Quicken Mac not opening, "Application Not Responding" - How to fix this?

Don Francis

I purchased Quicken this week and spent hours configuring it just the way I wanted it. Linked account, added asset, loans, etc. Customized categories and applied them to all my downloaded transactions. Now I can not get it to open. When I launch Quicken, I immediately get a "Application Not Responding" error and it will not open. I found another post with some guidance, but not final answers. I tried everything they recommended and nothing worked. Help, Please!

Quicken Jared

Don Francis said:

I purchased Quicken this week and spent hours configuring it just the way I wanted it. Linked account, added asset, loans, etc. Customized categories and applied them to all my downloaded transactions. Now I can not get it to open. When I launch Quicken, I immediately get a "Application Not Responding" error and it will not open. I found another post with some guidance, but not final answers. I tried everything they recommended and nothing worked. Help, Please!

Hello @Don Francis,

I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing this frustrating issue with launching the application. Thank you for taking the time to reach out to the Quicken Community about this problem.

To begin with, I recommend uninstalling the Quicken application. You can do this by locating Quicken in your documents folder and then dragging and dropping the Quicken icon into the Trash can. Once you have done this, try reinstalling the Quicken application by logging into Quicken.com with your standard credentials and then downloading the Mac version of Quicken from the lower right-hand box in your Quicken online profile - or at https://www.quicken.com/activate - after you have entered successfully.

I look forward to your response, and hope to continue working with you on this via this thread in the future, should the need arise.

Thank you, 

Quicken Jared 

jacobs

The first question I'd ask is where your Quicken data file is located. That is, is it still in Quicken's default location inside your User > Library > Applications Support > Quicken folder, or did you move it to somewhere more convenient to access? If it's in your Documents folder, the next question is whether you have iCloud Drive enabled to store your Desktop & Documents folder on iCloud (a setting in your System Preferences for iCloud), or if you have it store in a folder which is synced with Dropbox or any other cloud storage service. Storing a data file on any cloud-used storage service is know to produce a variety of problems, including corruption blocking the file from loading.

The next thing I'd suggest is that you hold down the Shift key while launching the Quicken application. This should bring up a dialog box asking if you want to open your previously-opened data file. Say no (cancel, I think), and see if you land on the Let's Get Started page. Try creating a new from From Scratch. If you get this far, just create a manual bank account (click "my bank is not in the list"), and try entering a couple dummy transactions. Then quit Quicken and re-launch; does it quickly open your test file?

There are a few more things to test, but let me stop there so you can respond. 

KTS

I am having the same issue with Quicken. Repeated uninstallations and installations will not start the app. Whether I start the app directly or via my file, it hangs and I have to force quit. I’m using MacOS 12.2 on a 2019 Mac Pro. I’ve never seen so many bugs with a piece of software version after version. Please solve this immediately.

jacobs

KTS said:

Please solve this immediately.

You're talking to fellow Quicken users trying to help each other out here, not Quicken management, so you can dial back the demands.

I asked some questions and made some recommendations to start troubleshooting this problem above, so if you are interested in help with the issue, please answer and report back on what happens when you try the steps mentioned.

sduck

I am having the same issue.

Quicken for mac will not restart after running during the initial installation.

This is the mac version, whatever the latest version is as of 1/29/2022, I can’t find the version number on the download page and I can’t start the app to see. Running on a 2017 Macbook Pro, MacOS 12.1 Monterey. This has all happened today, January 29, 2022.

I installed it, set up with a .qif file from Banktivity. It all set up correctly, seemingly, all the imported accounts seemed to work correctly and have the right balances. Was able to set up syncing with my bank. All seemed well, until I quit the app.

It won’t start again. Just the items in the menu bar appear, and a spinning beach ball. When Force Quit is called up, Quicken is listed as “Not Responding”.

I have tried rebooting the computer, at least 3 times now. I have deleted and reinstalled it. I have tried holding down the shift key while launching the app from finder.

I tried deleting the preference files, which resulted in the app starting again, finally, and having to set up a new user file, which ran fine the first time, and I was able to switch back into file I had set up earlier, and it worked fine, as before. And when I quit the app and tried to restart it, all I get is the same beach ball and the not responding app.

jacobs

Where is your data file located? If it is in your Documents folder, and if you have iCloud Drive enabled to store your Desktop and Documents folders on iCloud, that could be the culprit. Same if it's in a folder stored on Dropbox.

