lost all my files

mammanorm

I saw an earlier post dated March 2...I just tried opening my file yesterday. It asked for my id and password, never before as this been asked and then all my files were gone!!! 7 years worth of data. Now when I try to update it tells me my subscription has expired ... when I know and can prove it was renewed in February!

Has anyone else experienced this? Anything that can be done... I can't even find the files in my recycle bin. I will try and do an earlier recovery of my computer but that means I will lose other data. This is unreal.

Ray Cosner

Do you have a system backup of everything on your computer?  

Do you use a cloud service such as OneDrive?  OneDrive has its own recycle bin in addition to the one Windows puts on your desktop, and it keeps all deleted files for 30 days.  I had the same problem of Quicken data disappearing completely from my PC, but I found the data in the OneDrive recycle bin.  I restored that data, and I was back in business in a few minutes with no lasting damage.

Assuming the above two don't apply to you, there is (or was) commercial software that can recover deleted files.  When a file is deleted, it's not actually erased from the hard drive.  Instead, the area where the file was stored is marked as available for re-use whenever the storage space is needed.  You'll have to search for the recovery software.  This is a long shot.  Norton used to provide this type of software in their Norton Utilities package, but they haven't included it for many years.  Do a Google search for "file recovery" or "file undelete".

As a last resort, you could contact a PC service professional, perhaps they can recover your data.  They will expect to be paid for their work.

UKR

mammanorm said:

I saw an earlier post dated March 2...I just tried opening my file yesterday. It asked for my id and password, never before as this been asked and then all my files were gone!!! 7 years worth of data. Now when I try to update it tells me my subscription has expired ... when I know and can prove it was renewed in February!

Has anyone else experienced this? Anything that can be done... I can't even find the files in my recycle bin. I will try and do an earlier recovery of my computer but that means I will lose other data. This is unreal.

Just wondering ... might you have two or more Quicken IDs and passwords? And, when prompted, did you enter an obsolete ID?

Unless you have a virus in your system (or a three year old having played on your computer), Quicken data files do not normally vanish into thin air, data files, backups and all ...
Or did someone attempt to reinstall Quicken and deleted more folders than they should have?
Quicken data files have a file type of .QDF and usually reside in C:\Users\_username_\Documents\Quicken
Backups have a file type of .QDF-backup and usually can be found in C:\Users\username\Documents\Quicken\Backup and/or the folder you specified for Manual Backups, usually an external USB stick or hard drive.

Ps56k2

mammanorm said:  It asked for my id and password, never before has this been asked and then all my files were gone!!! 7 years worth of data. Now when I try to update it tells me my subscription has expired ...

just to clarify -
1 - do you mean Quicken ACCOUNTS - or the actual Quicken QDF data files, QDF-Backup files, etc -
2 - if you can start Quicken... what does this show for Expiration ... Help --> About Quicken
3 - do you still have a Quicken data folder.... something like this - C:\Users\Owner\Documents\Quicken\...
4 - is there a QDF file and also a \BACKUP\ folder ?

Ray Cosner

A random thought....

I experienced the same issue as the OP, last summer.  All the Quicken data files (including backups) had disappeared, they were not even in the recycle bin.  Not findable using File Explorer or the search tool.  Quicken treated me as a new user, and started walking me through the initial setup process.  I found my data in the OneDrive recycle bin, as mentioned above, and I also had system backups to an external drive so I was not in panic mode.  This happened the first time I launched Q after the R34.24 update was automatically installed in my preceding session.

I recall that a cleanup by QCleanUI was added to the update installation process at some point a year or more ago.  This is exactly what QCleanUI was supposed to do, but it was doing it at the wrong time.  Just a theory for consideration by the Quicken team.....