All my investment transactions since early January 2024 have disappeared--how do I get them back?

John16

I have a half-dozen investment accounts at two different brokers. I updated them using the normal update process. Both accounts at broker A updated correctly. three accounts at broker B updated correctly but one simply deleted all transactions since January 10, 2024 and didn't load any new ones. The account was migrated from TD Ameritrade many months ago and has about 15 years of data.

Any ideas (1) why this happened and (2) how to fix it. Help is greatly appreciated.

QuickUserPSP

@John16

I had this same issue a couple of days ago. Luckily, I discovered that only one transaction was deleted, that I was able to find it and manually add it back. I fixed the validate issue by doing a "File Copy" process. After I did the process, I no longer get that error message in the file validate log.

But for your situation since you lost a large number of transactions, my suggestion would be to first restore a backup from before this issue appeared to get the deleted transactions restored. Then if the file validate error still presents itself, then do the File Validate, as @Quicken Jasmine recommended, along with the "File Copy" process. Here are some steps I provided to another user for a different issue, but I think it will work for your situation.

First do a Validate and Super Validate on your current data file:

Validate:

1. Go to File in Menu Bar
2. Click Validate and Repair File...
3. ChecK Validate File
4. Click OK
5. Close the Data Log

Super Validate:

1. Go to File in Menu Bar
2. Hold CTRL + Shift and click Validate and Repair File...
3. Check Super Validate File
4. Click OK
5. Close the Data Log

Then create copy of your current data file. All of your accounts will be disconnected from online services in the new file and will need to be reconnected again.

This "File Copy" process will clear all connections and give you a "fresh start".

1. Make a backup of your data file.
2. Click on File→Copy or Backup file.
3. Choose "Create a copy or template", and then click "Next".
4. On the next screen, leave all the defaults "as-is". Make a note of the copied data file name and location. Change the file name if you wish.
5. After File Copy is done you will have a choice of going into the copied file or the original file. Choose the copied file.
6. Run File Validate and Super Validate. Check the validate logs to confirm the error messages no longer present themselves. Once you run the validate a few times and it doesn't show the error messages, then you can add online services back to your accounts.
7. Go the Account List, then "Activate" your accounts by clicking on "Add Account" at the bottom of the Account List window. The accounts will be activated by each financial institution, so you might not need go into each account.
8. Go through the activation process, entering your user ID and password. When it comes to the "Add Account" screen where it lists all accounts, carefully link each account to the existing account on Quicken. It is critical that you double check every connection, even if the accounts are already linked. If any of your accounts use EWC+, there will be some additional authentication steps before you get to this screen on Quicken.
9. After you have activated all your accounts, close and reopen Quicken, and then try an OSU again. If you get any errors, go to the account register and do an "Update Now", and then try an OSU again.

Please note that you can also reactivate your accounts by going into the "Online Services" tab in Account Details, but some users have found that that that doesn't always work for accounts using EWC+ that requires authentication from the financial institution.

Give these steps a try and see if it resolves your issues. Please let me know if you have any questions.

More importantly though, I think Quicken, Inc. needs to get to the bottom of why this is happening. The event that happened to me was "out of the blue" around the same time the same thing happened to you. Very strange.

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @John16,

My first thought is there could be an issue with your data file.

To start with, I suggest that you please try validating and/or super validating your data file, this is so that we might be able to locate the issue that occurred. However, I do recommend that you first save a backup file prior to performing these steps.

Validate: 

1. File
2. Validate and Repair File...
3. Validate File
4. Click OK
5. Close the Data Log
6. Close Quicken (leave it closed for at least 5 secs)
7. Reopen Quicken and see if the issue persists.

If the issue persists, proceed to Super Validate. If the issue is resolved after performing validation, then please disregard the instructions to Super Validate.

Super Validate:

1. File
2. Hold CTRL + Shift and click Validate and Repair File...
3. Super Validate File
4. Click OK
5. Close the Data Log
6. Close Quicken (leave it closed for at least 5 secs)
7. Reopen Quicken and see if the issue persists.

Please let me know how it goes!

John16

Thank you for your response.

Here is a relevant section from Validate. There were issues with a few transactions but none in the problem account.

Do you think maybe the messages about the QEL file being corrupt be telling me that the missing transactions are the ones not recovered? If so, a good improvement would be to name the corrupted account/file.

QDF:
Validating your data.
Quicken repaired damaged transaction index. No action required.
Quicken found an invalid transaction record and removed it. "ACCT_4ee" 0/ 0/1900
Quicken repaired some transaction information. No action required.
"ACCT_4ee" 0/ 0/1900
Quicken found an invalid transaction record and removed it. "ACCT_4ee" 0/ 0/1900
Quicken repaired some transaction information. No action required.
"ACCT_4ee" 0/ 0/1900

Summary:
Quicken repaired 1 accounts. No action required.

QEL:
The old file was corrupt and only some of the data has been recovered.

QEL:
All internal consistency checks passed.

Here is a relevant section from Super-Validate.

QDF:
Validating your data.

QEL:
The old file was corrupt and only some of the data has been recovered.

