quicken data refreshes frequently

Mr Sunshine

I am running quicken premier for windows R51.10 Build 27.1.51.10 and have been having a problem for a long time and decided to investigate. My Quicken program makes very long pauses after very routine and simple tasks, such as entering a CC transaction or even marking a transaction as reconciled, and then flashes a message that it is refreshing quicken data along with a progress bar before "accepting" the new information and allowing me to continue. This has added a LOT of time to entering transactions and reconciling accounts. Is there some known issue that could be causing this, or something in my file I need to change for it to work faster? My file is very old and contains many transactions (~216k file size) , but I would rather keep it all together if possible. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

NotACPA

In Q, try EDIT, Preferences, Investments and UNCHECK "Automatically Update Quotes every 15 minutes" AND "Real Time Quotes">

Mr Sunshine

Hi NotACPA

My automatically update was already not checked, any other potential solutions?

Thanks.

Rocket J Squirrel

Where is your data file? If it's anywhere other than an internal HD or SSD, Quicken will run slower because it writes to the file every time you make a change.

Mr Sunshine

Hi - The data file is on the internal drive, but it does seem to slow every time I try to enter something. There are certain transactions it doesn't, but almost all of them come with a delay

NotACPA

Have you tried Validating your Q data file? SuperValidating? A corrupted Q data file can run slowly also.

Mr Sunshine

I did validate the file a few days ago, but not familiar with super validating. Is there somewhere I can learn about that? Thank you.

Rocket J Squirrel

Nobody knows what Super Validate does that Validate doesn't do. So it's just a guess. You get there by holding CTRL+SHIFT while choosing FIle > Validate & Repair.

Have you performed a File Copy operation in recent memory? That is known to be the only QWin operation that performs something like a garbage collection, leaving behind items marked deleted but which still occupy space. You'll need to reconnect your online accounts in the new copy. So I'd try File Copy, use the copy a little, and if it seems faster, reconnect your accounts.

File > Copy or Backup File > Create a copy or template

Mr Sunshine

I don't recall ever running a File Copy Operation, I will attempt that and see what happens. Thanks.

RalphC

Assuming that your hard drive is healthy, it really does sound like your data file is on a server. What is the path? But, if it's somewhere like C:\users\yourname\Documents, the first troubleshooting step would be to Super Validate. Reboot your computer, run Quicken, hold down [SHIFT]-[CTRL] as you select File > Validate and Repair file > Validate file. If this doesn't resolve the issues, create a new file, enter some dummy transactions, and see if you can duplicate the issues. If you have no issues with the new file, your existing data file is corrupt. You could try a file copy, but a copy of a corrupt data file is probably going to result in a new corrupt data file…but you can try as a last ditch effort to save your data.

Mr Sunshine

I did the following and am still experiencing very slow (10-15 seconds) response to entering transactions, or even accepting matched downloaded transactions. There were no items noted that Quicken did not repair.

- Make a copy of your data file: Click File / File Operations / Copy.  Do not change any Copy Option settings. Save file under a new name in same folder as current Quicken data file.  (The Copy process appears to be performing a record-by-record copy of the data file and not just a simple binary image copy. This has been reported as recovering some otherwise not repairable files)
- If Quicken reports an error creating the Copy file ("File not copied") and you are using Q 2019+ repeat the Copy process, but this time press and hold SHIFT and CTRL while you click File / File Operations / Copy. When prompted "Ignore errors that prevent file copy?" click "Yes".  Note: This may cause some data loss.
- Open the copied file in Quicken.
- Click File / File Operations / Validate and Repair. Click "Validate File" and "Rebuild investing lots", check to make sure the copied file is being validated. If you suspect that a damaged Quotes Price History causes your problems, also select "Correct investing price history" functions "Delete" or "Repair and Rebuild".  Click OK. Let it run.

- Fix any errors logged as not repaired by Quicken.

