How does syncing work? (Q Mac)

LovesOFX

How does syncing actually work?

For example, if I have a home machine and a work machine what do I do to keep the files matching? Do I have to do a sync with the bank at the start and end of each session?

What are the syncing “rules” used by the system?

RickO

The Quicken Desktop file is not designed to be synced across machines. Do not be tempted to store the file in a file sharing service (eg Dropbox) for this purpose. The file can eventually become corrupted. There are basically three options for this situation:

1. Use remote access software (such as TeamViewer) to access Quicken on the primary machine from the secondary machine. Once remotely logged in, you run Quicken just like you normally do on the primary machine. Doing this, there is only one copy of the file. This is the safest way. 
2. Access (some of) your data using Quicken on the Web on the secondary machine. QWeb doesn't have all the features and capabilities of desktop Quicken. It is also known to create problems back on the desktop file sometimes.
3. Make a backup on the primary machine, move it to the secondary machine and restore it there. You can do this in reverse as well. This is really the only way to move the file between machines if you want/need full local access. But it is, of course, very important that you are keeping track of which backup is the current one. Using a backup, rather than the actual file, is critical as it prevents introduction of permissions errors which can corrupt the file. 

One way people do #3 is to point Quicken's auto backup to a file sharing folder (such as Dropbox or iCloud Drive). This is done on both machines to the same file sharing location. The most recent backup will always be on the file share. Then on whichever machine you want to run Quicken, instead of opening the local file, you restore from the file share backup. You just need to be careful that two people aren't making changes at the same time so that one person's backup overwrites changes made by the other person.