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Quicken has suddenly stopped memorizing payees

William Aston

All of a sudden (i.e. it just started doing this today), Quicken has refused to memorize payees, even when I right-click and select "Memorize payee..."

Also it has started not keeping more than five memorized payees of the same name (i.e. "Deposit") with different categories. I need it to keep more than five of these for some payees, especially "Deposit". This all started happening today (July 22). I am running Quicken Deluxe version R42.8, build 27.1.42.8. My OS is Windows 10 Home, version 21H2.

EDIT: Also, attempting to add a different category for an existing payee by going to "Memorized Payee List" and selecting "New Payee" has no effect either. It goes through the motions, but does not add my new payee/new category for existing payee. It has started not keeping more than five listings for the same payee, and I need more than that for some payees.

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UKR

Rebuild MPL
After creating a backup of your Quicken data file …
To rebuild the Memorized Payee List from existing transactions, click Tools, hold down Shift and CTRL, then click Memorized Payee List.

Problem: Empty MPL List View or only a few entries show but File Information shows many MPL entries
Check the MPL view. Click on Options and make sure that there is NO checkmark on "Show locked items only"

Not storing >5 MPL entries for same Payee Name

The limit may actually be 9 entries.
Recommend you create distinct payee names for your multiple "Deposit" situations. Tell me more about what you're doing. I may have a suggestion regarding multiple deposits.

THW-CA

Experiencing the same issue and the provided Answer doesn't really explain.

Quicken Jared

THW-CA said:

Experiencing the same issue and the provided Answer doesn't really explain.

Hello @THW-CA,

I apologize that you are being affected by this issue, as well. Thank you for speaking with us in regards to this problem here in this Quicken Community Discussion.

First, are there specific steps provided by @UKR that you would like more information about, or did you make use of the recommendations and find that the issue was continuing? Also, just so I am clear: have you already attempted to add Memorized Payees using the steps listed here:

Payees can be added manually:

Click on Tools on the top menu bar, then select Memorized Payee List.
Click New Payee.
In the Create Memorized Payee dialog, enter the payee information.
Click OK.
Repeat steps 2 through 4 for each memorized payee you want to add.

New payees are also added when you create new transactions in the account register. You can turn off the auto-memorizing of new payees in the Quicken Preferences.

Select Edit menu > Preferences.
In the left pane, select Data entry and QuickFill.
Click to clear the Automatically memorize new payees checkbox, and then click OK

You can read more about the steps provided above in the Support Article listed here.

I want to make sure I understand exactly what symptoms you are experiencing.

I look forward to hearing more from you about this.

Thank you,

Quicken Jared

William Aston

@Quicken Jared I am OP here, and I have tried your suggestion (which I also addressed in the EDIT to my original post), and it didn't work either.

EDIT: Also tried rebuilding MPL per UKR's suggestion, and THAT didn't work either. It still only keeps 5 MPL entries per payee.

[Deleted User]

@William Aston have you tried uninstalling and re-installing Quicken? Your data and backup files will not be affected.

The other thing to try, if you haven't done so already, is to do a validate or super validate.
Just go to File->Validate and Repair File. For super validate, hold down Ctrl+Shift and then click "Validate and Repair File".

Please do a backup before these actions, or anytime you make any major changes to your data file.

William Aston

Super-validating actually made it WORSE. It had partially fixed itself (i.e. it started memorizing payees again, but it still only kept 5 MPL entries per payee), but now it has again stopped memorizing payees.

EDIT: Uninstalling and reinstalling didn't work either. Quicken STILL refuses to memorize new payees or allow more than 5 entries per payee.

UKR

There must be something seriously weird going on within your data file.
Whatever the limit (5 or 9) of same name MPL entries, please stop bashing your head against the computer.

Instead, create distinct Payee Names, e.g., "Deposit 1", "Deposit 2", etc., using names meaningful to you. This way you can have more than the limited number of MPL entries.

William Aston

Okay this is where I'm at with this issue:

Rebuilding the MPL per UKR's first suggestion had no effect.

Adding (or rather ATTEMPTING to add) payees manually per Quicken Jared's suggestion had not had any effect either when I first posted my question. Then it suddenly (briefly) DID start accepting new payees, but by replacing old ones; now it's back to not adding new payees again. It goes through the motions and acts like it's adding new payees (and I checked the Options, and the View Locked Items Only option is NOT selected), at least in the sense of not giving me any error messages or explanations for why it doesn't add/memorize new payees, but no new payees appear in the list after I "add" them; only five old ones.

Right-clicking a transaction and selecting "Memorize payee..." also doesn't work.

As for Quicken Jared's suggestion about UNchecking the "Automatically memorize new payees" check box, that is the opposite of what I want Quicken to do. I WANT it to automatically memorize new payees (and let me have more than 5 entries per payee in the MPL).

The "Automatically memorize new payees" box in Preferences is checked, in accordance with my preferences, but Quicken is behaving as if the box were NOT checked.

Validating my data file reported no problems with my data file.

Super-validating my data file not only reported no problems with my data file, but actually made my memorized payee situation WORSE, i.e.: Quicken had resumed memorizing payees (but still only kept 5 entries per payee in the MPL), but since I did a Super Validate, it has again stopped memorizing payees.

And as for UKR's suggestion that I use multiple payees for deposits: that is something I had to STOP doing and switch to using one payee for, because having multiple payees instead of "Deposit" created too much confusion (and made Quicken run slow when recording transactions), so I started using "Deposit" in their stead.

Updating to the latest version of Quicken (version R42.19, build 27.1.42.19 at the time of this comment) did nothing to fix this problem.

Even uninstalling and reinstalling Quicken did nothing to fix this problem.

EDIT: if it makes any difference, CTRL-clicking on About Quicken under Help reports the following:
QDF file size of 84,785K
18 Accounts
243 Categories
158 Memorized Payees
"Securities/Max ref" (whatever that means, IDK): 4/4
100,558 Transactions (at the time of this comment)
Available Memory 2,097,151K
Total Memory 2,097,151K

[Deleted User]

@William Aston It looks like your issues are a result of data file corruption. The fact that the validate seemed to make things worse, is another symptom of this. A validate doesn't usually cause issues but "reveals" them.

If you search in Quicken Help (shortcut key - F1) - "Repair a Damaged Data File" you will find a lot of suggestions on how to fix your file.

I think another process that might help fix your issue is a "File Copy" in conjunction with a validate. Please see the attached Quicken Support article.

https://www.quicken.com/support/advanced-data-file-troubleshooting-correct-problems-quicken-windows

The section "Copy your file and Validate" gives instructions for this process. Also, please note the other suggestions in the article. Please note that this process will disconnect online services for all accounts and will need to be reconnected after this process is completed.

Again, please do a backup before doing this process or making any major changes to your data file.

William Aston

OK, after making a copy of my file and working on that, here's what happened:

1. Both validate and super validate reported no errors.
2. I deleted one of my "Deposit" entries in the MPL bringing my total down to four, created a new one, and it accepted it, bringing me back to five.
3. So I created another new payee, and it replaced the oldest payee with the new payee, leaving me at five.
4. I then tried again to create ANOTHER new payee (both from the MPL and by right-clicking in the register and selecting "Memorize payee..."), but this time it reverted to refusing/ignoring new payees. So basically I'm back where I started.

Restoring from an earlier backup, Quicken accepted only the FIRST FIVE new payees I created from the MPL, but replaced older ones with them, still not letting me keep more than five. When I tried it the sixth time, it started ignoring me again.

If I DO have corruption in my data file, Validate and Super Validate aren't reporting it.