What is the difference between a File backup and a File Copy.

John Nastasi

Restoring a backup file usually breaks the QuickPay function which is a real pain to get relinked with Quicken and my Bank. Normally you are left with a number of QuickPay transactions that are no longer linked but also not deleted from the Quicken servers. That is, even though the transactions are not linked, Quicken will still process the QuickPay instructions. Additionally you have to wait for all the QuickPay transactions to process before you can reestablish the QuickPay ink with your bank. A procedure to fix the relinking problem would be great.

Additionally what does a File copy do that a backup does not do? Is a File copy a better to back up a quicken file?

splasher

There are two file copy method (besides using Windows Explorer).

1. the Save a copy on the File menu, it makes an exact copy just like Windows Explorer,

2. The File->File Operations->Copy does it at the transaction level and recovers deleted space and the file is not an exact duplicate of the original, but functionally, it should be the same.

When you do a Quicken Restore, a new dataset (backend information) is created and that may be causing your problems with QuickPay, but since I don't use it, I don't know for sure.

There are numerous posts on this forum of users getting a dataset exceeded error, you might find exploring some of those for information.

John Nastasi

Thank you for the info. Any clue if using a backup copy file will disconnect me from the QuickPay linked accounts?

Chris_QPW

John Nastasi said:

Thank you for the info. Any clue if using a backup copy file will disconnect me from the QuickPay linked accounts?

I don't use that feature but there have been reports of such happening (if rare).
I think it would really mostly depend on how old the copy is.  The older it is the more likely it would be out of sync with the servers information and as such more likely to run into problems.

John Nastasi

I'm not sure what you mean by out of sync? What would be out of sync?

It happens to me often when I restore a backup. my QuickPay accounts get invalidated causing a number of problems with transactions that were pending. Usually the QuickPay transactions are still going to be processed but no longer updated in the register and it takes me a while to reestablish the QuickPay checking account connection. I'm not sure on the pending Check Pay transactions. No one (including the quicken support) has visibility to those transactions. I think they end up not getting processed.

Chris_QPW

John Nastasi said:

I'm not sure what you mean by out of sync? What would be out of sync?

Quicken (the program) stores information about the bills in the data file.
The Quicken servers/Third party servers that provide the Bill presentment/payment services also hold information about those bills.

This is the information that can be out of sync.

John Nastasi

thank you for the quick update. ok, so let me understand this. If I do a backup (I do one every day) and then I add some QuickPay or CheckPay transactions. then if I restore from a prior day that is missing those transactions, then the link between Bills & Income and the checking account gets broken?

Chris_QPW

P.S. Note I don't use this service, and tend to not track how people problems for it are solved (or if they get solved), but you might want to try this, select the the gear icon on the Bills & Income tab.
From there, there are two choices that might help:
Validate Online billers
Validate Payment Accounts

John Nastasi

I've done that, it was no help. The best I could figure out was the duplicate the QuickPay transaction in the register then hard delete the original QuickPay Or Check Pay transaction in the register using the CTRL-Shift Del method. That unlocks the ability to add a QuickPay account, so I can re-add the checking account, then wait for the two confirmation deposits from Quicken to Validate the account.

Chris_QPW

Well you already know much more about how to troubleshoot this problem than I do.  My only contribution is the "maybe why" (the sync).

John Nastasi

Crazy hey! I used to use Quicken Bill Pay. It was great. I could always go the the Quicken Bill Pay on the Web to see all my pending transactions. I could add, delete and modify the payments and all the changes were replicated in Quicken. I have no idea why they did away with Quicken Bill Pay. A huge negative for sure.

Chris_QPW

John Nastasi said:

I have no idea why they did away with Quicken Bill Pay. A huge negative for sure.

Because the third party that did Quicken Bill Pay got out of that business.

John Nastasi

ah, Ok then. I thought they just did it to reduce cost.