Moving from Mac to windows - investment files do not import

sarahc631

Create an export file on Mac with subscription service and only banking files will import on windows subscription service. All investment accounts fail to import. How do I avoid losing 20 years of data?

Quicken Paloma

Hello @sarah631, 

Thank you for reaching out to Quicken Community. We apologize you are having this issue. To better assist you more information is needed. For instance, where are you attempting to export to? What type of file format are you attempting to use (QXF., QIF, CSV.)? 

Please elaborate so that we may provide the proper guidance. 

-Quicken Paloma

sarahc631

From a Mac I exported to qxf onto a usb drive. Moved usb drive to windows machine. On windows started new quicken file. Then imported the qxf file from the usb. Investment accounts do not import. Only bank accounts. How do I get investment accounts moved from Mac to windows.

Quicken Paloma

Hello @sarah631, 

Thank you for the clarification. Since you are attempting to convert your file from Mac to Windows it will, unfortunately, result in data loss. It is generally recommended to use a QIF file if you have any business or investment transactions/data but a QIF file will not work for conversions. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.

For more information regarding file conversion please visit the link below. 

https://www.quicken.com/support/converting-your-data-quicken-mac



-Quicken Paloma

sarahc631

So you sell a product that results in data loss with no path to move between platforms? Recommend QIF but don’t support that either. My solution is buying another Mac instead of the pc I just bought?

Chris_QPW

When going from Quicken Windows to Quicken Mac most of the data transfers, but because Quicken Inc has never put a priority on making the QXF import in Quicken Windows for importing investment accounts that has always been lacking since the time they very first put it into Quicken Windows.  Back then it was Quicken Mac Essentials that was doing the exporting and it didn't support investment accounts, so the initial QXF format didn't support investment accounts.

Notice that Quicken Inc, and especially the Mac developers put a much higher priority on the conversion from Quicken Windows to Quicken Mac, because that was what most people that were switching were switching to.  The Mac developers actually were the ones that first put the exporting of investment account data into the Quicken Windows code, not the Windows developers.  And that is in fact how the conversion from Quicken Windows to Quicken Mac works to this day.

The Quicken Mac developers maintain a Quicken Windows version that can run using Wine running on MacOS, to do the QXF export.  Which then Quicken Mac can read and import.  And since Quicken Windows is a 32-bit application, and MacOS no longer supports 32-bit applications they provide a way to upload the Quicken Windows data file to be go through this conversion using a virtual machine with an older version of MacOS.