Blank screen with Quicken subscription for Windows

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gekkster
gekkster Member ✭✭

I have worked through the suggestions across the numerous instances of white/blank screen in this community, but nothing has worked.

Stepping back — my old Quicken subscription had expired and was renewed this morning. I also had to switch to a different machine because the old one died. So current environment - new Windows 11 (Pro) PC, fresh install of Quicken Classic after subscription renewal. Use of a backed-up version of Quicken Data file ran into the white/blank screen problem. Attempted creating a new Quicken Data file - same problem. Quicken only shows 2 items in the menu bar — File and Help.

To rule out a problem with the new PC, switched to a different Windows machine with an existing Quicken installation. Created a new Quicken Data file - no surprise, but still the same problem. Made sure firewall and antivirus are disabled. Uninstalled (including removal of Quicken folder) and reinstalled a few times. I can access the Quicken site via the Help menu, so validation should not be the issue.

Quicken account shows subscription is active.

Best Answer

  • gekkster
    gekkster Member ✭✭
    Answer ✓
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    Thank you for that very detailed response (the formatting was fine - the content was very appreciated).

    I did try most of these suggestions, but they did not move the needle.

    Just got off a long call with Quicken Support who patiently stood by as I updated the PC with the latest KBs. That did not help either. What ultimately helped was installing the Webview2 runtime ( https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=2124703 ).

    Thanks again to everyone who responded. And thanks to Quicken Support for resolving the issue.

Answers

  • Boatnmaniac
    Boatnmaniac SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Quicken account shows subscription is active.

    Are you referring to your Quicken.com account or are you looking at Help > About Quicken in Quicken?

    Also, where did you download the Quicken installation file from? From Quicken Support or from your Quicken.com account?

    (Quicken Classic Premier Subscription: R55.26 on Windows 11)

  • gekkster
    gekkster Member ✭✭
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    — checked subscription status in My Account (on quicken.com)

    — downloaded latest (I assume) installer from the quicken support site

  • RalphC
    RalphC Member ✭✭✭✭
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    Have you tried pulling down the File menu > Open Quicken File…and navigating to the location where you stored the backup file you're trying to access?

  • QuickUserPSP
    QuickUserPSP Member, Windows Beta Beta
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    @gekkster have you tried Validating or Super Validating your data file? If you can see the "File" option in the menu bar, the click on it and you will see the "Validate and Repair File" option. Click on it and browse for your data file. To Super Validate, hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys before you click on "Validate and Repair File". It's worth a try.

    The other thing to try is to restore a backup data file. Find a backup file and remove the "backup extension" so you are left with just the ".QDF" extension. Then just open the file like a regular data file.

  • gekkster
    gekkster Member ✭✭
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    Have you tried pulling down the File menu > Open Quicken File…and navigating to the location where you stored the backup file you're trying to access?

    Yes, quite a few times, with different files :)

    have you tried Validating or Super Validating your data file? If you can see the "File" option in the menu bar, the click on it and you will see the "Validate and Repair File" option. Click on it and browse for your data file. To Super Validate, hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys before you click on "Validate and Repair File". It's worth a try.

    Definitely attempted Validating. Did not help. I was not aware of Super Validating, but that did not make any difference either. Neither did the opening of a backup file like a regular data file :(

    Appreciate all your suggestions!

    I thought I would give it some time (24 hrs) in case some internal Quicken database somewhere needed to be refreshed to indicate my subscription was really active. No joy. Also surprised I am not able to get anywhere even with a completely new data file. Will reach out to Quicken Support on Monday.

  • QuickUserPSP
    QuickUserPSP Member, Windows Beta Beta
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    @gekkster the only other thing I can think of is to install a Mondo Patch.

    https://www.quicken.com/support/update-and-patch-20182019-release-quicken-windows-subscription-product

    Maybe because your subscription had expired, it caused a "hiccup". If that is the case then the Mondo Patch will get you fully updated.

  • Boatnmaniac
    Boatnmaniac SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 5
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    @gekkster - Installing the Manual Update Patch (previously called the Mondo Patch) from https://www.quicken.com/support/update-and-patch-20182019-release-quicken-windows-subscription-product will not hurt but I suspect it will not resolve this issue since it sounds like your installation is not recognizing that you have a valid license and subscription. If that is the case, Manual Patch Updates cannot fix that type of thing. But it certainly won't hurt to try it.

    If my suspicions are correct, there are some things you can do to confirm and fix it:

    Check the subscription status as shown in Quicken at Help > About Quicken. It is good that your online Quicken.com account shows the subscription is active but just as important is to make sure your installation shows the subscription is active….and it sounds like the installation might not be "recognizing" this.

    Also, under Help > About Quicken what version and edition (Starter, Deluxe, Premier or Business & Personal) does it show you are subscribed to?

