Quicken slow loading & Dropbox/GDrive issues

ckoehncke

Quicken (version information below) became (1) very slow to initially load (typically 45 seconds on an I7 CPU) and (2) very slow to load data files when changing files. Note: I utilized new *empty* data files. After of sleuthing I found the culprits.

SLOW INITIAL LOADING
Quicken send ~1000 packets upon initial load to the ip addr 162.159.192.9 which is a Cloudflare relay (the ultimate destination unknown). I presume this is a Quicken authentication server. It is using a Wireguard lite-weight VPN protocol and here again, I presume Quicken recently implemented a private VPN between the client and their host servers. Whatever - it's damn slow.

INTERFERENCE WITH DROPBOX / GDRIVE
I have multiple Quicken files for business & personal accts. I found Quicken was suddenly hanging and Windows offering a "close program" dialog box. If you wait (GT 1 minute), Quicken resumes loading.

Solution: Quicken is having contingent problems with Dropbox. Quicken is likely not respecting some Windows developer guideline and starts a "fight" with Dropbox over who has rights to the file. Quicken ultimately times itself out and continues.

The work around solution is to disable Dropbox from syncing temporarily. Click on the Dropbox icon and in bottom left you can click to stop syncing. My files are on Dropbox. I presume but did not test a similar issue with the new version of GDrive.

ckoehncke

Version information:
Quicken
R36.38
27.1.36.38
on Windows 10 Enterprise

Dropbox v135.5.4221

Chris_QPW

It has always been Quicken Inc's policy that you shouldn't be keeping you currently data file (the one you open in Quicken) in any of the cloud folders (not syncing while Quicken is running is another way to do it) for the very reason you stated.

Quicken expects exclusive access to its data file at all times.  It does lock the data file when it opens it, which the cloud service programs do tend to respect, but it also closes it (which releases the lock) at times and expects to be able to reopen it without any contention, if it can't because the cloud service has opened/locked it to do the sync to the server, problems will arise.

Nice observation on the slow server communication at startup.  Quicken definitely exchanges information with the server at startup.  It always has, but certainly they could have changed the "details" lately.

ckoehncke

Thanks, I've used QW for egons and along side Dropbox for at least 5 years. Clearly something changed as I hadn't noticed any lag previously. Note I also run QW on another Window machine and it too has had similar behavior.

Stable Build 134.4.4115 from Dropbox (went live about 3 weeks ago) along with Quicken R36.38/36.23 (also in the October time frame) is likely where the trouble started. Given the work around I won't bother rolling back.

Note: Quicken shouldn't have issue with Dropbox, in fact they co-market with them, so hoping one of the dev team sees this and it miracle fixes itself in a future release. I will update this thread if I see this.

Chris_QPW

It is certainly possible that something changed, but what hasn't changed is their policy:
https://www.quicken.com/support/can-i-share-my-quicken-file-between-multiple-computers-using-dropbox

And given that policy it seems highly unlikely that they will even consider the problem you are having something to work on.