Quicken file corruption ?

Wayne22

I have a problem with some form of Quicken file corruption, seems like about every couple of months or so. However running Validation never mentions a problem.

While working in Quicken, the symptom is that the account in Quicken is as if suddenly missing some early year records, when all entries in that account are showing Total values a few thousand dollars wrong, generally negative. This is the checking or credit card accounts, but that's where I work the most (but stocks are updated evey day). I have not figured out exactly when or how the bad data date start, all the numbers seem wrong.

So I restore the recent backup a few days old, and repeat the recent activity of those few days again, and it"s OK again for a couple of months or so, but this has happened maybe 8 or 10 times now in the last 2 or 3 years. So I copy the file about every day, just in case. I would like it to be fixed.

It is an old file, data going back to about Dec 2006. A dozen years older actually, but some data calamity forced a restart back then, so now there is no known data older. It was fine for quite a few years, but I don't know how to fix it now. The file is 70 MB, so I'm wondering if file size is an issue? Is there any better solution than Validation?

GeoffG

There is Validate and also Super Validate. If you have not used this, I would give it a try, but do not expect a miracle. Hold the Shift and Ctrl key while going through the steps for Validate. You mention that you copy the file daily, but how you copy makes a significant difference. If you select File>Copy or Backup File>Create a copy or template and select a new filename, Quicken rebuilds the database to the new file. This is another method to resolve data corruption.

If the above does not resolve your issue and in your case you may not know for some time, your only best option might be to call this an historical file and start with a clean new file. Not a happy thought, but better than dealing with a continously corrupt unrepairable data file.

Wayne22

Thanks Geoff, I did not know File Copy rebuilds the file, nor about Super Validate. I just ran it, but it does not report much success. I will try the File Copy.

File: "C:\ProgramData\Quicken\Qdata"

QDF:
Validating your data.
Repaired your data file by removing a damaged category. Please check your category list for missing categories by going to Tools>Category List.

QEL:
No read errors.

QEL:
All internal consistency checks passed.

[Sat Apr 22 06:51:38 2023]

[Sat Apr 22 06:51:38 2023]
Maximum security reference: 28, number of securities: 27.
Analyzing securities.

Number of old style Buy/Cash/Transfer investment transactions updated: 10/0/0
No out-of-range security references found.

Super validation has completed.

——————————-

I have been just manually coping the backup file, with this (and others) in a batch file, about daily:

"C:\program files\7-zip\7z" u -tzip F:\backup\QuickenQdata.zip C:\ProgramData\Quicken\qdata.*

AlexisoftheShire

Can't really add anything given Geoff's advice. I have a 173MB file from 20+ years ago so file size wouldn't cause the problem. FYI.

Greg_the_Geek

Why are you keeping your Quicken data file in C:\ProgramData\Quicken? The default location is C:\Users\<Username>\Documents\Quicken.

Wayne22

Sorry, I don't remember how that started. It was many years ago.

Greg_the_Geek

I would strongly suggest moving your Quicken data to the default location but made it's not a cloud folder.