Quicken for Mac v6.4 Released

Quicken Marcus

Last night we started rolling out Quicken for Mac v6.4. There's not a lot of obvious new features on the surface of it but there's a ton of engineering work that is been built under the hood. 

We are switching to a brand new Quicken Connect transaction aggregation service which will make downloads more secure and reliable. In the best case, you won't even notice when we've switched you to the new service. We've already switched a large portion of our beta customers to the new service and I'm not aware of anyone reporting an issue.

This infrastructure is required before we can move customers to new and improved financial institution connections. For example, Charles Schwab wants all third-party apps like Quicken to move to their new, more modern connection so they can start to retire their legacy systems. Before customers can make the change, they first have to be using the new Quicken Connect infrastructure. We'll provide more details for Schwab customers in the coming months. Schwab is the first of many financial institutions that we're working with to make this transition.

6.4 makes all of this possible so it's important to take this upgrade even if there aren't any new user features.

Also, for those of you who are still running Quicken v5.18 because you're using a version of macOS that is no longer supported, please consider upgrading your OS and in turn upgrading Quicken. Version 5.18 does not work with the new Quicken Connect system.

In addition to all of the new Quicken Connect aggregation work, there are a few small improvements and fixes in this release.
1) We added a category type filter to the category list so you can now quickly and easily see just used or unused categories or income or expense categories.
2) A number of you use reconcile to review and categorize transactions and we accidentally broke your workflow by filtering out scheduled transactions from the reconcile window.  We restored this capability. Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention here in the forums.
3) We also added a feature that will take a set of columns from one account and then apply them to similar accounts.  We're not publicizing it because it's not working exactly as we would like since it will add and remove all the columns making the accounts match but it doesn't get the column order correct.  I mention it because it's still better than doing this manually but we have to go back and make this better.
4) We continue to refine Dark Mode. We're not quite ready to call this "done" but we're making improvements.

As always, please report issues with this release here in this post.  We will be monitoring it closely.

UPDATES
9/23 - Started the rollout of 6.4.0
9/24 - Fixed an issue with our What's New window not appearing and released 6.4.1.
10/1 - Shipped 6.4.2. Added Color Tags as an Early Access feature. Everyone will be notified of this upgrade.

Jon

I went straight from the latest 6.3.x to 6.4.1 and What's New did not auto-launch for me. When I bring it up from the menu, the window title says "What's New in Quicken 6.3" (but I think it's showing the new features from 6.4, it's just the title that's wrong).

So far I have not been prompted to re-enter any passwords, so the transition to the new service seems to be working OK for me.

Austin@

I also went straight from the most recent 6.3.x version to 6.4.1 and the "What's New" window did not show for me either. When pulling up the window manually, the content is correct, but the title bar of the window references Quicken 6.3. Other than that, I haven't had any issues. My data file switched to FDS and all my accounts updated without any issues or interruptions.

Update: I'm also loving the new ability to autofill passwords from iCloud Keychain when entering account credentials, as well as the ability to autofill 2 factor authentication codes received as text messages. These are little touches that make the app feel more like a true, native mac app.

Quicken Marcus

Jon said:

I went straight from the latest 6.3.x to 6.4.1 and What's New did not auto-launch for me. When I bring it up from the menu, the window title says "What's New in Quicken 6.3" (but I think it's showing the new features from 6.4, it's just the title that's wrong).

So far I have not been prompted to re-enter any passwords, so the transition to the new service seems to be working OK for me.

Unfortunately, What's New is still broken and won't auto-open when you launch the app. This one is completely my fault. I didn't check to make sure the code I changed actually ended up in 6.4.1. Oops. Anyway, What's New is available on the Help menu if you want to see it.  It's basically the same as the release notes so I don't think it's critical to pop up. 
 

Quicken Marcus

RickO said:

It appears that the new connection required re-entry of my password for my Salem Five banking accounts and initially broke the connection to my Fidelity Investment accounts. After quitting and relaunching, updated to 6.4.1 and tried again. This time password entry was required for Fidelity accounts after which all accounts updated properly.

What's new still did not auto-launch in 6.4.1, but maybe because I had already run 6.4?