- Click File / File Operations. Press and hold SHIFT+CTRL as you click Validate and Repair. The next popup should show "Supervalidate" somewhere in header or text. Click "Supervalidate File", check to make sure the copied file is being validated, click OK. Let it run. It might run for a while. 
- Again fix any errors logged as not repaired by Quicken.

- Now close and restart Quicken using this copied and repaired file and try your failing action again. If it works, keep using the new file and abandon the old one.

I created a new file with no history or info in it, and it didn't have the delays. Is it possibly the size (~216KB) of the file or large number of transactions built up over time causing this, or is that not an unusually large file? I really would like to keep all the history, but the time to enter new information is getting unbearable.

Rocket J Squirrel

Show us the result of Help > SHIFT+About Quicken.

This is mine and it's not slow.

Mr Sunshine

This is the one that was NOT supervalidated

Rocket J Squirrel

That's a pretty big file. One number that jumps out is Memorized Payees. Those tend to accumulate and it has been suggested that having a large number of them can affect performance. You can try removing no-longer-used payees.

See Edit > Preferences > Data entry and Quickfill to see and possibly change your settings.

The other big number is Transactions. Not much you can do about that except prune your data by deleting very old transactions. We generally don't recommend this as it loses data. You could try it in a copy of your file and see whether it helps.

UKR

Does MS OneDrive access and copy the folder containing your Quicken data file to a OneDrive server? That is not supported and may be the cause of your slowdowns.
If so, configure OneDrive to NOT access the Quicken data file. Instead, configure Backups created by Quicken so that one or two backups are created every [1] time you close Quicken". Do close Quicken when you're done working with it for the day.

Mr Sunshine

The Q data file is in my c: drive, so I don't believe it is on a server, and the drive appears to be healthy.

I did the following steps (copy, validate, supervalidate, use new copied file), and the resulting copied file still has delays of 10-15 seconds prior to being able to move on when entering credit card transactions of even accepted downloaded and matched transactions.

- Make a copy of your data file: Click File / File Operations / Copy.  Do not change any Copy Option settings. Save file under a new name in same folder as current Quicken data file.  (The Copy process appears to be performing a record-by-record copy of the data file and not just a simple binary image copy. This has been reported as recovering some otherwise not repairable files)
- If Quicken reports an error creating the Copy file ("File not copied") and you are using Q 2019+ repeat the Copy process, but this time press and hold SHIFT and CTRL while you click File / File Operations / Copy. When prompted "Ignore errors that prevent file copy?" click "Yes".  Note: This may cause some data loss.
- Open the copied file in Quicken.
- Click File / File Operations / Validate and Repair. Click "Validate File" and "Rebuild investing lots", check to make sure the copied file is being validated. If you suspect that a damaged Quotes Price History causes your problems, also select "Correct investing price history" functions "Delete" or "Repair and Rebuild".  Click OK. Let it run.

- Fix any errors logged as not repaired by Quicken.

- Click File / File Operations. Press and hold SHIFT+CTRL as you click Validate and Repair. The next popup should show "Supervalidate" somewhere in header or text. Click "Supervalidate File", check to make sure the copied file is being validated, click OK. Let it run. It might run for a while. 
- Again fix any errors logged as not repaired by Quicken.

- Now close and restart Quicken using this copied and repaired file and try your failing action again. If it works, keep using the new file and abandon the old one.

There were no items during validation or super validation that were not repaired by Quicken, and I continue to see the delays when entering transactions or changing the reconciliation status of already entered transactions in my file and the copied file. If I start a new file with no info in it the transaction entry is done with no delay or progress bars. Is it possibly the large number of transactions in my very old file, or the overall size of the file (~216kb), or should it be able to handle that without issues? Any further suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Mr Sunshine

I am not aware of OneDrive copying anything, and can't find a .QDF file on OneDrive, but can on my C drive. I tried making a copy and cutting out 6 years of transactions and cutting down the memorized payees to under 200, but problem persists.