Budget Disappeared.

CMRater

Hey DP,
Not sure what the net effect of deleting closed accounts will be.  The article in the link below, particularly the note may call into question how much the file size will be reduced as there seems to be some residual memory of the the deleted accounts.  It may be that so long as you have not reached file account limit, you may be able to delete but we will curious to hear the impact on file size.  One last thought is to consider the impact of historical transactions and transfers that were associated with the deleted accounts.

I wonder if Quicken or a super user could weigh in on this matter.

https://www.quicken.com/support/size-or-capacity-limitations-quicken-data-file#:~:text=In%20a%20Quicken%20file%20you,credit%2C%20investment%2C%20etc.)%3B

DPowis85$

CMR, I deleted the closed / hidden accounts accounts and Quicken opened normally, after the clock struck midnight, with all my Budget Data. I did a back up of my data file before deleting the accounts for historical purposes, which I can go back to if not too much time goes by.

Interesting, as you suspected, my file size prior to deletion was 367,636 KB, after deletion 368,868 KB! In reading the article that you referenced, I do not believe I was even close to the limits that are stated.

In the end, if the file size really is the cause of "disappearing budgets", starting a new Quicken file on January 1 might still be easier than migrating to a new financial application.

CMRater

Sad that it may come to that.  At one point I performed a copy file reducing my 30 history to just last 10 years.  Still lost budgets.  So maybe starting over from scratch is one of the more viable options.   It may be necessary to start over from nothing vs trying to salvage some structures of your existing file, as some hidden legacy category or transaction in your existing file may be an issue.

At the moment, I seem to be getting by with the Dummy File process as I wait along with everyone else for a software solution.  Amazing that Quicken Superusers or Quicken support personnel have not offered any insights or suggestions for the many months this discussion has been going on?  Would really appreciate hearing from them.

drichman

[Removed - Violation of Community Guidelines/Rant]

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DPowis85$

I don't yet want to jinx myself and declare victory but...after deleting all of my inactive and closed accounts from the last 20+ years, I have now gone four days, opening and closing Quicken, without my budget disappearing! I did a backup before deleting inactive accounts so I can always go back should I have a need. I will update this post if I see any changes as we head towards the end of the year!

CMRater

Thanks for sharing DP.  Did your file size decrease as a result?
Perhaps another clue for the development team.
What happpens to your transactions in those closed accounts?

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mobleyw

Catonyx...My guess, based on some observations of very similar difficulties: Maybe you hit Control B too fast?? Seems to me Quicken needs to put those new transactions you entered into several places, including updating reports, budget, home tab, reconciling reminders,etc. If you tell it to do something else too fast, (CNTRL it gets overloaded and presto... Budget disappears. When this happens to me I can alternate the most recent backups to restore and eventually budget returns, then the most recent backup restores with the budget as well. The cloud back-up sync always happens along the way - even though this is switched off in my preferences. Also I have heard repeatedly to never put a Quicken file on OneDrive. All of my backups are on a thumb drive - and my primary Quicken file is on my C-drive, not in a OneDrive path.

mtn_living

I once had that backup glitch a few months ago, same exact sequence and results. I tend to agree that it was from being too fast on the CTRL-B trigger. I now let everything clearly finish up before I hit CTRL-B. I too have the weird cloud synch message everytime I have to restore but don't think it's really connected to anything about budget loss. 

For backups I have reliably backed up to a BACKUP directory/folder I have within my Quicken data folder. I then use Acronis to back up all my data once a day at night. I used to try to backup Quicken to a USB thumb drive but was a) a pain to use  b) not completely backup offsite.  

Definitely never, ever use Quicken where your active data file resides in a cloud synching folder (eg, DropBox, OneDrive, etc).  I do think it's ok to do a backup to a cloud synching drive or use Quicken's DropBox backup service.  That is only for the backup file NOT the active data file.

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mtn_living

catonyx said:

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mtn_living said:

I once had that backup glitch a few months ago, same exact sequence and results. I tend to agree that it was from being too fast on the CTRL-B trigger. I now let everything clearly finish up before I hit CTRL-B. I too have the weird cloud synch message everytime I have to restore but don't think it's really connected to anything about budget loss. 

For backups I have reliably backed up to a BACKUP directory/folder I have within my Quicken data folder. I then use Acronis to back up all my data once a day at night. I used to try to backup Quicken to a USB thumb drive but was a) a pain to use  b) not completely backup offsite.  

