missing quicken.msi file

Toby Webb

Q Deluxe R30.21 on Windows 10. I keep my qdf file in Dropbox so I can open it from multiple devices on which Q Deluxe is loaded. Worked fine yesterday. File was closed and PC on "sleep" over night. This morning when I tried to open file in Dropbox I got "Please wait while Windows configures Quicken" and then "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable. ... enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package "Quicken.msi" in the box below." A search using the Windows search box finds no quicken.msi file on my PC. How do I repair?

Quicken Anja

Hello @Toby Webb,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community to tell us about your issue, though I apologize that you are experiencing this.

We strongly recommend that you move and store your data file to your local computer hard drive, especially, before opening the data file. Storing and opening your data file while it's stored in a cloud-based drive location such as DropBox, can cause data damage and/or corruption which is likely the reason why you are receiving this error.

Please, review this support article for more information on this topic.

I hope this helps!

Chris_QPW

Well I want to point out a few things.

1. Dropbox/OneDrive and such are actually local files not network files, so in that sense having the file you open on these isn't going to have the same "reliability" problems that a network drive might have.  But with that being said, these services tend to lock the data file at the "wrong times" and therefore block Quicken from accessing it, and as such it throws up errors.  And for this reason you shouldn't have the Quicken file that you are opening in these places.  It is fine for the backups, but not the file you are opening in Quicken.
2. I highly recommend you don't allow your machine to sleep/hibernate while Quicken has a data file open.  It is possible for this to lead to data file corruption.
3. Even though your Help -> About Quicken is saying that you are on R03.21, most likely you aren't.  It has been reported that the R31.6 install is aborting for some people leaving them half and an half out.  Most likely the automatic install kicked in for R31.6 and that is what is happening to you.
4. The install creates associations between each of the Quicken file types like QDF, QFX, and QDF-Backup with telling Windows to open these files with Quicken.  When this install aborts it seems to wipe out these associations and as such Windows is trying to open these files with Internet Explorer instead of Quicken.  They are debugging this problem.  Since they have turned off the installing of R31.6, reinstalling Quicken by going to Quicken.com and logging into your account and downloading and installing Quicken from there will most likely fix the problem.

Toby Webb

Thanks. I uninstalled Qucken, re-downloaded it, and that seems to have fixed the problem. I am curious about the recommendation to keep my qdf file “on my local hard drive “ rather than in Dropbox. Isn’t that the way dropbox works: I am editing my local file which then gets synced to the local file on my other PC (weekend home)? Moving the file out of Dropbox daily to work with it and then redepositing it into Dropbox sort of kills the convenience.

Chris_QPW

OK first off some of the recommendations about this come from a misunderstanding on how Dropbox and OneDrive (and others work), and there are some real concerns, and it is easier to state don't do it than point out all the different reasons you can get in trouble..

I start with the main reason for the recommendation.  Network drives can be reliable, but as soon as you say network drive you have no idea if it is setup right or reliable, because it is so "generic" and the user may be an expert or someone that has no idea how to setup.  And the "physical" network can be unreliable wireless connection, another machine, Windows, Linux, Mac, ....

Quicken has nothing in it to correct for errors in reads or writes.  So as the reliability of the reads/writes goes down the chances of corrupting your data file goes up.

The "sort of" misunderstanding with Dropbox/OneDrive is that they have "cloud/server" mentioned in how they work.  But in truth for both of these the reads/writes are to a local drive, which in turn gets synced to the "cloud"/server.

With a service like this there are a few possible problems.  One is how they decide to do that copy.  Early on OneDrive (and for some backup programs) they use Windows "shadow" copy.  Basically make a quick copy of the state of the file system and then let then in the background copy data to the server.  The problem with this is Windows doesn't know when the data file is in a "consistent state".  Some databases have a way to for Windows to flag "get into a consistent state", Quicken doesn't.  But they stopped doing that quite awhile ago and Dropbox never did it that way.  When Quicken opens the data file (and it keeps it open for the whole session) there is a lock put on it. Dropbox/OneDrive honor that lock and don't sync the data file until the lock is removed (shadow copy ignores the lock).  So far so good.

Next possible problem. What if someone changes the Quicken data file on another machine which you are changing it on your machine?  At "best" one of you is going to lose your changes.  At worst it is going to try to merge a file that it can't merge without missing up.

OK say you know you have avoided the above problem. Well Quicken has some more gotchas there are certain operations like backup, Validate and Repair, moving transactions in an investment account where Quicken closes the data file and that releases the lock, and it possible for Dropbox/OneDrive to step in and lock that data file and start the sync.  Quicken expects to be able to reopen that file with no interference.  And as such will throw up errors when it can't.

Needless to say this kind of explanation isn't something that a company wants to post as "standard procedure" on this subject.

DunbarPuppy

I am storing data file on local drive, how do I fix the missing msi issue

hobiemountaincats

Hi all. I am using quicken for Windows on a Mac with VMWare and it thinks it is a remote drive because of the way VMware works with the underlying disk. When I attempt to open the data file I get the same error as noted above. How do I correct this and install the update?

Note. this is happening if I click on a the QDF data file in the Quicken folder from Windows Explorer.

If I click on the desktop Quicken shortcut it starts Quicken ok and opens the data file with no issues.But when I go to check for updates it says I am at the current version of 30.21 even though 31.5 seems to be the current one.

Any advice on this is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Quicken Francisco

Hello everyone

Thanks for the update on what you've been experiencing here. We are currently aware of an bug that's causing this issue. We should be having a a hotfix coming in soon to resolve this issue soon. Once the update has launched let us know if you're still having the issue.

Thanks,
Quicken Francisco

cwsintl

My data is stored on my computer. This is the error message I have been receiving for the last several days each time I try to download transactions from my bank. "the feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable. enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package. 'Quicken.msi' in the box below" Do I need to uninstall and re-install? I want to be sure that I don't lose any of my data. Thanks.

Quicken Francisco

@cwsintl

Thanks for the update I would recommend trying to update with the mondo patch if you haven't done so already and are still experiencing issues. This should help us with getting the error to stop popping up when you download transactions. I'll leave a link down below.

https://www.quicken.com/support/update-and-patch-20182019-release-quicken-windows-subscription-product

Let us know how it goes!

Thanks,
Quicken Francisco