How do I recover my categories list?

Question

Today when I went to pay some vendor bills, I started typing in the "categories" as I usually do, but the "suggestions" did not pop up like normal.  I ended up typing the entire word for that category (in this case, "windshield" and it asked me if I wanted to create a new category named "windshield!"  So I went to the categories list and all of the DOZENS of business specific categories that we had set up are gone!  I backed up to this morning's file, and that did not help.  I backed up to a file from 4 days ago, and THAT did not help.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where all my categories went?  How do I recover them?  How is this going to effect my business statements?  If I have to redo all those categories, how will it pick up all the past category entries?

More info.....when creating an INVOICE, the categories all show up.  When creating a payment to the vendor, they do NOT show up.  When opening the categories list from the "tools" drop down box, they do NOT show up.

Quicken Anja · Answer

@Martlock you're welcome and thanks for the update! Glad to hear that worked for you. 🙂

Martlock · Answer

The first time I tried to validate the file, it said it could not validate that file.  I tried a second time and it did validate it and said it fixed some errors.  After that, my stuff was back.  Thank you!

UKR · Answer

When reviewing your Tools / Category List please make sure that

• the Category List is set to "Show Full List" and

• "[x] Show hidden categories" is selected and

• the list is sorted by category (if the Category column title does not have a "▲" in it, click the title to sort the list) and

• the grey sidebar is set to show All Categories

You should now be able to spot anomalies.

It's been reported that previously invisible categories named ACCT_xxxx (where xxxx is a 3-digit or longer decimal or hexadecimal number) are now causing problems displaying categories in selection lists. These categories need to be deleted to restore the selection lists to normal.