That's a bummer that you had to re-enter your passwords. That shouldn't have happened because we actually haven't switched anyone to the new tech yet and even when we do I don't think you'll have to re-enter passwords. Also, Fidelity is a Direct Connect account so I don't think it even uses the new stuff since the new stuff is really only for Quicken Connect accounts.  Anyway, I'm going to assume the banks required you to re-login for some reason. Let us know if it happens again. Thanks for reporting the issue.

billiehyde

Not the best update transition... I opened my Quicken this morning and the first message was that I had opened an "older version of my file", and then I ended up having to reenter EVERY password for EVERY account.

caram

There's a regression that has been introduced by 6.4 re. Cloud accounts. A .qfx file will no longer import if there is no Cloud account. I don't have, and don't wish to use, a Cloud account for this particular quicken file. There was a similar issue about 2 years ago and now it seems to be back.

Also, the Preferences/Connected Services is now blank. In 6.3, it used to be populated with various fields and now they have all disappeared.

cherishen

One of the most recent updates changed the way Quicken for Mac displays updates to my accounts. The account summary screen used to not show up until it was completely done. Now it shows up partly through, but it is still reconciling. The biggest issue is the helpful little blue dots that show up on the left side by the accounts/categories that show there was an update. While useful, they do not disappear if I go into each account from the update summary and reconcile the account. After I do that, I still have to go into the list on the left and click on each one to make the indicator go away.
It would be useful if it automatically disappeared if I reconciled the account that it was indicating.

Gretchen P

I upgraded to 6.4.2 this morning - I cannot find how/where to assign a color to a tag? Is this feature active in v. 6.4.2 for Mac?

> @RickO said:
> I like the colored tags feature. There are two minor issues/suggestions:
>
> 1. With Row Height set to Tiny, the bottom of the rounded rectangle of the tag image is cut off. This was also the case with the non-colored oval tags, but has become more obvious. Here is how it looks with Row Height Tiny (font size default 13): 
> . And here is how it looks with Row Height Compact: . 
>
> 2. It would be great if there was a column in the Tags window that showed the color. Even better if the color could be changed directly in that column. If not, then at the very least, color the tags as they appear in the Tags window.

michaelweinberg

@cherishen I'm also finding that change to be somewhat annoying. I like to have the update complete before I go into the updated accounts to verify the updates and correct categories, etc. I keep jumping the gun now as I can't tell when the updates have finished downloading.

Just Lurking

Just updated to 6.4.2. When I update my online accounts, the Account Status window pops up right away, even though I have it set to show "Only if there are errors." Seems like this is a bug?

I'm considering setting it to "Never" and relying on just the new Orange indicators on the left which may solve this issue, but I'm waiting a bit longer to confirm the orange balls are reliable indicators of problems.

magoodm

So I see how to assign a color to tags, but is there a way to not have the tags highlighted at all and to look like all of the other fields? I'm using Dark Mode.

MWright-X

I just upgraded tp QMac 6.4.2 and the "reconcile" button is grayed out and I can't access the feature. I've rebooted my iMac but that didn't solve anything. Does anyone have any suggestions on what may be causing this. I did not have the problem prior to the update.

Quicken Marcus

billiehyde said:

Not the best update transition... I opened my Quicken this morning and the first message was that I had opened an "older version of my file", and then I ended up having to reenter EVERY password for EVERY account.

We made a change a couple of releases ago where we now check the last update time on cloud and compare it to the local file. If the local file is really old, we'll force a reset to make sure that local transaction data isn't negatively impacted.  I'll reach out to you to learn more. Thanks for reporting this issue.

Quicken Marcus

caram said:

There's a regression that has been introduced by 6.4 re. Cloud accounts. A .qfx file will no longer import if there is no Cloud account. I don't have, and don't wish to use, a Cloud account for this particular quicken file. There was a similar issue about 2 years ago and now it seems to be back.

Also, the Preferences/Connected Services is now blank. In 6.3, it used to be populated with various fields and now they have all disappeared.

Did a screen popup asking you to create a cloud account? By the way, a cloud account just means that we create your profile in our systems but it doesn't mean that there's any transaction data or other type of information. To use connected services, even to just download quotes, you need to be registered in our systems. We blank the connected services preference screen if you don't have a cloud account because you can't do any connected services without an account. You should still be able to view your data without a cloud account.

Quicken Marcus

RickO said:

I like the colored tags feature. There are two minor issues/suggestions:

1. With Row Height set to Tiny, the bottom of the rounded rectangle of the tag image is cut off. This was also the case with the non-colored oval tags, but has become more obvious. Here is how it looks with Row Height Tiny (font size default 13): . And here is how it looks with Row Height Compact: . 

2. It would be great if there was a column in the Tags window that showed the color. Even better if the color could be changed directly in that column. If not, then at the very least, color the tags as they appear in the Tags window.

