Converting QMac 2007 - Error - Could not Import "Transaction List.qdfm"

cdaniel10

Things seem to be going fine until get I this error message at the last second. Can anyone help me with this problem please?

Quicken Jared

cdaniel10 said:

Things seem to be going fine until get I this error message at the last second. Can anyone help me with this problem please?

Hello @cdaniel10, 

I am sorry for any frustration you may have experienced. Thank you for inquiring about this here on the Quicken Community.

All of the necessary steps for converting your data file from the 2007 version to the current Subscription version should be listed in the Support Article linked here. Please note that occasionally data from this older version of the software may be difficult to convert.

I hope this is helpful. 

Thank you,

Quicken Jared 

cdaniel10

Thanks Jared, but I have already tried all the steps in that article with no success. i keep getting the same "Could not import, transaction list .qdfm" "An error occurred while preparing the file to be imported." One step I may not have completed successfully is removing the password from my 2007 data. When I follow the instructions in your article it takes me to the new Quicken instead of 2007. How can I remove the 2007 password?

jacobs

Can you still run Quicken 2007 on your old computer? If so, I'd also recommend trying to reindex the transaction indexes: press Command-Option-B in Quicken 2007. This resolves a number of potential problems, but I don't know if it will or won't help in your case.

cdaniel10

Unfortunately Quicken 2007 was removed when I downloaded the new version

jacobs

cdaniel10 said:

Unfortunately Quicken 2007 was removed when I downloaded the new version

The installation of Quicken Mac does not delete Quicken 2007. Are you saying you deleted the old Quicken 2007 application? (Or did you move to a new Mac with an operating system which cannot run Quicken 2007?)

If you still have your same Mac and operating system, do you have any backups of your Mac? Time Machine? Perhaps you can restore the Quicken 2007 application if so?

Also, can you just clarify something: is the name of your Quicken 2007 data file "Transaction List"? that's what the screenshot appears to be showing, but I wanted to understand if there was something more to the name than it appears.

cdaniel10

Good catch , I misspoke - Quicken 2007 is still there but the new version of Mac OS (Monterey) doesn't support it - the list of my .qdfm files is in the screenshot below

jacobs

I'm confused by the list of files: Transaction List, Account List, Category List…  Did you export something from Quicken 2007? Or were these the actual names you gave to different Quicken 2007 data files? (My Quicken 2007 data file, for instance, was called "Jacobs Bookkeeping.qdfm".) (The 1, 2, 3 prefixes suggest these are backup copies copies of some of them.) All I'm trying to determine is if "Transaction List.qdfm" is definitively your most recent Quicken 2007 data file. 

If these are all Quicken 2007 data files which you named this way, and not exported lists, have you tried converting any of the others. Even if they're older data, it would be helpful to see if any of them import the data successfully.

Also, I should check that in Quicken Mac, you are going to File > New and on the Let's Get Started page, you're selecting to start from a Quicken 2007 data file. 

cdaniel10

Yes, Transaction List.qdfm is definitely the most recent file and the one I created (per Quicken instructions) before I downloaded the new version of Quicken - I really have no idea what the rest of those files are, just thought you might want to see them - I have been doing File > import

jacobs

Ah, do not do File > Import. Instead, do File > New. 

Also, when you say "Transaction List.qdfm is definitely the most recent file and the one I created (per Quicken instructions)", do you recall what you did to create this file? You shouldn't have had to do anything except use your existing Quicken 2007 data file.

cdaniel10

Unfortunately, same issue with file > new - It is the only file that has been modified since 2008 - I have a feeling those files are from when I upgraded to 2007 - I currently have to input a password to access the 2007 data (which the conversion process asks for and I provide) - Could that somehow be the issue? If so how would i remover the password protection?

cdaniel10

BTW - I really appreciate you helping me with this

jacobs

@cdaniel10 Others might jump in here with additional thought, but I'm sorry to say I think you are out of luck. There's nothing you can do to improve/fix the data in the Quicken 2007 data file without Quicken 2007.

Of course, there are still options. Do you know anyone with an older Mac running Mojave or an earlier version of macOS? Or you could buy a used Mac. Or you could possibly run emulator software like Parallels on your new Mac, and set up a virtual machine running an OS like Mojave. Any of these approaches would be to try a few things with your Quicken 2007 data file to see if it would solve the conversion problem. 

cdaniel10

Not the answer I was hoping for but thanks for your help

smayer97

If you want to install QM2007 in a VM, read the following info:

Running Quicken for Mac 2007 in a Virtual Machine (VM)

jlacy1120

I have encountered a problem with importing a .qdfm data file generated by Quicken for Mac 2007 on 2016 MacBook Pro running Mojave 10.14. I generated the file and then emailed a zipped version to myself on another MacBook Pro running Monterey 12.4. Using Quicken for Mac v6.8.2 I created a new Quicken session starting from the 2007 qdfm. This failed.

