Archiving Qdata file and starting fresh

jonaroberts

I have been using Quicken since about 2000, so my Qdata file, and backups, contain 21 years worth of transactions, long-ago closed accounts, etc. I would like to archive my current Qdata file, delete all transactions and closed accounts from my register, and start a new file with only my current, open accounts. I would want to have the archived file go through 12/31/2020, and the new file start 1/1/2021. Is there any way to do this???

splasher

Your Quicken information is in a file, not the program.

Just start a new file, File->New Quicken file.

Chris_QPW

splasher said:

Your Quicken information is in a file, not the program.

Just start a new file, File->New Quicken file.

I take the problems lies in this part of the request " delete all transactions and closed accounts from my register".  As in leaving the open accounts untouched.

And I suspect there isn't any function in Quicken that is going directly satisfy the request.

Year end copy will not remove any investment data/accounts.  And Copy will not delete accounts even if they are empty.

Chris_QPW

You can export your categories by selecting File > File Export > QIF file,. Select only the category list.

Repeat except using import on the new file.

when setting up a new file for download you can't control how far back it'll go but typical is about 90 days so you should probably be okay.

If it goes farther than that you can remove transactions and update the opening balance.

If you don't get enough transactions if the financial institution exports QFX Web connect files you can get them that way.

Ps56k2

jonaroberts said: ... but then I have to re-set up the accounts I want to keep and my categories...

I guess you could also try....
1 - Do a COPY with the cutoff date feature -
and since you have Starter Edition -

there are no Investment transactions, only Banking transactions.

2 - Next, go thru the new file, and just manually Delete any old/closed accounts.

Ps56k2

jonaroberts said:  Ps56k2, I actually tried doing what you suggested.

Not sure what you did....
Unfortunately, I couldn't do a batch delete of all the old transactions.

... File --> File Operations --> Copy -->

Just did it, and it worked fine....
1 - Do the Quicken File Copy - date range from 1/1/2020 - 3/7/2021
2 - Open new copy file
3 - Delete any old or closed accounts

Chris_QPW

Note the reason I didn't suggest copy for this use case is because it will not delete accounts.  You will have to go through and delete the accounts, which will have to be done one at a time.

jonaroberts

Forgot to mention, I am using Quicken Starter Edition by subscription.

splasher

Your Quicken information is in a file, not the program.

Just start a new file, File->New Quicken file.

Chris_QPW

splasher said:

Your Quicken information is in a file, not the program.

Just start a new file, File->New Quicken file.

I take the problems lies in this part of the request " delete all transactions and closed accounts from my register".  As in leaving the open accounts untouched.

And I suspect there isn't any function in Quicken that is going directly satisfy the request.

Year end copy will not remove any investment data/accounts.  And Copy will not delete accounts even if they are empty.

jonaroberts

Thanks, guys. I started with setting up a new quicken file, as splasher suggested, but then I have to re-set up the accounts I want to keep and my categories (there are a good number I set up myself). Was hoping to avoid that. Plus, I want the new account to start Jan 1. Not sure how far back account downloads go.

Chris_QPW

You can export your categories by selecting File > File Export > QIF file,. Select only the category list.

Repeat except using import on the new file.

when setting up a new file for download you can't control how far back it'll go but typical is about 90 days so you should probably be okay.

If it goes farther than that you can remove transactions and update the opening balance.

If you don't get enough transactions if the financial institution exports QFX Web connect files you can get them that way.

Ps56k2

jonaroberts said: ... but then I have to re-set up the accounts I want to keep and my categories...

I guess you could also try....
1 - Do a COPY with the cutoff date feature -
and since you have Starter Edition -

there are no Investment transactions, only Banking transactions.

2 - Next, go thru the new file, and just manually Delete any old/closed accounts.

jonaroberts

Thanks, Chris_QPW. I was not aware you could export categories, so that's quite helpful. Ps56k2, I actually tried doing what you suggested. Unfortunately, I couldn't do a batch delete of all the old transactions. I could select them from 2000 up to Dec 2020, but when I told it to delete them, I was having to confirm deletion of each one. Definitely not going to confirm however many thousands of transactions there are over 20 years! But, I do appreciate your response.

Ps56k2

jonaroberts said:  Ps56k2, I actually tried doing what you suggested.

Not sure what you did....
Unfortunately, I couldn't do a batch delete of all the old transactions.

... File --> File Operations --> Copy -->

Just did it, and it worked fine....
1 - Do the Quicken File Copy - date range from 1/1/2020 - 3/7/2021
2 - Open new copy file
3 - Delete any old or closed accounts

Chris_QPW

Note the reason I didn't suggest copy for this use case is because it will not delete accounts.  You will have to go through and delete the accounts, which will have to be done one at a time.

jonaroberts

Thanks, guys. I think I'm just going to forget about doing this for now. Ps56k2, I did the copying just fine, but when I went to delete the old transactions, I had to verify I wanted to delete every transfer to a reconciled account. I was able to delete several old accounts, but quite a few that were hidden I was not able to delete. It was just getting to be a major pain, and not worth the effort. I appreciate your help, though. If there is a way to close this inquiry, that will be fine. Thanks!

Judyrb

You can "mass delete" transactions by clicking on the first one you want to delete, press Shift key and click on the last one you want to delete. All are now highlighted and right clicking will allow "delete".
I have been very successful at doing this either for transactions that are already in your register or transactions that were downloaded...like 90 days worth of transactions when you are creating a new Qdata file.

This works on accounts that are NOT investment accounts. Those you have to do one at a time - UGH!

Chris_QPW

Judyrb said:

You can "mass delete" transactions by clicking on the first one you want to delete, press Shift key and click on the last one you want to delete. All are now highlighted and right clicking will allow "delete".
I have been very successful at doing this either for transactions that are already in your register or transactions that were downloaded...like 90 days worth of transactions when you are creating a new Qdata file.

This works on accounts that are NOT investment accounts. Those you have to do one at a time - UGH!

If you really want to delete investment transactions, they recently added features that help with that, you can do so by selecting the gear icon and then Edit Multiple Transactions.  Note though deleting transactions in an investment account is much more complicated than in a non-investment account because you are dealing with security lots.

One approach might be to use the Archive Transactions to get all the closed lots to another account and then delete from there.

Personally, I don't recommend any kind of deleting of data, I'm just pointing out the features that do exist.