Allow easy way to uncrustify large files

pjhofmann

I've been using Quicken for it looks like 28 years (I have an open credit card with transactions from 1994). Obviously it started small and things were quite different but over time my file has ballooned and with it performance has taken a hit. It takes 3-4 seconds to switch between accounts. I've toyed with the idea of starting a new file but transferring over data is daunting with all the accounts I have. I wish Quicken would come up with a way to deal with this problem, easy transfer of relevant data (user selected) to a new file, just a way to help with the performance issue of files that have decades of data.

UKR

Are you running Quicken on a laptop?

Slow Performance issue for Laptop users:

Is your laptop plugged in while you're working with Quicken or are you running on battery with power saving reduced performance settings?
Check your Control Panel / Power Options. Make sure the selected Power Plan allows for best performance while plugged in and while on battery.

Here's some more info to look at regarding performance: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7915476/faq-are-there-any-windows-settings-that-can-improve-quicken-s-performance

If you really do want to shed some old years of data, you can try to use the function to create a Year End Archive. Done correctly, this will split your data file into two parts: the Archive with reconciled transactions prior to the selected cutoff date and the current data file with everything else.

I recommend you set the cutoff date to keep about the 5 most recent years in the current data file.

To start this process, after making sure you have one or more backups of your current data file, select File / Copy or Backup File / Create a year end archive. Carefully read up on the fine print: click the "?" button to access a Help text with more details.

Chris_QPW

For what it is worth, in my opinion Quicken isn’t really that far off from making this a reality by doing one thing, support importing of investment data using the QXF format.  And there probably is really old Idea thread for that.

Currently Quicken Windows can export a QXF file that can be used in Quicken Mac’s import, and it includes both investment accounts and non investments accounts, so clearly the investment accounts are being exported in Quicken Windows.  But the import of the QXF file in Quicken Windows doesn’t import the investment transactions.  Which means it is only useful for cleaning up data files that don’t have investment accounts.

Note that some of the shortfalls of the current QXF format are “pluses” for cleaning up data files.  Lots of information like attachments, budgets, saved reports, connections to online services aren’t supported.  But leaving that information behind and the very fact that the data has to be put out in a different format ensures that you get a pretty clean new data file.  This have been used on Quicken Mac for this very purpose.

pjhofmann

Don't run on a laptop, i7-8700K, 3070Ti. I did the "Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling" in the performance link at it seems to have helped quite a bit.

I did do the copy or backup file as well but I found several bugs related to it. Namely, it kept all transactions on my investment accounts, lost my online services, left several transactions from before the time period selected in my banking accounts etc. I went back to my full file.