Quicken extremely slow/sluggish - reverting to version 40.21 fixes the problem!

lagunajim

Anyone else notice in the last few days that Quicken is super-slow to load, and work with?

I just uninstalled and installed version 40.21 and the problem disappears!

Quicken staff:  something in the updates forward of 40.21 is causing a huge issue for me - seemingly in the time it takes for Quicken to verify your subscription with the server.

UPDATE: Accepted the update to 43.14 again and it seems to be doing ok at the moment.. 
              Oh Quicken.

UKR

Quicken appears to have "gained substantial weight" during the last few releases, now requiring much more RAM than previous versions.

How much RAM do you have installed on your computer?

What version of Windows are you using?

After Quicken has been started, what does Windows Task Manager show about "% Memory" usage and "% Disk" busy of your C: - drive?

I have recently upgraded an abysmally slow Windows 8.1, Quicken R 41 laptop from 4 GB RAM to 8 GB RAM and the computer now performs very well. I no longer see "96% Memory usage" combined with "100% C- drive busy" just trying to do something, anything on the computer.

lagunajim

Hi.  I have an extremely powerful pc with 32Gb of RAM.

I’m a retired IT guy with 40 years experience under my belt.

In short, the problem with Quicken is that it needs to be rewritten from scratch.  They’ve patched and added on for perhaps 20 years or more, and nobody wants to invest the resources in writing it over as a modern application using modern programming language and techniques.

And that’s why it takes 30 seconds to launch instead of 4 seconds like Photoshop, and it takes 10-15 seconds just to change from one tab to another.

And yes I now see it using 470Mb to over 700 Mb of RAM with a mere 24Mb data file.

Sadly it probably doesn’t have a strong enough following to justify the expense of a rewrite, and no competitor’s product competes with the fullness of its functionality - so we suffer on with an at-times dismal product.

I suspect the day will come when they cease the desktop product and only have the less-feature-rich web version for us.

I’ve been a user for decades - I really hope management reads my comments and takes it in.

lagunajim

WOW - Ok Quicken, you are one strange application:

Turns out that when I change wifi networks Quicken gets upset until I stop and restart the Windows "WLAN AutoConfig" service.

Not sure why, and everything else works.  But Quicken requires this Windows service to be cycled to see the new network properly.

Odd.

Temp1859

Have the same problem since the last update. It was like a switch – no problem to instant problem.

If I ctrl+shift launch, instant result. No issues.

When I load my data file, there is almost a 60 second delay.

I’ve tried all the usual solutions: verified file, logged-off, logged-on, etc.

I’ve got a monster PC (5950x, 64Gig, NvMe, water cooling, the works), GigaSpeed fiber internet (940+MB down and up), super clean Win10 build, and all latest patched. 100Mb data file – verified clean.

The issue is either the client build or the server handshake. Nothing on my end. This setup has been working just fine for years – and like I said, it’s like a switch was thrown…

I haven’t down-graded to the previous release, but may try that next.

Hay Quicken, anyone home?

lagunajim

I've discovered that it's all about my internet connection.  When Quicken gets sluggish as molasses like that, I reboot my network router and reconnect to my wifi.

Why does that solve it?  I don't know, and I've been in IT for 40 years.

Temp1859

Did that a few days ago for an unrelated issue... No change...

It's something in the client or server handshake...

If I had the time, I'd use sysinternals to debug it, but don't have the time...

Chris_QPW

In cases like this it is seldom the actual code changes in a release that are causing the problems.
If it was there would be a ton more posts on the subject on this forum.

One has to keep in mind two things.  Quicken install do sometime fail to work properly, especially the automatic ones.  And that can leads to such problems.  The second is that whether it by the automatic install or the manual one, a good portion of the Quicken program files and even some configuration files are changed, and that can fix such problems.

The very first thing one should do if they have a problem with performance right after an automatic update is to run the manual on from this page:
Update and Mondo Patch: Subscription Release of Quicken for Windows

Next.  Quicken has a lot of old code in it and has the "ability" to cause problems where no other program can.  And having a "high powered computer" is no any kind of guarantee that you won't have problems.  In fact, it might even be the opposite.  "High power computers" tend to have cutting edge graphic and networks that don't seem to agree with Quicken.

And yes, Quicken Subscription is highly dependent on the network.  One quick test if that is the problem provided you aren't talking about a online service, is to start Quicken with your network disabled (not just unplugged, disabled).  If Quicken gets an immediate network connection error it goes into "offline mode" and stops trying to access the network.  Note that network timeouts are very long so if there is any kind of communication problem you can get very long delays and performance problems even if it eventually recovers and goes on.

Temp1859

Got there in the end.

Disabled networking and program came right-up – maybe 2-3 seconds.

But…

Using procmon, noticed Quicken was trying to install an already-downloaded update and getting itself stuck… Strange result since: Help->about says latest version installed. The last update was from the auto-update process… Guess some wonky installer code involved – as you suggested.

Downloaded latest mono update and installed that. Seemed to address the issue… Thanks.

But it’s still very slow for what it’s trying to do. Even with my setup (5950x and 7000MB/sec NvMe) and no networking it takes several seconds to load a binary with what should be negligible footprint. I can load Photoshop, Premiere Pro, et al faster than quicken – go figure? I suppose it’s the 32-bit code base and a mountain of tech debt, but still. I guess there’s just not enough user base to fund an updated code base – or maybe it’s down to profit/resource allocation. I’ve been telling myself for years to dump this turkey, but I’ve been using it since the 90s so…

Anyway, thanks again.

lagunajim

There is no alternative with the feature-set of Quicken.  I don't use the investing other than to watch what my financial advisor does, and I don't use budgeting..  I use it as a big checkbook that includes my credit cards.

My suspicion is that someday they will cease the desktop version and only offer the web-based.  They aren't ever going to invest the money in rewriting Quicken as a modern, non-1990's application.

Chris_QPW

lagunajim said:

My suspicion is that someday they will cease the desktop version and only offer the web-based.  They aren't ever going to invest the money in rewriting Quicken as a modern, non-1990's application.

I think your guess right, but for a reason you might no suspect.

Intuit decided to do that with Quicken Mac in 2006 and to this day that project hasn't been completely finished.  What's more unless they decide to "rewrite it" every few years by the time they get most of the features in, it is again "not modern".  It is the nature of the beast when you have a program with so many features like Quicken and not a workforce like Microsoft or Apple.