Is quicken still online only?
Is quicken still basically just an online program vs the old days when you would just have the program on your computer? I used quicken for years before when it was just a CD you would load and then I would upgrade as time went on. About a year ago I finally just had to ditch it as much as I hate to because I kept having problems with new one such as it would keep crashing on me all time, I had to uninstall then reinstall over and over again. Even after working with support and adjusting settings it just didn't stop with the issues. And on top of that, it seems like every year the price would go up which is fine if the program works correctly but with the issues I was having I couldn't validate spending money every year on it. I still love the setup of it, but I can't bring myself to go back and pay money again for it if I'm still going to have all kinds of issues. Didn't know if anything had changed either with the program itself or its functionality.
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Quicken has never been "online only". Quicken Inc's new product called Simpilfi is online only, but that is a completely different product.
What Quicken is and has been for basically forever is a Desktop application with online services, which include downloading of transactions, bill pay, a Mobile/Web app that gives access to a "partial copy" of your data, …
What people mistake for "online" is nothing more than the new payment system "Subscription". With maybe the exception of the Starter edition. With the Starter edition if you do not maintain the subscription it will go into read-only mode. But for Deluxe and above you can still do "non online" activities, like entering transactions and running reports. But it will have an ad that takes up about 25% of the window asking you to renew your subscription.
Quicken Windows 2013 is the last version that can be used without any kind of tie to "online" like requiring a Quicken Id.
If all you want it Quicken Windows 2013 you can get it here:
https://assistant.quicken.com/patch/ASDES5672FR13/Old_Products/QWIN/QW2013DLX.exe
If you are on Quicken Mac the story is about the same except there is no way to download a version of Quicken Mac that can be used without any online connections/Quicken Id.
As for what problems you might encounter well that really depends on how you use Quicken and which financial institutions you choose to connect online.
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Quicken has never been online only. It has always been, and remains, local to your computer. There are no more CDs because you download the software now from your Quicken account. One purchase gets you both Windows and Mac versions.
There are online features which have been added since the old days, but you don't have to use them. I don't.
Quicken user since version 2 for DOS, now using QWin Premier (US) on Win10 Pro.
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as mentioned, it has always only been a desktop software program -
However - there were two added features - Quicken Mobile App - and - Quicken on the Web -
which required the sharing of some desktop data accounts to the Quicken Cloud - so as to display in these other two features….Some think that enabling the Quicken Cloud feature tended to add to the random corruption of the Quicken QDF data file -
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So then why would I have had so many issues with the program shutting down and me having to uninstall/reinstall? And in fact the online services you refer to were never anything I used(downloading things from you banks etc) I would enter everything manually for my accounts. I know with the more recent quicken I believe I was trying to backup/sync online as well I believe for if you went to use the app. In essence I'm really only trying to use these programs as a glorified checkbook/budget planner etc. Which is why when I was having the issues last time if was so aggravating. What is the difference with Simplifi? If I were to try another one again which so I potentially try? Do they both come with a 30 day trial? Is the trial only for a 'new' accounts so since I already have an account from when I used it before if I were to purchase one of them again would the trial still apply? Thanks for providing all this feedback, trying to get back to a nicer program, i started with another online one to use but presentation wise quicken has a much more appealing look and I can't move around as easily in this new program vs quicken. An lastly, if I were to try coming back I obviously have previous save files from quicken which would allow me some of my past history with my accounts. Would it be advised to still try and use that so I have alot of my history or would it be recommended to kind of start fresh since I had all the issues before. I would hate to lose so much history but I would prefer a smoothly functioning program :-)
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Online or offline doesn't guarantee whether one person will have problems or not. Certainly, as things get more complicated there is more chance for problems. One way to avoid some problems is not using some of the features. And this definitely is true in Quicken. But it doesn't rule out that even new features that you aren't using aren't going to cause you problems.
