"Another Copy of Quicken Has Opened This Document" Error

EricO

I have historically left Quicken open in the background on my laptop. Since Quicken Mac updated itself to Version 6.1.1 (Build 601.37924.100), I have been receiving the error noted in the title (see screenshot) every day or two when switching back to Quicken to make an entry, etc.

Quicken launches and works fine for a couple days, then while running in the background, something happens to cause my file to be closed and the subject error message to pop up. Everything seems to be fine after dismissing the error popup and re-launching Quicken

To the best of my knowledge, I don't have two copies of quicken installed and I'm certainly not trying to launch Quicken a second time.

I'm looking for help to identify what is triggering this error, seemingly since the most recent update, and how to cure this problem.

EricO

Hey, RickO. Same initials since I am called Rick by friends and family...

Nope. I'm not opening Quicken on two different machines as you noted. It's installed only on my MBP Laptop. Also I'm not saving my only Quicken file in the cloud; being well aware of cloud related issues with many Mac Package type data files. It's been stored for years on an encrypted sparsebundle virtual drive on my laptop. That "drive" stays mounted essentially full time other than when I have my laptop outside my home environment.

While my file generally is open several days at a time, Quicken has never thrown this error message until very recently; and I've been using Quicken through many iterations, owners, you name it for well over 15+ years.

While I haven't been saving a backup every time I enter a transaction, I do have Quicken set to do automatic backups upon Quit, and in addition, I save a copy of my Quicken file daily via Carbon Copy Cloner, retaining the last 15 days of files. I've been very fortunate to have never needed them due to a Quicken/Quicken File corruption issue - only when I screwed something up!

In summary, something very recently has changed or appears to have become corrupted in the App or its ancillary support files to cause Quicken to think I have multiple instances of Quicken running. The only other recent update I have down that could be an issue is updated my OS to Big Sur 11.2.2

If others running 11.2.2. who leave the file open for extended periods haven't started experiencing this, then I may need to completely wipe Quicken from my Laptop and do a clean install of the app & it's ancillary files.

jacobs

Pretty funny, as I'm also Eric, and some of my family calls me Rick as well!

I would try moving your data file temporarily to your Mac's hard drive, such as a folder in your User directory -- no encryption, virtual drive, cloud storage or any other possible complicating issues. I'm pretty certain that nothing changed with the Quicken app that would cause it to close automatically after a period of inactivity, so I suspect your issue is something with Big Sur, the sparsebundle drive, CCC or some combination of them. (For instance, does CCC try to close open files and then reopen them?)

As RickO said, I'd encourage you to quit Quicken after each session. Although you're doing a backup via CCC, the database may hold things open and not flush everything  from its caches to the file, so you're safer having your backups (CCC or Time Machines or any of the cloud services) make backups of a closed file. On a relatively modern Mac, Quicken launches in about 5 seconds with a reasonably large data file, so there's really no good reason not to quit when done using Quicken.

EricO

Thanks Eric/Rick 😉 I believe there are only 3 things that have may have changed in my system that could be triggering this error; the recent updates of either Quicken itself or Mac OS Big Sur, or corruption in one of the Quicken app's preference or other ancillary files.

I will try moving my Quicken data file to out of the encrypted sparsebundle drive to a less secure more visible location on my computer temporarily; however, I prefer to continue keeping it behind an encrypted less obvious wall going forward and I'm at a loss to understand how any problems in the data file could cause an error message in essence saying that two running instances of the Quicken app are trying to use the same data file. Also, no, CCC does not attempt to close and reopen files when copying/backing them up and the error is not occurring just when CCC is or has recently run.

I also will try closing my data file after every use. I suspect that will APPEAR to solve the issue since the error message doesn't pop up right away. I've been reluctant to do so because 1) it's never been an issue for decades or certainly since Quicken became a subscription product; and 2) I have my data file set to require an 18 character password, which is a somewhat of a barrier if the need arises to close/open Quicken multiple times in a given period of time. I could turn off Quicken's password protection since it's probably overkill given that the data file is stashed in the password encrypted sparsebundle drive.

It sounds like some closer observation of when/what might be triggering the error on my part and perhaps a deletion/clean install of Quicken itself might be the best next steps. I was hoping you more experienced users or Quicken themselves would say "oh yeah, we've heard of that in some situations and here's how to cure it". Ha! That would have been to easy...

jacobs

Sorry, I didn't recall seeing reports of this error under the circumstances you describe. But I did find this thread in a quick search, and found it curious that the user there also kept this file in an encrypted sparsebundle. It might be pure coincidence, but it reinforces my initial thought to remove that variable from the mix to see if the behavior stays the same or changes. (Conversely, I really doubt reinstalling Quicken will make any difference.)

EricO

@jacobs That IS an interesting thread! I didn't see it on my search attempts. I'll definitely try moving it out and/or starting over from a backup. Given that things have worked with the sparsebundle drive for so many years, it could be some sort of one time corruption that crept in to the data file itself.

@RickO True. At the time I started using an encrypted sparsebundle, a Quicken data file password just "password protected" the file but didn't fully encrypt it. A search of release notes suggests Quicken apparently began actually encrypting data files with the password a couple years ago with the release of v5.8, so I could now pull it out of the sparsebundle without compromising security. I tend to be pretty security conscious and don't use the online or mobile aspects of Quicken out of concern for my phone growing legs or a Quicken site hack.

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions and help. Stay tuned!

jacobs

EricO said:

Given that things have worked with the sparsebundle drive for so many years, it could be some sort of one time corruption that crept in to the data file itself.

I highly, highly doubt that there is corruption in the Quicken data file which is causing it to close and open, or try to re-open itself a second time, or detect that it it is already open or whatever is happening; those are just not actions even part of Quicken itself. If something just recently changed to affect things, I'd bet that it's something with your recent change to Big Sur and how it handles sparsebundles.

In any case, if you start by moving the file out of the sparsebundle and quitting it daily, see if the issue goes away. If it does, then choose to test one of those variables next -- leave it open for days, but in its new location, or move it back to the sparsebundle but quit the app daily. Hopefully that process will reveal which factor is causing you to get the error message. Or if it works fine in a new location you're okay with, then you can let it go at that.