Very slow switching registers and entering financial transactions (15 seconds or more)

gregtn

I have been a Quicken user for more than twenty years, and ever since switching to subscription service years ago my system has been very slow for certain actions. For example when manually entering buy/sell transactions in my investing registers, it can take fifteen or twenty seconds to complete, Similar delays when just switching from a banking to investing register. I have called support numerous times over the past several years, and tried all of their suggestions, without improvement, so please don't ask if I am running the latest version (I am), or have validated my file (I have). Anyone having similar issues, or know of a solution?

Quicken Anja

Hello @gregtn,

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

I understand that you have already tried to validate your data file, however, if you don't mind me asking, have you tried super validating the file as well? If not, I suggest trying that next to see if it helps by following the instructions provided below. However, I do recommend that you save a backup of your data file first (just in case).

1. Navigate to File
2. Hold CTRL + Shift and click Validate and Repair
3. Super Validate File
4. Click OK
5. Close the Data Log
   
6. Close Quicken (leave it closed for at least 5 secs)
7. Reopen Quicken and see if the issue persists.

Let us know how it goes!

UKR

Slow performance?

Please provide more details about your Quicken data file.

I'd like to know if you have account registers where a single account is approaching or exceeding 10,000 transactions.

What is the file size, in KB, as shown by Windows File Explorer?

And I'd also like to see the "File Information" window  (See below)

Is any cloud backup software (Dropbox, MS OneDrive, etc.) actively accessing your Quicken data file while Quicken is running?
What is the complete path and file name of your Quicken data file  (e.g. C:\Users\username\Documents\Quicken\QDATA.QDF)?
 

How much total RAM do you have installed? How much of the available RAM is in use? Task Manager will give you this information. 80% or higher?

What version of Windows are you running?

 

About file size and number of transactions:

You can find out how many transactions you have in your data file by doing this:
- Click Tools / Account List. This should tell you how many transactions you have in each of your accounts in an optional column, "# of Transactions".
If this column is not shown in the Account List, click the Options button at the bottom of the Account List window, then click "Number of Transactions" to add the column.

- File Information: Click Help in the Menu Bar. CTRL+click About Quicken and it'll give you a File Information box. Please capture an image snapshot of this File Information box and attach it here.
The Windows Snipping Tool (available with Windows 7 and newer) can be used to capture a partial screen image and save it to a file of file type PNG, JPG, or GIF only.

To attach the image here please review

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7867159/faq-how-do-i-post-a-screenshot-in-the-community-from-windows

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7663259/faq-how-do-i-post-a-screenshot-in-the-community-from-a-mac

gregtn

I have "Super Validated" my file with no change in performance.
I have twenty-five active accounts, the largest having 6775 transactions, with the total of all active accounts having around 43,000 transactions. Current .QDF data file is about 220,000 kb. I do have OneDrive backing up my data file (and other files) actively. File path and name is Windows (C:)>Users>Greg>OneDrive>Documents>Quicken>QData July 1 2020>CurrentDataFile.QDF
My HP Spectre laptop has 8.0GB RAM, with 5.6GB in use, and 2.3GB cached. I am running Windows 10 Home, version10.0.19043 Build 19043.

gregtn

File information screen shot attached:

UKR

Thanks for the image.

1) Your data file should be in C:\Users>Greg>Documents>Quicken>QData July 1 2020>CurrentDataFile.QDF
Configure Quicken to send its Manual Backup to a OneDrive folder and let OneDrive send that offsite.

2) You have over 600 securities in your data file. Of that number, how many do you currently hold?

If you're an active trader and your current investment account has many transactions pertaining to sold securities you may want to consider this:

Archive Investment Transactions

For about a year now, a new function has been available in Quicken, Archive Transactions. It will split your investment account register into two parts, leaving only those securities' transactions where you currently hold >0 shares in the active register. The rest is moved to a new Archive register within the current data file.

Having less transactions in your active register might improve performance.

Please read and carefully follow instructions here: https://www.quicken.com/support/how-archive-investment-transactions
Eventually, after a couple of years, you might consider splitting your data file in two, with all the archived investment transactions in the old file and none remaining in the active file.

3) You show over 1000 Memorized Payee entries. Consider whittling that number down.

To trim the list and keep it in shape please do this:

In Edit / Preferences / Data Entry and Quickfill make sure you have a checkmark at
"Remove memorized payees not used in [xx] months"
and set [xx] to something like "18". Do not set it to zero. IMHO, you should set the number to 12 or higher for best results, so that once-a-year payees don't vanish.

Restart Quicken for the change to take effect and housekeeping to clean up the Memorized Payee List.

