Quicken Mac won't Launch

Lauren Hutton

I updated to Monterey 2.4 (I think) when the problem started. I have since gone to v12.5.1. After updating quicken to 6.3 (I think), it would not open. All I got was a beachball (Quicken tech support did not know what the beachball is but said many people are using Quicken for Mac on Monterey). I Switched to a guest User and I was able to download v6.9.0 and it opened in the guest user environment, but Quicken wants you to re-subscribe to do any troubleshooting. After switching back to my user account and opening Quicken, I get a never ending beachball. Any ideas where the conflict is? Also, Apple has hidden the Library. Anyone know how to access my Backup? I do have have everything backed up in Time Machine.

Quicken Jared

Lauren Hutton said:

I updated to Monterey 2.4 (I think) when the problem started. I have since gone to v12.5.1. After updating quicken to 6.3 (I think), it would not open. All I got was a beachball (Quicken tech support did not know what the beachball is but said many people are using Quicken for Mac on Monterey). I Switched to a guest User and I was able to download v6.9.0 and it opened in the guest user environment, but Quicken wants you to re-subscribe to do any troubleshooting. After switching back to my user account and opening Quicken, I get a never ending beachball. Any ideas where the conflict is? Also, Apple has hidden the Library. Anyone know how to access my Backup? I do have have everything backed up in Time Machine.

Hello @Lauren Hutton,  

I am sorry to hear about this problem with the program failing to launch. Thank you for reaching out about this here on the Quicken Community.

First, have you tried restarting the computer when this occurs? Also, you may try uninstalling the program using the steps listed here and then reinstalling it using these instructions.

Be sure to let us know how this works.

Thank you,

Quicken Jared 

jacobs

Let's start at the end first. To access the hidden User Library folder, in the Finder hold down the Option key while puling down the Go menu; Library will be in the menu as long as you hold down the Option key.

If you do this often, as I do, there's a more permanent way to get Library not to be hidden. In the Finder, navigate to Macintosh HD > Users > [your User home folder]. With the home folder open, select View > Show View Options. At the bottom of the window which opens, select "Show Library Folder". (That option is only visible if you're in your User home folder.) Now Library will always be visible in the Finder's Go menu, without needing to hold down the option key. It will also be a visible folder in your User home folder.

Now, to the issue of opening Quicken while logged in as a different user: you don't need to re-subscribe to Quicken. But you do need to log into your Quicken ID. Instead of using a Guest user, I would use a different user account than your regular one. If you don't have one, simply go to System Preferences > Users & Groups, click the + icon, and create one you can call Testing or Quicken. Then log into that account and launch Quicken. If it prompts for your QuickenID, enter your regular username and password, and allow it to create a new file from scratch. When you're done, you can delete a temporary/testing User just as easily in System Preferences > Users & Groups. (I keep an account called Testing on my Macs so I have an alternate account ready to use whenever I need it.)

If Quicken works in the test user account, as you indicate it did, then that tells you something in your normal user environment is interfering with Quicken launching. The first thing I'd try is logging back into your regular User account, hold down the Shift key, and launch the Quicken app. Holding Shift at launch tells Quicken to open without opening your last-used data file. you should see a dialog box asking if you want to open [name of your Quicken data file]; press Cancel to allow Quicken to launch without opening that file. Does Quicken launch and have you land on the Let's Get Started page? If yes, we've found it's something with your data file; if no, it's something else in your User preferences.

If it fails to launch coding down the Shift key, I'd next try restarting your Mac in Safe Mode. To do this, restart your Mac and hold down the Shift key until it fully boots. In Safe Mode, and system-affecting utilities and extensions are disabled. Try launching Quicken now  and see if it launches or freezes. If it launches now and opens your file, then you know there's some system add-on at fault. (VPN? Firewall? Anti-Virus software? Other system extension?)

The other possibility is a damaged/corrupted Quicken preference file. I won't go into those at this point until you've eliminated some of the variables discussed above. Report back after you've tried some of these troubleshooting step and we can hopefully zero in on the culprit.

Lauren Hutton

Thank you for your responses. They were exactly what I was looking for. I'll try your suggestions and will let you know what happened.

Lauren Hutton

I followed your instructions. I restarted my Mac without holding the shift key down. It took about 10 minutes. Once started I opened Quicken while holding the shift key down. It started fine. I then did a search for the file name to make sure I didn't have multiple files with the same name. I clicked on the file and got a pop-up asking "Do you want to use Quicken Cloud to securely import your Quicken 2007 file? I stopped at that point. I updated Quicken from the 2007-2017 version in Dec. 2020 to the current version and renewed in Dec. 2021. I have added transactions since Dec. 2020 but it appears it thinks that my file is still the 2007-2017 version. (As an aside, in the Finder, the "Last Modified" date does not show the date that transactions were last updated updated. For me, it shows December 27, 2020. That's around the time I updated from the 2007-2017 version) Does this mean the most current file has been lost? Awaiting your guidance.

jacobs

I can't say what's going on with any certainty. I sounds like you (and Quicken) have not located your most recently-used data file. Have you tried doing a Finder search for all ".quicken" files on your Mac? Hopefully, your most recent file is in a different location that you can find. 

You said you do have Time Machine backups, so I think it's just a matter of finding your most recent data file either on your Mac or on Time Machine.

