Quicken Premier for Mac auto backup files simply aren’t here. Neither is main file?!

Question

The hard drive on my 2017 iMac is failing and yada yada yada. I need a new system.

i’ve been running Quicken for Mac for years and I will manually hit save a back up very often and I’m also under the impression the software saved a back up every time it closes.

However, now that I need that file, I simply cannot find it.

I have looked in the library and held the option button as instructed and of course I’ve run a search all with no luck.

I was expecting to find dozens or hundreds of back up files so I’m pretty baffled but I found at least one or two other threads here where it looks like people have the same issue?

Any tips are greatly appreciated! In the future, I will confirm the backup file is being created, and make sure it’s also being uploaded into my cloud into multiple places!

jacobs · Answer

I'm glad you were able to find the files and rescue them from the failing Mac.

donniccolo · Answer

jacobs!

YOU. ARE. THE. MAN!

Your tip from another thread "Another searching tool, without getting into complex Unix commands in the Terminal program, you might try downloading the utility program Find Any File; it will search in hidden directories that the Finder will not"

SAVED. MY. BUTT!'

I was baffled that my Quicken file that I was using regularly last week, and backing up dozens of time, was simply not findable after a "hard drive failure" (2017 iMac started to fail, but was accessible through Thunderbolt cable from new Mac mini-yet the files were not appearing!) After downloading the app you recommended - it instantly found the files and allowed me to transfer them to the new system, saving the day!

Strangely, the files were exactly where they were supposed to be (users > me > library > application support) but without your program the path was simply not showing up properly - I tried holding option and showing hidden files & folders and it simply didn't work!

Can't thank you enough!

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20410583#Comment_20410583

jacobs · Answer

Let's take a step back to what you can and can't see. You have Finder access on the old Mac? Let's make sure you were looking in the right place for your files. you said you looked in the Library folder, but there are two Library folders on a Mac (and two Application Support folders as well), so it's worth making sure you're in the right one. In the Finder, holding the Option key down, pull down the Go menu and select Library. Does that work? In the Library folder, there's a folder called Application Support. When you open Application Support and scroll down at bit, do you see a Quicken folder? If yes, open it and see if there is a Documents folder (for your live, current Quicken data file) and a Backups folder (for your manual and Quicken-generated automatic backups).

Of course, you may have sometime in the past changed the location of your live file and the location of your backups folder, so they might not be there, but we want to exhaust that before moving on. Report back on what you find.

If there's not even a Quicken folder in Application Support, you must have moved the folder and it files at some point, so we can dig into how to do advanced searches in the Finder to try to find them.