Recurring problem with Fidelity downloads in large file

TrayRacer

I’ve added much of this as a comment on another user’s post, "Continuing download issues with Fidelity (OL-220-A)" (https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20257715), but am starting a new thread in the hopes of getting a direct response from Quicken developers.

For the past several months I’ve had similar issues (OL-220-A) with Fidelity Investments and have had two open tickets (926-3521 & 914-7645) with no success.

We have validated and super-validated the file, and even using file copy to create a new version of the file. I get the same results each time, regardless.

When I deactivate the online access to all 5 of my Fidelity accounts, and then reconnect, Fidelity data downloads perfectly. Subsequent downloads succeed until new data is available from Fidelity. The next attempt after that successful download will then fail with OL-220-A, specifically with the following from the CONNLOG.TXT:

Parse error. Current object: INV401KBAL Missing Tag: TAG UNKNOWN

All subsequent downloads will fail until I deactivate/reactivate. Note that the data goes back to 1985, but only about 3200 transactions total between the 5 accounts.

I’ve contacted Fidelity and we’ve confirmed that creating an empty file and downloading transactions always works, even on subsequent downloads, and even when the downloads continue to fail in my main file.

I’ve been a Quicken user since 1987, and a software developer even longer. There is CLEARLY a bug in the Quicken software where some aspect of my file is putting the download into an unexpected state causing the download parsing to fail.

I commend most of your frontline tech support for doing their best to help, but they are understandably limited in how far they can go. When I asked to have this escalated to the software developers as a bug, one particular manger repeatedly insisted that I was wrong, and there was no way the issue was on the Quicken side.

As a software developer and experienced debugger, I'm happy to offer my services to help debug the download process in Visual Studio along with one of your developers, to help isolate the problem, or any other means to find a way to debug this.

1994

I am having the same problems. Also, Quicken user since 1991 and software engineer for just as long. Performed the same troubleshooting attempts with Fidelity AND Quicken support. Tried creating a new empty file and downloads worked. In my working data file, can "Reset" the Fidelity accounts and then can perform 1 download. Immediately trying another download fails. Subsequent attempts also fail. Can perform the Reset again, and then will be able to perform one more download. I have 10 Fidelity accounts, but only track 5 of them in Quicken. Performing the Deactivations/Re-activations or Resets is a time-consuming and frustrating activity. PLEASE Quicken, fix this.

Quicken Jared

TrayRacer said:

I’ve added much of this as a comment on another user’s post, "Continuing download issues with Fidelity (OL-220-A)" (https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20257715), but am starting a new thread in the hopes of getting a direct response from Quicken developers.

For the past several months I’ve had similar issues (OL-220-A) with Fidelity Investments and have had two open tickets (926-3521 & 914-7645) with no success.

We have validated and super-validated the file, and even using file copy to create a new version of the file. I get the same results each time, regardless.

When I deactivate the online access to all 5 of my Fidelity accounts, and then reconnect, Fidelity data downloads perfectly. Subsequent downloads succeed until new data is available from Fidelity. The next attempt after that successful download will then fail with OL-220-A, specifically with the following from the CONNLOG.TXT:

Parse error. Current object: INV401KBAL Missing Tag: TAG UNKNOWN

All subsequent downloads will fail until I deactivate/reactivate. Note that the data goes back to 1985, but only about 3200 transactions total between the 5 accounts.

I’ve contacted Fidelity and we’ve confirmed that creating an empty file and downloading transactions always works, even on subsequent downloads, and even when the downloads continue to fail in my main file.

I’ve been a Quicken user since 1987, and a software developer even longer. There is CLEARLY a bug in the Quicken software where some aspect of my file is putting the download into an unexpected state causing the download parsing to fail.

I commend most of your frontline tech support for doing their best to help, but they are understandably limited in how far they can go. When I asked to have this escalated to the software developers as a bug, one particular manger repeatedly insisted that I was wrong, and there was no way the issue was on the Quicken side.

As a software developer and experienced debugger, I'm happy to offer my services to help debug the download process in Visual Studio along with one of your developers, to help isolate the problem, or any other means to find a way to debug this.

Hello TrayRacer, 

I do apologize about this issue with account downloads and updates. Thank you for drawing our attention to this matter here on the Quicken Community.

What connection method are you currently making use of in order to add or link your account(s) to online banking services? Please note that you can verify this anytime by going to Tools > Account List and then clicking on the Edit button in the row associated with the affected account(s). Next, go to the Online Services tab in the new window that appears afterward. The information we are looking for should be found under the Online Setup callout box.

I am eager to hear your response. 

