Budget Disappeared.

mobleyw

Colleen T: We all feel your pain. We understand Quicken engineers are working on the problem x months. Quicken "Support" knows nothing of the problem, as best we can tell. We have escalated to the extent that some Quicken users on this thread have apparently communicated with Quicken engineers, but a solution is not yet available. Reading way back, you will note around 7-23-22 that there was a new version of Quicken which was reported to have resolved the problem. Obviously, this "fix" did not work. We all still wait for a solution, with more and more Quicken users being affected, frustrated, and joining this thread in a search for answers.

mtn_living

I have been using the following process for a week or so and (at risk of jinxing things by posting here) my budget has been ok for a while now. Note that this is with a file where I've verified budget is present and done a super validate. I also make sure no other applications software is running when I run Quicken (eg; web browser, Word/Excel/etc): Also; now on 43.32 release, 27.1.43.32 build wihch appeared this morning and running on Windows 10.

1) Open Quicken
2) Check Planning/Budget
3) Use CTRL B to do a backup (note I also include time in my backup names)
4) File/Exit Quicken and wait a minute to make sure everything is unloaded and truly exited
5) Open Quicken again, check budget
6) Do my work in Quicken and check budget frequently. I also backup at least once if not more in every session

Might just be superstitious but at least so far things have been ok. 

CMRater

Hey mtn_living,

You said back on 2 Sept "important: word is they think they have figured root cause of issue and a fix is coming soon. finger’s crossed."
You seem to have a direct line with their engineers.  It's been about 3 weeks.  Have they communicated with you lately?

jkleath

Just want to chime in that I have the same problem. Quicken routinely crashes and loses my budgets, costing me lots of time. I can't imagine how many man hours this bug is costing Quicken users. Budgets are BASIC to financial planning, and without that functionality Quicken simply does not meet my needs. Actively looking for a Quicken replacement with a stable, user friendly budget function.

mtn_living

CMRater said:

Hey mtn_living,

You said back on 2 Sept "important: word is they think they have figured root cause of issue and a fix is coming soon. finger’s crossed."
You seem to have a direct line with their engineers.  It's been about 3 weeks.  Have they communicated with you lately?

Nothing of note, have an inquiry in but no answer yet.

mtn_living

jkleath said:

Just want to chime in that I have the same problem. Quicken routinely crashes and loses my budgets, costing me lots of time. I can't imagine how many man hours this bug is costing Quicken users. Budgets are BASIC to financial planning, and without that functionality Quicken simply does not meet my needs. Actively looking for a Quicken replacement with a stable, user friendly budget function.

It's incredibly frustrating and with year end coming budgeting season is near.

I have not experienced the frequent actual crashes. Occasionally see that but rarely lose budget then. For me it's just random, doing some basic work and suddenly find I have no budget.

Have you:
1) Done a super validate on your file?
2) Updated to the most recent version of Quicken for Windows?
3) Done a reinstall of Quicken from scratch?

Are you able to recover a recent file with budget intact after a loss?

CMRater

Thanks 

mtn_living

I heard back:
- very complicated issue to fix and team has been working on it, has priority, regret it is taking so long
- hoping, not promising, hoping to release a fix in October

YTilahun

@mtn_living Thank you for the update. We will keep our fingers crossed now.

CMRater

Thanks for the update mtn_living!

blackcoffee

So, my first transaction in Quicken was Dec 1991. I have been using the program for 31 years and this year it has decided to lose all my previous budgets and not allow me to create a new budget. Bottom line, unacceptable. It can't be that complicated, the Quicken programmers have broken something and they should be able to trace it back to a change and fix it. If quicken wants to run on a yearly subscription, they need to up their game and start addressing bug and functionality concerns that have been highlighted in various forums for years.

CMRater

Sorry you’ve had to join this forum black coffee.  Most of us share your sentiments.  I’ve also been using quicken for over 30 years and have been dealing with this software flaw for over 2 years.  Some in the forum have been in direct contact with quicken as you will note in prior posts.  Word is they are trying to fix with no success thus far.  In the meantime, frequent backups of files with working budget and restores as necessary are the only known ways to cope with this software bug.

mtn_living

Interesting to me that many of us on this thread a very long time users of Quicken with probably large data files with lots of history. Wonder if the issue is something fundamental about Quicken ability to handle very large datasets? Just spitballing here.

PS: after two or so weeks of everything functioning well I lost budget yesterday after one step update  processing transactions from six or so accounts. Was able to restore from day before backup and redo.

