What makes my Mac Quicken Subscription run so very slowly?

macuserpa

File opening, creating new transactions, and saving transactions take a noticeably long time, displaying the ever-present beach ball. I've read that Mac file size shouldn't matter, but don't experience the same thing with the greatly smaller file I use for another family member's financials. When troubleshooting, I created a backup file and noticed the file size was 59.4 MB, about the same size as the automatic backups. When I opened the backup and saved it, it ballooned to 186.9 MB, obviously causing me to be suspicious of what's happening in that process. The same occurred when repeated the backup, open, save process a couple more times.
I've tried everything I can find in discussion forums. Mobile sync is off. I'm running version 6.8.1 on a recent iMac with an excellent processor running Monterey 12.4.
Any leads anyone can provide will be most appreciated.
(Sorry, there aren't tags for application performance.)

macuserpa

Things have improved, 'though I wouldn't call it zippy. After moving the database to its default location responsiveness became better. I also tried having nothing running then added things individually that have processes that run in the background and are resource drains, e.g. Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. I didn't see a significant change. My file size is still large, but since responsiveness is no longer painful I'm guessing it might have been the file location so will close the thread. Thanks much for the guidance and suggestions.

Jon

In Quicken preferences under the Security tab there is an option to encrypt the file when closed. If you select that option it also compresses the file at the same time it encrypts it. When you open the file in Quicken it unencrypts & expands the file to full size. My Quicken file is 37 MB when closed and 120 MB when open.

If you deselect that option you will see that your file does not get smaller when it is closed.

As for your performance issues, are you running out of disk space? I'd also suggest taking a look at Activity Monitor & seeing how busy your CPU is - maybe there's something else going on in the background that's competing with Quicken.

macuserpa

Thanks for the explanation about file size, Jon. As to performance, I'm only using about 500 GB of my 2 TB internal SSD so that shouldn't be an issue. I've been paying attention to the Activity Monitor and haven't found anything yet but will follow that avenue a bit more aggressively. I'll update when I learn more.

jacobs

Every Quicken backup file is compressed — it's normal. My Quicken data file is 77 MB in size, and my backups are about 28 MB in size. Automatic and manually=generated backups are the same. 

A 187 MB data file sounds much larger than most. My file has data spanning 30 years; it's possible you just have 2.5 times more transactions than I do, but there may be other things involved. If you click All Transactions at the top of the left sidebar, how many transactions do you have? (It's shown under the Search box on the right side.) I have about 67,000 transactions.

Do you store file attachments (like bank statements, bills/invoices) in Quicken? Those can bloat the size of your data file.

Do you store your data file on your local hard drive, or is it on iCloud or Dropbox or some other cloud storage service? (Not that you can be using iCloud if your data file is on your Desktop or in your Documents folder and you have iCloud Drive set to store those folders on iCloud.)  Cloud storage is not supported, and I've seen cases where users with there data file on cloud storage had a bloated size and slow performance.

macuserpa

Thanks, Jacobs. I don't have as many transactions as you (I'm around 30K), but my length of use is similar to yours, being an early Quicken adopter in the mid-80's! My early transactions were archived years ago, with around 20 years stored in my current file. I keep the file pretty clean without attachments, statements, etc. All of the data is stored on the internal SSD on my iMac, which has a bunch of space available.
The performance issues began a couple months ago and have persisted through what has been a stable period for other uses for my computer. Looking for explanations, I thought the file size might be the culprit. It appears as though it's not. I'll keep searching.

jacobs

Hmmm, if you have a lot fewer transactions than I do, and you don't save attachments in Quicken, then I'm puzzled why your data file is two and a half times larger than mine. 

I know you answered this, but I just want to double check on the location of your data file. Is it in Quicken's default location (in your Use folder > Library > Application Support) or in a folder in your Documents folder or a folder on your Desktop? And if the latter, are you sure that you do not have iCloud Drive enabled to store those folders in iCloud. the times I recall reading about bloated file sizes have almost always come down to a cloud storage issue.

Let's check on other thing. Navigate to your data file, and Control-click on it; from the dropdown menu, select Show Package Contents. (The Quicken data file is a "package" file, which is basically a wrapper to make a bunch of files and folders look like a single file; this command pulls back the curtain to what's inside.) Does your data file content look something like this:

And does the file called "data" here account for most of your 186 MB?

macuserpa

As to file location, everything is on my local hard drive. I only use cloud services (not iCloud) for backing up what's on the local drive, i.e., all of my files. Quicken regular backups are stored locally. The file itself was in a Quicken folder in Documents, so I moved it to its default location, consistent with what you noted. It, again, reverted to its 186MB size. When showing package contents, the data file is nearly all of the size at 181MB (screen shot attached). I agree it's a curious issue.

jacobs

I'm pretty stumped why the data file (the actual database) in your Quicken file is that large. In previous conversations with other Quicken users, that seems much larger than normal. It's not necessarily a problem, but I certainly suspect it is involved in why your Quicken Mac is running slowly. 

A large data file opens more slowly, and searches will be slower, but saving a transaction shouldn't be slower — so that puzzles me, too. One quick thing to check: pull down the Window menu and see if there is anything under "Sync Errors". If so, you've got open window(s) hiding behind your main Quicken window. Report windows can cause Quicken transactions to be slow, because each open report updates as every transaction is saved. (I find I often end up with a forgotten window open in the background, and I wish Quicken gave me some visual indication when I quit or launch that I have multiple open windows.)

I have another idea you could try as an experiment, although I don't know if it will lead to a practical solution. You could export your Quicken data to a Quicken Transfer file (QXF), and then create a new Quicken data file by starting from that QXF file. It might be interesting to see if your new file is significantly smaller. But the reason this might not be a practical path forward is that you potentially lose a lot, like all your saved reports and budgets, register configurations, account connectivity set-up. For some users, that's not too big a deal, but for others, it means a lot of work to recreate the non-transaction information which is lost in this transition. But if it shrinks your data file and makes Quicken run much faster, it may be something to move forward with. In any case, doing it as a test won't take much time.

macuserpa

Thanks for the suggestions. Regarding open windows, I typically keep things pretty clean with only the window I'm using being open. And while I have things customized, it's certainly worth a try. I'll post another comment once I'm able to do so.

macuserpa

Things have improved, 'though I wouldn't call it zippy. After moving the database to its default location responsiveness became better. I also tried having nothing running then added things individually that have processes that run in the background and are resource drains, e.g. Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. I didn't see a significant change. My file size is still large, but since responsiveness is no longer painful I'm guessing it might have been the file location so will close the thread. Thanks much for the guidance and suggestions.

JDDJR

I had the same problem with the spinning color wheel of death after every transaction. The delay was maddening and seemed to happen after the latest Mac subscription update. I have data going back to 1996 and have 64,000 transactions. I took your advice and navigated to the window drop down menu and noticed that I had a number of windows open, including a super large report that I have tried to delete unsuccessfully for some time. Once I closed all those windows I went back and tried several transactions and at least for now there appear to be no spinning color wheel delays. I will update this as I try different accounts. Do you know how to delete a report. Nothing seems to work in the report window. I think I have tried everything.

jacobs

@JDDJR On the main Quicken screen, click Reports. Click My Reports. Locate the report you want to delete in the list. Then…

Click on it to highlight it; click Delete in the tool bar under the report name.

or…

Control-click on it; select Delete from the pop-up menu. 

or…

Click on it to highlight it; pull down the Reports menu and select Delete Report at the bottom of the menu.