Let me also step back to make sure I understand what you were using before upgrading to Monterey. You were using Quicken 2007 until about December 2020, when you upgrade to the subscription version and converted your data file to the current format. Modern Quicken Mac data files end with ".quicken", while old Quicken 2007 data files end with ".qdfm". When you refer to the file last modified December 27, 2020, it sounds like that is the Quicken 2007 (.qdfm) data file. That's not what you're looking for; you've got to find a recent .quicken data file. It's pretty unlikely it disappeared or got lost just because you upgraded your macOS to Monterey, so hopefully it's just hiding somewhere you haven't found yet.

Lauren Hutton

Bingo! I would not have found it if you hadn't said the suffix changes from .qdfm to .quicken and how to get into my user Library. In username>Library>Application Support>Quicken>Documents>My Accounts File. Thank you! There is also a list of backup files in a folder called backup It shows last modified date of Sep 6, 2022 which is about the time I updated both Mac OS X and Quicken. Should I use that instead? I noted that the file size is 40MB vs 30MB for the qdfm version. Might that be an issue?

Do I just drag it to my selected location or do I copy it first and then move it? Interesting that I could not find it in my Time Machine Backup.

jacobs

The file sizes between Quicken 2007 (.qdfm) and Quicken Mac (.quicken) data files can vary a bit; the data structures and underlying databases are quite different.

Regarding Time Machine: because Apple by default hides the User>Library folder, it can be hard to get there in Time Machine. The trick is to first navigate to User>Library  in the foreground, and then do Enter Time Machine. Time Machine will open in the same folder you're currently in, so you should then be able to find your Quicken data file in the Application Support>Quicken> Documents folder.

Finally, to restore a .quickenbackup file, I would make a copy of it into your Quicken>Documents folder (e.g. you can Option-drag it from the backups folder, or duplicate it in the backup folder and drag the copy to the Documents folder. Then double-click on the backup file, and Quicken should open it. You may want to rename your data file (at least temporarily, such as "XXX after restore") to avoid confusion with your prior data file. (Using a copy of the backup file preserves the original backup file in its original location, in case you need to go back to it another time.)

Lauren Hutton

So restore from the backup rather than drag the file that's in my Library?

Jacob, you have been so helpful. Where to I go to give you a top rating?

I used Quicken 2007 and then updated it to be something like Quicken 2017. I mainly use quicken to download transactions. I even had a workaround to import a dowloaded transactions file but that got to be very tricky to use so I paid to use Quicken. I've used it from when the Mac version came out before the MS version. That was around 1987.

Perhaps you can help me with a report that was easy to do in the older version but I can't seem to get it to work properly? Let's say I wanted to make a report that included only transactions last year at McDonalds. In the older version you could have Quicken select those payees that contain "McDonalds." It would give me a report that groups all of the McDonalds transactions together.

In the new version, each of those transactions have a payee name with additional characters to the name so each transaction containing McDonalds is different from the next one. Now you would have to go to the filter and click each box to add that particular McDonalds to the report. Can I do that with the latest Quicken without resorting to renaming McDonalds before downloading the transactions?

jacobs

Thanks for your kind words.

You can try starting from your most recent Quicken data file or a recent backup file. I thought you were originally asking for how to start from a backup. You can try both and see if you get up and running correctly.

Turning to your report issue... My inclination would be to rename all the separate Payees containing McDonald's, and then create a report for the single Payee. This is easier to do than you may think. The key is going to the Window > Payees & Rules. Type McDonald in the Search box. The will filter all your Payees to just those named McDonald. Click the first one, then Shift-click the last one, to highlight all the transactions. (If any of the selected Payees aren't the McDonald's restaurant — e.g. maybe you have one Payee called "Bob McDonald Contracting" — Command-click on them to de-select them. So now you have all your McDonald's Payees highlighted. Now click the Merge Payees button at the bottom of the window. In the pop-up box, you can select which of the Payee names will be the one to survive. Then click Merge, and all your McDonald's Payees will be united as one, and all your existing transactions will be updated. Then you can create your report, selecting the single McDonald's payee for the date range you want.

The Payees & Rules window is also the key to preventing this from being a problem going forward. Click on the Renaming Rules tab. Click the + sign to create a new rule which says: If Statement name contains McDonald's, Set Payee name to McDonald's. What this will do is automatically rename any new transactions which contain McDonald's as part of the Payee name, as they download, to just be named McDonald's — so you'll continue to have only one McDonald's Payee, and your report on this one Payee will work correctly into the future.

I hope that all makes sense. Post back if I lost you along the way.  

Lauren Hutton

I duplicated my Quicken file in my user library Folder and dragged the original to a Documents folder. I got the Beachball again. I forced Quit and then opened Quicken while holding down the Shift key. I then tried Restore from Backup. I chose the most recent backup (09/07/2022) and got the Beachball again. Next I tried to restore from the next newest Backup 07/06/2022. Got another Beachball. Each time I try I see various Accounts and Reports on the screen but after a few seconds the Beachball starts again. What's your next suggestion?

Lauren Hutton

Update: I tried one of your earlier suggestions and restarted my Mac while holding down the shift key. This time ma Quicken file opened without incident. From what you said, that means there is a conflict between Quicken and one or more extensions. Any suggestions on how to find which one?

Lauren Hutton

Thank you for your help. When opening Quicken, it downloaded the latest update and now it works without issue.