This process has worked fine for the last three years and as recently as June 2022. In fact, I tried reimporting the file generated and successfully imported in June, but it now fails as well.

According to a programmer from the Quicken for Mac team, the errors I’ve encountered when importing the 2007 Quicken file are actually causing the import system to crash.

My next experiment involved creating a new 2007 session and generating a couple of test accounts, exporting this to .qdfm and then trying to import it as before. This failed as well. I forwarded the test.qdfm file to the Quicken for Mac programmer and it failed to import for him as well.

Any ideas about how to deal with this? I really need to import the 2007 data as the Mac2007 version of Quicken is nearing its end of life and apparently will begin to fail when I upgrade the older MacBook to Monterey.

jacobs

jlacy1120 said:

Any ideas about how to deal with this?

It sounds like you've done all the right things. If you've been in contact with a programmer on the Quicken Mac team, and they have reproduced the problem and acknowledged there is a problem in the converter, I don't know that there's anything more you can do at this point. Hopefully, the Quicken folks agree that it needs to be fixed, and it's just a matter of waiting for them to do this work. Can you follow up with the programmer to see if they'll confirm whether this is on the roadmap for them to fix? Pressing them for a fix is your best chance at a long-term path to success. 

If the converter isn't working, there's nothing you can really do to migrate your data until they fix it. Quicken 2007 uses some sort of unusual database and data format, and there are no other ways to convert it into usable data.

jlacy1120 said:

I really need to import the 2007 data as the Mac2007 version of Quicken is nearing its end of life and apparently will begin to fail when I upgrade the older MacBook to Monterey.

It isn't going to begin to fail, it simply will not run. No 32-bit applications like Quicken 2007 will run on any macOS from Catalina on.

The only other alternative I can think of isn't a great one, but could buy you time… You could install virtual machine software (Parallels) and install macOS Mojave in the VM, so you can continue to run Quicken 2007. (There's a thread here about people trying, struggling and succeeding with this approach.)

jlacy1120

Thanks much for your response! Fortunately I'm in no serious hurry to upgrade the machine that is currently running 2007. What's really weird and a bit frustrating is that this import process was working as recently as June and now even that qdfm will no longer import. So something has shifted. Anyway, I hope the programmer with whom I've been in contact is able to find something.

Thanks again!

jacobs

@jlacy1120 For better or worse, the number of people who are converting from Quicken 2007 is now much smaller than it has been, so if something broke in the converter, relatively few people are running into it. (Although @cdaniel10 who started this thread might be having the same issue you've run into.) I'm guessing they didn't intentionally change the converter code, but something they've done on the server end or in the structure of the Quicken Mac database to cause the conversions to now fail. 

If you have a way to follow-up with that programmer, I would wait a week or two so you're not bugging them, and then follow-up. Don't assume it will get fixed, be proactive in prodding for information about whether a fix is forthcoming. 

jlacy1120

Oddly I tried to import one more time a few minutes ago, and lo and behold it worked. I then tried again with a completely updated version...and back to the old behavior. Fun to debug. Not.

Thanks again for your help. By the way, all of the steps that I wrote that I had taken before contacting this thread I picked up from a conversation that you and another user were having earlier this year. Thanks for that as well!

jacobs

Well, I'm glad you got one impart to work, but the inconsistency for no apparent reason is frustrating. Is the version you got to convert good enough for you to move forward with, or do you need the other file?

Glad to have helped along the way; sorry I can't provide you the missing clue to get across the finish line!

Jacinthe

I have the same problem as jlacy1120 and cdaniel10. I can't import sucessfully files from Quicken 2007 to the modern Quicken. I have the same message as cdaniel10. I hope Quicken will fix this issue soon... Do you think it could be a good idea to try to convert my file by using a QIF format?

Quicken Victoria

Hello!  Thank you very much for sharing your experience.  It turned out that the cloud converter got into a bad state where it was failing to convert Quicken 2007 files.   The underlying issue has been identified and fixed as of Tuesday night (07/26/2022).  Please let us know if you continue experiencing any problems with could converter.
Thank you!
-victoria 

Jacinthe

Hi Victoria! It finally worked and I was able to convert the file! Thanks!

Quicken Victoria

That is great, @Jacinthe!  I am happy we could solve this problem.  Thank you for letting me know
-victoria