Thank you,

Quicken Jared 

TrayRacer

Thanks for reaching out Jared. As mentioned in other threads Fidelity only supports Direct Connect, which is what I am using.

FWIW, about a week ago I got tired of waiting for a response and disabled and re-enabled the connections to all my Fidelity accounts, and as expected the connection worked for a few days, until today when a new transaction was available for download after no transactions were available for download on Friday.

Quicken is now in a state where I will continue to get OL-220-A errors until I deactivate and re-activate all the Fidelity accounts. The download will fail for both background downloads via bagent.exe and for an explicit "Update Transactions" from the "Actions" menu on any Fidelity account. Essentially my Quicken is now in a state where the issue can be easily reproduced and debugged, so if you wat to supply the appropriate PDB's and wish me to set any specific breakpoints, I'd be happy to help.

Thank you,
Pete

Quicken Jared

TrayRacer said:

Thanks for reaching out Jared. As mentioned in other threads Fidelity only supports Direct Connect, which is what I am using.

FWIW, about a week ago I got tired of waiting for a response and disabled and re-enabled the connections to all my Fidelity accounts, and as expected the connection worked for a few days, until today when a new transaction was available for download after no transactions were available for download on Friday.

Quicken is now in a state where I will continue to get OL-220-A errors until I deactivate and re-activate all the Fidelity accounts. The download will fail for both background downloads via bagent.exe and for an explicit "Update Transactions" from the "Actions" menu on any Fidelity account. Essentially my Quicken is now in a state where the issue can be easily reproduced and debugged, so if you wat to supply the appropriate PDB's and wish me to set any specific breakpoints, I'd be happy to help.

Thank you,
Pete

Hello @TrayRacer, 

I do apologize that you are still being affected by this issue. Thank you for getting back in contact with me in order to provide me further information about what is happening. 

Are you noticing the same difficulties in additional data files? If you have the chance, you could save a backup by going to File > Copy or Backup File... in the upper menu at the top of the screen and then create a 'test' data file by going to the same menu and selecting New Quicken File... Next, choose New Quicken File in the screen that follows, and then click OK. After this, choose a file location on your computer and then click Save. Choose Don't use mobile and web when prompted.

You may then add your Fidelity account(s) exclusively by navigating to the Add Account button, denoted by the '+' symbol. You should be able to find this in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Enter your credentials as prompted. I am curious to know whether or not these connectivity problems continue in the test file.

I hope to hear more from you, shortly. 

Thank you,

Quicken Jared

TrayRacer

Hi Jared, I've already been down that path. I’ve had two open tickets on this issue: 926-3521 and 914-7645 where we're tried validating and super-validating the file, as well as using file copy to create a new version of the file. I get the same results each time, regardless.

I've also created a brand new empty file, added ONLY the Fidelity accounts and in that file the Fidelity transactions ALWAYS download correctly. If I switch back to my normal active file, the downloads immediately fail again, strongly indicating that the problem is NOT on the Fidelity side, but rather in Quicken's processing within the large data file.

I've tried every suggestion from support, the knowledge base and the forums, but this is clearly a software issue that needs to be escalated to the software developers and debugged. As a VERY long-time Quicken used (since 1987) and software developer even longer, I will once again offer my debugging services to help get this resolved.

Pete

TrayRacer

Hi @Quicken Jared, it's been a month since my last response and I still haven't heard anything. I'm now up to Version R41.19, Build 27.1.41.10 and this is still not working.

A few months ago your CEO Eric Dunn made a very big deal about improving connectivity with financial institutions. Was this just talk, or will we work together to fix this?

Quicken Jared

TrayRacer said:

Hi @Quicken Jared, it's been a month since my last response and I still haven't heard anything. I'm now up to Version R41.19, Build 27.1.41.10 and this is still not working.

A few months ago your CEO Eric Dunn made a very big deal about improving connectivity with financial institutions. Was this just talk, or will we work together to fix this?

Hello @TrayRacer,   

Thanks for reaching out again to me about this, and updating me on the current situation. I do apologize that this issue is still unresolved, for the moment.

All troubleshooting steps available to those of us on the Quicken Community have been exhausted, so at this point I recommend reaching out to Quicken Support to make sure that an escalation has been filed. You can make use of the information in the following link in order to speak with them. Be sure to request to speak with a Tier 2 representative and request to have this situation escalated as soon as possible.

I hope that is helpful. 

Thanks,

Quicken Jared 

TrayRacer

Thanks @Quicken Jared. After 25 minutes talking with the front-line support rep I was finally able to schedule a (hopefully) Tier 2 call for tomorrow. [Apparently there's no way to simply call in and speak to Tier 2, although theoretically chat is supposedly available.]

I'll post the result here. Thank you.