Recovering Quicken Mac 2007 Files

cowdogman

I accidentally (stupidly) deleted my Quicken Mac 2016 file while doing a clean system install and so have been trying to access data from some old Quicken Mac 2007 backups.

Fortunately I have an old copy of Quicken 2007 16.0 and an old iMac (first or second generation circa 1999), but when I try to open the quicken data file I get a "unable to load file" message. I also get the same massage on all the backups.

I stopped using Quicken Mac 2007 around 2014 and so strongly suspect that I was using version 16.1 or 16.2 of Quicken Mac 2007 at the time. (All I have now is the disk with 16.0.)

My question: Will version 16.0 open a Quicken Mac 2007 version 16.1 or 16.2 file? If not, then I'll try to find a copy of 16.1 or 16.2.

Thanks. Any help would be appreciated.

P.S., I did try converting the 2007 files in Quicken 2016 and Quicken 2020 and both fail with an unspecified error.

jacobs

If your Quicken 2007 data file fails open in Quicken 2007 version 16.0, and also fails to import into Quicken 2016 and Quicken 2020, then it's likely that your files are damaged. Although that seems odd if you have multiple files and backups.

The Quicken 2007 file format did not change between version 16.0.x (the original Power PC version) and 16.1.x/16.2.x (the Mac OS Lion and beyond version). I believe a file opened in 16.2 would still be able to be opened in 16.0. But any Quicken 2007 data file should open in any version of modern Quicken Mac.

Depending how your files may have been moved around over the years, one possible culprit for knocking out all your files would be if the files were moved to a drive (like a thumb drive) which wasn't using a Mac file format. That would wipe out the resource fork of the files. (Although I thought current Quicken had a specific error for that, so maybe I'm going down the wrong road here.) 

One thing you might try:

• Make a copy of your 2007 data file
• Control-click on the copy and select Show Package Contents from the menu
• Locate the file called "Data File" within it the Package
• Drag "Data File" to your desktop.
• Launch Quicken 2020 and see if it will import "Data File"

If it's a missing resource fork issue with the original data file, I think this will get around that. 

jacobs

If your Quicken 2007 data file fails open in Quicken 2007 version 16.0, and also fails to import into Quicken 2016 and Quicken 2020, then it's likely that your files are damaged. Although that seems odd if you have multiple files and backups.

The Quicken 2007 file format did not change between version 16.0.x (the original Power PC version) and 16.1.x/16.2.x (the Mac OS Lion and beyond version). I believe a file opened in 16.2 would still be able to be opened in 16.0. But any Quicken 2007 data file should open in any version of modern Quicken Mac.

Depending how your files may have been moved around over the years, one possible culprit for knocking out all your files would be if the files were moved to a drive (like a thumb drive) which wasn't using a Mac file format. That would wipe out the resource fork of the files. (Although I thought current Quicken had a specific error for that, so maybe I'm going down the wrong road here.) 

One thing you might try:

• Make a copy of your 2007 data file
• Control-click on the copy and select Show Package Contents from the menu
• Locate the file called "Data File" within it the Package
• Drag "Data File" to your desktop.
• Launch Quicken 2020 and see if it will import "Data File"

If it's a missing resource fork issue with the original data file, I think this will get around that. 

cowdogman

Thank you for your reply. Very helpful info. I think you are right about the damaged file. I happened to find another drive with QM 2007 backups and I tried the QM 2020 conversion on one of those files. It worked--altho it wasn't a 100% conversion. I lost a lot of info, especially in the investment accounts.

I'm now trying to figure out how to get a 100% conversion--either to QM 2020 or QW 2020.

Thanks again.

jacobs

If you can still run Quicken 2007 on your old Mac…

First make a copy of any file you work with, to insure you maintain the status quo. Open a file in Quicken 2007, open the Accounts window, and do Command-Option-B to have Quicken re-build its account indexes. Once it's done, quit Quicken and try importing that file into modern Quicken Mac again. The Quicken 2007 database is a bit wonky and is prone to several types of corruption; rebuilding the account indexes fixes some problems, and may -- or may not -- lead to a better import of data into the current Quicken Mac.