Fidelity.com download: OL-220-A error: anyone else?

Ken from NJ

For about two days now, I've been receiving OL-220-A (see text below) for Fidelity.com (Connection Type is Direct Connect). Is anyone else having the same problem? It had been working consistently for a long time before that. I am able to login directly to their website. I have a dozen or so other institutions that continue to download with no problem.

Although it's not necessarily advised, I did attempt a Reset Account, to no avail.

OL-220-A help text:

"During the last online session, Quicken encountered an online error [OL-220-A].

What does that mean?

Quicken is unable to complete your request. Quicken did not receive a valid response from the server. The next time you go online for this financial institution, Quicken will attempt to re-send your original request.

What do I do now?

Wait and try again later This error may be caused by a temporary server outage. Try updating your accounts the next business day. If the problem persists, continue with the procedures below."

Quicken/Win Home, Business, Rental Property R51.12, build 27.1.51.12

Quicken Anja

Hello @Ken from NJ,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and telling us about your issue, though I apologize that you are experiencing this.

If you haven't already, please take a moment to review and follow the error-specific guidance found in this support article regarding error OL-220.

I hope this helps!

Ken from NJ

Thank you, Anja.

I followed the instructions in the OL-220 article, which involved calling Fidelity.com tech support. They were able to demonstrate that the problem is not on their end by having me attempt to download using a small Quicken test file. It worked, resulting in the successful download of all eight of my Fidelity accounts. I think I need help from the Quicken support team. I wonder if my .QDF file is corrupt.

Here are some notes regarding the problem:

• On or about 8/22/2023, attempts to download the eight Fidelity.com accounts began to result in an OL-220-A error. This was after months of successful downloads for these same eight Fidelity.com accounts (as well as other downloading financial institutions).
• After many attempts over 3-4 days, I contacted Fidelity.com (per the Quicken help for OL-220-A). They directed me to attempt to download using a Quicken test file. All eight Fidelity.com accounts downloaded into my (small) test Quicken file without incident, resulting in correct balances and transactions.
• Returning to the original Quicken file, I restored from a pre-8/22 backup, Deactivated all eight Fidelity accounts, and then reActivated them one by one. This worked for the first five Fidelity accounts without error (although two recent transactions in one of the accounts repeatedly failed to download; but at least there were no error messages). When reActivating the sixth account, however, the OL-220-A returned. Once this happened, the OL-220-A now occurred for all reActivated Fidelity.com accounts. Even Deactivating and reActivating did not clear the error. The only way I managed to clear the error was to restore from backup and again Deactivate and reActivate the Fidelity accounts one by one. Again, when I got to the sixth one, the OL-220-A returned. When I allow all eight to Activate at once, the OL-220-A returns. I went through this entire process several times.
• I tried uninstalling Quicken, deleting all the Quicken files I could find (except the original .QDF and some .BACKUPs), and reinstalling Quicken. The problem persisted. I also performed numerous Validate and Repairs throughout the testing.

The .QDF file is > 240 MB, with about two dozen active accounts, dozens more closed/hidden accounts, more than a dozen downloading financial institutions in the Online Center, and more than 20,000 transactions going back to 1994. As opposed to the test .QDF file, which is very small.

Please help!

Ken from NJ

UPDATE: I learned through a lot of trial and error that it can make a difference to not only Deactivate an account on the account’s Online Services tab, but also to remove the financial institution name from the General tab. And to do this for ALL of that FI’s accounts before reActivating. Then reActivate one account, at which time Quicken will prompt for the FI name. After connecting, Quicken will offer to reActivate (ie, link) all of that FI’s accounts.

This has eliminated all the errors I was receiving upon executing an Update Accounts. So I think the issue is resolved. I will be sure it is resolved after I see some new transactions download; at the moment there aren’t any undownloaded transactions for these accounts.

I’m guessing that maybe Quicken Support knows about this. Is it documented anywhere?

Thanks.