How do I get Quicken to stop saving my data file to One Drive?

M Spence

I do not download anything using Quicken except quotes for my investments. I do not download data from any of my financial institutions. I want to store my data file on my C: drive, not a cloud server based on an agreement to which I was not a party.

Chris_QPW

What you need to do is use Windows File Explorer to move the data file out of the OneDrive folder (while Quicken isn't running).

The default folder for Quicken data files is in Documents\Quicken. Unfortunately, when Windows asks if you want to use OneDrive to back up your Documents and pictures and such it will also end up moving the Quicken data file into the One Drive.

The original location:

C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents

New location:

C:\Users\NEWNAME\OneDrive\Documents

So, one possible place to move your Quicken folder/data file back to is: C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents

In other words, move C:\Users\NEWNAME\OneDrive\Documents\Quicken to C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Quicken

Personally, I don't like it buried so far down so I just moved the Quicken folder to C:, so mine is at C:\Quicken.

You can always add either of these paths to your Quick access list by right clicking of the folder and selecting Pin to Quick access

Once you have your data file where you want it, just double click on it and it will open in Quicken and Quicken will remember where this it opened it last.

Be sure to check the preferences on where you want the backup files. Note that if you are going to backup to C:\Users\NEWNAME\OneDrive\Documents\Quicken then maybe you don't want to move the whole folder, just your data file to the new location outside of OneDrive, so that you don't affect the backups that can be on OneDrive.

oakgrrl

This is correct information from Chris.

I do it slightly differently since all this OneDrive angst began with my migration to Windows 11. It worked fine in Windows 10. I leave the Quicken file in the Onedrive location because I want a cloud backup. Right now I pause the syncing for 2 hours, until they get the issue fixed.

At the end of my session, I run a manual backup to the C:\Users\Username location, thus hiding it from OneDrive. I figure I can restore a file from there in case the internet connection went down. I also back up to a flash drive. This is my plan, anyway lol. Also I turn the syncing back on before I shut down if it's been less than 2 hours.

Wait—what happens if 2 hours pass, syncing starts, and Quicken is still open? Wonder if that will be a problem. Another thing — I have always double clicked on the .qdf file like Chris said, but the other day I clicked on the .qdf file I had copied onto the flash drive and Quicken objected. So I didn't open it from there. That never happened before, and I wonder if the software is doing some kind of test as to where the file was installed originally or some such thing. This is why I plan to restore from backup if necessary instead of directly opening the .qdf. I am not brave enough to experiment.

Trying to open .qdf from flash drive:

M Spence

Thank you both for your help. I got to the same place by myself just by trial and error. I back up my data file to my Dropbox account but don't want any of my financial data on One Drive. Is the One Drive "feature" the result of a recent update, because I do not remember having this happen previously. My data file was always on my C: drive in a Quicken folder and it always worked just fine for me. When I know I'm going to be traveling, I just make sure to backup my file to Dropbox from my main computer and restore that backup to my travel computer in order to keep things updated while I'm away from home and reverse the procedure when I'm back home.

Chris_QPW

Is the One Drive "feature" the result of a recent update, because I do not remember having this happen previously.

Windows is very "sneaky" about turning on the feature that stores Documents, Pictures, and such in OneDrive. It is very easy to miss the fact that it got turned on (especially in the initial install of Windows).

So, your data file might have been synced to OneDrive for years. What changed is that Microsoft changed the way OneDrive works and that in turn caused a conflict with Quicken trying to open the data file from OneDrive. And that lead to everyone waking up to the fact that maybe this isn't a great idea.