What are the common causes of Quicken being extremely sluggish?

Scott Lindner

Quicken on Windows is extremely sluggish. Like 2-5s delays with every single button click or just text box entry into a single transation form. Switching accounts takes like 10s at times. Sometimes it'll be fine, but then it isn't and I never know why. To me, it feels almost as if Quicken is reprocessing the entire database with every button click, box entry, or account change.

I had speculated it could be due to file system IO since I was using a TrueCrypt container for all things financial. So I recently copied everything out of that and directly onto the file system and it's just as sluggish. I watched the Quicken processes in task manager and the CPU, network and disk utilization stays at 2-3% the entire time so I'm a little confused what could be going on to cause it to be so sluggish.

Looking forward to this discussion and possibilities to investigate.

lost without data

mine is slow too, on a windows 11 machine too!

dwan

I would love some answers to this too. I just upgraded to an extremely fast computer with lots of RAM, and still it behaves as Scott described. Quicken at times seems to bring the whole OS to a crawl when I switch to another window while waiting for Quicken to catch up — even the mouse pointer fails to track in realtime.

When contacted, Quicken support variously blames the computer, the operating system, or the number of years of data, for slow, buggy performance. But all other applications are lightning-quick and my number of transactions and file size are a fraction of what Quicken says it can support.

What can be done to improve this?

Scott Lindner

> @dwan said:
> When contacted, Quicken support variously blames the computer, the operating system, or the number of years of data, for slow, buggy performance. But all other applications are lightning-quick and my number of transactions and file size are a fraction of what Quicken says it can support.

I have an i9 @4.85GHz w/ 10 physical cores, 64GB of DDR4 @4000MHz RAM, and the fastest M.2 SSD on the market. This machine reboots in 5s. There is no way this machine is the problem. But more importantly, if data size or machine performance was the problem, I would see that in Task Manager. The problem is, Task Manager shows no physical bottlenecks or loading at all. My guess is there is some highly contentious code and dependencies in the software and the Quicken engineers don't know how to identify or rearchitect it to eliminate the contention, or Quicken leadership is prioritizing other efforts.

tivolo

If your symptoms become worse the longer Quicken is open or, in particular, after running a One Step Update, then you should check the following thread as the issue it describes could very likely be the cause of this misbehavior:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7923154/slowdowns-and-not-enough-memory-to-proceed-errors

The thread includes some steps you can use to monitor the "User Object" and "GDI Object" usage of Quicken, which can help you see if your sluggishness corresponds to these values approaching their limits. Unfortunately, the only known workaround for now is to restart Quicken regularly and, in particular, before/after running a OSU.

Scott Lindner

> @tivolo said:
> If your symptoms become worse the longer Quicken is open or, in particular, after running a One Step Update...

Yes. That definitely sounds related. I will definitely check that out and then post back here with my results and findings. Thank you!

dwan

Things do worsen for me if I leave Quicken open, and improve after restarting the application. But it’s sluggish in the way Scott described even right after a restart (and before a OSU). It’s just completely unusable if the app remains open for a long time, or overnight. I don’t find that performance immediately degrades following a OSU, but I do those most days, so they could be a factor. Looking forward to what others experience wrt the object usage.

I agree there are likely major code inefficiencies and errors. Instead of rewriting large parts of the decades-old program, they just keep patching it, which inevitably results in poor performance.

These discussions about sluggish performance pop up regularly on this forum. Instead of substantively addressing the issue, Quicken gives a pat response, like “try closing all applications,” and then closes the discussion. I guess they don’t want every Google search about Quicken to result in pages of results about sluggish performance, so they bury the issue and take no action. This discussion seems likely to “resolved” and closed after support staff return to work from the holiday.

Fletch200

So happy to not be alone here. My system specs are similar to Scott and behavior is identical. I'll look into the suggestions above but wonder if the amount of data is just too much now for Quickens dated code to efficiently handle - 32 years worth.

Not to mention the random behind-the-scenes tweaking of my opening balances wreaking havoc on reconciling.

The poor usability of the software makes the subscription worthless. Lately I've had to switch to downloading QFX files for most accounts.

jshoaf

My Quicken is also extremely sluggish. I did notice that after doing OSU, accounts were loading in about 6 seconds. When I restarted Quicken, I could then switch accounts in about 3 seconds. Still too slow for a modern app but OSU definitely makes it worse.

rscotty

See Tivolo's post above. This problem should have been fixed with update version 46.12. https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7923154/slowdowns-and-not-enough-memory-to-proceed-errors
If you have updated to this version or newer and still have the problem, please repost.

Scott Lindner

I am not getting those errors. That issue doesn't seem to be related at all for multiple reasons described in that issue description.

Snowman

Many of these issues are due to how the computer and windows are setup. I am currently running a 200mb file with Windows 10 and 32Mb of RAM. I do not have any slowdowns or out of memory errors and I never have.

Do you have a mechanical hard drive or an SSD drive? How is the virtual memory set up on your computer, ie what is the size and location of the virtual memory files?  Try switching the virtual file to a "fixed size". This allows windows to set aside a space on the hard drive for this file that will always be in the same location. I have found that letting windows control this can lead to memory issues.

I have an NvME 500Gb stick memory in my computer. I have it set up as drive "U". I have relocated the virtual memory to this drive and removed the virtual memory from the C drive. I also use Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and Premiere extensively and have located the cache files for these programs to drive U. For Lightroom Classic I have dedicated an SSD drive (Drive L) to hold the Lightroom catalog file and nothing else.

BUT even before I did this I have never in 23 years had the issues that are being described. I build and setup my own computers and Windows installations to maximize speed. I have all SSD's and NvME SSD drives.

