Non-renewal penalty

MacLand

Why can't this be found in information for this product? This is the same as stealing your purchased program.

Greg_the_Geek

What is the Quicken Data Access Guarantee?

MacLand

Penalty for taking over my screen due to non renewal of data access. I don't want data access guarantee, I know my information is on my computer, however it is my choice to not access information online therefore, I did not renew.

Greg_the_Geek

Why am I seeing an expiration banner?

These banners appear when your Quicken subscription has expired. You can continue to use Quicken (see the Data Access Guarantee), but you will need to renew your subscription to restore access to online services and clear the expiration banners. 

You can click Renew or Update Now to renew your Quicken Subscription and clear the expiration banners.

If you can find a copy of Quicken 2017 or 2016, you can open your data file with either version without expiration banners.

Boatnmaniac

MacLand said:

Why can't this be found in information for this product? This is the same as stealing your purchased program.

Quicken is a subscription.  When we purchase Quicken we are buying a subscription, not a program.  That subscription gives us a license to use all of Quicken's features for only as long as we remain subscribed to it.  Once the subscription expires we lose all online services and program updates but we can continue to use it manually for as long as our system supports it....except for Starter which becomes read-only.  This is more than most other subscription software providers allow for because most others will stop allowing any use of their program once the subscription expires.

All of this is pretty clearly spelled out on the Quicken website (see the link posted in the previous reply above) and in the EULA that we needed to agree to when we 1st installed Quicken on our computer.  If purchased on a CD it is also pretty clearly stated on the back of the CD box.

MacLand

I do not want online access to anything, including updates. However I want my whole screen visible again, I am being punished with this banner that cannot be closed. I saw no notification on the penalty screen. That is my issue.

Boatnmaniac

MacLand said:

I do not want online access to anything, including updates. However I want my whole screen visible again, I am being punished with this banner that cannot be closed. I saw no notification on the penalty screen. That is my issue.

I can understand the frustration from not seeing the Quicken notifications.

There is another option that can try:  If you can find a copy of Quicken 2016 or Quicken 2017 (the last 2 years prior to Quicken becoming subscription) you could try installing them.  Your current data file is compatible with both of them...but not with anything earlier than those.  Since these are not subscription, there will be no subscription expiration banner.

jacobs

Boatnmaniac said:There is another option that can try:  If you can find a copy of Quicken 2016 or Quicken 2017 (the last 2 years prior to Quicken becoming subscription) you could try installing them.  Your current data file is compatible with both of them...but not with anything earlier than those.  Since these are not subscription, there will be no subscription expiration banner.

Note: this advice only applies if you are running  Quicken Windows, not Quicken Mac. The Quicken Mac database has been updated many times since Quicken 2017 in order to add new features, so the current Quicken Mac is not backward compatible with Quicken Mac 2017. (There is a way to export your data to a file and import it back into a new Quicken 2017 data file, although non-transaction set-ups like reports and budgets will be lost if you pursue this.)

@MacLand I do understand your frustration. Quicken does not make this very transparent to users. It's been widely discussed on this forum since the policy went into effect back in 2017, but I know many Quicken users visit and read this site only once they have a problem. For what it's worth, while you say you are being "punished" by losing part of your screen for now renewing, apparently Quicken feels they are being more than reasonable in allowing you to continue to use the program manually, while most other subscription software doesn't allow you to use the software at all once your subscription expires.

[Deleted User]

Would this support article help the situation?

https://www.quicken.com/support/reinstalling-and-patching-your-quicken-subscription-version-after-your-membership-has

Boatnmaniac

jacobs said:

Boatnmaniac said:There is another option that can try:  If you can find a copy of Quicken 2016 or Quicken 2017 (the last 2 years prior to Quicken becoming subscription) you could try installing them.  Your current data file is compatible with both of them...but not with anything earlier than those.  Since these are not subscription, there will be no subscription expiration banner.