    If it does not show an active subscription: Do you see the Edit menu to the right of the File menu? If so, go to Edit > Preferences > Quicken ID & Cloud Accounts > Sign in as a different user > Yes > Sign Out > when prompted, sign back in with your current Quicken ID and PW. This should refresh the license, subscription and version information so the software will become usable.

    If this does not help, I suggest that you do the following:

    Uninstall Quicken.

    Go to your online Quicken.com account and download the software from there instead of downloading it from Quicken Support.

    When the software is downloaded from your online account it should be automatically linked to your Quicken ID and that does not happen when it is downloaded from Quicken Support.

    Make sure you install the software on your local hard drive, not on a network drive, Cloud storage site or to a folder that syncs to OneDrive or some other online Cloud storage site.

    Before you try to restore your backup file: Make sure the backup file you are trying to restore is saved on your local hard drive and not on a network or Cloud storage or some other non-local drive. Also, make sure it (and your future data files) is not saved in a folder that does not sync with OneDrive or other Cloud storage sites.

    If this does not resolve the issue for you, try rebooting your computer and then launching Quicken, again. Sometimes this is necessary to ensure the program installation process completes properly.

    Did any of this help?

    (Sorry for all the editing on this post. For some odd reason the formatting became corrupted which made it difficult to read. So I ended up removing most formatting.)

    (Quicken Classic Premier Subscription: R55.26 on Windows 11)

  • gekkster
    gekkster Member ✭✭
    Answer ✓
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    Thank you for that very detailed response (the formatting was fine - the content was very appreciated).

    I did try most of these suggestions, but they did not move the needle.

    Just got off a long call with Quicken Support who patiently stood by as I updated the PC with the latest KBs. That did not help either. What ultimately helped was installing the Webview2 runtime ( https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=2124703 ).

    Thanks again to everyone who responded. And thanks to Quicken Support for resolving the issue.

  • Boatnmaniac
    Boatnmaniac SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
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    I didn't think of the Webview2 runtime issue because that issue was supposed to have been resolved a while back. It's good to know that your issue is now resolved. And thank you for posting what you did to resolve it. Hopefully it will help other users.

    (Quicken Classic Premier Subscription: R55.26 on Windows 11)

  • QuickUserPSP
    QuickUserPSP Member, Windows Beta Beta
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    @gekkster Glad the solution to your issue was found and thank you for circling back and sharing the resolution. As @Boatnmaniac mentioned, the Webview2 issue was supposedly resolved a while ago. And when that error did occur, it gave an error message that specifically stated that the was an issue with Webview2. There have been issues with blank screens like you encountered that have gone unresolved. You may have discovered a solution that might have helped those situations as well.

  • djruby
    djruby Member
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    I am having this same issue on a new PC. Quicken installed and ran fine at first (for weeks), but due to some other Windows issue, I was instructed by Dell support to do an Operating System Reinstallation. I was very reluctant to do this, but I went ahead, and now I am paying the price trying to even get back to where I was before I did the reinstallation.

    I have reinstalled Quicken, and restored the backup, but when I start Quicken, I can see the account page for just a split second, and then it goes away. All I see after that is "File" and "Help." The rest of the screen is blank. I've tried everything mentioned here, and some things not mentioned here. Quicken support was absolutely worthless. The guy basically told me to wait a day or two to see if it starts working. Seriously, that's what he said.

    Anyway, I'm stuck. Quicken still works fine on my old PC, but I'm really frustrated by this.

  • QuickUserPSP
    QuickUserPSP Member, Windows Beta Beta
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    @djruby In your case I think what you should see the Quicken ID sign in screen, or pop-up box. To force this to happen, try this -

    Do a file Validate, but before clicking on File→Validation and Repair File, hold down your [Ctrl] key. You should see the File Validation screen with "Authentication Block will be fixed" under the "Validate File" checkbox. Check the box and run the Validate. When it completes, close out of Quicken, and then resign in. You should be presented with the correct Quicken ID sign in screen. Enter your Quicken ID and Password, and then I am hoping this will get you in.

  • gekkster
    gekkster Member ✭✭
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    @djruby - you did mention you have tried just about everything, and then some, but did want to confirm. From the File menu, have you tried creating a new data file to see if that basic step works? If you still see the same blank screen, then it is likely not Quicken authentication but something missing on the PC. Incidentally, I had tried the Validation and Repair File option (with [Ctrl] key) on the new data file - the repair would not complete, so had to kill the process.

  • djruby
    djruby Member
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    @gekkster, thanks so much for the reply. I did try that before, but it did not work.

    @QuickUserPSP, that worked! Quicken is now working the way it used to. Thank you very much for a simple solution that, for some reason, Quicken support did not provide.

This discussion has been closed.