Checking account connected online, but Quicken doesn't think so

Andrew

I have a Wells Fargo checking account that stopped importing new transactions in early February. When I tried to disable the online connection to reset it, the Online Services tab in account details is gone. This is the only account doing this. Every other checking (3), savings (2), credit (4), and investment (1) account with an online connection is operating fine. This is truly bizarre and I cannot figure this out. Quicken Premier, updated to R31.20. Anyone have ideas?

Signs the account is still connected:
* One Step Update downloads and shows the account was updated (though no new transactions).
* On the account register, just under the account header, it shows the last time it was updated and that it's connected via "Express Web Connect"
* When I go through the steps to add a new account and connect to Wells Fargo, the account shows in the list with the connected Quicken account's nickname and Action: Don't add to Quicken.
* Downloading a .qfx of transactions from the WF website, Quicken won't allow me to select the account in the import dialog.

Signs the online connection is broken:
* New transactions are not being imported
* The Online Services tab is gone from the Account Details window.
* In the Account List, there is a dash (-) under the Transaction Download column
* On the account register list, clicking the Download Transactions tab at the bottom does nothing (used to either show a blank list with Update Transactions button, or username/password prompts to connect account). (Bill and Income Reminders tab still works)

Signs this is not Wells Fargo's fault:
* A different account (credit card) can be disconnected and connected without issue (though I don't have any transactions to download so I can't test that part).
* Starting a new file and connecting to Wells Fargo allows me to create the checking account and it has all the downloaded transactions.

Signs it's not just file corruption:
* Backups from December and January (when this account could still download transactions) exhibit the same issue once restored and opened in the latest version.
* Running a file validation returns no issues.

Quicken Anja

Hello @Andrew,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and telling us about your issue, though I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing this.

If you haven't already, to start with, I suggest you try signing out of your data file completely and then signing back in. Please, follow the steps below in order to do so.

1. Navigate to Edit
2. Preferences...
3. Quicken ID & Cloud accounts
4. Click Sign in as a different user (or it might say Sign in using a different Quicken ID)
5. Follow the prompts to Sign Out
6. Sign back in using your Quicken ID (email) and password 

Once that is done, see if the issue still continues to persist.

Let us know how it goes!

Andrew

I tried those steps to log out and back in and the account is still exhibiting the behavior in the original post.

I also tried logging out of my Quicken account (1-5), then closing and re-opening the program to do step 6, with the same result (no change).

Quicken Anja

Thanks for the update and additional information.

If you haven't already, could you please try deactivating the account(s) experiencing this issue first, and then reactivating through Add Account (not through Set Up Now)?

Please, follow the steps found in this support article to deactivate. Once deactivated, to reactivate through Add Account, navigate to Tools > Add Account..., search for your Financial Institution name and follow the prompts to connect. If your account(s) have been found successfully, be sure to link them to the existing account(s) you have already set up in Quicken.

Let us know how it goes!

Andrew

I cannot deactivate it because that tab has disappeared from the account settings window (see attached screenshot).

I tried deactivating/reactivating a credit card account that is also connected to Wells Fargo, but it did not affect the checking account.

Andrew

Just to follow up with why that missing tab is odd, besides the fact that is used to be in that window, is the account in some other places indicates it's still activated for online updates (see attached screenshots).

Quicken_Tyka

Hello Andrew,

Thank you for the response and the screenshots of the issue. I want to try to refresh the branding profile for Wells Fargol

To do so, please see the steps below:

1. Choose Tools menu > Online Center.
2. Select the financial institution you want to update from the Financial Institution drop down menu.
3. Press CTRL+F3 on your keyboard and click Contact Info.
4. Select the financial institution you want to update, and click Refresh. The branding and profile information will be listed under current status as needs updating.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Update/Send, 

Does this return any error messages or allow the account to be disconnected? 

Please let us know what you find!

-Quicken Tyka

Andrew

Is this the window i'm supposed to see after clicking contact info (see screenshot)?

I tried doing Refresh both with and without the first box checked (Financial Institution Branding and Profile), but I don't see any change in status anywhere. The checking account still does not give me the options to disconnect it.

There's also no message after clicking Refresh, the window just disappears (not sure if that's what's supposed to happen).

Quicken Anja

@Andrew Thank you for the additional information.

If you haven't already, I suggest you create a copy of your data file in an attempt to rebuild all of the internal lists and database tables. Then, try to Validate your data file in the copied file by following the steps below. However, I do recommend that you also Save a backup of your data file first before trying these steps (just in case).

1. Navigate to the File menu
2. Select File Operations
3. Copy...
4. Leave the presets as is and click OK
   
5. Wait for the copy procedure to complete
   
6. Select New Copy and click OK                                                                                                                                                 If Quicken reports an error when creating the Copy file, then hold Ctrl + Shift while you click File > File Operations > Copy. When prompted to "Ignore errors that prevent file copy?" click Yes. Note: Only do this if you receive an error as this may cause some data loss.
7. Once the newly copied file opens, navigate back to the File menu
   
8. Select File Operations
9. Validate and Repair...
10. Select Validate file
    
11. Click OK
12. Close the Data Log
    
13. Close Quicken (leave it closed for at least 5 secs)
14. Reopen Quicken and see if the issue persists.

You can also try to Super validate the copied file by holding down the Ctrl + Shift keys on your keyboard while selecting Validate and Repair... (step 9) which will give you the option to Super validate file instead of Validate file.

If this does not resolve the issue, you can either switch back to your original file or restore the backup you saved prior to performing the above troubleshooting instructions (both the original and backup files should remain unaffected by the steps performed in the copied file).

