quicken mac is loosing changes i've made

qknboomer

About once every other month, if I make changes to ~5-10 transactions, and then close the file, then re-open the file relatively shortly after, I end up loosing the changes. It's like they never happened and I have to re-type them in.

This has been happening for about 4-5 months; I'm on Quicken Mac version 6.9.0 now.

Has anyone seen this? Is it a known issue?

Fwiw I have Quicken setup to auto-create a backup file, and I have it to a folder that is uploaded to Google by the GDrive mac extension. I would not be surprised if the auto-backup is what is somehow causing my changes to get lost.

smayer97

Where is your main data file located?

jacobs

@quickenboomer The location of the backup files should not be an issue.

Do you use the Quicken mobile app or web interface? When you go to Preferences > Mobile, Web & Alerts, is Sync turned on or off? 

qknboomer

@jacobs Yep, I have Mobile Sync turned on, but I rarely/basically never login to Quicken web, and I don't use the app; maybe I should just turn it off, if there is a chance it's causing the problem I'm seeing. What do you think?

qknboomer

My backup file is pointed at:

Mac HD / Users / myuser / Library / Application Support / Quicken / Backups

And then I have Google Drive backing up the "Automated Backups" folder within there.

...opening up my quicken file this morning, I've again lost ~5-8 updates I'd made to downloaded transactions, i.e. changing the name/category. I've re-made those changes and also disabled mobile sync to see if that helps.

Gilles9

I do not think QUicken works correectly when the datafile is on a Cloud
Quicken does not recommand this
Isn't Google drive a cloud based server ?

smayer97

Gilles9 said:

I do not think QUicken works correectly when the datafile is on a Cloud
Quicken does not recommand this
Isn't Google drive a cloud based server ?

This is only a problem if the MAIN data file is stored directly in the folder that is synced to any cloud-based storage. The OP has yet to confirm where the main data file is stored.

@quickenboomer where is your main data file stored?

jacobs

Yes, as noted above, your data file must be on your hard drive, not in cloud storage. But your backups can be safely saved to any cloud storage service. (If you need to restore from a backup, you'll need to restore that backup to your hard drive before trying to open it in Quicken.)

But let's go back to the Sync issue, which I suspect is your problem. If you edit a few transactions which have downloaded from your bank, and you exit Quicken without doing Accounts > Sync to Mobile, you now have different information on your desktop (the edited, categorized transactions) and in Quicken Cloud (the original, uncategorized transactions). Quicken should know that the desktop version of those transactions is newer, but without executing the Sync to Mobile command, it can sometimes inexplicably think the cloud version is freshest and sync that to your desktop data — thus wiping out the edits you've made. 

So there are two things you can try. (1) After each session where you've edited transactions, be sure to do Accounts > Sync to Mobile to try to force Quicken Cloud data to match your desktop data. Then quit Quicken, and see if when you relaunch Quicken, your edited transactions remain unchanged. (2) To try to take sync errors/bugs out of the equation completely, first turn off Sync, then go to Preferences > Connected Services and click Reset to reset your cloud data file. Now quit Quicken, and see if when you relaunch Quicken, your edited transactions remain unchanged. 

qknboomer

Hm, so it turns out I did have Google Drive syncing both the "Documents" folder and "Backups" folder within the "Library / Application Support / Quicken" directory.

So, yeah, GDrive could have been mucking with the "Documents" directory in a way Quicken did not expect.

I probably added both directories because earlier this year my previous "Quicken auto backup to Gdrive" setup had stopped working at some point, my old laptop HD crashed, and I ended up loosing ~9 months of data. Which was pretty frustrating.

So, when setting things up again, I really really wanted the Quicken files Always Backed Up, and so that's probably why I picked both folders.

But, for now I'll try only syncing the "Backups" folder to GDrive and see how that goes.

I've also disabled Mobile/Quicken Cloud sync for good measure, and will see how the next few weeks/months of working in Quicken goes.

Thanks for the help!

jacobs

Putting your backups on Google Drive should not be a problem; Quicken support and encourages this You just need to have your live data file on your hard drive.

For backing up your Mac, I can't recommend using Apple's built-in Time Machine enough. All it requires is an external hard drive; it runs automatically in the background, and you don't need to od anything to set it up except turn it on. Even if you use Quicken on a laptop, you just need to connect the laptop to the external drive periodically and let it do its thing overnight. If you don't have an available hard drive, you can get a high-capacity drive for $100 or less. Run it in addition to whatever you back up/sync on Google; multiple layers of backup data is even better than one! (I have a Time Machine drive for my first backup layer; I pay for iDrive to backup my Macs to the cloud as my second layer of backup, so there's data backed up outside my home just in case; I have an external hard drive which I connect to each of my Macs every month or two to make a whole-disk backup using SuperDuper software as my third layer of protection. You cannot have too many backups! I once had to restore from a backup drive, and it turned out the drive had some corruption and I would have been out of luck if I couldn't turn to Plan B.)

smayer97

quickenboomer said:

Hm, so it turns out I did have Google Drive syncing both the "Documents" folder and "Backups" folder within the "Library / Application Support / Quicken" directory.

So, yeah, GDrive could have been mucking with the "Documents" directory in a way Quicken did not expect.
...

But, for now I'll try only syncing the "Backups" folder to GDrive and see how that goes.

I've also disabled Mobile/Quicken Cloud sync for good measure, and will see how the next few weeks/months of working in Quicken goes.

Thanks for the help!

If turning off Mobile Sync does not resolve your problem then MOST LIKELY the problem is having your main data file directly backed up to the cloud. For this latter problem, the most oft successful solution is to have to go back to a backup that is not impacted and start from there. Sadly, it is often too difficult, if not near impossible, to resolve this any other way.