If your data file is in Quicken's default location (in User > Library > Application Support > Quicken), or if it is not in a folder stored on iCloud or Dropbox, there's another quick test worth running…

Log into a different User account on your Mac. If you don't have one, you can easily create one temporarily for testing by going to your System Preferences > Users & Groups and creating a new User. Then log into that User account. Now try launching Quicken.app. Does it immediately stall, or do you get to the login or Let's Get Started page? Can you do Start from Scratch and create a new file? If so, enter a transaction or two, then quit and relaunch Quicken. Does it work?

sduck

Hi - Data files are in the default location. I do not have iCloud Drive set up or running. Dropbox is installed, but the Library folders are not stored on it. I do have Crashplan set up to do offsite backups, but the Library folders are excluded from that. I also have a Time Machine backup set up.

I tried the guest user account just now - Quicken started as it should, and I set up a small test account. And then quit the app and relaunched it - same issue, beach ball and nothing.

I notice numerous threads about this here, and no real solutions - I will get in touch with support on Monday, see if there's any fix. It's not a huge deal, as I have a perfectly capable financial app system already in place, was just looking for a change. And I'm not sure I trust my financial stuff with a program that has such a fundamental problem that requires jumping through hoops to fix. And being able to backup ones data shouldn't be a problem for this or any app. Thanks for all the help!

jacobs

Thanks for doing those additional tests. My guess is that this is something tied to macOS Monterey, perhaps with the way Quicken saves/updates its preference file upon quitting.

There are a large number of people using Monterey with Quicken without problem, but all the people who have reported this problem are on Monterey.

KTS

Jacobs, my apology, I wasn’t demanding this of you…but I’m quite certain that Quicken peruses these forums for indications of problems. Appreciate you trying to help.

jacobs

KTS said:

Jacobs, my apology, I wasn’t demanding this of you…but I’m quite certain that Quicken peruses these forums for indications of problems. Appreciate you trying to help.

Thanks. I think you'd be surprised (sadly) by how little gets reported back upstream to the engineering & development teams from reports on this site. If there is a large flurry of similar reports, one of the Quicken moderators can pass word on, but a few posts like this thread are unlikely to be seen by higher-ups. That's why we encourage people with repeatable problems to use the Report a Problem feature in Quicken and/or to use Quicken Support, because they can document a problem more fully for escalation. 

sduck

I spent some quality time on chat support today. They didn't have any solutions, besides having me set up quicken on my old computer - I think they wanted to persuade me to use that in the meantime until they can fix this, but I'm not really that desperate currently. He said he would try to call me tomorrow - don't know why. I'm a bit baffled why they don't have an email support option - I would think that would be more time friendly on their end, but maybe not.

jacobs

They don't use email for support. I'd guess it's because it's too inefficient; many support issues require lots of back and forth — try this, what do you see, try that, click this button, what does it say, did you ever do X, etc. — for which email (like this forum) is not well-suited for interactive problem solving.

I think you likely need to get to a Tier 2 support representative to pursue this issue. If you don't get a call back, I think you'd do better on a phone call with Support, because they can screen share and see what you're seeing, and pull any relevant log files which might shed any insight on the issue. (Although this case, I'm not sure any Quicken logs are being created; there might be something useful in the macOS system logs to see if it indicates what's happening when the application stalls.) If you do get to a Tier 2 representative, make sure to mention that there are two other people on this thread in the Quicken Community forum reporting the same problem, and that they are all using Monterey.

Good luck, and please post back if you make progress or get a resolution.

sduck

Thanks, and I think I found a solution - at least it now seems to be working properly for me. As someone else did in another similar thread, I just started the app and let it sit, beachballing away. Went off and had dinner. I don't know how long it actually took, but when I came back, it was running again. So if anyon else has this issue, apparently it takes a really long time to sort out whatever the issue is, but it will eventually get past it. Thanks for your advice!

sduck

Oh and yes, it restarts fine once this happens.

jacobs

Fascinating! Hard to understand what's going on, but I'm glad you got it working.