Archiving Qdata file and starting fresh

Question

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 · Accepted Answer

Your Quicken information is in a file, not the program.
Just start a new file, File->New Quicken file.

Chris_QPW · Accepted Answer

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 · Accepted Answer

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 · Accepted Answer

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 · Accepted Answer

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 · Accepted Answer

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.