Using Quicken 2021 Deluxe on Windoes after subscription ends

Question

From what I understood a customer could continue to use Quicken Deluxe for Windows after the subscription ends. This is not the case for me, today after my subscription ended the product performed yet another update (unnecessary imho and which according to documentation should not occur) which rendered it unusable after opening it once. It now refers me to an article about reinstalling and then putting on the previous patch level. I've uninstalled and reinstalled (pointing at my QDF file) from the generic link and after using the product saving my data, closing and reopening Quicken once again will no longer operate citing any subscription ahs expired and it abruptly closes the application. If I reinstall every time I can get back into it but this it ridiculous. I can no longer afford $50 a year so can anyone offer a solution? Thanks!

Chris_QPW · Answer

This is the proper URL for people needing to reinstall after their subscription expires.
https://www.quicken.com/support/reinstalling-and-patching-your-quicken-subscription-version-after-your-membership-has

And note that you will need to make sure you block any updates Quicken wants to install because they will take you to a version after your subscription expired which will result in you getting blocked from accessing your data file.  Make sure your Windows User Account Control Settings are set as following or on the first more restrictive setting to get Windows to prompt you when any install program tries to run.

Note the process given in the above URL is a "reverse patch".  As in when you download and install Quicken it will be downloading the latest version and the patch will try to take it back to the older version.  The patch system is really only designed for forward patching, and so it might not work to reverse patch depending on how far back that patching has to go and what has been changed in between.

If the reverse patching doesn't work for you then you can try this.
Uninstall Quicken.
Download this "first version" of Quicken's installer from my website.
Disable your network connection to prevent Quicken from downloading/installing the latest version patch.
After the install, don't start Quicken, instead close it and install the patch version from the above URL that is before the date that your subscription expired.

You can find the "first version" of Quicken's installer here:
https://www.quicken.com/support/reinstalling-and-patching-your-quicken-subscription-version-after-your-membership-has

Quicken Jared · Answer

Hello @jjotoole,

I am sorry to hear about this problem with launching the program. Thank you for speaking with us about this here on the Quicken Community.

To begin, what happens when you try to open the program? Does a blank screen appear? Does the program simply fail to open at all, with nothing happening whatsoever? Also, Also, have you tried restarting your computer after this happens? You may additionally try uninstalling the Quicken software using the steps listed in this Support Article; only this time, try deleting Quicken from the Program Files (x86) folder. You may then reinstall the software after following those steps using the steps listed here.

I hope to hear back from you about your results.

Thank you,

Quicken Jared