Definitely never, ever use Quicken where your active data file resides in a cloud synching folder (eg, DropBox, OneDrive, etc).  I do think it's ok to do a backup to a cloud synching drive or use Quicken's DropBox backup service.  That is only for the backup file NOT the active data file.

OneDrive doesn't really sync the file while it is open so I don't think OneDrive is really the issue. But I moved the file another location and will try that for a while and see if that make a difference. Will update if I have an incident.

General experience from many users (and Quicken support recommendation) is to avoid the data file being in any type of cloud synch folder.

drichman

I have been using OneDrive to store my files for years without issue. The only time I lost my budget was when I configured syncing of my data to Quicken to allow access via my iPhone. I turned that feature off and have my fingers crossed.

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DPowis85$

CMRater, my file size did not decrease, it actually grew slightly. I deleted all inactive accounts and closed accounts..20+ years of history. The transactions are gone in my current file, however, since I did a backup before the mass deletion, I can always go back to that backup if I have a need. So far I have not had my budget disappear..going on five days!

Chris_QPW

DPowis85$ said:

CMRater, my file size did not decrease, it actually grew slightly. I deleted all inactive accounts and closed accounts..20+ years of history. The transactions are gone in my current file, however, since I did a backup before the mass deletion, I can always go back to that backup if I have a need. So far I have not had my budget disappear..going on five days!

Your data file isn’t going to decrease because of removing accounts with maybe the exception of if they have attachments and the attachments get deleted along with the removal of the account (I have never tested that).

”Deleting” in a database like Quicken amounts to marking the records “deleted” so they can be quickly reused instead of creating new records in the data file.  The only operation that will really delete records is Quicken’s copy/template function.  Unfortunately these days that also removes all the online services information so you would have to set that up again.

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CMRater

To my surprise, I have heard the same level of unawareness.  You would think that support would be aware that this is a top trending discussion

mtn_living

So….Tier 2 support is supposed to update frontline support on this issue. If you call support on the budget loss issue refer to this reference ticket: QWIN-20936. This is not a solution but rather a reference number to ask support to look up if they say they haven’t heard of the issue. 

Personal conjecture; not much support is going to be able to do for you other than what you’ve read in this thread.

dzf22k

Currently on Quicken Premier R45.13, build: 27.1.45.13 running local, (OpSys:Windows 10 Pro Ver:21H2) andstill having budget disappearing issues. I mentioned this ongoing budget retention problem when renewing my current subscription in November and received some compensation. I’m avoiding significant rework after budget loss instances only by following my regular routine for complete backups.

I do backups only when on the Planning tab displaying current budget. I maintain local data with Mobile & Web synch Off. Manually 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.

Woodie

Where is the Budget Have used for the last10 years????

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mtn_living

I have had that happen once or twice where budget is gone on opening without doing anything else. Hard to determine if the loss was from that opening of the data file or on the last close out of the file. I’ve gotten in the habit of always checking planning/budget before I close and doing a backup just to try and isolate where fault occurs.

Totally separately;  I have had remarkable stability on my new computer. Knock on wood but since transition I have not lost budget once. I know others on Windows 11 have continued to lose budgets so it is not Windows 11. I am however wondering about RAM capacity. My new machine has 16 gb of RAM and I’ve tried to carefully edit my startup processes/programs to maximize available memory. I try, mostly, to only have Quicken running without other apps running. The new computer is also running some HP memory isolation and protection stuff. Kind of grasping at straws here but am curious if free RAM is helping me?

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mtn_living

catonyx said:

Sorry, one more follow up. The backup that was made while the Planning screen was active turns out to NOT be able to recover my budgets - I tried in several different recovery methods and each time the budgets are gone. So, now I will lose transactions and changes if I go to older backups. So, things go worse for me.

Just to ask,  have you done a complete computer reboot/restart then tried recovery on your recent backup? I’ve had that help in the past.

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tdreed1265

I just lost my budget again this morning. Had been fairly stable until I decided to install the recommended new update. Everything seemed to be fine after the upgrade. Did a lot of updates and checked the budget....still there. Did a full copy and then closed Quicken. Opened it back up later and the budget was gone. Had to restore from a copy made on the prior level and re-enter everything I had just done.

I too have had luck with rebooting my machine to fix this issue. But, I haven't actually verified that it fixes it. Rebooting takes so long, but I think on the next issue I will try that first before trying to restore.

Roger C

I'm a Validate/Super Validate EXPERT. Loss of data (the budget) is UNACCEPTABLE.
Tired of wonderous notes from the CEO about how great Quicken is. Someone should have him create a Budget.