Used categories not displayed in Categories window (Q Mac)

jskee

This is an update to a post I originally made in December 2021, https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7903671/categories-window-does-not-show-used-categories. The Categories window doesn't show used categories. "Show All Categories" is selected.

This behavior continues with the latest version of Quicken Mac (6.8.2). It happens with both my original data file, and a new data file.

If I create a new user on my Mac and run Quicken under that account, I can view all categories in the Categories window. This works both with a new data file, and a restored backup of my original data file.

I suspect there is a config file somewhere in the home directory of my main user account that’s the root cause. Any suggestions? I've compared "~/Library/Preferences/com.quicken.Quicken.plist" under both user accounts. An entry for "categoryOutlineViewShowsOnlyUnusedCategories" is present in the plist file under the user account experiencing the issue, but not the one where I can see all Categories. If I delete that key from the plist, it gets recreated next time I open Quicken. If I delete the entire plist, Quicken recreates it with categoryOutlineViewShowsOnlyUnusedCategories.

jacobs

I posted in that previous discussion that I experienced this problem in my beta testing file on one of my computers. I still do, and I re-created my beta testing file from my live file in the interim -- which supports the idea its something in a prefs file. I reported it. Of course, there was no response, and these been no fix. 

All I can suggest is capturing screen shots, particularly showing grayed out categories int he Categories window, and missing categories there which you can see in a transaction category drop-down list, and submitting them (again) via Help > Report a Problem. Maybe some day someone from Quicken will corroborate that there's an issue and document it for fixing. Or not, if they can't reproduce it. Sigh.  

jskee

> @jacobs said:
> I reported it. Of course, there was no response, and these been no fix. 

Seems the solution is to fully uninstall (i.e., not just drag the app to the trash) all Quicken related files, not just for the current version but previous versions too.

Out of curiosity: in the past, what's the earliest version of Quicken you ran under the user account you have the problem?

Support asked me to call and open a ticket as well as "Report a problem" for each new version that I continue experiencing the issue. I've done this and gotten nothing.

jskee

I think I found a fix.

Using Activity Monitor I listed open files used by Quicken. After looking over the list to see what files Quicken has open while running I did the following:

1) Create a backup of my data file
2) Copy ~/Library/Application Support/Quicken/Documents and ~/Library/Application Support/Quicken/Backups to my Desktop
3) Delete directory and subfiles ~/Library/Application Support/Quicken directory
4) Delete directory and subfiles ~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.quicken.Quicken directory
5) Delete directory and subfiles ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.quicken.Quicken.*
6) Delete anything with *Quicken* or *quicken* in ~/Library/Preferences
7) Delete anything with *intuit* I noticed while doing the above.
8) Delete Quicken.app
9) Empty Trash and restart
10) Reinstall Quicken.app
11) Restore my data file from backup

jacobs

Out of curiosity: in the past, what's the earliest version of Quicken you ran under the user account you have the problem?

I've only experienced this with my Quicken Beta test data files, which are in a different folder in ~/Library/Application Support, on one of two computers I use. So you're likely on the right track that it is something in a preferences file, as opposed to the data file itself.  Because I have my live Quicken, Quicken Beta, and copies of several older versions of Quicken Mac, I have not done the complete purge you describe, and I haven't taken time to try deleting one prefs file at a time to try to find the culprit. 

But I'm glad you were able to resolve it for your file. I do wish the developers would look into what causes this, since you and I aren't the only two people who have experienced this.