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Securities no longer owned slowing down Quicken

Barry Jedrick

Have had Quicken Premier or many years and it keeps taking longer to start. Have marked securities I no longer own as hide, but they must still affect the startup. Tried Archive and it did something so Quicken would no longer start. Had to do a Windows 10 restart to get it back, then restore a backup copy to get a file without the Archive. Even so, Archive creates an additional account with an archive suffix, which clutters up the screen, and if they are also loaded on startup, don't see how it speeds anything up.

They need to find a way to just get old securities out of the file. Looks like the only way to do that is to uninstall Quicken and then install a virgin copy and start fresh. Right now have to wait several minutes for Quicken to start.

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Accepted answers

Chris_QPW

I suspect that the old securities have nothing to do with your start up time.

The only reasons I can think of that Quicken would even refer to the securities at start up time would be if your home tab has something on it with the securities or if you are running One Step Update at start up.

One test that I think would be worth trying is disabling your network connection and then starting Quicken. If it starts up quickly then the problem is most likely one with Quicken having problems talking to the Quicken servers.

On the other hand, given that Archiving the securities caused problems, my theory might be wrong about it not having to do with your securities, but the cause/fix wouldn't have anything to do with hiding/selecting to download quotes or not. It would have to do with a corrupted data file.

I would try Validate and Repair, and make sure to try rebuilding the securities lots.

You are correct that there is no way to remove old securities as long as there are transactions using them.
What's more there isn't any guarantee that it is an old security that is corrupted.

BTW short of a completely virgin data file one can try exporting/importing a QIF file.
Here are some details on that:
ChangeTransfers changes transfers in a QIF file to categories. - QuicknPerlWiz

Chris_QPW

Barry Jedrick said:

To be honest, I have not yet tried to delete old securities, since the web said there was no way to do that. If they can be deleted as long as there are no active lots, that may solve the problem

Like I said you can delete the old securities, but only after deleting the transactions that are using them. That might mean deleting accounts or maybe using the copy function and using a cutoff date. The Year End Copy will not touch security transactions. Note the copy function now disconnects all online services as part of the copy.

Chris_QPW

Thanks for reporting back on this. This just the kind of thing I would have thought it would be. As in Quicken and the Quicken server "not getting along".

All comments

NotACPA

When you do TOOLS, Security List, are those securities marked for "Download Quotes"? You'll probably have to check "Show Hidden Securities" at the bottom of the dialog (and perhaps, widen it) to see them.

Chris_QPW

Barry Jedrick

I have done 'show hidden securities' and unchecked anything on the Watch column. Made no difference. I would just like to delete the security and have all references removed from the file. The only reason I can see for keeping old stuff is for historical reporting, and who cares what the values were years ago.?
I just need cost basis and current value for tax reporting, and I don't even need those if the securities are no longer owned.

To be honest, I have not yet tried to delete old securities, since the web said there was no way to do that. If they can be deleted as long as there are no active lots, that may solve the problem

Chris_QPW

Barry Jedrick said:

To be honest, I have not yet tried to delete old securities, since the web said there was no way to do that. If they can be deleted as long as there are no active lots, that may solve the problem

Barry Jedrick

Thanks. I'll try the backup date with a cutoff date of my oldest current security. That should get rid of a lot of old stuff.

Rocket J Squirrel

I would Archive Transactions, then delete the archive account(s). That should get rid of all the transactions referencing the unheld securities. Then the securities could be deleted.

Jim_Harman

Have you tried comparing the speed of a new test file to your current file?

That would tell whether your issues are related to your data file or some other factor.

Chris_QPW

Rocket J Squirrel said:

I would Archive Transactions, then delete the archive account(s). That should get rid of all the transactions referencing the unheld securities. Then the securities could be deleted.

I was thinking the same thing, except in the original post @Barry Jedrick said that he did an archive and then he couldn't open his data file and so I didn't think it is possible. But going through the post again, I see he mentions that a separate account is created, so it sounds like maybe @Barry Jedrick did get it to work eventually?

I also want to mention something about this statement from the original post that I might not be clear on.

Barry Jedrick said:

Even so, Archive creates an additional account with an archive suffix, which clutters up the screen, and if they are also loaded on startup, don't see how it speeds anything up.

All the accounts aren't loaded at startup. They are only loaded as they are opened/referenced (like in a report or on a view).

The archive function is pretty new and useful, but before it existed the recommendation for bad performance in an investment account with a lot of past history was to move close securities to another account using the "Shares Transferred Between Accounts" action type. The "Shares Transferred Between Accounts" actually ends up creating more transactions in the original account (Remove Shares), but the idea is to get less security history in the account you actually open and use on a daily basis.

The main reason for not suggesting Archive or "Shares Transferred Between Accounts" is because you are talking about startup performance, which in theory should have nothing to do with how much security history you have.

BTW did you try starting with your network connection disabled to see if it makes a difference?

Rocket J Squirrel

I should have mentioned in my previous post that I have seen no evidence that a large number of securities slows Quicken startup (unless perhaps the preferred startup location presents investment data). I was just suggesting a way to purge unneeded securities.

Barry Jedrick

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I'll try them when I have more time, but for now I'll just live with it

Barry Jedrick

Tried all the suggestions, and unfortunately, none made a difference. Noticed I was getting a popup at startup saying it was syncing something. I never signed up for the Quicken Cloud, do not want the mobile app, and wanted to get rid of it. At first it said it could not access my could data or my profile. Called Quicken Support at 650-250-1900, he had me validate the current BACKUP file, then log back back on, and under Edit/Preferences/ Web and Cloud data, was able to turn Sync OFF, and that fixed the problem.

Thanks for all your suggestions. Hope this solution is helpful to someone else.

Chris_QPW

Thanks for reporting back on this. This just the kind of thing I would have thought it would be. As in Quicken and the Quicken server "not getting along".