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Using Quicken on two Windows machines with OneDrive

Jon Foster

I have read the numerous threads around the challenges here. The consensus seems to be this can work if I only have Quicken open on one machine at a time and pause OneDrive syncing while using Quicken and then reinitiate that sync after I close Quicken.

However, OneDrive ( or Quicken) automatically renames my Quicken file by adding my computer name as a suffix to the quicken file name). I was not expecting that. I guess that is not a deal breaker as long as I keep track of what is the latest file?

Reaching out to see if there is anything else I should be considering.

Thanks

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Comments

markus1957

That is not normal behavior for OneDrive. I use Quicken with OneDrive as you describe above. My instance does not change the file name. See the support article from Microsoft to resolve the issue.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/duplicate-files-in-onedrive-fd47ce5e-8dd0-465e-9e3a-461e1a3cf613

Chris_QPW

@markus1957 I didn't know that OneDrive might mess up that way, but it might also be this:

When OneDirve adds your username to a given file it is a sign of a sync conflict. As in, the file got changed on two or machines at about the same time. You say you paused OneDrive on the machine while using Quicken. What was happening on the other machine? Also given depending on how big your Quicken data file is, and how slow your Internet connection is, it might take quite some time to finish the sync. You have to make sure that sync is completely done before opening Quicken on the other machine.

Jon Foster

@markus1957 - I have removed "one drive cached credentials

@Chris_QPW - I have closed quicken on the first machine and confirmed that OneDrive syncing has completed

However, after doing the above, when i go to the 2nd machine, pause syncing, I am unable to open the quicken file. The error is to the effect of "Make sure {One Drive Account} is running on PC. When I unpause, I am able to open quicken file.

To clarify my goal here, I will be using my Desktop ( machine 1) when I am at home, but when I travel, I would like to be able to use my laptop ( machine 2). I wonder if backup and restore would be a simpler solution?

Chris_QPW

Off hand it sound like the second machine won't sync the file until something accesses it. I'm not sure why that would be, but that is what it sounds like.

markus1957

After the file is opened for the first time on each machine a copy will download and stay resident locally on each machine for 30 days. From that point forward OneDrive will keep the cloud file copy and the machine copies in sync. You will be able pause OneDrive and use Quicken on either machine, but not both at the same time. Then Un-pause OneDrive to let it sync up.

One caveat. If the local copy on a machine is not used for 30 days, it will become what is called a cloud file only. Then you will have to open the file with OneDrive active for it to download the file to be stored locally. So if you haven't used Quicken for a month on the laptop, before you leave on a trip, open it on the laptop with OneDrive active to get a local copy downloaded. Then keep in mind if you use it on the road and you don't have access to the OneDrive cloud, the desktop copy will not be up to date until the laptop has access to OneDrive and syncs all the files you edited while on the road.

Also, be cognizant that syncing can take a several seconds, especially on the upload side. After closing Quicken and un-pausing sync, make sure you give it time to sync before opening it again.

Until very recently I was using Quicken with OneDrive active, but something in the R48 update is causing a crash during OSU so I have started pausing it again.

Jon Foster

Thanks for all the tips. The whole process is very precarious. Seems OneDrive caches credentials often, causing duplicate files to be created for each machine, so need to be very cognizant of all that. I will be backing up often JIC.

markus1957

FWIW, I've been using Quicken several times a week on a laptop and desktop with OneDrive for a couple of years now. In that time, I can count on one hand how many times a duplicate machine named file was created on OneDrive and it was never caused by a credential cache issue. It was most always a Quicken software update initiating on open with OneDrive active which as @Chris_QPW indicated, does not always go well.