Automatically download transactions at Quicken Mac start up

greg.williams

Automatically download transactions at Quicken start up. Other software programs that are similar to Quicken have this feature.

Quicken Anja

Hello @greg.williams,

I went ahead and changed your post to an Idea so other users who have the same or a similar request can vote on your idea by clicking the up arrow (see below).

Ideas are also reviewed by our Development and Product teams in order to improve Quicken and implement new features requested by customers.

Thank you!

Scott Saylor

QUICKEN MODERATORS - Where are we on getting this feature added to the QM Classic product? It's been available on the Windows version since before I was born. Why is development ignoring this request to add the same feature for the Mac?

jacobs

@Scott Saylor There are several hundred feature requests, many of which exist in Quicken Windows and/or the legacy Quicken Mac 2007, and the small Quicken Mac development team can only work on a few things at a time. It doesn't mean they are ignoring anything; it means they have prioritized working on other features. There are plenty of Ideas which have been around for 5, 6, 7 years which haven't yet been implemented.

I'd note that there was a related feature request to be able to schedule downloads at a user-selected time, such as 6 am, which is available in Quicken Windows, but the developers have marked that feature request as "Not Planned."

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7343948/add-the-ability-to-automatically-update-at-specific-time-such-as-6-am-daily-7-legacy-merged-votes

We don't know why they've nixed that feature, and I don't know if downloads-upon-startup is different enough that it would receive a different answer from the developers. Download on startup seems like it would be easier to implement and without complications of having a scheduled download time when the computer isn't running or is logged out.

The way these Idea threads on this site work is that they get forwarded to the development team for consideration when they hit a threshold of activity. (For Quicken Mac currently, that threshold is a minimum of 30 votes.) So it will take votes added to this request from fellow Quicken Mac users to get this new feature Idea pushed to the development team.

Scott Saylor

Thanks for the response. I published a method to automate this but there are configuration prerequisites that may not be agreeable to some users. Here it is again if anyone wants to five it a try. Although I haven't tried it, another method to accomplish the same thing might be Apple's new (relatively) "SHORTCUT" functionality.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20381993#Comment_20381993

Scott Saylor

@Quicken Anja - I don't see this request/"idea" in https://community.quicken.com/categories/quicken-mac

Where is it - Status?

@Jacobs - "We don't know why they've nixed that feature, and I don't know if downloads-upon-startup is different enough that it would receive a different answer from the developers. Download on startup seems like it would be easier to implement and without complications of having a scheduled download time when the computer isn't running or is logged out.

The way these Idea threads on this site work is that they get forwarded to the development team for consideration when they hit a threshold of activity. (For Quicken Mac currently, that threshold is a minimum of 30 votes.) So it will take votes added to this request from fellow Quicken Mac users to get this new feature Idea pushed to the development team.

I agree. If it's too hard for the programers to add an update day/time option, it's pretty simple to add a line of code to "Update accounts at startup" and prompt for that in Quicken./Settings/General. Like this,

Quick n can be scheduled to start automatically in Calendar. It's absolutely ridiculous that Mac users have to start Quicken and click

to initialize account transaction downloads when a line of code could do the same thing with out intervention.

It looks like Greg's post was removed from IDEAS?? I don't see it. I'll resubmit until we find users to get this to the next level. The problem with the current quicken update process is getting through the Gatekeepers who know very little about programming.

jacobs

@Scott Saylor I don't understand why you say Greg's post was removed from Ideas. This is Greg's Idea post, which you posted in and I'm replying to.

I'll also note that this Idea thread currently has only two votes after five months. It needs many more votes for it to be forwarded to the developers for their consideration.

I know it seems frustrating to have a particular feature you really want, and which seems like it would be easy to add, and to have it languish. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, there are hundreds of feature requests and there's a long logjam to get them implemented. (I did a little happy dance yesterday when one of my personal top 10 feature requests — using memo text as a criterion for a report — was finally released after years of waiting.) I don't mean to belittle this feature request, but I'd note that it's an enhancement that would save one mouse click and a few seconds at startup, while there are many of feature requests which simply have no way to be done currently. So looking at it from the developers' perspective, adding functionality to save a few seconds is always good, but adding functionality which is completely missing s often more important.

Scott Saylor

I was using a bookmark and did not see the post in Ideas. I do now.
It’s a bit presumptive to assume everyone using QM logs on and uses the Community forum. Community users probably represent 10% of total Mac users, if that. It would be better to periodically distribute a list of potential enhancements to ALL USERS for input, voting/feedback. I guarantee you would get more than 30 votes. This is why requests die in the IDEAS forum die from lack of votes.

jacobs

It’s a bit presumptive to assume everyone using QM logs on and uses the Community forum.

I don't, and I'm sure the developers don't either. The percentage of Quicken Mac users who post here is probably well under 10%. 😉

The developers and management team don't use the votes in the forum as the only basis for gauging user satisfaction/feature desires. One important area they get input from is their Customer Care (Support) team. Those people handle many front line problems, and when they find areas which are causing user confusion/pain, they have some mechanism for delivering that feedback to the developers. (For instance, one of the new features in version 7.7 is being able to move transactions to another account and to match transactions, from the Control-click menu in addition to drag-and-drop. No one in this forum was making a huge push for this functionality, but it's likely that their Support people reported that some people had trouble with drag-and-drop, particularly those who rely on other accessibility tools.)

I believe the votes in the forum let them see if there's some critical mass behind an Idea. Now, 30 votes doesn't represent a groundswell of the several hundred thousand Quicken Mac users, but it shows it's something more than just one person's idea. And the votes are useful in judging relative to one another. When some ideas have several hundred votes, some ideas have several dozen votes, and some ideas just have several votes, it helps give them some context.

This is why requests die in the IDEAS forum die from lack of votes.

Huh? Many, many Ideas in the forum don't die from lack of votes. There are currently somewhere around 70 Quicken Mac Idea threads which have 30+ votes and have a status of Planned or Under Consideration. There are a few dozen more which have 15-20-25 votes and may eventually hit 30 votes and get forwarded to the developers. And new Ideas will spring up, especially as they add new features and users want to see them enhanced/extended/more configurable. Although the Idea voting in the forum appears to operate in slow motion, it clearly does influence the direction of product development.

It would be better to periodically distribute a list of potential enhancements to ALL USERS for input, voting/feedback.

They have done this in a variety of ways over the years. Beta testers, for instance, occasionally get asked to rank a compilation of ideas. But the problem with surveying users is the very fact that there are hundreds of feature Ideas. It's way too big a list to show and ask users to force rank their top 5 or 10. A really good survey would also assign a point count to each idea based on the time needed for implementation, and would give users a pot of 'x' points they could allocate — e.g do I want to vote for 10 small 1-point features or two big 5-point features or one very big 10-point feature? But the vast number of ideas, and the interest level of average Quicken users, makes doing such surveying (accurately) a difficult proposition.

Macfred123

Please add auto update for Mac Users