… I resigned myself to re-entering my transactions, but when I attempted to import them from my bank, Quicken says there's no new records to import - even though I can clearly see they are not there. …

Quicken remembers which transactions have been downloaded in the past, so re-doing a download doesn't produce any new transactions (duplicate prevention).

You would have to restore a Quicken Backup from prior to the download for Quicken to not "know" about those transactions and therefore present them for acceptance.

Sherlock

Before attempting to restore a Quicken file backup (or open an earlier copy of the Quicken File), I suggest deleting the Quicken Cloud dataset (aka cloud account) associated with the Quicken file.  Note: You need to open another Quicken file to delete the appropriate cloud account.  You may want to review: https://www.quicken.com/support/how-edit-or-delete-your-cloud-datasets-quicken-windows

This other Quicken file needs to have a distinct file identifier so that we may delete the cloud account associated with the original Quicken file.  For example, you may create a new Quicken file (select File > New Quicken File...) without any accounts, enable sync in preferences so you may view and delete the cloud account associated with the original Quicken file. 

This is necessary because when we open or restore an another version of the Quicken file with the same file identifier, Quicken is not resetting the cloud account appropriately at this time.  I hope they will let us know when they have addressed this issue, but for now before opening another Quicken file that has the same file identifier embedded, delete the cloud account.  

Note: Only File > New Quicken File... generates a distinct file identifier.  All other forms of creating Quicken file, copy the embedded identifier from another file.