Missing Transactions on Wells Fargo Since Update to Mac Version 7.3.2

Mark_G

I upgraded to Quicken 7.3.2 about 2 months ago. I have noticed that a significant number of transactions are not showing up in my Wells Fargo Checking account.

I downloaded a .csv file to compare the bank transactions and those in quicken. I confirmed that a large number of transactions were missing.

I downloaded a .qfx file from Wells Fargo and imported it, but the missing transactions did not show up. I opened the .qfx files with a text editor, and found the missing transactions are in the file! They are just not being accepted by Quicken.

Anyone else seeing a similar problem?

jacobs

I don't have a Wells Fargo account, so I can't confirm similar results. But maybe a little insight…

When you download a .qfx file, it typically contains transactions you've previously downloaded. The way Quicken avoids duplicating transactions is a field in every transaction in the .qfx file called FITID: the Financial Institution Transaction ID. The bank's server creates a unique number to assign to every transaction. Quicken maintains all those numbers in its database, so if the same transaction ID shows up again, Quicken knows it's a duplicate and ignores it. It all works perfectly… unless the financial institution isn't correctly assigning unique transaction ID numbers. I've seen some cases where the financial institution assigns ID numbers it has assigned before — which makes Quicken discard the transactions because it sees them as duplicates (even though the amount and payee might be different). I don't know if this is what's happening with Wells Fargo, but I think it's pretty much the only reason Quicken would be ignoring transactions in a .qfx file.

So you might try downloading from the bank again, and opening both .qfx files to see if the same transactions in both files all have the exact same FITID numbers, or if any numbers are assigned to different transactions in the two files.

Actually, there's probably a better way to look for mismatched duplicate FITID numbers. In your account register, click on Columns and click the checkmark to make the FITID field a visible column. In the text editor, open your .qfx downloaded file, identify one of the transactions which didn't import into Quicken, and highlight and Copy the FITID number. Then switch over to Quicken and paste that number in the Search box, to see if there is already a transaction in Quicken with that FITID number. You might need to try this with several FITID numbers. If the Search identifies a different transaction in Quicken, then you have a smoking gun which points to a problem with the FITID numbers in the Wells Fargo .qfx files.

Mark_G

Thanks, Jacob. I did the FITID comparison, and that's not the issue. I checked a few of the missing transactions, and they are not found in the account file. I tried disconnecting and re-connecting with the same account, and that did not resolve the issue.

So, what I have done is to disconnect the current checking account from Wells Fargo, and then connect creating a new account — all the missing transactions from the last 3 months showed up. So, for now, I'll have the archive account and the new account.

jacobs

The only explanation for the missing transactions in the old account I can think of is that they were downloaded and deleted accidentally. Once a transaction with a certain FITID has existed in your database, Quicken will discard any future attempts to download it. It's really the only reason that a transaction in a .qfx file won't be imported; Quicken sees it as a duplicate, whether that transaction currently exists or was ever imported in the past. If you wanted to test this, you could edit the .qfx file and change the FITID number on one of the transactions which didn't import; then when you import that file again, the edited transaction would show up. But it sounds like you've moved on with a working solution, so this is probably all moot now. 😀

You can easily combine the two accounts back into one. Click on the old account, select all the transactions, and drag-and-drop them onto the new account. Just make sure to eliminate any duplicates from the past three months, and you'll probably need to remove the opening balance transaction in the new account, since all the transactions you just dragged in replace the opening balance in the new account. Once you're sure the old account has no transactions you can delete it, so you'll have all your transactions in the "new" account which you'll continue to use going forward.

Mark_G

Thanks, Jacob. I'm quite sure I didn't accidentally delete 25 transactions spread across the last 2 months, so I do think there's some other issue. But, if I have time this weekend, I will try editing the .qfx file to try the experiment you suggest.

I will try re-combining the accounts as you suggest.