questions to help rebuild corrupt Quicken file

Pacoinconn

In mid-June I noticed that a specific transaction from late March 2022 in one account prevented me from reconciling the account and Quicken reported two errors consistently:

"The resulting value is too big. Please enter it as more than one transaction". When I pressed "okay", I received the following error message: "Error accessing disk". After pressing okay, the reconciliation process continued however the reconciliation was off from the actual cash balance by the exact amount of one of the transactions (dated March 22, 2022).

Long story short, after trying to delete/reenter the transaction; validating and supervalidating the file; moving the supervalidated file to another computer I still received the same message.

I have now restored an early March 2022 backup and would like to bring it up to date. While I've manually entered about 30 transactions in our checking and savings accounts, I would rather not manually enter credit card transactions and investment account transactions.

I have a couple of questions, and of course open to other suggestions to relatively painlessly make the file current.

1. Because I don't download credit card transactions, is the best alternative to manual reentry, to export transactions from each credit card account as a .qif file and then import the .qif file into the restored Quicken file?

2. Can I perform a One Step Update to download transactions for my investment accounts? Or should I use the .qif method to update the investment accounts?

Thanks in advance for the assistance.

Frankx

Hi @Pacoinconn

To answer your questions:
 For #1. - Yes, exporting QIF files for the credit card transactions should work.  You might want to review this POST for more details about that process.

For #2. - You should use the One Step Update process first.  If you have problems with that (e.g. - you can't download all needed transactions using OSU) you can always revert to the QIF file method.

Whatever you do, make sure that you have at least one good backup of your datafile before trying the above.

Let me know how this goes and/or post back if you have any followups.

Frankx 

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @Pacoinconn,

Thank you for contacting the Quicken Community with these questions, I would be happy to assist you!

Could you please share which financial institution your credit card accounts are with? Depending on the bank, there might be another option for you to download and import a QFX file instead. 

However, with investments, you will either need to manually enter transactions or connect to the Online Banking Services and download via One Step Update. 

I hope this helps!

Pacoinconn

@Quicken Jasmine,

Thx for the fast reply. The credit cards that need updating are from Citibank, Chase, and Nordstrom (issued by TD Bank).

With respect to the investment accounts, will the investment accounts "resend" previously downloaded transactions (i.e., those from March 3 through June 14th)?

Thx for your help

Frankx

Hi @Pacoinconn

To answer your questions:
 For #1. - Yes, exporting QIF files for the credit card transactions should work.  You might want to review this POST for more details about that process.

For #2. - You should use the One Step Update process first.  If you have problems with that (e.g. - you can't download all needed transactions using OSU) you can always revert to the QIF file method.

Whatever you do, make sure that you have at least one good backup of your datafile before trying the above.

Let me know how this goes and/or post back if you have any followups.

Frankx 

Pacoinconn

@Frankx

Thanks for your help. I used several QIF files to update credit card accounts and updated investment accounts using OSU. i turned off downloads for the account in question and manually entered transactions. Fortunately I was able to enter the transaction that was causing the issues in the original Quicken file. At this point I have a good Quicken file that is up to date. Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't run into issues moving forward.

UKR

Pacoinconn said:

@Frankx

...

At this point I have a good Quicken file that is up to date. Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't run into issues moving forward.

Just remember to create backups every day as you close Quicken. That minimizes the number of lost changes since the last backup, should you have to restore your data file again.

How to properly set up Quicken Backup
How to make Quicken create a backup for you automatically every time you close Quicken
What Quicken backups are available where?

For the sake of this discussion it is assumed that your Quicken data file is located in the Default (and recommended) place: C:\Users\username\Documents\Quicken

Review the backup settings available in Quicken (under Edit / Preferences / Backup).

In there you will find two types of backup: Automatic and Manual Backup.

Automatic Backup should be enabled and by default goes to a \Backup folder that's part of the folder which contains your current Quicken data file, e.g. \Documents\Quicken\Backup. Set it to create a backup after running Quicken [1] times and to keep [9] (or more, your choice) backup copies.
The file name for Automatic Backup files contains a date and time stamp as part of the file name, e.g. QDATA-2020-03-22.PM03.45.QDF-backup

To create a Manual Backup copy of your Quicken data file on an external device (USB-hard drive or USB memory stick recommended), put a checkmark at "Manual Backup Reminder" to enable the function and set "Remind me after running Quicken [xx] times" to [1].

Click OK to save the changes.

From now on, when you close Quicken using the red X button, you will get a popup window.

When you get this window for the first time, on some versions click the radio button for "Backup on my computer".
Change the Backup File name's drive letter and path to point to your external device so that it looks something like this: E:\Quicken Backup\QDATA-2019-04-01.QDF-backup
or use the Change button and work your way through the dialog.

Do not change the filename portion! Just overtype the drive letter and choose a backup folder name. If the folder does not exist, it will be created.

Also choose the option to "Add date to backup file name".

Every day when you run Backup or close Quicken, an additional backup file is created. Without the Add Date option you only have 1 backup copy which is overwritten every day ... and that may prove bad in a problem recovery situation.

Allow this backup to run to save the changes made on the screen.

Of course, once in a while you will have to go in and delete some of the oldest backup files, at your discretion, to avoid filling up your USB device.

One can never have enough backups of a Quicken data file. BTDTGTS to prove it!

Pacoinconn

@UKR

Thx for the advice...I do backup every time I use Quicken and also have Quicken backup to another location automatically. It's because I had a backup file that I was able to rebuild Quicken to current state.