Quicken and Onedrive

georgeh43

I have 2 laptops that sync with Onedrive. I only have Quicken installed on 1 of the computers and will use that one for using Quicken. This should eliminate the problems in using Quicken and Onedrive.

NotACPA

Not sure what problem you're talking about.

IF it's the issue of Q being unable to complete a backup, that's because OneDrive is grabbing the Q data file in the middle of the backup and preventing Q from re-opening the file.

Having 2 laptops will not impact that issue.

SO, please be more specific.

georgeh43

There were several posts about running Quicken on 2 computers which were syncing. If running both at the same time problems could happen with corrupting the data files.

NotACPA

@george43, Is your working data file stored on OneDrive?  That's a big NO-NO.

It should be stored on your harddrive ONLY.   You can transfer the file from one laptop to another via OneDrive ... but you should NEVER use that as the location for your file in use.

georgeh43

Thanks for the info. In Quicken I go to File and "Show this file on my computer" it shows as Local Disk but also appears in One drive. I suppose I could delete the Onedrive Quicken files and they will still be one my hard drive.

Chris_QPW

Watch out!

"local drive" is a misleading term in this case.

All OneDrive folders are on the "local drive".

And in fact, if one is using OneDrive to backup their Documents folder, the default location for the Quicken data file will be in a OneDrive folder.

If you got to Windows File Explorer and right click on the Documents folder and then select Properties and then Location it will give you the location of your documents folder.  Here is an example of mine:


When you Windows asks you if you want to use OneDrive to backup your Documents folder it moves your Documents from C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents to C:\Users\USERNAME\OneDrive\Documents.

This folder is clearly still on the local drive but can still cause problems with Quicken because of the way Quicken handles (mishandles the lock on the data file).

What happens is that when you change a file in a OneDrive folder OneDrive sync that information to the cloud folder/server provided that the file isn't locked.  If it is locked OneDrive will wait to sync the data file until it is unlocked.  Unfortunately, at times Quicken unlocks its data file even when it isn't finished with it, like when doing a Validate and Repair.  And that means that OneDrive might come in and lock and start a sync.  In the meantime, Quicken will want to reopen the data file and lock it and be blocked out.

So, don't just go deleting your data file in your Documents folder, you will be deleting it locally and on the OneDrive server!

Instead do something like this, create a folder C:\Quicken and move your main data file to that folder (using Windows File Explorer) and then double click on it to open in Quicken.  That will also let Quicken know the new location.

Chris_QPW

P.S. if you move your main data file to a folder like C:\Quicken be really sure you it backed up in some way.  Either by a system wide backup program or by using Quicken's built-in automatic or manual or both backup preferences.

georgeh43

Thanks for the detailed info. I'm going to backup to a USB flash drive after each use of Quicken to be on the safe side. So far when I open Quicken everything looks OK.