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importing .QFX files - errors

john heyden

I have quicken home, business, Rental property, latest upgrade. I am trying to set up a file to import all my bank transactions from 2020 only so i can do my taxes. I have downloaded each individual month as .qfx files and also one file covering from 1 1 20 to 12 31 20. I keep getting error messages and it won't load all the individual .qfx files or either the 1 large .qfx file. The tech's at quicken say it's the banks fault, the bank says it's quickens fault and neither has the answer.
I simply want to download all of 2020 transactions, open them in quicken and try to do my taxes. Anyone have any helpful answers? Can you send to [Removed - Email] since i'm not sure how to get back to this place to see an answer? Thanks

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Chris_QPW

I'm glad you got it sorted out. BTW you can select F1 on it window/tab to get help.
But like I said it is a complicated process. For investment transaction importing the most important step is to select the right account type when creating the account setup.

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Frankx

Hi @john heyden

Can you please tell us what "error code" you receive when you try to import the .QFX files? Did the Quicken techs indicate the nature of the problem with the files?

Frankx

Ps56k2

john heyden said: I keep getting error messages and it won't load all the individual .qfx files or either the one large .qfx file.

1 - What Version and Release as shown in ..... Help --> About Quicken

also -
2 - what Expiration Date ?

3 - What are the Error codes or messages you are seeing ?

4 - What bank are you downloading ?

5 - If you open one of the QFX files - is just text - so Notepad is fine -
scroll down and what do you see for these tags ?
My example are the codes for Chase Bank -

john heyden

Quicken home business and rental property vR31.12 build 27.1.31.12
Here is the error message.
"Quicken is unable to complete your request (OL-221-A)"
Quicken tech say it's a problem with the bank. The bank says it's a problem at quicken. The quicken tech didn't know what the problem was. I asked if maybe there was a higher level tech i could speak to.
Expiration date is 10 days from now but i don't want to renew if i can't use the program.

Chris_QPW

OL-221-A is usually generated for one of two reasons. The first is that the financial institution given in the QFX file isn't a "participating partner". The second reason is a syntax error in the QFX file.

If you select: Help -> Log Files -> Connect Log and then look near the bottom (provided that the QFX import is the last thing you did) it will report syntax errors there.

Frankx

Hi again @john heyden

Can you tell me the name of the bank? That may help t sort this out.

Thanks.

Frankx

Ps56k2

john heyden said: Quicken tech say it's a problem with the bank

Q&A from my above ... 1 - 5 .... still need 4 & 5

john heyden

the bank is University of Virginia Community Credit Union and Chase Bank

"5 - If you open one of the QFX files - is just text - so Notepad is fine -
scroll down and what do you see for these tags ?
My example are the codes for Chase Bank -"

I opened it up in notepad and i have absolutely no idea what i'm looking at with that. I didn't see any notations like you describe above, but i'm lost on that.

Ii have both banks listed above in my "one step update", i click that but it does not update anything but says "update complete". Would it help to uninstall this and reinstall the program?
It used to work fine, but now nothing seems to work....

Quicken Sarah

Hello @john heyden

Thank you for providing that additional information, although I apologize that you have not yet received a follow-up response.

If you haven't already, please open Quicken and go to the Edit menu > Preferences option.

In the window that opens, select the Quicken ID & Cloud Accounts option. On the right side of the window click on the link that says "Sign in as a different user"

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/89/9a6oyvsbyg3s.png

In the window that opens, type "yes" in the box at the bottom to confirm that you do want to sign out. Quicken will refresh and show a blank Quicken ID sign-in window.

When it does, close and re-open Quicken, then sign-in entering the same Quicken ID information used previously.

When you can see your Quicken data again, please attempt to run a One Step Update or import the Web Connect (.QFX) file once more and let us know how it goes.

Does the OL-220 or blank one step update persist? Do you receive a different error message at all? Or is the update/import now successful?

Please let us know, thank you.

Sarah

john heyden

I followed your instructions and i get the same error messages. I tried opening a file that included all data from 2020 (1 1 2020 to 12 31 2020) and i get same error message.
If i download each month individually and try to load them the jan-june files will not load or open but july-dec will open.

Chris_QPW

john heyden said:

If i download each month individually and try to load them the jan-june files will not load or open but july-dec will open.

Interesting I have heard reports that some financial institutions do block importing of QFX import older than a certain date, but have never been able to really confirm that. Quicken does do a verification with the financial institution, but I have never see an proof that is other than verifying that they have an agreement with them.

I would be interested in seeing what the Connection Log says for one of these failures. As in example I purposely put in a syntax error in a QFX file and imported it. Here is how it looks.

==== OSU End (20210226/11:26:15) ====

20210226 19:42:05: Not all required fields present. Object: CCSTMTRS missing tag: LEDGERBAL

20210226 19:42:06:

You can get the Connection Log with: Help -> Log Files -> Connection Log
It will open in Notepad and the entry will be at the bottom.

