Is the backed up Quicken file duplicated on the computer and the cloud account?

Richard Behling

When closing Quicken, can the the file (on the computer) that was used by Quicken, be automatically saved on the computer and backed up as a duplicate in a cloud account in Windows?

How can I confirm that there are exact copies on the computer and in a cloud account?

Chris_QPW

Well there is this suggestion to sync on close that you can vote on:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7887815/option-to-apply-quicken-updates-on-close

But I want to make sure you understand that the "cloud account" is NEVER a duplicate of what is stored on your computer.  It is just a partial copy of some of the data in your data file.  It is meant to hold enough to "work away from home/the desktop Quicken for a limited amount of time before syncing back to the Desktop data file."

EDIT there is no way for you to confirm that the data in the Quicken desktop data file and the Quicken cloud account match.

Chris_QPW

Well there is this suggestion to sync on close that you can vote on:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7887815/option-to-apply-quicken-updates-on-close

But I want to make sure you understand that the "cloud account" is NEVER a duplicate of what is stored on your computer.  It is just a partial copy of some of the data in your data file.  It is meant to hold enough to "work away from home/the desktop Quicken for a limited amount of time before syncing back to the Desktop data file."

EDIT there is no way for you to confirm that the data in the Quicken desktop data file and the Quicken cloud account match.

Sherlock

To answer your question correctly, we need to know what you mean by a cloud account in Windows.

If you're referring to a Quicken Cloud account, the answer is: no.  The Quicken Cloud does not provide a backup of a Quicken file.

If you're referring to cloud storage services such as OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox, MegaSync, etc. , the answer is: yes.  We can set Quicken to automatically backup the Quicken file to a folder that is automatically saved to a cloud account.
 
There are multiple ways of determining whether two files are identical on Windows.  For example, we may use the Windows file compare command, fc.  

Richard Behling

What are the steps to set up my desktop installed Quicken program to:
1. When the Quicken account is closing, it will...
2. automatically back up the Quicken data file simultaneously to a folder on the computer hard drive, and to a cloud account drive.
3. The Quicken program continues to access the computer's locally stored file.
4. The file simultaneously stored in the cloud drive can be downloaded to a computer, and used by the Quicken Program.

Richard Behling

If, as you said that, the Quicken Cloud does not provide a backup of a Quicken file? What is different about the file that is automatically copied to the Quicken provided Dropbox?

Chris_QPW

OK, it seems that I guessed wrong at what you meant and @Sherlock got it right.  I was thinking you were talking about syncing to Mobile/Web.

#1 Edit -> Preferences


#2

And then set it to a folder under your Dropbox folder.
This is in fact a folder on your hard drive, and then Dropbox will sync it to a folder on your Dropbox cloud drive.  So those two are covered at the same time.

#3 as see the location for the original Quicken data file hasn't changed, so this part is covered.

#4 The backup file can be recovered/used in several ways.
File -> Backup and Restore -> Restore from Backup File...

This will by default be pointing to the folder where you have your automatic backups (in the Dropbox folder).

Selecting one and selecting Restore Backup gives you this:


You can also use Windows File Explorer (with Quicken closed) and open the *.QDF-backup file and get this dialog:


And yet another is just to copy the *.QDF-backup file to another place and then rename the backup file from *.QDF-backup to *.QDF and open it.  The .QDF-backup and .QDF are actually the exact same, but the different type lets Quicken know that when you open it, it should be copied to somewhere else instead of opening it in place.

As of recovering on another machine or if you lose the current hard drive.  You can either use Dropbox's web interface and download the *.QDF-backup file, or setup Dropbox on another machine, sync that folder to there and restore from its Dropbox folder.

As for you question on determining if the QDF and a .QDF-backup are identical you can use any Windows file compare utility, but because they are binary files the only thing you can tell is if they are exactly the same or not.  And in general you can just look at the modification date and times in Windows File Explorer, and if they are then the should be the identical file.

Chris_QPW

Actually looking at what you said closer I think I was right and you were talking about syncing to Mobile/Web which they call "Cloud account sync".  But @Sherlock was right about your "intent", as in what you really needed is what I provided above on how to properly using Quicken "backup".

Ps56k2

just FYI - this is what the Quicken Cloud provides - and what it does NOT -

https://www.quicken.com/support/what-quicken-cloud

jrich75

And, just in case others haven't seen it, the details of the Quicken Dropbox offer:
https://www.quicken.com/support/how-redeem-your-free-5gb-dropbox-offer