How do I overwrite a portfolio file with a backup and keep the same/old portfolio file name?

RPBjr

I share a portfolio with my father (PORTFOLIO.QDF). I download or manually enter new transactions, then create a backup with the date in the name (e.g., PORTOFLIO-2022-11-09.QDF-BACKPUP), and then take that backup to his house and restore it from his open PORTFOLIO.QDF. In the past (as recently as last week), we were able to restore these backups by overwriting his PORTFOLIO.QDF without creating new/additional .QDF files in the portfolio folder. This week I discovered I sometimes don't get the prompt for overwrite vs. create a copy, but even when I do get the option to overwrite, I end up adding a new (dated) QDF to my portfolio folder when I want to actually overwrite the existing portfolio.qdf. Did something change, or am I just forgetting a step in the restore/overwrite process? I phoned Quicken support and was told the only way to achieve my desired result is create backup files without the date in their name. But if I do that, I'll have to rely on Windows Explorer's "date modified" column to distinguish the date of each backup -- and the modified date will change if/when I restore. Thank you for your help!

splasher

1) Make your backups as always with the date in the file's name.  You are making them for security and not for moving to the other computer.
2) Use Windows Explorer to copy the PORTFOLIO.QDF (or whatever a user might have named their data file) to a thumbdrive to move the copy to the second computer.  When the second computer asks if you want to overwrite the existing data file, answer yes.

You still can do a restore and have Quicken ask if it should create a different data file or overwrite, so I'm not sure why yours isn't, but as stated earlier, copying is much better then backup/restore due to an issue with "datasets exceeded" caused by the restore process and trust me, you do not want to have that problem.  A search of this forum for "dataset" will give you plenty to read and an understanding as to why I make my suggestion.
By the way, you are making your backups to either removable media or at least something that is not permanently attached to your computer like your harddrive, aren't you?  If they are on your harddrive and it dies, your backups are dead also.

splasher

If you really need to do a restore, either:
1) rename the backup file prior to the restore (take the date out);
2) rename the restored .QDF file after getting rid of (or renaming) the existing one;
3) just rename the backup file from PORTFOLIO-yyyy-mm-dd.QDF-backup to PORTFOLIO.QDF (there will be a Windows warning about changing extensions)
A backup file is JUST a copy of the data file with the optional date added with a .QDF-backup extension, nothing more, nothing less.

splasher

You can rename the files in Windows Explorer.  In fact, moving copies of the data file between computers is much better than doing backup/restores since the backup/restore process can cause "exceeded dataset limit" issues.

You should continue to make backups with the date, just don't use them for the transfer.

RPBjr

Thank you. Do you mean I ought to add the date to backups I create, but then rename the dated backup file to PORTFOLIO.QDF before performing a restore? If I restore a dated backup file and then get a dated .qdf file, Windows Explorer won't let me replace/overwrite by renaming (see attached).

To move copies of the data file between computers, do you mean copy/move PORTFOLIO.QDF and say yes when Windows Explorer asks whether we want to replace a same-named file?

Otherwise, am I wrong that we used to be able to restore a backup and actually overwrite our data file with that (dated) backup? It really seems like that function/capability disappeared.

Thanks again!

splasher

1) Make your backups as always with the date in the file's name.  You are making them for security and not for moving to the other computer.
2) Use Windows Explorer to copy the PORTFOLIO.QDF (or whatever a user might have named their data file) to a thumbdrive to move the copy to the second computer.  When the second computer asks if you want to overwrite the existing data file, answer yes.

You still can do a restore and have Quicken ask if it should create a different data file or overwrite, so I'm not sure why yours isn't, but as stated earlier, copying is much better then backup/restore due to an issue with "datasets exceeded" caused by the restore process and trust me, you do not want to have that problem.  A search of this forum for "dataset" will give you plenty to read and an understanding as to why I make my suggestion.
By the way, you are making your backups to either removable media or at least something that is not permanently attached to your computer like your harddrive, aren't you?  If they are on your harddrive and it dies, your backups are dead also.

RPBjr

Thanks for clarifying that for me. Yes, we're saving our backups to flash drive for security and portability. While I understand why the dataset problems make it better to move the .QDF rather than frequent restores, I don't know why the restore overwrite option now requires creating a new .qdf (it used to overwrite the main data file, and take that name -- PORTFOLIO.QDF). We worked on this file with backups and restores (never creating copies or extra .QDF files) for a few years before I came upon this problem this week. If we ever need to truly revert to a .QDF-BACKUP (if we made a mistake or have a problem with a new update from Quicken), now the data file will have a date in the name. Thanks again for your time.

splasher

If you really need to do a restore, either:
1) rename the backup file prior to the restore (take the date out);
2) rename the restored .QDF file after getting rid of (or renaming) the existing one;
3) just rename the backup file from PORTFOLIO-yyyy-mm-dd.QDF-backup to PORTFOLIO.QDF (there will be a Windows warning about changing extensions)
A backup file is JUST a copy of the data file with the optional date added with a .QDF-backup extension, nothing more, nothing less.

RPBjr

Thanks! I didn't realize the backup files were the same format, just a different extension. This has been very helpful. Again, thanks!