how can i download the quicken windows converter to run locally for security reasons

mikestone

im converting from windows version to mac. Im looking at online support (screen shot attached) and it says that a quicken windows converter will be downloaded to my machine to do the conversion.... yet when i go thru the install steps... it prompts me that my personal data is going to uploaded for the conversion to happen elsewhere so i aborted

since there clearly exists this quicken windows converter program... i really want to run it locally for security sake. can anyone tell me how to download it? im guessing quicken is trying to move more to cloudbased/subscription model for everything but personal data security should be important to everyone I think

@John_in_NC @smayer97 @jacobs

Chris_QPW

No, you can't.  They didn't arbitrarily decide to make a process to upload the customers data and convert it on their server.  I'm sure in fact that amounted to a fair amount of work.

The problem is that the "converter" is in fact a modified version of Quicken Windows running under Wine.

Quicken Windows and that version of Wine are 32-bit programs, but all new Mac operating systems are 64-bit only.  So, the "converter" can't run on your Mac.  And that is why they have the process to upload it to a server that is running an old version of MacOS that can run that "converter".

So, this is uploading your Quicken Windows data file, convert it, download it, and delete it on the server.

Note that what the "converter" is actually doing is exporting a QXF file of your data file, which Quicken Mack can use to create the new Quicken Mac data file.

So, in theory this could also be done by the user on their Windows machine (exporting the QXF file) and copying that QXF file to the Mac and importing it in there to create the data file.

And in fact, early one that is exactly how it was done.  But the process for uploading the Quicken Windows data file to the server and process it was put on place for a number of reasons.

1. The exporting of the QXF file in the mainline code is "questionable".  As in, it is far from clear that the current Quicken Windows release has an up-to-date export of the QXF file.  Quicken Windows developers have basically abandoned that whole feature and not made any progress in years to create a proper export/import for Quicken Windows.  And as such this may or may not be properly maintained like the "converter" is on the server that they are using for the conversion.  If you use this method, it will be hard for people to tell if any problems you encounter are from this or just general problems with the conversion process.
2. The user might not still have a Windows machine.

jacobs

Chris explained it very well above. I'd just like to reiterate that you shouldn't feel doing to conversion is a security risk. Your data is uploaded, converted, downloaded and deleted; Quicken's converters — there's an identical process for people converting from the old version of Quicken Mac — do not retain any of your data in their servers.

mikestone said:

im guessing quicken is trying to move more to cloudbased/subscription model for everything but personal data security should be important to everyone I think

This has nothing to do with subscriptions, and entirely to do with the inability to run old software in the current 64-bit Mac environment. And the current Quicken is no more cloud-based than it has been for many, many years. Your data still resides on your local computer. Your data is only stored in the Quicken Cloud if you choose to enable syncing in order to use the Quicken mobile app or web interface; many people leave syncing turned off. If you use Quicken Connect (Express Web Connect), your downloads from financial institutions is stored on a Quicken aggregation server as an intermediary between your financial institutions and your local Quicken data file; if you get your data into Quicken via Direct Connect, via downloading and importing QFX files, or via manual entry, then none of your data is in the cloud. And none of this process has changed since the introduction of subscription pricing/updates back in 2017.

Hope that helps set your mind at ease.