One other thing you might check and it sounds counter productive but it solves a multitude of issues. Boot your computer to the motherboard BIOS. Look for a setting (usually in the Boot Section of the BIOS) name "Fast Boot". Turn this OFF. I many cases it is not worth the 10-20 seconds you may save in Boot time vs the issues that are created by "Fast Boot".

Scott Lindner

> @Snowman said:

It's awesome you don't have these issues. I have a 10 core i9@4.85GHz with 64GB RAM @ 4000MHz, with a WD Black SN850 drive. This machine is not the problem.

What it likely is, is related to stale old **** in my Quicken file that no longer is valid. I have encountered this with a super old financial plan many years ago that was no longer accessible in newer versions. I forgot how I even figured that out and solved it ages ago to go any deeper in that. In all cases it seems to be people that have been using Quicken for decades like I have.

Snowman

I agree it is not the computer it IS PROBABLY some of the virtual memory and/or the BIOS setting that I talked about. Have you checked ANY of the things I suggested? Did you even try them? I HAVE used Quicken for decades as well and have NEVER had any of these problems. It is not about the HARDWARE in your system which it top notch. It is about how Windows is configured on your computer and what the BIOS settings are. Bad settings can bring the most advanced computer crashing down.

dwan

I have checked those BIOS and VM settings and tried Quicken in all of the combinations you mentioned. I also build my own machines with plenty of RAM and exclusively SSDs. Every application I use operates instantly and without delay. Quicken has been slow and sluggish from the first use on this brand new build (with and without the alternative BIOS and VM settings Snowman mentioned), as well as on at least two other builds in the last decade. This is a Quicken problem, not a user settings issue. I am jealous that Snowman's seems to operate without these issues despite decades of use. Do you have decades of investment data in your file, Snowman? There must be some difference between your use scenario and those of us who consistently experience sluggishness across multiple hardware and OS platforms. Please enlighten us.

UKR

Please review

FAQ: Are there any Windows settings that can improve Quicken’s performance? — Quicken

Snowman

@dwan

My current computer build was done in 9/2020. It is an Intel i9-9900X @ 3.50Ghz. I have and ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe II Motherboard. I forgot to mention this but in my BIOS settings I have all turbo settings and Intel speedstep technology settings turned OFF as the "advantages" are not worth the problems they create.

One of the things that happened was the speedstep throttled down the CPU when usage was low BUT it NEVER throttled backup up when CPU demand increased and that is why I turned it OFF. This is a setting to try because it can cause the symptoms that some are describing of their systems slowing down. Since I turned speedsep off I have not had the issue since.

Similar to the Fast Boot setting I mentioned before. I also have an nVidia GeForce RTX 3080ti graphics card. One other thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post is the the motherboard BIOS needs to be up to date.

I have 3 Investment accounts with corresponding cash accounts and with the exception of my TD Ameritrade and Fidelity IRA accounts, I manually enter this information from monthly statements. I don't use any of the cloud or web mobile syncing as these are problematic at best and by definition can never work properly.

The investment section of Quicken has many issues. Despite entering and reconciling my 3 investment accounts manually Quicken at times does not properly track sales and purchases of stocks. As of January 1st of this year I went through each of my 3 manually entered accounts and found MANY stocks that were still listed in the account as active when they had been sold years prior and this was in all 3 accounts. This resulted in the investment balance being much higher than it actually was. I had to go through and delete the old holdings but as a bonus my Quicken file size dropped from 210Mb to 170Mb.

 

As such I do not rely on the Quicken data for historical data as far as investments go. I have the PDF monthly and year end statements from my broker for this.

I have 8 bank accounts and 8 credit card accounts (always paid in full on the due date) all with data going back to 2001. One of the credit card accounts has over 17,000 transactions and runs without any issues. I also have 12 Property and Debt accounts. My two mortgages were paid off in 2013 and 2015 and as such I am debt free.

Oh I have had issues. In 2014 I had data corruption in my main banking account which required going back 7 months and reconstructing the data forward.That is when I learned to validate my file at least on a weekly basis. I do strictly manual backups to a local NAS drive with the date & time added to the file name. I do this at least daily and sometime multiple times a day. That NAS drive is then backed up every night to a second NAS drive.

I reconcile my accounts to a paper (or now a downloaded PDF) statement NEVER to an online balance. I learned early on never to leave Quicken open overnight. When I did it resulted in data corruption. That may have been fixed by now but why leave it open overnight?

Quicken has many quirks AND limitations due to the age of the code and the attempts to "fix" some buried code that results in other issues in the program. Even with all of this I have not had the memory errors or slowdown issues. Over the years I have learned what Quicken CAN do and what it CAN'T do. I do not push it beyond its limitations which may be part of the reason why some are having the issues that they are.

dwan

Thanks for taking the time to share these details, Snowman. You certainly have a disciplined routine. I have the same BIOS settings and equal or better machine specs, but I do seem to ask more of the software. Fortunately, the extreme sluggishness following a OSU was fixed in a recent update, so now it's just back to running much more slowly than any other application on the platform.

Snowman

@dwan No worries. I hope it was clear that in the BIOS settings both the Turbo modes and Intel speedstep setting need to be disabled. Of course is you have an AMD CPU it would be their equivalent settings if any. I have been working with PC's for the past 40 years and I am challenged when I see a situation such as this with Quicken. It never seems to be just one thing but a combination of things. I am sorry that you Quicken is still operating slowly.

One thing I forgot to mention was I have most of the "Visual Effects" turned off in Windows and that my VM size is set to a static 20800Mb. Whether or not that may help you will have to try and see. Again my VM file is keep on its of dedicated M2 NvME stick drive.