I mentioned that starting in Quicken 2014 there is a Quicken Id. One has to have this which is online, and it is used to register the program, which at present it broken for Quicken 2014 through Quicken 2017. Plus there is more to that Quicken Id than meets the eye. Over the years more and more information is stored on the "Quicken Cloud account/dataset". It isn't the "Desktop data file" which is still on your machine, but it is used for connection services and other things, and it can when corrupted cause problems.
"Quicken Subscription" (they dropped the "year names" because updates are continuous not by year) is of course the "most connected" with the most information stored on the "Quicken Cloud account", but how much is stored there is directly connected to what online services you use. But it is never "zero". With Quicken 2013 and below it is "zero", there isn't a Quicken Id and there isn't a Quicken Cloud account associated with the data files from Quicken 2013 and below like there is for Quicken 2014 and above.
As for Simpifi it was only mentioned because you said "online only". It is an online only program Mobile/Web access only, and the data resides on the Quicken servers. Being a different product it isn't included when purchasing Quicken "Classic". But note that Quicken Classic US subscription does include being able to use either or both Quicken Windows and Quicken Mac (Desktop), but these are different programs with different data file formats. They can be converted between the two but can't be used directly.
One thing that you have not stated is what you are currently using. And for that matter why you are interested in the newer versions of Quicken when in fact almost nothing has changed since Quicken 2013 for the "manual only" user.
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What version did you last use? If it was after 2013 and you don't mind starting fresh you can download 2013 for free. I'm still using 2013. It's the last good version before they started requiring an ID.
You can download 2013 Deluxe for free using this how to convert article. It’s under Converting from Quicken 2004-2009. 2013 is the last good version before they started requiring an ID.
I'm staying on Quicken 2013 Premier for Windows.
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I tried to get into my quicken to see what version it was labeled as and I couldn't even get to it because it kept shutting down. It was past 2013 because I had had the user ID etc and was paying the annual amount for a subscription. I let it expire in 2022, so I would've had any updates to that point. I wasn't aware we could still get 2013 as a download. Since I don't really use any of the online style features I may give that a try of just getting the 2013 again. Thank you everyone for the explanations of the program etc. So just to clarify if go and get back quicken 2013, i assume I can either not get the saved file I have from obviously a newer version loaded and/or should not do that correct?
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You are correct Quicken 2013 can't read a data file from a later version of Quicken. You would have to start over or try a QIF export/import, but for that you would certainly have to get your version or a later version running to open the data file.
Here is some information about running Quicken Subscription when the subscription has expired:
And here is some information on trying a QIF export/import:
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I do have the newer version of the file on an external drive so could i try that if i could give a QIF export/import or since its newer that quicken 2013 it will not work at all?
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It really doesn't matter what version of Quicken you have since the QIF format hasn't change in ages. But as explained in the first article I posted above they aren't going to allow you just to run the newest version of Quicken with an expired subscription. You have to make sure that the version on your machine isn't patched to a version later than what you were using when the subscription expired. I will also mention that depending on how long ago that was their procedure might not work.
It has you downloading the install for the newest version of Quicken and then installing the patch for your version to "downgrade (going from a higher version to a lower one)" it. The patches were designed to "upgrade" not "downgrade" and they are ignoring this fact. Downgrading with a patch sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
You can get the original Quicken 2018 (the first year of the Subscription) install from my website:
That way it will be a forward patch install. For a QIF export that might be all you need. But you can also use their patch that is just before your subscription expired to bring it up to that version.
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ok so I got quicken 2013 loaded. I have a QDF file from my later versions of quicken on an external drive(its not on an newer version of quicken. Is there anyway to just take a QDF file and convert into a QIF file to see if I can then get it loaded onto the Quicken 2013?
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You could buy a subscription, open the QDF file, export the data you need, and then cancel your subscription and request a refund (with 30 days). I don't know if it's worth the effort, but just though I'd mention that possible path if you just need one-time access to your existing data file.
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19931
