Why did Quicken dump all my Categories?

Question

This crappy piece of software dumped all of my categories from my previous versions of Quicken… What's up with that? How do I retrieve them? Can't believe I actually paid money to have it destroy all of my recordsThis crappy piece of software dumped all of my categories from my previous versions of Quicken… What's up with that? How do I retrieve them? Can't believe I actually paid money to have it destroy all of my records!

jacobs · Answer

@Thomas.Cooley.VDC  First, understand that this "community forum" is not going directly to Quicken executives, nor to Quicken Support. You can contact Quicken Support via the link at the top of the page. Here, you will find mostly fellow Quicken users trying to help each other, with a few Quicken moderators who keep things organized and help answer questions.

Second, no one from Quicken will reach out to contact you based on your demand here.

I understand you're really upset. Take a second, take a deep breath, try to ratchet down your anger and name calling, and let folks here try to help you work through the problem you've experienced. Obviously losing category data is not something which happens to everyone, or no one would be using the software… so something happened to you, and hopefully we can get to the bottom of it or find a way out of it.

Let's start with some basics: what version of macOS are you running, and what version of Quicken Mac?

Next: What exactly happened, and what had you done prior to it happening? For instance, did you just install an update to Quicken. (From what version previously?) Did the program crash?

Next: let's talk about backups. Quicken by default creates backup files when you quit. Do you know where your backup files are stored? In your Quicken Settings, how many backups is it set to retain? (Suggestion: if you're only set to a small number of backups, like 5 or 10, do not keep launching and quitting Quicken, as each time it saves a backup, it's deleting your oldest one which might prove valuable. At the least, make a quick copy of your Quicken Backups folder so you don't lose any of them as you move forward.) Do you have any other form of backups on your Mac, such as Apple's Time Machine, or any cloud backup services?

Jon · Answer

Try restoring from a backup & see if your categories are still in the backup. Select "View/Restore Backups" from the File menu and select a recent backup file. Save it to a new file name so you don't overwrite your current file.

Thomas.Cooley.VDC · Answer

Your software is not at all, user-friendly - why would it erase all of my hard work from previous years? ! I can't believe you're still in business! Contact me right away or I will cancel immediately and ensure into it is appropriately rewarded.