CMRater

I have also postulated that theory mtn_living in the past.  Sometimes when I call and the representative realizes how long my history is they like to suggest copying just a portion of my file (e.g., 5 years or so).  I have tried that briefly, but the problems remained.  Plus I shouldn't have to lose years of history.  It could be a legacy flaw in the software that has never been rooted out for us long time users.??  Personally, I am ready for them to simply offer a separate budget backup/restore feature so we wouldn't have to reenter what used to be hours of work.  Now I know to back up every 2-5 minutes.  The best feature Quicken has added for those of us who suffer from this problem is the addition of a time stamp to backups so we can backup multiple times per day.

karolmenez

Since yesterday I am consistently losing budget. No matter which old backup I try to restore from. Even the ones that used to restore the budget now do not work. Stuck.

mtn_living

I’ve once a while found that closing Quicken and restarting computer and Quicken may allow a restore with budget.

karolmenez

Restored a backup to a new empty directory and opened it. The "no budget" popup did not show up. Interesting. Hopefully I can continue in the new directory.

mtn_living

very interesting.

tdreed1265

> @mtn_living said:
> I’ve once a while found that closing Quicken and restarting computer and Quicken may allow a restore with budget.

Yes, that seems to be the best way once the panic sets in after the "no budget" message pops up. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 restarts.

Also, I have found better success with restoring from the actual backup vs. using one of the backups that have the time appended (such as PM8.25). Not sure why, and it's purely anecdotal, but seems to help.

CMRater

Those of you who lose budgets frequently, does budget loss occur when you attempt to access budget through the planning tab, or do you notice budget reports don't work without accessing budget.  For me, I've gone several weeks without budget loss.  I run budget reports multiple times per session.  I notice that it is only when I try to access the budget through the planning tab where I frequently get the "no budget" error.  There seems to be something directly tied to viewing/editing the budget that freaks the software out.  For this reason, I minimize editing the budget until really necessary to minimize the budget loss and restore loop.  Don't like this restriction, but helps me get what I need while we wait for the overdue fix.

Alex140

Like you, CMRater I have survived several weeks through Quicken updates and significant budget work without a budget loss unless I deviate from my Quicken voodoo protocol. I open Quicken. It opens to the Home tab. I click into the top "Banking" account in the "Account Bar" pane on the left. After the register opens, I click on the "Planning" Tab and let that open. I then click back on the same Banking account in the "Account Bar." I then run One Step Update or make register entry/adjustments. If I haven't had enough coffee and I start to manipulate the budget or an account register without the "toggle" to the Planning Tab and back, I am guaranteed to get the dreaded no budget message. And lastly, Control B for regular backups is my best friend. I have experienced other glitches, but my homemade process has significantly improved my mood.

mtn_living

I flip to planning tab every few minutes and that’s how I verify if budget still intact. It doesn’t seem to impact budget loss for me. Budget loss just pops up pretty  randomly but seemingly correlated with number of account transactions I have to process from one step update and maybe the mix of account involved. If I have say four credits cards with transactions then several investment accounts with transactions where I have to edit anything in the transaction I can be pretty sure I’ll lose budget. CTRL B my best friend too. I flip to planning tab after I finish a few accounts to see if budget intact then backup. What I find very weird is I can process a bunch of accounts/transactions and lose budget, restore to same starting point, repeat process and be fine.

Side note; neither editing my budget nor running budget reports has ever caused a budget loss for me. If I successfully complete entering, modifying transactions without budget loss I’m good for that session. Can run reports, do portfolio value updates, etc and no budget loss.

Also,  for me, problem goes back at least a year and maybe more, not something that crept into recent updates.

Again,  spitballing; wondering if Quicken doesn’t have some legacy memory structure issue that is making it difficult for them to find a fix. Maybe us old timers’ big files are running into some fundamental problem in memory management. Maybe we are bumping up against something that’s been there for a while rather than some new software change that has introduced the problem,

Purely speculation on my part.

CMRater

Thanks for responding all.  Based on your experiences, I might try interfacing with the budget more often.  Would love it if it worked.

Question to mt_living, Exactly when/how do you know your budget is lost, if not when trying to access the budget?
 Thanks 

mtn_living

When I click on Planning tab is when I know status. If it's gone I immediately get message "No Budget..." That's how I check. If full budget screen appears I know I'm good.

CMRater

Me too.  That’s why I avoid touching that tab.  I can run budget reports for weeks when not entering the planning tab.  However, if I determine I need to edit the budget and go through the planning tab, good chance the budget “disappears”.  Can’t run budget reports either, so have to restore from a recent backup, which for me is probably no more than 2-5 minutes old.

mtn_living

I don't think going into that tab is causing budget loss but might be wrong. For me, if I can't see budget in Planning tab I don't trust that it's actually intact.

CMRater

I only observe budget loss when I enter planning tab.  Able to run budget reports until budget is sometimes gone when I enter planning tab.  Bolsters theory that budget is there, but loses accessibility due to intermittent software flaw, but then gone until successful restore.

dzf22k

Quicken Premier R43.32, build: 27.1.43.32, Windows 10 Home still has budget disappearing issues. I follow my routine and do backups only when on the Planning tab displaying current budget. I maintain local data with Mobile & Web synch Off. Import financial transactions with exception of Investment accounts. Most occurrences of budget loss occur when I do a One Step Update to import brokerage data when there appears to be a partial attempt by Quicken to synch with the Cloud even though the preference is Off. I always do a complete backup before performing the One Step Update. I've been able to recover in each disappearance case by a backup restore process.