Thanks for the feedback. It's really helpful to hear what issues are floating to the top as important to fix. Both of these issues are why we shipped this under the Early Access umbrella. I'll make sure both of these are noted in our bug tracking database.

I like this feature too. I personally have 2 rental properties and I tag them with the unit number.  Since the tag just had numbers it was hard to distinguish between the two at a glance.  Now I use colors to distinguish between them and it makes it really obvious which transactions are related to each other.

caram

Quicken Marcus said:

Did a screen popup asking you to create a cloud account? By the way, a cloud account just means that we create your profile in our systems but it doesn't mean that there's any transaction data or other type of information. To use connected services, even to just download quotes, you need to be registered in our systems. We blank the connected services preference screen if you don't have a cloud account because you can't do any connected services without an account. You should still be able to view your data without a cloud account.

Marcus, yes a dialog did popup asking me to create a cloud account. This is new since 6.4 and I don't think it should be asking me at this point. Importing a locally stored .qfx file should not mandate a cloud account.

jacobs

caram said:

Marcus, yes a dialog did popup asking me to create a cloud account. This is new since 6.4 and I don't think it should be asking me at this point. Importing a locally stored .qfx file should not mandate a cloud account.

@caram  Importing a local QFX file actually is part of Quicken's online services; it has to verify the ID of the financial institution contained in the data file. This is why you can't import QFX file if you don't maintain an active subscription. As Marcus wrote above, a "cloud account" does not contain your transaction data, but is necessary for any connected services to operate.

(Unless they changed it, you also need to have a cloud account to use the Report a Problem feature in the program; in the past, people who tried to submit a bug report encountered an error because it couldn't associate the report with a cloud account of a user.)

In any case, there's no reason to jump through hoops to get rid of a cloud account; as long as you have Sync turned off, none of your private data is stored in the cloud.

JoelC

I cannot find how / where to try the new column copy feature (even though the ordering is wrong).

Is this included in Columns / Apply to All Accounts or is it elsewhere?

Thx!

JoelC

@RickO

Appreciate that…would be wonderful to get the order and width to match as well, then it would be truly helpful!

Kenneth L Kaylor

So 6.4 trashed my linked accounts then I find out you deleted the old "send" command in the check column - now it is next check number, pay with quick pay, mail check with Check pay or print check. For quick pay and Check pay I had to "enroll" accounts that I had been using the "send" command for every - why the change and no explanation for a big change like that?

Kenneth L Kaylor

Thanks for your help when I had so much trouble getting my WF accounts to sync/download- it took several weeks and finally had to delete all of my "connection data" for all of my accounts and re do them all - so trashed. I was instructed to change to quicken connect from direct connect. Send is now back working

tofermart

When will Quicken for Mac have the Portfolio X-Ray feature now available on the Windows Version? The is the one feature I've been waiting for for years. Am a user since 1985, and on Mac since 2015. Please advise, thanks!

jacobs

@tofermart Unfortunately, Quicken almost never discloses what features are coming in the future, nor when.

glennmacc

@tofermart - Also one of my highest priority items.  Such good progress has been made in other areas, I am hoping that the investment portions are developed next.

pbo922

I've noticed that since the latest updates to "improve security" the connections to my accounts fail the update the first time about 80% of the time. This is not an improvement to me.

LarryNolan

Why didn't Quicken for Mac email notification to us about the Schwab changes that happened recently. It's totally damaged my four IRA accounts. Luckily a non-IRA brokerage account survived. Now waiting for the Quicken-Schwab connection to be repair so my IRA account will work and be correct again.

nothingclever

> @LarryNolan said:
> Why didn't Quicken for Mac email notification to us about the Schwab changes that happened recently. It's totally damaged my four IRA accounts. Luckily a non-IRA brokerage account survived. Now waiting for the Quicken-Schwab connection to be repair so my IRA account will work and be correct again.
>

They have been telling us about this for weeks.... I have gotten two emails from them about this. Make sure you check to see if you have your communications on....

LarryNolan

@nothingclever Where do I find 'communications' to check for it/them being "on"? I got nothing and the last update mentioned Schwab improvements but I saw nothing more on the topic until Tuesday when the changes required interacting with Schwab and Quicken.

nothingclever

I’m not on my computer, but if you login to quicken Mac, and under preferences you’ll see there is an option for messages and what not. You can see if you have it checked. It’s where you also have options for bill reminders as well

emclusk

Northwestern Mutual Investment Services (NMIS) fails to connect in Quicken. Asking to call the financial institution when quicken fails to connect is poor service. A once-usual download now does not happen at Mac version 6.4.4.