Update R43 wiped out my memorized payees

bdkunst

I just updated to Quicken Deluxe R43 and all of my memorized payees have been deleted. How do I get them back?

UKR

• Even if you are on the latest software level already, download and install the latest Mondo Patch file from https://www.quicken.com/support/update-and-mondo-patch-20182019-release-quicken-windows-subscription-product to ensure your Quicken software is up to date and correctly installed.
• Reboot Windows.
• Restore your Quicken data file from a Manual or Automatic Backup taken prior to the problem first occurring, if necessary going back to older backups until you find a file that does not exhibit these symptoms. https://www.quicken.com/support/how-backup-or-restore-your-quicken-data
  

bdkunst

Thanks for the help. I did see some strange write error, but it wasn't very clear. I now realize that my external drive was full, however, Quicken never told me that. I certainly should not have zapped any of my data so that I consider a bug in the software.

Chris_QPW

bdkunst said:

Thanks for the help. I did see some strange write error, but it wasn't very clear. I now realize that my external drive was full, however, Quicken never told me that. I certainly should not have zapped any of my data so that I consider a bug in the software.

People always question why Quicken Inc doesn't recommend storing the data file on network drives and such, this incident shows exactly why.

In comparison to a fixed local drive network drives are much more prone to errors especially since people don't know how to setup them up properly or use unreliable wireless connections.

Quicken was designed with the idea that the disk is 100% reliable.  There isn't any "error correcting" built into it.  The database is very old one that doesn't have such recovery system and what's more Quicken's code isn't going to "know how to correct" any given write error.

The best it can do it report the error, it can't correct it, it has no idea on how to do that.

bdkunst

Well the bottom line is that if it can't write then it should stop and not delete. I am a Software Engineer and this is definitely a bug.

Chris_QPW

bdkunst said:

Well the bottom line is that if it can't write then it should stop and not delete. I am a Software Engineer and this is definitely a bug.

UPDATED to clearly state what a program with a modern database would do.

When a database is updated and a failure happens there isn't any telling what parts of that database will be left inconsistent/corrupted.  And in fact the most likely thing that Quicken did when it encountered the write error is "stop".  And that is what resulted in the "delete".  In other words if Quicken was in the process of updating the database section that contained the memorized payees, stopping the write could leave the database without links or even corrupted links to that data.  Think about it why would Quicken purposely delete anything after a write failure?  You weren't in the process of deleting all of your memorized payees were you?  So, why would Quicken think it needed to delete your memorized payees after a failure?  It wouldn't.

Database writes have to complete successfully or else there isn't telling if they are consistent.

With a modern database if a failure occurred what a program would do call the database function to rollback the database changes.  That would be done by replaying the journal file to reverse the changes that have been made.  But Quicken isn't using a modern database.  What's more even if it did have such a feature it would most likely still fail.  As any write operation to fix the problem would also fail for a full drive.  What would have to happen is that the disk space would have to be increased somehow, and the rollback be run manually after that was done.  Or recover from a backup.  Which is exactly what you should be doing with Quicken.

Note that database, say a program like Word handle their data files quite differently.
Word most likely writes to a temporary file, and then replaces the old file with the new one in on delete/rename operation.

Programs that write to databases write data "in place" (in a different section of the data file).  There isn't a second data file.

bdkunst

Thanks professor. I'm well aware of all of that. No matter how many words you write It is still a bug.

Chris_QPW

bdkunst said:

Thanks professor. I'm well aware of all of that. No matter how many words you write It is still a bug.

Call it what you want.  Given what they have, it will be impossible to change.