Reliability Issues

Greg Gilfoil

Is anyone else finding Quicken to be unreliable in Reporting, Archiving, Budgeting and post archiving Registers? Reports are missing data and do not foot. Archiving does not archive all data and screws up balances forward. Post-archiving, register balances change for no reason after closing and reopening the file. Budget number change inexplicably after completing budget entry.

I have validated the file a number of times and have created a new file on instructions from Quicken Support 5 times to no avail.

Quicken seems to be getting buggier and buggier in recent years.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

Quicken Kristina

Hello @Greg Gilfoil,

To assist with this issue, could you please provide more specific information on what issues you're encountering?

Do you keep your Quicken file on your C drive or is it on a shared network drive?  Is your Quicken file synced with any cloud service, such as One Drive or Dropbox (if it is, you will usually see the service name listed in the file location)? 

The simplest way to check your file location, if you have Quicken up and the file open, is to click on File, then look near the bottom of the list, just above where it says Exit.  It will list the file locations for the 4 Quicken files you have most recently accessed, with the one you are currently in at the #1 spot.

The reason I ask is because keeping your main Quicken file on a shared drive or cloud drive can lead to file issues.

Issues with the budget abruptly changing or disappearing tend to be connected to having cloud sync turned on. To check, go to Edit>Preferences>Mobile & Web.

If Sync is on, you may want to try keeping it turned off (if possible; if not, making frequent backups is the next best option).

Which type of archival are you referring to? Are you archiving investment information, creating year-end copies, creating a copy of your file, etc? Depending on what method you are using, there may be a reason some information is being left behind. For example, when you make a year end copy, only reconciled, non-investment, non-transfer transactions are removed.

I look forward to your reply!

Greg Gilfoil

Testing

Greg Gilfoil

Hi Kristina,

Thank you for your response.

I have already gone through all of the points in your response with Quicken Support (some multiple times) and have received virtual shoulder shrugs.

1. Yes. My Quicken file is on my C: Drive, not a cloud drive. I went through copying the file, wiping out all links to the cloud and to financial institutions and then resetting them all up again, one by one
2. I went through the process of turning off the cloud link and then resetting the cloud data - this seems to have fixed the vacillating budget issue for now
3. Archiving was creating year-end copies and creating a copy of my file to basically start with clean file

Now, the "clean" file is going sideways in all the ways I described and more. In addition to those I mentioned, downloaded transactions are going haywire as well - after successfully downloading current transactions in a previous session, next session it downloads transactions from last October, November and December to accounts where this has never happened before (I am accustomed to transaction screwups with PNC Bank and have had to manually reconcile several times). Now this is happening with Ally Bank and Lowes (Synchrony Bank).

Quicken Support's go to response seems to be to start a new file every time I run into theses issues, which is way too often in my opinion.

It seems to me that the IT team needs to work on improving the validate file utility to fix all this.

Thanks again for your response. Let me know if you have any further thoughts.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

How long does it take for these issues to start again after you start a new file? Are you starting from a completely new file, or starting from a copy of the file that was having problems? Is there any pattern to when the problems start up (for instance, after a program or operating system update)? Does the issue persist across multiple devices, or is it just on one device? Do you use any sort of program that does automatic backups at set intervals? If so, does it back up your Quicken files (and do you make sure Quicken is closed when the backup is going on)?

Are the older transactions that download duplicates of transactions already in your registers for those accounts? If so, have you checked to see if the Downloaded ID column shows identical values for the duplicate transactions or if they are unique values? To see the Downloaded ID column, click the gear icon near the upper right of the register, select register columns, then choose the Downloaded ID column and click done.

Do these transactions download just once, or do they come in again and again every time you run One Step Update?

I look forward to your response!

Greg Gilfoil

Hi Kristina,

Answers below, but my biggest concern right now is the reporting issue where amounts properly posted in registers show $0.00 in the report, but double clicking on the zeros pulls up a drill-down report that shows the correct amounts.

How long does it take for these issues to start again after you start a new file? Random, but within a couple of weeks; typically within the first 4 or 5 sessions

Are you starting from a completely new file, or starting from a copy of the file that was having problems? Not starting with an new and empty file. The process of starting from a copy was directed by Quicken Support each time.

Is there any pattern to when the problems start up (for instance, after a program or operating system update)? No pattern. It seems to be random.

Does the issue persist across multiple devices, or is it just on one device? I run Quicken on my laptop which is where my focus is now. I have found the iPhone App to be worse. After properly setting up cloud sync with repeated aid from Quicken Support, and even though all accounts in use are included, all data does not appear in the APP. This has been the case since inception of the APP.

Do you use any sort of program that does automatic backups at set intervals? No

Are the older transactions that download duplicates of transactions already in your registers for those accounts? Yes

If so, have you checked to see if the Downloaded ID column shows identical values for the duplicate transactions or if they are unique values? Have not compared the Downloaded ID against duplicate downloaded transactions. The dates, amounts and payees are an exact match, but I have not examined Downloaded IDs to see if the existing entries match the downloaded duplicate transactions. I will do that the next time this happens.

Do these transactions download just once, or do they come in again and again every time you run One Step Update? Usually one time, but on occasion it has happened twice with the same transaction.

Thanks.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

If the issues are repeatedly coming back after creating a copy, it sounds like the data issue is being carried forward into the copy, causing those issues to constantly return. Creating a copy and trimming off older years may help, depending on where the problems are coming from, however, the ultimate solution may be that at some point you'll just need to start a completely brand new file from scratch to be free of the recurring issues.

That said, to focus in on the report issue, which reports are affected by this? Is this happening with saved reports, newly generated reports, or both? Is this affecting all reports, or are there only specific ones where you have observed this behavior (for instance, happening in Itemized Category reports, but not in Net Worth reports)?

Thank you!