What is the best way to manage Quicken on two different computers? One Mac and One Windows

argylegal

I was excited to see that I could have Quicken on two computers; however, in reality, it seems to be rather complicated and it doesn't seem like it's really "supported." Here's my situation. I have been using Quicken for years on my Mac. My husband wants to use Quicken to manage our investments. I chatted with support and they said the investments could be managed on one computer and the expenses/income could be remain on mine. As long as we don't see to see the whole picture, it shouldn't be a problem. Well, we set that up today and now my Mac Quicken will not import the transactions from my bank. Any help would be appreciated.

jacobs

Lets' back up a step. Just to be clear, the Quicken Mac and Quicken Windows data files are not compatible; there is a one way Windows-to-Mac conversion which mostly works as expected, b ut not the reverse — and now way to share the data whatsoever. 

If you are content to have two separate data files on the two computers, then you can do so. You can segregate accounts in one or the other data files, or even duplicate some accounts in both files; you just can't share data between them.

Setting up Quicken on your Windows computer should have no impact on your Quicken Mac data file. So I suspect that whatever issue you're having with downloading in Quicken Mac has unrelated to the presence of having a separate Quicken Windows file.

One thing I'd note is that you may want to have Sync turned off for one or both computers. The data files are different, so they should be able to both exist with Quicken Cloud, but syncing with Quicken Cloud causes enough problems that I'd just remove that variable from the equation.  

As for your download problem today, please post back with specifics: which financial institution(s), which connection method(s), and what is happening when you try to update one account or all accounts?

JessicaAskew

I have the same question I've been trying to answer. & reading the reply really just confuses me.

JessicaAskew

I'm the treasurer of my daughter's high school band. I have windows on my work machine, which I have Quicken on and I have a mac at home, which has quicken on it. Is there any way to work on one file from my work and home computers?

jacobs

@JessicaAskew The simple answer is: no. As I wrote previously in this thread, you cannot work on one file from both Mac and Windows computers. The two programs are like cousins, not identical twins; the databases are different and incompatible. 

That said, if your work computer remains always on and has Quicken Windows, you might be able to use a screen sharing utility on the Mac to connect to the work Windows computer in order to use Quicken from home. (Or visa versa.) This could be dependent on whether your work environment allows or blocks incoming screen sharing connections like this. If so, you still might be able to make this work using paid software for remote access, such as RemotePC or Teamviewer.

You could also potentially purchase and install virtual machine (VM) software (Parallels) which enables you to run Windows on your Mac. Then you could install Quicken Windows in the virtual machine, and move your data file back and forth between the work Windows computer and the home Mac running Quicken Windows.

argylegal

I have decided to only have Quicken files on the Windows laptop. I was able to export the date file from Quicken on my macbook and import that into the Windows version of Quicken. Everything came through just fine in the switchover. I have deleted Quicken from my Macbook. It's too bad for me that Quicken is not cloud-based and accessible on whichever kind of computer I am using.