Community Homepage
Discussions
Categories
Quicken for Mac
Quicken Lifehub
Quicken Mobile
Quicken on the Web
Quicken for Windows
Support
Quicken Classic
Quicken Simplifi
Getting Started
Community Training FAQs
Using and Improving the Community
Connect and Engage
Announcements & Alerts
Announcements
Alerts, Online Banking & Known Product Issues
Product Ideas
Beta
Home
Quicken Classic for Mac
Installing and Updating (Mac)
Can Quicken data file be kept on external ssd?
codad3x
I just tried Quicken on the web and was not too happy with the way transactions worked compared with the desktop version. Wondering if I stored my Quicken data file on an external SSD, then I could use that same data file on different computers that I use, after installing the software on each computer. Any problems with storing the quicken data file on an external SSD?
Find more posts tagged with
Accepted answers
jacobs
There is no problem having your Quicken data file on a mounted external drive. There
are
potential problems if this is a networked drive/NAS being accessed by multiple Macs. But if you're talking about moving the drive between different computers, that
should
be okay. But…
For maximum security, it's best to use a backup file or a compressed (.zip) copy of your data file when moving between computers. The reason is that the Quicken data file is a 'package' file which is actually a collection of files and folders inside a wrapper made to look like a single file. Because different Macs have different internal User ID numbers, it is
possible
for some of the contents of the package file to get its permissions fouled up -- the result of which can be you getting locked out of your data. We've seen these problems when people move a data file via Dropbox or iCloud between machines. In the case of an external drive where the file isn't being rewritten as its moved, I think you'll be okay. But to be absolutely safe, you can have your data file on the external drive, and just manually save a backup there each time you quit using Quicken. (Either Save a Backup from within Quicken, or just as easily, quit Quicken, click on the data file in the Finder and do File > Compress to create a .zip file; either way takes only a couple seconds.) When you sit down to use Quicken the next time, trash the .quicken file and double-click on the .backup or .zip file to launch Quicken from that file.
All comments
jacobs
There is no problem having your Quicken data file on a mounted external drive. There
are
potential problems if this is a networked drive/NAS being accessed by multiple Macs. But if you're talking about moving the drive between different computers, that
should
be okay. But…
For maximum security, it's best to use a backup file or a compressed (.zip) copy of your data file when moving between computers. The reason is that the Quicken data file is a 'package' file which is actually a collection of files and folders inside a wrapper made to look like a single file. Because different Macs have different internal User ID numbers, it is
possible
for some of the contents of the package file to get its permissions fouled up -- the result of which can be you getting locked out of your data. We've seen these problems when people move a data file via Dropbox or iCloud between machines. In the case of an external drive where the file isn't being rewritten as its moved, I think you'll be okay. But to be absolutely safe, you can have your data file on the external drive, and just manually save a backup there each time you quit using Quicken. (Either Save a Backup from within Quicken, or just as easily, quit Quicken, click on the data file in the Finder and do File > Compress to create a .zip file; either way takes only a couple seconds.) When you sit down to use Quicken the next time, trash the .quicken file and double-click on the .backup or .zip file to launch Quicken from that file.
Quick Links
All Categories
Recent Posts
Activity
Unanswered
Best Of
