Restore files (Q Mac 2006)

BambiKM

I’m still using quicken 2006 on my old iMac osX 10.4.11. I finally got around to updating my accounts from the beginning of the year. I think quicken quick unexpectedly while I was working. The next day I opened up Quicken and two of my accounts only had info up to 2009. All the other accounts seem to be fine, but when I run a report it doubles all the payments and the deposits are single. Also if I had transferred money between the accounts that have problems the transactions are still showing in the other account. Any suggestions of how to restore the missing info?

jacobs

The database in Quicken 2006/2007 was notorious for odd corruption issues. There might be an easy fix: reindexing the transaction database index. Open the Accounts window, and then press Command-Option-B. You should see the window close and a dialog about reindexing. If the program unexpectedly quits while indexing, launch Quicken again and do it a second time. Does the reindexing make all the missing transactions magically reappear? 

If the reindexing doesn't work, I think you'll need to turn to a backup of your Quicken data file. Hopefully you do have it making automatic backups and/or Time Machine backups. Even if you lose the work you were doing when it crashed, if you can get back to a stable version of the file from a day or two earlier, then you;'ll just have to re-enter what you recently entered.

(As you know, you're using pretty ancient software, so going forward, please make sure you have as many layers of data backup as possible because there's heightened potential for both hardware or software failures with such an old environment. )

jacobs

The database in Quicken 2006/2007 was notorious for odd corruption issues. There might be an easy fix: reindexing the transaction database index. Open the Accounts window, and then press Command-Option-B. You should see the window close and a dialog about reindexing. If the program unexpectedly quits while indexing, launch Quicken again and do it a second time. Does the reindexing make all the missing transactions magically reappear? 

If the reindexing doesn't work, I think you'll need to turn to a backup of your Quicken data file. Hopefully you do have it making automatic backups and/or Time Machine backups. Even if you lose the work you were doing when it crashed, if you can get back to a stable version of the file from a day or two earlier, then you;'ll just have to re-enter what you recently entered.

(As you know, you're using pretty ancient software, so going forward, please make sure you have as many layers of data backup as possible because there's heightened potential for both hardware or software failures with such an old environment. )

BambiKM

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! You are an Angel!
It took me 4x reindexing the account file, but finally restored the lost data! Thank you so very much!

jacobs

@BambiKM I'm so glad to hear you were able to recover your corrupted data!

Now, please make sure you are having Quicken generate backup files each time you quit, and that you have the preference setting set for the maximum number of backups (10?). I'd also suggest you periodically just save a backup manually, or make a copy of one of the automatic backups in a separate folder. (I was once able to recover from data corruption issue because I was able to open a backup copy I had saved from about 18 months earlier in order to recreate some transactions which disappeared.)

And since you have such an old Mac, please, please make sure you are backing it up entirely, or at least all your valuable data, to some other location like an external hard drive. Or with your Quicken dat file, save a compressed (.zip) copy once a month or so and email it to yourself you it will exist in your email that you can access if your Mac should die.

You should also know that your path forward with Quicken, whenever you move to a newer machine, has some significant roadblocks in the way because you haven't upgraded in so long. You'll need a copy of Quicken 2007 to update your Quicken 2006 data, because only Quicken 2007 data can be imported into the modern Quicken Mac. But on your current operating system, you'd need to find a copy of the rare original version of Quicken 2007 (version 16.0), not the updated one (version 16.1 or 16.2) Intuit brought out in 2011 to run on macOS Lion and beyond. If you've stuck with OS X 10.4 and Quicken 2006 for the past 16 or so years, I realize you're not likely to want to upgrade. I'm just letting you know that if you see yourself wanting to continue to use your existing Quicken data in the future when you eventually do upgrade, the sooner you go down that path, the better your chances of success. Best wishes.