What is a reasonable number of backups of Quicken data to maintain?

Agent905

I am curious as to what is a safe number of backups of my quicken data to keep? I backup after each session. As of now all registers are in balance and no questionable transactions exist. Thank you for your replies.

Boatnmaniac

It's a personal choice matter but IMO it is better to do a bit of overkill when it comes to backups.  I have my automatic backup settings set to backup after each session and to retain the 35 most recent backup files.  This translates to about 1 month of backup files.

For me this is a good number because I run Quicken frequently.  When I find a problem in my file and need to restore a backup I don't usually need to go back more than 1-2 weeks.  And then I've got a  couple more weeks as buffer.

I also save the last backup file from each quarter for at least a couple of years...just in case I find that something from long ago was deleted/corrupted.  Those old backups can be a valuable archive for those really old transactions.

Jon

I think looking at it from a time basis is better than a quantity basis. Somebody who opens their Quicken file several times a day should have a higher number of backups than someone who only opens it a couple times a week. 

I'd say having backups going back at least a couple weeks is a good idea, however many backup files that turns out to be.

Boatnmaniac

Jon said:

I think looking at it from a time basis is better than a quantity basis. Somebody who opens their Quicken file several times a day should have a higher number of backups than someone who only opens it a couple times a week. 

I'd say having backups going back at least a couple weeks is a good idea, however many backup files that turns out to be.

I agree with you, except I would suggest having backups to cover at least a month.  Sometimes an issue comes up that we won't see for a couple of weeks or more so if you have only a couple of weeks of backups then you might be SOL in being able to recover from it. 

I don't know about QM but QW does not allow for selecting a time period for automatic backup settings...must select a quantity of backups.  So, select a quantity of backups to be retained that based upon your usage of Quicken approximates the time period you want to have backups for.

Jon

Boatnmaniac said:

I don't know about QM but QW does not allow for selecting a time period for automatic backup settings...must select a quantity of backups.

QM is the same.