Note: this advice only applies if you are running  Quicken Windows, not Quicken Mac. The Quicken Mac database has been updated many times since Quicken 2017 in order to add new features, so the current Quicken Mac is not backward compatible with Quicken Mac 2017. (There is a way to export your data to a file and import it back into a new Quicken 2017 data file, although non-transaction set-ups like reports and budgets will be lost if you pursue this.)

Thanks for pointing this out.  I'd noticed that @MacLand 's profile shows a Windows subscription so my earlier post was specifically about that.  I should have also mentioned that comment is applicable to Windows, not Mac, for the benefit of others who might read this thread.

smayer97

...most other subscription software doesn't allow you to use the software at all once your subscription expires.

This is NOT a fair comparison because the data file for Quicken is unique (though they do use SQL). Many (most?) other subscriptions have an alternative that allow the reading of created files. There is no other software that can read Quicken data files directly.

jacobs

smayer97 said:

...most other subscription software doesn't allow you to use the software at all once your subscription expires.

This is NOT a fair comparison because the data file for Quicken is unique (though they do use SQL). Many (most?) other subscriptions have an alternative that allow the reading of created files. There is no other software that can read Quicken data files directly.

Actually, I think it is a fair comparison. And Quicken's data file is not unique. FileMaker Pro is a database program I've used for many years which shifted to a subscription model a few years ago. When I stop renewing my subscription, I'll completely lose access to all my databases. Period. No other software reads FileMaker's proprietary file format. I also have used software from Adobe for a long time, and they also switched to subscription pricing a number of years ago. I've used Adobe InDesign for years to create simple and complex design graphics, and If I don't maintain a subscription, I can't open any file I've ever created — access to all my files is lost. Heck, look at Quicken's own Simplifi program; end your subscription, and you lose access to your data. 

Compared to those programs, Quicken is actually generous because it allows you to still read your data file without a subscription. (FileMaker and Adobe don't give me a Data Access Guarantee! ) And Quicken goes beyond that by allowing you to continue to use the software, albeit manually, with a lapsed subscription. Yes, they steal the screen space devoted to a renewal message, and that is undeniably annoying. But at least they are allowing people to continue to use the software.  And yes, there are some subscription products which won't work if you don't renew them, but won't leave you high and dry because they use a file format that other software can open, such as Microsoft Excel or Word. 

The reason software companies both large and small have moved to subscription pricing is because they've concluded it's the only way to survive. When the software industry was young, they could survive by selling major updates which users eventually found indispensable. As software matured, though, updates offered smaller features and refinements which users might decide they could do without, and software vendors couldn't count on enough upgrade/replacement sales to generate the steady cash flow needed to go on. If a vendor like Quicken makes it too easy for users to decide to skip the subscription because they can continue to use the software, the subscription model fails to achieve what its fundamental purpose. Quicken could doubtless find a different way to try to cajole users into renewing — such as daily pop-up notices instead of stealing screen space — but if they don't make it annoying enough, and make it too easy a easy choice for customers to go off a subscription, then they'd lose money and over time they would likely fail. 

smayer97

I never entered the argument of whether Quicken is being reasonable or not, or whether subscriptions are reasonable or not, or any of the reasons why a company chooses this model.

All I point out is that Quicken's data file IS unique. Yes, there are others. Just because there are others that also have unique data files does not change that fact. [logical fallacy]

jacobs

smayer97 said:

.All I point out is that Quicken's data file IS unique. Yes, there are others. Just because there are others that also have unique data files does not change that fact. [logical fallacy]

The fallacy is since there are others, then Quicken isn’t unique. Unique means “being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.”

Perhaps you’re meaning to say Quicken and others use a proprietary data file format — one they created and not used by others. Some such file formats get reverse-engineered by other software developers; many, like Quicken, do not.

As I wrote previously, is not unique to have a software product which won’t run after a subscription expires, leaving the user unable to read the data in the original or any other software. In the case of Quicken, they don’t take the step of locking; they allow not only read access, but ongoing use — but with an annoyance designed to drive people to decide to renew.