Do I need to keep any of my "old" back-ups?

JMc-Japan

I pretty much update Quicken each weekend, and therefore have weekly backups. They are starting to take up a lot of space on my computer. Once I create a new backup, is there any reason to keep an old backup? Also, just wondering: Is a new back-up any different (other than updated data) from a previous end of year back-up, i.e., do I need to keep any past "year back-ups" if my most recent back-up (I believe) includes all historic data entries. Thanks

volvogirl

Each backup is a full copy of your data file, so not just incremental.  You only need 1.  But you should keep several backups in case the prior backup also has a problem.  Can you save on on a USB or burn them to a CD?  Actually saving a backup to your computer hard drive is not really a backup.  You need to backup to something external.  What if your computer crashes?

Rocket J Squirrel

Well, yes and no.

Yes because Quicken corrupts its data from time to time. If you discover corruption which Validate & Repair cannot fix, you'll need to restore a backup from prior to the corruption. This is a trial & error process.

No because old backups contain time bombs if you use automatically entered scheduled transactions (aka Reminders). If you restore an old backup, all those reminders from the past will want to fire because the computer date is later than their trigger dates. If this happens, the only recourse is to temporarily set the computer date just prior to the date of the backup, then restore and update all those reminders.

Personally, I prune my backups periodically by deleting every other one in the folder rather than cutting them off at a certain date. So I have fewer files but still have some older ones just in case they're needed.

Jim_Harman

Several times in recent months, Quicken updates have caused unrecoverable data corruption. The only remedy for this is to revert to an earlier version of Quicken and a data file from before the update.

Quicken usually creates a pre-update backup of you most recent data file, but it is a good idea to keep a backup of your own before opening your file with a new version.

Chris_QPW

It is an interesting problem of what to keep and for how long.  For instance, let's say you keep all your backups and have ones that are 10 years old.  And for whatever reason the only backup you can use is 10 years old. Would you really use it?  Rebuilding a 10-year-old data file might not even be possible.

Personally, I never have to face this decision.  I have a backup system that is does "binary differencing" to reduce the size of each file change. I have a QDF file that is 159MB and 4870 revisions of it take up 17GB.

I personally believe that people should have a good backup system and not be relying on Quicken's for this reason and for the fact that don't know of anyone that their Quicken data file is the only important file on their computer.

mshiggins

I would err on the side of caution having once had to restore a 3 year old backup to resolve a corruption issue with ESPPs. 

Based on reading posts here, there were a lot of data files destroyed by early versions of QW2015. Also based on reading posts here, there was a bug back in March of this year that corrupted all paycheck entries.  The only solution is to restore a pre-March backup and download/enter the intervening months’ data. Users are still finding out about that issue even now, 8 months later.

volvogirl

Each backup is a full copy of your data file, so not just incremental.  You only need 1.  But you should keep several backups in case the prior backup also has a problem.  Can you save on on a USB or burn them to a CD?  Actually saving a backup to your computer hard drive is not really a backup.  You need to backup to something external.  What if your computer crashes?

Rocket J Squirrel

Well, yes and no.

Yes because Quicken corrupts its data from time to time. If you discover corruption which Validate & Repair cannot fix, you'll need to restore a backup from prior to the corruption. This is a trial & error process.

No because old backups contain time bombs if you use automatically entered scheduled transactions (aka Reminders). If you restore an old backup, all those reminders from the past will want to fire because the computer date is later than their trigger dates. If this happens, the only recourse is to temporarily set the computer date just prior to the date of the backup, then restore and update all those reminders.

Personally, I prune my backups periodically by deleting every other one in the folder rather than cutting them off at a certain date. So I have fewer files but still have some older ones just in case they're needed.

Jim_Harman

Several times in recent months, Quicken updates have caused unrecoverable data corruption. The only remedy for this is to revert to an earlier version of Quicken and a data file from before the update.

Quicken usually creates a pre-update backup of you most recent data file, but it is a good idea to keep a backup of your own before opening your file with a new version.

Chris_QPW

It is an interesting problem of what to keep and for how long.  For instance, let's say you keep all your backups and have ones that are 10 years old.  And for whatever reason the only backup you can use is 10 years old. Would you really use it?  Rebuilding a 10-year-old data file might not even be possible.

Personally, I never have to face this decision.  I have a backup system that is does "binary differencing" to reduce the size of each file change. I have a QDF file that is 159MB and 4870 revisions of it take up 17GB.

I personally believe that people should have a good backup system and not be relying on Quicken's for this reason and for the fact that don't know of anyone that their Quicken data file is the only important file on their computer.

mshiggins

I would err on the side of caution having once had to restore a 3 year old backup to resolve a corruption issue with ESPPs. 

Based on reading posts here, there were a lot of data files destroyed by early versions of QW2015. Also based on reading posts here, there was a bug back in March of this year that corrupted all paycheck entries.  The only solution is to restore a pre-March backup and download/enter the intervening months’ data. Users are still finding out about that issue even now, 8 months later.

JMc-Japan

Thank you all for the quick feedback. Very helpful. Going forward I plan to keep the last back-up for each month of the current year and the last back-up for the previous year - so a running total of 12-17 backups. Keep a copy on both computer and thumb-drive.

Chris_QPW

JMc-Japan said:

Thank you all for the quick feedback. Very helpful. Going forward I plan to keep the last back-up for each month of the current year and the last back-up for the previous year - so a running total of 12-17 backups. Keep a copy on both computer and thumb-drive.

Sounds like a very good plan to me.

Mark1104

@JMc-Japan - unless you are going to keep the thumb drive under a different roof than the computer, have you considered a cloud repository, such as OneDrive, Carbonite or Dropbox.... what happens if there is a fire or a flood will both your computer and thumbdrive get destoyed - it happens.....

Frankx

@Mark1104 .  That combined with @JMc-Japan conclusion makes the most sense.  I keep my second copy in my combination storm-shelter / disaster bunker!  Can't be too careful or too pessimistic.

Frankx

thecreator

JMc-Japan said:

I pretty much update Quicken each weekend, and therefore have weekly backups. They are starting to take up a lot of space on my computer. Once I create a new backup, is there any reason to keep an old backup? Also, just wondering: Is a new back-up any different (other than updated data) from a previous end of year back-up, i.e., do I need to keep any past "year back-ups" if my most recent back-up (I believe) includes all historic data entries. Thanks

Hi @JMc-Japan ,

That depends on you and how you use Quicken.

Do you remove old Quicken Registers that contains closed Accounts from Quicken Data File or hide the Registers in Quicken?

If you remove the Registers, then yes, you need to keep Backups for at least 3 years for the IRS or longer depending on your Government (Japan).

If you don't, then keep at least 3 months of Backups.