QEL:
All internal consistency checks passed.

NotACPA

@John16 That 1st QEL (Quicken Electronic Link) reference could explain your issue, if you're downloading from the brokerage.

Ps56k2

no need to hide - Broker A and Broker B - use the real names in case there is some known problem -

anyway - if it appears that your current Quicken QDF file is trashed - best bet is to use a recent Backup -

John16

Thanks for the help.

My brokerage accounts are from Schwab and Edward Jones. Do they have known issues with Quicken? The problem is with a Schwab account.

QuickUserPSP

@John16

I had this same issue a couple of days ago. Luckily, I discovered that only one transaction was deleted, that I was able to find it and manually add it back. I fixed the validate issue by doing a "File Copy" process. After I did the process, I no longer get that error message in the file validate log.

But for your situation since you lost a large number of transactions, my suggestion would be to first restore a backup from before this issue appeared to get the deleted transactions restored. Then if the file validate error still presents itself, then do the File Validate, as @Quicken Jasmine recommended, along with the "File Copy" process. Here are some steps I provided to another user for a different issue, but I think it will work for your situation.

First do a Validate and Super Validate on your current data file:

Validate:

1. Go to File in Menu Bar
2. Click Validate and Repair File...
3. ChecK Validate File
4. Click OK
5. Close the Data Log

Super Validate:

1. Go to File in Menu Bar
2. Hold CTRL + Shift and click Validate and Repair File...
3. Check Super Validate File
4. Click OK
5. Close the Data Log

Then create copy of your current data file. All of your accounts will be disconnected from online services in the new file and will need to be reconnected again.

This "File Copy" process will clear all connections and give you a "fresh start".

1. Make a backup of your data file.
2. Click on File→Copy or Backup file.
3. Choose "Create a copy or template", and then click "Next".
4. On the next screen, leave all the defaults "as-is". Make a note of the copied data file name and location. Change the file name if you wish.
5. After File Copy is done you will have a choice of going into the copied file or the original file. Choose the copied file.
6. Run File Validate and Super Validate. Check the validate logs to confirm the error messages no longer present themselves. Once you run the validate a few times and it doesn't show the error messages, then you can add online services back to your accounts.
7. Go the Account List, then "Activate" your accounts by clicking on "Add Account" at the bottom of the Account List window. The accounts will be activated by each financial institution, so you might not need go into each account.
8. Go through the activation process, entering your user ID and password. When it comes to the "Add Account" screen where it lists all accounts, carefully link each account to the existing account on Quicken. It is critical that you double check every connection, even if the accounts are already linked. If any of your accounts use EWC+, there will be some additional authentication steps before you get to this screen on Quicken.
9. After you have activated all your accounts, close and reopen Quicken, and then try an OSU again. If you get any errors, go to the account register and do an "Update Now", and then try an OSU again.

Please note that you can also reactivate your accounts by going into the "Online Services" tab in Account Details, but some users have found that that that doesn't always work for accounts using EWC+ that requires authentication from the financial institution.

Give these steps a try and see if it resolves your issues. Please let me know if you have any questions.

More importantly though, I think Quicken, Inc. needs to get to the bottom of why this is happening. The event that happened to me was "out of the blue" around the same time the same thing happened to you. Very strange.

John16

Regarding using a backup, I have probably 6 backups per month. The last known good file was May 18th. I've tested a couple from each month going back to January and all are missing the same transactions. Once the transactions are gone, the backups are useless.

Months ago I turned off the Quicken Sync to Cloud option (Edit, Preferences, Mobile & Web), but still every time I open a backup file the sync routine runs. In addition to missing the transactions, each backup files' creation, modification, and access date/time stamps gets set to the current date/time value but the date/time in the filename is unchanged.

Is Quicken removing the missing transactions from the backup files because the cloud version is the 'master'? This snippet suggests it is.

QuickUserPSP

Well I had Mobile and Web SYNC shut off when this happened to me. I also had SYNC turned on but then recently shut it off.

Even if the explanation is what you shared in the snippet, there is clearly a defect that essentially renders Mobile and Web useless because of the risk of data loss.

I shut off Mobile and Web syncing permanently. I will never use it because of security reasons and data issues it causes.

mshiggins

Quicken forces a cloud sync when you restore a backup. To avoid that, copy the backup file to a new name, remove -backup from the file extension, and OPEN the file instead of restoring.

John16

QuickUserPSP, your solution solved my problem. It was a brilliant solution and your instructions were clear and concise. I've never made a Copy before and didn't realize it could be so useful.

The copy validated and super-validated just fine, maybe because the QEL file either didn't exist or was empty. Connecting the Schwab online services downloaded all the missing transactions. Then I connected the other accounts to their online services and it all went smoothly.

After all the files updated I ran the validation again and all was ok.

Going forward, I will make a periodic Copy to supplement my automatic and manual backups.

QuickUserPSP

@John16 I am glad everything worked out and you have your data file and transactions back.

I am hoping down the road that Quicken will be able to create a validation process that could incorporate the File Copy process so that the user can run one complete process that will clean up the data file corruption.