Follow the steps below to switch back to your original file:

1. Click the File menu.
2. Look near the bottom of the options list.
3. Select the data file you want to open. 

Quicken will list the most recently opened data files, with a checkmark next to the file you are currently viewing.

Let us know how it goes!

Andrew

Copy file: completed OK, but issue persists.
Validate copied file: completed OK, but issue persists.
Super validate copied file: completed OK, but issue persists.

I also tried this on a backup from December (a month before the issue started):
Restored backup: completed OK, but issue is present after restore
Copy restored file: completed OK, but issue persists.
Validate copied restored file: completed OK, but issue persists.
Super validate copied restored file: completed OK, but issue persists.


It's almost like Quicken has decided this account is not eligible to be attached to online services (like an Asset account), but it was/is attached to an online service. I've tried changing the account type (From spending to savings or asset), but it doesn't seem to affect the account's online connection options.

Andrew

Is there a way to install an older version of Quicken? Like R31.5 from January or R30.19 from December? I want to test if restoring a backup in that older version will work or not.

Quicken Anja

Andrew said:

Is there a way to install an older version of Quicken? Like R31.5 from January or R30.19 from December? I want to test if restoring a backup in that older version will work or not.

Yes, you can download and install previous version releases from this link here.

I hope this helps!

Andrew

Follow up on this: Older versions had the same issue.

Inspecting the account more, it appears to have been magically linked to an old (closed) investment account as its cash account. Apparently it has been this way since at least December 2020 (my oldest backup) even though it was still updating online at the time. No idea why it stopped updating transactions, but since it was a linked cash account all of the online options disappeared even though it was still connected to the online account.

I ended up exporting all my accounts and transactions and starting a new file. The new file does not have the accounts linked and I'm able to connect it online as expected.

A side note on the export / new file process for anyone going through that nightmare:
* Some accounts don't get restored to the exact same type. I had to create new accounts for some retirement investments and pretty much all of the loans. Found ways to move (investment) or cut/paste (loans) the transactions into the new corrected accounts. If you cut/paste, you may have to update the account on transfers if you had a same-account transaction.
* Closed/hidden accounts do not retain that status. You will need to re-close and re-hide any accounts that were previously closed and/or hidden.
* Transfers between accounts that are in split transactions get separated into their own transaction. If you need a transaction to match a download, you will have to edit the split transaction to add the lines back and the delete the separate transactions. I left things past one year since it doesn't seem to affect reporting. (This one was the biggest PITA.)
* When you connect accounts online (which it now sees as the first time), the opening balance gets updated. Make note of the opening balance before so you can restore it.

Quicken Anja

@Andrew Thanks for sharing an update here! I'm glad to hear you have found a solution that works for you. 

UKR

Now that you found what caused your problem ... basically some as yet irreparable data file damage ... and you also found that you did not retain enough backups of your data file ... may I recommend the following:

How to properly set up Quicken Backup
How to make Quicken create a backup for you automatically every time you close Quicken
What Quicken backups are available where?

For the sake of this discussion it is assumed that your Quicken data file is located in the Default (and recommended) place: C:\Users\username\Documents\Quicken

Review the backup settings available in Quicken (under Edit / Preferences / Backup).

In there you will find two types of backup: Automatic and Manual Backup.

Automatic Backup should be enabled and always goes to a \Backup folder that's part of the folder which contains your current Quicken data file, e.g. \Documents\Quicken\Backup. Set it to create a backup after running Quicken [1] times and to keep [9] (or more, your choice) backup copies.
The file name for Automatic Backup files contains a date and time stamp as part of the file name, e.g. QDATA-2020-03-22.PM03.45.QDF-backup

To create a Manual Backup copy of your Quicken data file on an external device (USB-hard drive or USB memory stick recommended), put a checkmark at "Manual Backup Reminder" to enable the function and set "Remind me after running Quicken [xx] times" to [1].

Click OK to save the changes.

From now on, when you close Quicken using the red X button, you will get a popup window.

When you get this window for the first time, on some versions click the radio button for "Backup on my computer".
Change the Backup File name's drive letter and path to point to your external device so that it looks something like this: E:\Quicken Backup\QDATA-2019-04-01.QDF-backup
or use the Change button and work your way through the dialog.

Do not change the filename portion! Just overtype the drive letter and choose a backup folder name. If the folder does not exist, it will be created.

Also choose the option to "Add date to backup file name".

Every day when you run Backup or close Quicken, an additional backup file is created. Without the Add Date option you only have 1 backup copy which is overwritten every day ... and that may prove bad in a problem recovery situation.

Allow this backup to run to save the changes made on the screen.

Of course, once in a while you will have to go in and delete some of the oldest backup files, at your discretion, to avoid filling up your USB device.

One can never have enough backups of a Quicken data file. BTDTGTS!

Andrew

Automatic backups are on after every close and I have 99 backup files (max allowed in settings), but when first troubleshooting I opened and closed multiple files which caused many old backups to get deleted before I realized how far back I needed to go (stopped working in February, didn’t realize issue was present in December or before!).

The true lesson is not just back up, but move them to a different location on a regular basis.

UKR

Andrew said:

...
The true lesson is not just back up, but move them to a different location on a regular basis.

That's what Manual Backups are there for. They can be directed to an external USB disk drive, a network drive or a Dropbox (or similar) file server location. There's no limit to the number of backup files you can have. You're only limited by the storage capacity of the destination drive and you will have to occasionally delete some of the oldest files to reclaim some disk space.