Bill Pay yields Server error

Jordbarnet

So - I had this problem before and had solved it by giving up after hours on the phone with customer support by paying for another quicken account. Unfortunately, I am in the same hole as I was before. Specifically, now that I have had to restore a backup quicken file due to a random problem with a prudential account, ALL of my checking accounts associated with both check pay and bill pay yield server errors when trying to assign them as payment accounts. It doesn't matter what I do! I have deactivated downloads form all my accounts, I have reset the cloud, I have used time machine to go back and access a preexistent file which had these payment accounts activated and deactivated each and every one of them and reactivated them with the restored account (which, incidentally, once you restore a backup, all payment accounts are blank - and I end up in the muck I am in now).

ANY IDEAS? This has been hours of my time ......Some how, considering that my prior solution for $40+ to just pay for a new quicken ID indicates it is a server/cloud issue on quicken's end. I was previously brought up to a high tier representative who, because it was before christmas, also was unable to resolve this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Quicken Jared

Jordbarnet said:

So - I had this problem before and had solved it by giving up after hours on the phone with customer support by paying for another quicken account. Unfortunately, I am in the same hole as I was before. Specifically, now that I have had to restore a backup quicken file due to a random problem with a prudential account, ALL of my checking accounts associated with both check pay and bill pay yield server errors when trying to assign them as payment accounts. It doesn't matter what I do! I have deactivated downloads form all my accounts, I have reset the cloud, I have used time machine to go back and access a preexistent file which had these payment accounts activated and deactivated each and every one of them and reactivated them with the restored account (which, incidentally, once you restore a backup, all payment accounts are blank - and I end up in the muck I am in now).

ANY IDEAS? This has been hours of my time ......Some how, considering that my prior solution for $40+ to just pay for a new quicken ID indicates it is a server/cloud issue on quicken's end. I was previously brought up to a high tier representative who, because it was before christmas, also was unable to resolve this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Hello Jordbarnet,

I know that these kinds of server issues are frustrating, and I am glad that you chose to reach out to us regarding these issues. Just to be clear, are you experiencing these issues with other financial institutions besides Prudential? Also, what kind of connection method are you using? You can check this by going to Settings via the 'gear' icon in the lower right-hand corner of the Quicken window and then going to the Downloads tab.

Thanks,

Quicken Jared 

Jordbarnet

It is with every one I use. It occurs consistently after a restore from backup. I am on a fiber optic line. All connections via quicken is by quicken direct connect (except Fulton bank - that is web connect) It clearly has to do with when a restore occurs, even after performing a cloud reset, the bill pay service believes that no accounts are set up for check pay or bill pay. All accounts are unchecked in the list. It is from this point forward that server errors occur. I have spent days and hours on this. I have also, at this point, paid three times this year the $40 premier cost just to have a fresh quicken ID to resolve the problem. Hours with multiple tier representives has yielded nothing

Quicken Jared

Jordbarnet said:

It is with every one I use. It occurs consistently after a restore from backup. I am on a fiber optic line. All connections via quicken is by quicken direct connect (except Fulton bank - that is web connect) It clearly has to do with when a restore occurs, even after performing a cloud reset, the bill pay service believes that no accounts are set up for check pay or bill pay. All accounts are unchecked in the list. It is from this point forward that server errors occur. I have spent days and hours on this. I have also, at this point, paid three times this year the $40 premier cost just to have a fresh quicken ID to resolve the problem. Hours with multiple tier representives has yielded nothing

@Jordbarnet,

I appreciate you keeping in touch with me regarding this matter. I noticed that you mentioned this happens after restoring from a backup, and that left me with a couple of questions. How often are you restoring from a backup, and are you restoring your data files from an external hard drive or cloud-based storage platform, like DropBox or iCloud? You can find where your file is stored by opening the Quicken app and going to File > Show "(file name here)" in Finder. 


Thanks,

Quicken Jared 

Jordbarnet

This has happened with both restores from my local drive and with the use of Mac's Time Machine. As far as frequency of this occurring, roughly two years ago I transitioned from being a PC user to Mac. The original bill pay/check pay issue came through, apparently, because the payment account servers did not recognize /would not authorize reactivation of my assorted checking accounts on Quicken Premier for Mac. Eventually I came to the epiphany after numerous calls to support that I had to go back to my old PC software, deactivate the accounts there and reactivate the accounts subsequently on mac. This worked for every checking account other than one from TD Bank. I maintained getting a "server error" with this particular account. Ultimately, out of frustration with hours on the phone with customer service, I took the risk of opening up and paying for a new Quicken ID. This solved the problem.

I had managed to go for months without any problems with my quicken data set. I proceeded to try to add a new brokerage account to quicken. For whatever reason, this Prudential account prompted a loop with the brokerage's SMS verification system. I got phone call and text over and over again. This is when I attempted to restore from a local backup of the software. At this point, all of the payment services yielded "Server Error" on attempts at reactivation. This is when hours of time was again spent with customer service. It is at this point it became clear that I, once again, had to set up a another quicken ID. Customer service had no means of resetting the quicken ID/was not considering that a solution. Thus, I now have THREE paid Quicken accounts currently active with now a functioning data set (albeit the cloud created repeatedly a mess between accounts in regards to transfers between several accounts that took hours of time machine restores to figure out what transpired/to fix the data sets) and I am awaiting verification of the final Bill payment for the last checking account.

I hope this helps you address the problem and help others in the future. While I am not aware of the backend of your payment service, cloud resets (which customer service had me do) has no effect on this issue. Furthermore, restore from local backup does not appear to allow bill payment service to recognize that payments are active. Lastly, if resetting a connection with a bank is required - this, too, can create chaos with the bill pay service.

Thank you for your help!

Sincerely,
Jordan