Unable to open file - email (user ID) problem, update problem or data corruption?
When I try to open one of my files (the others are OK), I can see a glimpse of my account (see screen captures below) appear on my screen before it repeatedly asks me to sign in. It's hard for me to believe there's nothing that can be done to recuperate the data when I can see part of it right in front of my eyes... Does this help you think of anything that could be done to crack open the file??? The green blurs are from me, but the black lines are in Quicken and seem to be associated with scheduled transactions that have just been added automatically as I try to open the file WITH THE ACCOUNT BALANCES UPDATING ACCORDINGLY, which convinces me even more that there is something to do with that file.
You can read all the details of the story and what has already been tried below. I'm down to troubleshooting the Quicken ID / email deal, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Your input (and suggestions for other solutions) would be greatly appreciated! Since I can't change my Quicken ID from the sign in window of the problematic file, I'm afraid that doing it from the Preferences box of a good file (Sing in as a different user) might screw things up.
If I try to restore a backup instead, it's the same thing except that I see the message "Success!" flash in front of my eyes before getting the sign in screen. And even if I sign in again, it keeps looping to the sign in screen over and over.
The only options that are accessible from the menu (which doesn't show up on the screen where I can see some of the data and the account balances) are these:
If I choose Validate, it doesn't do anything, even if I leave it on all night.
If I hold CTRL while clicking on Validate (for a Super Validation), I get a slightly different window. And a DATA_LOG.TXT file.
Followed by these promising screens.
I put the Sync button OFF and pressed DONE, but I got back into the same loop of sign in windows, even when I open the file from the VALIDATE folder. That one doesn't ask me to log in over and over, but it simply doesn't show anything.
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Now for the background story. It started on August 11, 2023 when I couldn't open my personal file. I didn't worry at that point because I thought I could easily restore my last backup from the day before since they are automatically generated every time I finish a session.
When I got back from the weekend, on the 14th, I was surprised to see that I couldn't restore my backup. I then called Quicken and we realized that I now had the problem with my dad's file as well. The agent had me reinstall the software on my computer. It allowed me to gain access back to my dad's file, but it didn't change anything for mine. The person I spoke with told me they would open at ticket, but when I hadn't heard from the company 3 days later, I called back.
The new agent told me the other guy had since left the company. From our conversation he concluded there seems to be 3 problems:
A) I needed to verify my account in order to open my files, but I was not receiving the system generated emails with the 6-digit code to be able to do that so we added my cell phone number via a test file to be able to get them (see below).
B) I'm still not receiving the system generated emails from Quicken, whether they are triggered by the agent or the software, even though I made sure they were not in my blocked list on Hotmail and I received the test email sent by the agent himself.
C) My personal file is damaged and that is why I still cannot open it.
Here's what he had me try.
1. Open Quicken in silent mode, in order to create a test file, by holding down CTRL+SHIFT before double clicking the Quicken icon.
2. Uninstall Quicken by deleting the Quicken folder in C:\Program Files (x86) and C:\ProgramData.
3. Reinstall Quicken with Quicken-Canada.exe I had downloaded on August 14th for the other reinstall.
4. Install the latest patch to bring the release version to R51.11 by downloading the latest update for the Canadian version at https://www.quicken.com/support/update-and-patch-20182019-release-quicken-windows-subscription-product.
5. Open the recently created test file and go to Edit | Preferences | Quicken ID and Cloud Accounts | Update Profile to add my cell phone number.
6. On my daughter's phone, I signed in to quicken.com, pressed Forgot password and entered my email address to see if a different internet access would allow the email to get through, but it did not work. He said I will need to
- call my internet carrier to see if they are blocking quicken.com (which seems impossible to me since my email is through Hotmail and I can access the Quicken website)
- call Quicken back and ask them to escalate it
Meanwhile, I had to deal with my dad passing away, so I didn't call regarding the email problem and here I am many months later.
Since we couldn't get my personal file to open, the agent had suggested I restore backups until I find one that works. I had to go back to June 13, 2023, in order to get that to work and I had done a LOT of work in the meantime, catching up on the previous year of accounting. That's why I'm so interested in gaining back access to my file.
I've been wondering what might have happened and here is what I could come up with. Since I enter all transactions manually, I was using the software mainly while offline. Back in June 2023, most probably on the 9th or the 14th (which would make sense with the backup of June 13 being OK, but hang on), I got an error message while trying to enter a transaction or two IN MY DAD'S FILE. I don't remember what the message was, but I disregarded it and the rest went fine. Can that have had to do with the problem with MY FILE? It seems illogical to me, but I'm putting it out there in case it would ring a bell to some of you experts.
However, there was a new update released on June 9, 2023 for the Canada version (R50.9). Even though I don't know whether it did install automatically or not since I wasn't always online, I'm wondering if an update could have created a deeper problem with my personal file which is much older and bigger than my dad's? That could maybe explain why at the beginning I had problems accessing both files. On my Windows 10 computer which is a lot slower, I have time to read "Performing final conversion steps" when I try to open the file, which makes me believe it might still be in the previous release version (R48.15).
Can the email problem be related to my inability to open my personal file even though I use the same email for all my other Quicken files? I find it odd that my email address is not automatically prefilled in the appropriate Quicken ID field of the sign in screen for my personal file as it is for the other files, though.
I searched the forum for ideas, and this is what I found.
- Copy the file under a different name (not available from the limited menu I get)
- Rename the backup as a .QDF to open it as a file (didn't make any difference)
- Change the date of the system back to an earlier date (I had read something about a runaway reminder in a reply from @Sherlock and I thought I would give it a try even though my file didn't get bigger. The only difference it makes is that I don't see the black lines on the screen, which seem to be associated with scheduled transactions that have just been added automatically as I try to open the file WITH THE ACCOUNT BALANCES UPDATING ACCORDINGLY, which convinces me even more that there is something to do with that file - see above)
- Revert back to an older version (I went back to the R48.15 version without any luck. It even gave me a new error box when trying to open my other files with the date changed to an earlier date, but was OK for the other files when on the right date)
I was using Quicken Deluxe Canada subscription on Windows 10. I am now on a new Windows 11 computer.