QDF file corruption - lots of transfer transactions damaged as per Validation
Thanks,
Scott
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the size of the QDF file doesn’t really impact the performance of Quicken.
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What does impact its performance? In some of the accounts it's quite slow to enter a new transaction. Is there a practical limit to the file size? My file is currently 160 MB.
Thanks,
Scott0 -
you can see the QDF file internal size by ….. Help —> (Shift) + About Quicken
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Mine is 71261K.0
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It's never a good sign when making a copy that the file size doubles. That indicates some form of corruption in the inflated file. I would discard that file and try again with the original. Try performing a file validation before making another copy.
160 MB is not that big, especially for an old file. The Quicken QDF is really a compressed set of files like a ZIP file that hold transactions, downloads, attachments and other data as separate files. Holding the CTRL key while clicking Help>About Quicken in the menu bar will reveal the size of your internal qdf file along with other information that can be useful for diagnosing slow response. Particularly Memorized Payees where a number in the thousands can slow Quicken down.
If you store attachments, they make your file large but have little effect on speed.
Generally, file size is not the cause of slow response, but doubling in size after a copy intended to reduce file size is definitely cause to question the integrity of the copied file.
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I have 578 payees and 464 categories. I can probably cull some of those. File validation shows a bunch of transfers between accounts which have corruption, not sure how that happened, but the transfers appear in one account but not the other account. I'm worried that if I fix those, the account balances will be thrown off.0
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That number of payees and categories is not excessive. The transfers are likely your issue. I'd start with most recent and work your way back in time making sure the balances in each account stay correct. Most likely you will need to delete the transfer and re-enter it. You could try and edit one first to see if it pops back to a correct entry.
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are you working with the new copied file - or the original smaller file ?
and which file have you run Validate ?0 -
I have run validation on both files and both have the same errors with the corrupted transfers.0
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wonder if you can copy that validation error log text and post it here so we can all see the errors ..
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Just tried posting that, doesn't seem to have gone through?0
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The following transaction(s) involving transfers appear to be damaged.
You should delete them and recreate as appropriate.
Account Further HSA Invest: 7/23/2020 From HSA 10,750.00
Account Further HSA Invest: 5/6/2021 Transfer To Further HSA Investment Acct 2,330.00
Account Individual 401(k) (3701): 12/22/2020 Elective Deferral 26,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 1/2/2018 Transfer To Joint Checking -2,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 1/31/2018 Transfer To Joint Checking -1,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 3/6/2018 Transfer To Joint Checking -4,500.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 4/5/2018 Transfer To Joint Checking -1,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 5/8/2018 Transfer To Joint Checking -1,500.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 5/29/2018 Transfer To Joint Checking -4,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 6/18/2018 Transfer To Joint Checking -500.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 7/3/2018 Transfer Funds To Schwab Bank -4,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 8/6/2018 Transfer To Joint Checking -3,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 9/4/2018 Transfer To Joint Checking -4,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 10/3/2018 Transfer To Joint Checking -3,500.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 10/31/2018 Transfer To Joint Checking -3,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 11/29/2018 Transfer To Joint Checking -5,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 1/7/2019 Transfer To Joint Checking -3,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 2/8/2019 Transfer To Joint Checking -3,500.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 3/5/2019 Transfer To Joint Checking -4,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 4/1/2019 Transfer To Joint Checking -4,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 5/1/2019 Transfer Funds To Schwab Bank -2,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 5/30/2019 Transfer To Joint Checking -2,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 7/1/2019 Transfer To Joint Checking -3,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 7/31/2019 Transfer To Joint Checking -2,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 8/30/2019 Transfer To Joint Checking -4,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 10/2/2019 Transfer To Joint Checking -2,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 10/31/2019 Transfer To Joint Checking -2,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 12/2/2019 Transfer To Joint Checking -5,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 1/6/2020 Transfer To Joint Checking -5,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 2/3/2020 Transfer To Joint Checking -2,000.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 3/3/2020 Transfer To Joint Checking -2,500.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 4/6/2020 Transfer To Joint Checking -1,500.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 5/4/2020 Transfer To Joint Checking -1,500.00
Account Jen's taxable (8300): 6/4/2020 Transfer To Joint Checking -1,500.00
Account SEP (2558): 3/19/2018 Transfer To Schwab SEP 18,000.00
Account Taxable (4633): 4/5/2019 Tfr Wells Fargo Bank,, S. A. Brenneman -750.00
Account Taxable (4633): 4/11/2019 Transfer to WF Checking -4,000.00
Account Taxable (4633): 6/4/2019 Transfer to WF Checking -13,000.00
Account Vanguard taxable: 1/22/2019 Transfer to WF Checking -18,000.000 -
The above is only a subset -- I think there's a limit on the size of a post on this forum. There are probably about twice as many as I've posted. I'm not keen to manually re-create these, obviously, since there are so many.0
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YIKES 😳
I’ve also updated the topic title to better reflect the actual Quicken problem now being discussed
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And I don't know when or why these crept in, since I'm not in the habit of validating the file often! i just assume Quicken doesn't step on itself.0
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I periodically (annually or so) save a copy of my existing QDF file, use Quicken's feature on the copy which deletes transactions prior to a certain date but keeps investment transactions intact, and then use that copy going forward. I recently ran a File Validation on that newer file and I get a ton of corrupted transfers. They appear to be due to the fact that the transfers are between checking and investment accounts, so that the checking side of the transfers is no longer present in the file. I'd have thought Quicken would be smarter about this. Is there I anything I can do to fix this beyond simply ignoring the errors?
[Merged Post]
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Well … since you now have created a NEW topic and thread on your exact same problem -
which thread should we follow and leave open for comments -
or should we merge them into one topic ?0 -
Well … since you now have created this NEW topic and thread on your exact same problem -
which thread should we follow and leave open for comments -
or should we merge them into one topic ?[Merged Post]
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Sounds like the Quicken Copy and removing the "banking" transactions that were in fact part of a "transfer" are the problem.
It would appear that Quicken used the brute force removal of any "banking" transactions prior to your cutoff date -
but failed to take into consideration the transaction was part of an Investment account,
and therefore maybe should not have been deleted.Lastly - I routinely "transfer" funds between my Chase accounts and my Schwab, Vanguard, TRowe accounts - no probs -
Double Lastly - I NEVER delete any Quicken info - as it makes no sense to me - it is much more valuable to have ALL my data in a single file that represents ALL of my financial history - also, I don't encounter any weird Quicken bugs or problems.
[Merged Post]
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I don't mind if they get merged. I just thought that my question had morphed a bit now that I could determine what the cause might be, and thus maybe it should be a new topic?0
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Okay so the cause of "corruption" was actually the removal of the banking side of the transfers when you selected to copy from a date forward. In addition, the Copy was corrupted as evidenced by the doubling of file size.
The solution is to revert to a backup file dated before you made the copy and use that going forward. Your file size is not so large that removing transactions will cause Quicken to run any faster.
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I think I just have to live with it, since reverting to an older backup means I lose a ton of new transactions and reconciliations that I've entered since then. I think the "corruption" actually occurred over a year ago, based on the validation run I did on the file I've been using for over a year. In the future I'll run validation on any file that I copy and cull in the future.0
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And/or …. Don’t do the Copy & Delete -
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Going forward, yeah, it sounds as if the copy/delete isn't so much needed.0