Check the File Information box again to see the reduced count.

gregtn

As for Memorized Payees I have always had my preferences set to remove them after 18 months, and all current ones have "Last Used" dates within that time frame ... but I see MANY of them that I have NOT used (at least knowingly) that are one time transactions from years ago?? Not sure why, but I have deleted ALL my memorized payees to start over fresh, and set preferences to NOT automatically add new payees.

gregtn

I have now "Archived" all of my investment accounts which removed about 5000 transactions, leaving about 6500 transactions in the active accounts.
My first limited test shows that it still takes more than fifteen seconds just to change from a "Banking" account register to an "Investment" account register (regardless of which registers I choose). This is frustratingly slow .... why is it this way??
I will be isolating my .QDF file from OneDrive as you suggest, but when I paused synching I still saw no improvement in speed...???

gregtn

I just tested entering single security buy/sell transactions in an investment account, and it still takes fifteen to twenty seconds to complete (with or without OneDrive synching paused). If I hit any key while the transaction is processing I get a "Not responding" message. Surely this is not normal processing....except for me!

klliou

I have the same problem being using Quicken for many years. Hope to learn from your solution. Thanks.

gregtn

[Removed - Speculation/Off Topic]

klliou

It's also a nightmare whenever I reconcile my accounts. I have to kill Quicken multiple times per week simply because it is working something itself for a long time and I am tired of waiting.

NotACPA

Try creating an otherwise empty Q data file, create and investment account in it and try your "time experiment there".

Your problem is specific to YOUR Q data file, and not the program.

klliou

It is not MY Q data file. It's the Q data file that was created and has been modified by Quicken for more than 10 years with a Quicken proprietary format. You made it sound like it's the users' fault for this problem. Of course, it runs faster with few accounts and transactions. I don't need Quicken if my accounts and transactions are so simple. I assume you are not a programmer or not working for Quicken tech support. What are you suggesting? Create a new Q data file and move my accounts/transactions into it one by one manually? This is not practical and I am not sure I can keep all the dependency among accounts/transactions. By the way, it's clear we are not the only long-time users with such performance problems. I just archived all transactions for all my investment accounts. I will monitor if the performance will be much better in next few days. But I can tell you it is a design flaw if Quicken takes more than 15 seconds to open and display a bank account when there is no new transaction in that account. I am all ears if you have any reasonable and practical suggestions. Thanks.

Mark1104

@klliou - how old is your computer? is it possible it is under powered for the size of your file?  the larger the file the longer it will take to process the file; more 'horsepower' compensates for that over time. (that is the inverse of your statement that 'it runs faster with fewer accounts and transactions')

I have over 67,000 transactions (file contains 25 years of transactions), over 700 securities and don't have the performance issues you describe; my computer is about a year old.

klliou

@Mark1104 It's possible. How much memory do you have? I have an HP 500-467c (8GB and CPU AMD A8-6410 APU with AMD Radeon R5 Graphics). Thanks.

klliou

Does Quicken have recommended hardware requirements?

Mark1104

see this link

https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-system-requirements

klliou

@Mark1104 Well, my computer is way over the requirements. Thanks.

NotACPA

klliou said:

It is not MY Q data file.

It's ENTIRELY your Q data file.  Who else created it? Who else has operated it for these years?  Who else has control over it?

What I proposed was an experiment to try to narrow down the possible causes.

BUT, apparently you're only interested in assigning blame rather than diagnosing the issue.

klliou

@NotACPA What's your solution?

NotACPA

klliou said:

@NotACPA What's your solution?

Why won't you even try the test that I proposed.  No solution possible until diagnosis is done.

klliou

@NotACPA I did as I mentioned earlier. It's faster with few accounts. What's next?

NotACPA

Have you been thru EVERY step in this process? https://www.quicken.com/support/advanced-data-file-troubleshooting-correct-problems-quicken-windows

klliou

@gregtn I think archiving my investment accounts did help improving my Quicken performance. I also moved my Q file to a new location so I am sure it is not synched by any backup mechanism. But when I back up, the backup file will be saved at a location synched to my Google Drive. By the way, my Q data file is about 140MB. @Mark1104 Do you perform any regular maintenance for your Quicken performance? Thanks.

Mark1104

@killiou - my file is now 258mg.  from time to time, if I sense there is a hiccup, I will do a 'validate and repair' or a super validate and repair.  My Q file resides on my hard drive and I let the backup save to the hard drive as well (and then have a separate utility to backup my entire harddrive to a 3rd party).  I don't use any anti-virus programs and keep the firewall off (I know, risky, but never had an issue).

have you tried anything like NortonLifelock? (I have never used) maybe it has something ot do with the configution of your PC and / or programs running in the background that is consuming memory???

I will say that once Q got to version 32 or so, I did notice that the launch of the program took longer but it's not intolerable (maybe 5-7 seconds). Manually entering transactions is smooth and quick and no perceptable wait is necessary. 

klliou

Switched to read new comments here. Switched back to Quicken. Clicked to a Bank Savings account. Now Quicken has been busy refreshing itself for 5 minutes. Will have to kill it again :-(

Mark1104

@klliou - have you tried de-installing quicken and then re-installing......? have your tried to  validate and repair?  that shoud help you determin if there is a corrupt file from the program itself or the Q file.  I'd try validate and repair first - if you haven't done that in a long, long, time and it it appears to hang, just let it be for an hour or two - it should eventually finsh.

klliou

@Mark1104 Just validated and reading the log to fix some damaged transactions now. My current Quicken was installed in June after I renewed it. Thanks.

Mark1104

once you correct the damaged transactions, I would recommend running validate and repair again.

any improvement in performance once those activities are complete?

klliou

@Mark1104 I think the performance has improved although it is still not as "snappy" as I wish Hope it will last a while and I don't need to kill its endless self-freshing again. I also added Register Filters, etc. hoping to have better performance, but not sure if they really help. Thanks.