Can I copy my Category list from my old Qdata file to my new, manually generated Qdata file?

MR1020

There is an ongoing known issue with Quicken Classic Deluxe for Windows downloading transactions from the Canadian Bank of Montreal (BMO)… Ticket #10766720//CTP-8805. At some point during this ongoing outage my data file has become corrupted. I am in the process of trying to manual set up a new data file for 2024. I'm hoping there is a way to copy all my customized Categories from the 2023 Qdata file to my new 2024 Qdata file so I don't have to manually re-enter it all… along with all the other extra work this ongoing outage has caused me!

Quicken: V-R54.17, B-27.1.54.17

Windows: 11, version 22H2

Thanks

BK

Also note that this export file may create all of your financial accounts when imported - I think. So you will end up with duplicate financial accounts in your new file if you had already added them prior to the import. I can think of two workarounds to manage this:

• In the "Quicken account to export from" box, select only one of your accounts, hence you should end up with only one duplicate account after import I think.
• Alternatively when you import it to a "test" data file, delete all the financial accounts in the test data file and repeat the Category export process by creating a second export file.

Hope these makes sense. As I wrote earlier, duplicates are one of the potential side effects and various amount of cleanup will be required. Test every step again and again before working on the real final new data file. I went thru the same thing you are a few years ago and took me two weeks and many test iterations to get it right - using two Quicken setups side-by-side to compare old vs new was key.

BK

Yes there is, sometimes not 100% but a good start, and hopefully this image explains the steps clearly. Assuming you can still open your corrupted file:

1- On your old Quicken data file you export (File Export) the category data into a file (as seen in the image below)

2- Once you create the export file, you will go to your new Quicken data file and perform a "File Import" (no image)

Note: I would play with it in a test file first (not your new data file) to see what challenges you may face. e.g. duplicate categories, etc. and what it takes to clean them up, if any. It is possible that this test exercise may tell you that you are better off recreating them manually since cleaning them up may take longer - or may work just fine. Point being, always test it first in another Quicken test file in order to keep your new file clean.

BK

Also note that this export file may create all of your financial accounts when imported - I think. So you will end up with duplicate financial accounts in your new file if you had already added them prior to the import. I can think of two workarounds to manage this:

• In the "Quicken account to export from" box, select only one of your accounts, hence you should end up with only one duplicate account after import I think.
• Alternatively when you import it to a "test" data file, delete all the financial accounts in the test data file and repeat the Category export process by creating a second export file.

Hope these makes sense. As I wrote earlier, duplicates are one of the potential side effects and various amount of cleanup will be required. Test every step again and again before working on the real final new data file. I went thru the same thing you are a few years ago and took me two weeks and many test iterations to get it right - using two Quicken setups side-by-side to compare old vs new was key.

MR1020

Thank you!

I'll give it a try tonight using a temporary Qdata file… just in case.

MR1020

That worked… thank you!