Unable to add Vanguard accounts

Thuktun

I've tried multiple times over the last few days to add Vanguard accounts to my Quicken file, but each time I get a message that says:

"Sorry. We encountered an error. It's not your fault."

If I press Try Again, it usually hangs until I have to manually cancel it. Doing it again later results in the same problem.

I can login to my Vanguard accounts using the same login/password combination with no messages from them that would explain why I can't connect.

Any idea how I can get this to work?

Frankx

Hi @Thuktun,

Is this the first time that you have attempted to add your Vanguard accounts, or did you previously have them connected?  If the latter, why did you disconnect/ disable them? 

If this is the first time you have ever tried to connect Vanguard - Have you ever imported downloaded Vanguard files in this datafile?

 Any additional information will be helpful.

Frankx

Thuktun

I previously had the connection working with an older file, but it had stopped working. I'm trying to setup a new file and it's been reliably failing to connect to Vanguard since last week.

Frankx

Hi again @Thuktun,

Which downloading method are you currently trying to use - Direct Connect or Express Web Connect?  When you were successfully connecting in the "older file" were you using the same method?  Can you answer the question about whether you've have downloaded any files from the Vanguard website and then imported them into Quicken recently?

Frankx

Thuktun

Not sure I understand the difference. I'm using Add Account, typing in Vanguard, selecting the matching one, and entering login credentials. Which method does that correspond to?

Frankx

Hi again @Thuktun,

Okay, you've described the process for "adding the account" to Quicken for downloading purposes - which is a one-time thing.  Once you have successfully added the account - there is an activity for downloading transactions - which is usually done no more than once a day - BUT (and this is the important part) is not the same process and, in fact, is completely different from the add account process.

So here is the 64 thousand dollar question - are you using the steps you describe above every time you try to download from Vanguard?

Frankx

Thuktun

So again, the problem I'm having is during the Add Account operation. I have not successfully added the account because it fails during that operation.

To be clear, these are the steps I'm performing:

(1) Press + (Add Account) button on Accounts bar.
(2) In the "Search for your financial institution" dialog, enter "Vanguard", select the right one (investor.vanguard.com), and press Next.
(3) In the "Sign in to connect your accounts to Quicken" dialog, I enter my Vanguard username and password, then press the Connect button.
(4) I get a "Looking for your accounts in Vanguard" dialog page briefly
(5) I get a "Adding your accounts to Quicken" dialog page briefly
(6) I get a dialog page with an error message stating. "Sorry. We encountered an error. (It's not your fault.)"

On this last, there's radio button with these options:
(a) "Try again now" - (this always seems to hangs forever until I cancel it out)
(b) "I'll visit my brokerage website and download transactions myself"
(c) "I'll enter my transactions manually"

The first, (a), always seems to hang forever (I left it for an hour once) and requires me to cancel it. The others don't actually add any Vanguard accounts to my register.

Frankx

Hi again @Thuktun,

Based on everything that you've told me, my only suggestion would be to contact Quicken Support for some hands-on assistance.  Here's a LINK to their contact information (page down to the bottom.  Please let me know how that goes.

Frankx