EDIT: Note do the failed import just before opening the log so that you know it is going to be the last entry in the file.

john heyden

Here is something very curious. I've been on the phone with quicken tech support several times for hours now and the consensus is that it is a problem with the bank. The bank says it's quicken and i'm stuck in the middle.
However i ran across this article from Stessa:
https://support.stessa.com/en/articles/2410934-upload-transactions-data-qif-qfx-ofx-csv?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_2037537

talking about importing .qfx files into their online accounting program. So i took the .qfx i had downloaded from my bank that included a years transactions from 1 1 20 to 12 31 20 WHICH WOULD NOT LOAD UP IN QUICKEN....and guess what, it loaded fine in their online accounting program, showed me all my transactions, ect. so go figure??

Chris_QPW

john heyden said:

Here is something very curious. I've been on the phone with quicken tech support several times for hours now and the consensus is that it is a problem with the bank. The bank says it's quicken and i'm stuck in the middle.
However i ran across this article from Stessa:
https://support.stessa.com/en/articles/2410934-upload-transactions-data-qif-qfx-ofx-csv?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_2037537

talking about importing .qfx files into their online accounting program. So i took the .qfx i had downloaded from my bank that included a years transactions from 1 1 20 to 12 31 20 WHICH WOULD NOT LOAD UP IN QUICKEN....and guess what, it loaded fine in their online accounting program, showed me all my transactions, ect. so go figure??

Basically that only proves that their program is "more tolerant" of possible problems.
There are two reasons that might be. One is they are importing OFX not QFX. QFX is OFX with some extra parameters and checks. QFX has the fields that @Ps56k2 mentioned, and OFX doesn't. Quicken uses these to check things like if they are a "participating partner", as in they have an agreement with Intuit (Intuit provides the service to Quicken Inc). This might also involve a check if the financial institution wants to prevent really old transactions from be imported.

The second possibility is that there is a syntax error in the QFX file like a missing ending tag, and Quicken complains, and they ignore it.

At any rate is seems that you don't want to follow my suggestions, but I will make one last one. Use my program to change the QFX file into a QIF file and import that:
QuicknPerlWiz - Use ImportQIF to import transactions into Quicken

john heyden

Hello Chris_QPW I am trying to follow your suggestions, i'm not sure I completely understand everything (i'm not as computer savvy as you guys) but i'm wondering, if it is a syntax error as you claim that is the issue is there a way to take the file, like in notepad, and open it and correct that error, resave it? Although i really don't know what i would look for or correct?
Jan-June will not load up but July-dec will, so is there something i could see in july file in notepad that isn't there in june file (or vice versa?) Thank you for your patience and help I appreciate it.

Chris_QPW

john heyden said:

Hello Chris_QPW I am trying to follow your suggestions, i'm not sure I completely understand everything (i'm not as computer savvy as you guys) but i'm wondering, if it is a syntax error as you claim

I'm not claiming that there is a syntax error, I'm saying it is one possible cause, and an error message in the Connection log would confirm it.

john heyden said:

....is there a way to take the file, like in notepad, and open it and correct that error, resave it? Although i really don't know what i would look for or correct?
Jan-June will not load up but July-dec will, so is there something i could see in july file in notepad that isn't there in june file (or vice versa?) Thank you for your patience and help I appreciate it.

You might say this is more for "information" than "action", at least action on your part.
Even though a QFX file is a text file and as such could be edit to fix such problems, it is way beyond the scope of trying to describe what would have to be fixed to someone that isn't REALLY familiar with the format of the file. Instead the information would be used to inform the financial institution that they have a problem.

And given how slow they would normally be to work on something like this, it is most likely not the solution for you. It is a hope for a "better future" for someone else.

For you I would suggest switching gears and use my program to change the QFX file into a QIF file that can be imported. It is possible that the QFX file syntax is messed up enough that this won't be possible, but ImportQIF is very "forgiving" on the syntax so it probably will work. If it doesn't you can switch to another format like Excel/CSV if your financial institution will allow exporting the transactions in that format, and then use ImportQIF to change that to QIF format to import.

Chris_QPW

Note I just tried an experiment where I used the information about your financial institution in a old QFX file have, and it worked just fine (importing transactions from 2011), so there isn't a "time block" of any kind. So it is really leaning towards a syntax error in the QFX file(s) they are sending you. Also I note that in fact the information for your financial institution is "Chase", so in reality it should work the same as any other "regular Chase credit card".

john heyden

Hello Chris_QPW I opened your program "import qif" and not really understanding how to use it, i just clicked around till i figured out how to load up my quicken file (1 1 20 to 12 31 20) and was able to convert it and have quicken create it as a new account. It showed all my transactions from 2020 so now i can go about creating the various reports for my taxes. Th+ank you very much for your patience and help!!

Chris_QPW

Part of my answer probably didn't make any sense.

I was looking at another post where person was trying to go from Quicken Mac to Quicken Windows for the investment accounts and that's what I was referring to. Which of course has nothing to do with what you're doing.

So anyway I'm glad it worked out.

john heyden

don't worry i'm sure i'll be back with more questions! thanks again...