Multiple Quicken Files (Q Mac)

Perry Smith

Part of the problem with the "magic" of the cloud is the "magic" is not fully understood by me.  This should be a "no dah" type question and perhaps it is.

I have my Quicken file that I use all the time.  But today I am helping a friend and I want to create what I'll call a temporary Quicken file to play with, etc.  Is this going to confuse all of the cloud stuff?  If I create a new Quicken file and add a few accounts to it, play with it, for a day or a week, when I open my original Quicken file, is Quicken going to get confused?

RickO

It will not be a problem. The new file you create will have its own cloud account. Nothing should mingle between the files. You may want to turn off Sync in Preferences > Mobile, Web & Alerts.

The only caveat is that anyone logging in with your Quicken credentials on the mobile app will have access to all cloud accounts under your ID, which include your main file. So just don't give your Quicken.com login credentials to your friend.

If you later want to give the temp file to your friend, when they open it while logged in under their Quicken ID, they will be told that the file has a different owner and asked if they want to take over ownership of the file. If you do transfer the temp file to your friend, make sure you compress (zip) it and give them the zipped copy (or a Quicken backup). Don't give them the uncompressed file, or they will have macOS permissions problems when they try to open it.

RickO

It will not be a problem. The new file you create will have its own cloud account. Nothing should mingle between the files. You may want to turn off Sync in Preferences > Mobile, Web & Alerts.

The only caveat is that anyone logging in with your Quicken credentials on the mobile app will have access to all cloud accounts under your ID, which include your main file. So just don't give your Quicken.com login credentials to your friend.

If you later want to give the temp file to your friend, when they open it while logged in under their Quicken ID, they will be told that the file has a different owner and asked if they want to take over ownership of the file. If you do transfer the temp file to your friend, make sure you compress (zip) it and give them the zipped copy (or a Quicken backup). Don't give them the uncompressed file, or they will have macOS permissions problems when they try to open it.