Password vault passwords are missing

John16

I use Quicken weekly to reconcile accounts. Last Saturday May 14th everything worked normally. I made a manual backup of the file like I always do.

Today May 21 Quicken started normally but all my bank account passwords are gone. Using Tools, Password Vault, Add or Enter Passwords I see only 3 accounts instead of 15.

If I open the backup from when I finished working May 14, the Password Vault is complete.

Can anybody tell me what happened and how to prevent it from happening again? I assume--this being Quicken--that this is an intermittent bug that we have to live with.

[Deleted User]

For the affected funds, if you go to the "Online Services" tab in account details, does it still show you are connected?  If not, then somehow online services for those accounts got deactivated.  They would need to be reconnected.

UKR

You also need to consider that passwords for Express Web - connected banks are no longer stored in the Password Vault, but in a Quicken server instead. You should see this indicated in the Vault as something like "password not needed" or, in One Step Update Settings with a small golden key.

When running One Step Update, do you get prompted for bank passwords? What made you suspect a problem?

BTW, you should set up your backups in Quicken to create both an Automatic and a Manual Backup for you every [1] time you close Quicken. See Edit / Preferences / Backup.
Be sure to store Manual Backups on external USB data sticks or hard drive or network/cloud backup location.

John16

When I used the all-accounts one step update, the account list asked for the password for all accounts that were Direct Connect. Most of my accounts were direct connect. The Express Web Connects accounts were not affected, I assume because their passwords are not stored in the Password Vault.

I converted most of the Direct Connect accounts to Express Web Connects without difficulty although Quicken stopped responding each time for up to 2-minutes. But I've learned that when Quicken appears to lock up, just let it be and usually it will start again in a couple minutes.

Unfortunately, a few businesses like Chase Bank do not support Express Web Connect and so I have to stay with Direct Connect and depend on the password vault remaining uncorrupted.

The BIG problem with reinitializing a Direct Connect connection is that the first download pulls 18 months of transactions. Chase recognizes and matches transactions already in the ledger so it's not a big deal.

But for the brokerages Edward Jones and TD Ameritrade Quicken fails to match old transactions so they must be manually deleted. Because I have mostly dividend-paying holdings, some that pay monthly, this means each account has Hundreds of transactions to be deleted.

I am not pleased.

If anyone could tell me how to back up the password vault I'd appreciate it. But I expect there is not a way to do that.

UKR

John16 said:

...
If anyone could tell me how to back up the password vault I'd appreciate it. But I expect there is not a way to do that.

The Password Vault is part of your active Quicken data file and cannot be backed up or otherwise stored separately. What you could do is to print the Vault with passwords showing in clear text.

But, with Express Web Connect - accounts now storing their passwords in a Quicken server (so that the server can go out daily and obtain transactions for you), that's mostly moot. Do be sure to store bank passwords elsewhere, securely.

Accounts available with Direct Connect, IMHO, should be left in Direct Connect mode. That works best, especially for investment accounts. Of course, if the bank starts charging you for Direct Connect, fall back to Express Web Connect may be the only alternative. Don't forget to inform the bank that you no longer use Direct Connect and they need to stop charging you.

John16

Thanks to all who on my problem and offered suggestions.