Longtime Quicken User - What would you do?
I've been a Quicken user for ~15 years. I've historically used Quicken to keep my financial world in order. I typically favor more detail - e.g., detail paycheck splits, investment transaction detail, transfers, etc.
Last year, sometime around early the summer, Quicken randomly removed splits from various transactions - primarily splits for paychecks. As someone that had everything in detail, you can only imagine how frustrated and disappointed I was. There was no pattern I could find and account balances were now all over the place and I had to come up with some "band-aid" solutions just to make sure I was able to use Quicken for the information. I did the repair/validate process after this and there were various things found and references to other splits that had been removed.
Fast forward to last week - my data file wouldn't even load (i.e., not responding). I restored from a recent backup and then did the repair/validate process. Of course, other things were found and again splits were removed. So, I have random account balances I've not used in years with negative amounts and no faith that this won't happen again.
I have a suspicion (absolutely no proof) that something has happened with the Quicken mobile sync and various program upgrades that have done something to my data file. Everything worked fine for years until new features were added.
I'm of the opinion that I need to start "fresh" with a new data file and basically rebuild for 2023 and just take it from there. I don't feel that I can rely on my prior data file, even if restored, I think there's just something about it that the program is hitting various hiccups somewhere - perhaps it's corrupted. I've also tried other options outside Quicken, but have not found anything as powerful with like-wise features that can track things and provide the insight I'm used to.
Any suggestions from other long-time Quicken users on what you would do? Hate to lose my history, but I just don't really see a way around it. I'm hopeful that a "new" data file will not be subject to the random data issues I've been experienced.
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I also am a long-time user (more like 15 years or more. I'm not having the identical problems as you but in at least one of my accouints (the one that gets the most use) the transaction dates are mixed, some transactions seem to disappear but a searcfh finds them, and reconciliation is chancey. I don't use Quicken mobile but maybe the creation of that option has upset the sanctity of the main files.
Other accounts may also be strange but I fear digging in. It's frightening that I might need to rebuild the entire structure, what with dated transactions from loans, purchases, what have you,0 -
@Money Guy Let just state that I don't know of a Quicken Windows SuperUser that uses Sync to Mobile/Web in anything other than a test file. Anyone that has ever followed any of the Quicken forums over the years has to have seen the many posts on what seems to be a connection between Sync to Mobile/Web and corrupted data files. And I might add that was from the day they introduced the feature back in Quicken 2013 (I believe that was the year). The reports of corruption seem to be go up and down over time, but never have completely gone away. I started using Quicken in 1992 and I also have never used Sync to Mobile/Web in my real data file, and I haven't experienced any of such corruption. So, for my "What would you do answer?" I would probably try rebuilding my data file in some manner and certainly never turn Sync to Mobile/Web on. Rebuilding the data file might be starting over with just 2023 data or if one is up for a bit more of challenge they might attempt a QIF export/import of their data to a new data file. Here is some information on that:
@tryagain Your problem sounds more like you have your sorting of that register by something other than the Date field. If you click on the Date field column header that will sort by date. Note clicking on it again reverses the sort.
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I'm a Quicken user for over 20 years. I have tried Quicken mobile sync and Quicken cloud. Both of these have corrupted my data file, which contains all of my transactions for those 20+ years. I've tried them twice. Last time was November, 2022. Both times they corrupted my data file. Neither one has data integrity because Quicken hasn't corrected the data architecture which they use with the data model of the Quicken for desktop. I continue to read reviews on the Google Play Store to see if it has been resolved, but so far it hasn't so I won't use either one. Software developers have a responsibility to their customers to ensure their data models and architecture have excellent data integrity.1
