Please beta test prior to releasing updates. It's not fun to deal with disappearing data?

lchriste

We are forced to pay subscriptions, yet I find that every update ends up breaking something—sometimes something serious. Please wear the shoes you market to designers, programmers!

Jon

What data is disappearing?

jacobs

Some of us here are beta testers. While we're prohibited by NDA from talking about any details of testing, I just want to assure you that (a) there are people beta testing and (b) there were no reports of data loss from any testers. That doesn't mean there aren't undiscovered bugs; Quicken users' data files are so different and diverse, the features we do or don't use vary considerably, and we use different financial institutions — all of which guarantees that there can be something which hasn't been encountered before.

In trying to troubleshoot your problems, the first thing I'd be curious about is whether you're syncing your data to Quicken cloud, as that seems to often be a problems. But provide more details, and maybe folks here can help.

P.S. I know you're frustrated, but understand that you're not actually talking to Quicken developers or executives when you post here. It's a community forum with mostly fellow Quicken users trying to help each other, and a handful of Quicken moderators who help keep this site organized and can answer some questions (but they're not Quicken Support).

lchriste

Thank you for your response. I am grateful for those who attempt to answer problems here. However, it is disappointing that Quicken support does not moderate this site. Yes, I understand that beta testing has its limits. I assume you are paid by Quicken to fulfill this function. If not, you should be. While there is huge variation in users use of Quicken and the platforms/OS & version/cohabiting applications, the universe of operating systems and versions, memory requirements and downloading institutions is certainly small enough to be knowable if Quicken advertises compatibility with that universe. Since it is explicit about compatibility, any incompatibility issues with the same should be disclosed and corrected if possible prior to any updates. In my case, the most recent annoyance presented itself after I updated and after I downloaded transactions from the exact same banks in the exact same way as has been my habit for quite some time. All the payee categories were blank or "uncategorized." I have since found a setting that I hope will function properly for future downloads, but I had to manually re-add each category (remember: no changes to download settings or payees and only 1 rule per payee). I then navigated to Window/Payees & Rules/Quickfill rules for every payee, confirmed that the correct category is listed, and checked the box that reads, "Use this as a default rule." We'll see if the next download fills the category. Can I believe that my Mac OS and most recent Quicken version are so unique that beta testing of downloads would not have exposed the problem? No. Thank you for your desire to help!

jacobs

Yes, I understand that beta testing has its limits. I assume you are paid by Quicken to fulfill this function. If not, you should be.

Thanks. But no, there is no pay. Beta testing is purely volunteer.

While there is huge variation in users use of Quicken and the platforms/OS & version/cohabiting applications, the universe of operating systems and versions, memory requirements and downloading institutions is certainly small enough to be knowable if Quicken advertises compatibility with that universe.

Actually, the universe is pretty large: Quicken claims it works with 14,000+ financial institutions. They definitely don't test internally, or have beta testers test, connectivity with each one for every update.

lchriste

Thanks, Jacobs. I don't think my issue is institution specific,since categories are determined within the application. That said, 14000+ is a lot. Best to qualify compatibility (which Quicken does for some—e.g. Capitol One) . I think my issue is setting specific or lack thereof—Quicken changed something/ lost the link to my quick fills (or something like that). Thanks again.

smayer97

Though off-topic, the 14000+ is a marketing spin, and I would say an outright misrepresentation… Easy to see… it appears that Quicken counts every product variation within an FI that it connects with as an FI. That is the only way they can get remotely close to that number. When you view the FIDIR.txt list of all the connection points, you can quickly see that there are not 14000 unique FIs, not even close.

Jon

It's not too far off the mark. I pulled fidir.txt into a spreadsheet & filtered on unique URLs and it found 12,852 (out of 17,679 entries). So a bit over 25% of the file is multiple entries. Of course, this didn't catch things like http vs https, or one entry using www and another leaving it off, so maybe a true de-duping would produce a list that is a little bit smaller but not by much I think.