"Quicken found a damaged scheduled reminder and removed it" Does deleting all reminders work?

bwtv

Hello, Like many people using Quicken for Windows (newest build of Premier running on a Windows 10 computer) It consistently hangs when trying to use it immediately after a "one-step update." I must use Windows Task Manager to "end task." I then restart Quicken and run a validate or super-validate. I get the report: "Quicken found a damaged scheduled reminder and removed it. Please check your scheduled reminders by going to Tools>Manage Bills and Income Reminders." After that, it works fine (usually) until I do another one-step update. This has been going on for months and months if not a year or more.

I have shut down and restarted the computer. I have cleared and deleted the cache folder. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Quicken. I've done a manual patch. I've even deleted the QW.RMD file. I have read and acted on the thread pasted below about the problem.

My Questions:

Has anyone deleted all their scheduled reminders and then created new ones? Did it work to stop the bug? I have dozens of these and don't want to put in the work if it doesn't solve the problem.

I've seen Quicken suggest copying the file and creating a new file. However, that disconnects all online services which will need to be redone. Has that worked for anyone?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance for the help.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7926886/bills-inc-tab-crashes-quicken-validate-always-finding-a-damaged-scheduled-reminder

mshiggins

"Has anyone deleted all their scheduled reminders and then created new ones? Did it work to stop the bug?

I've never had your problem so I can't answer your question directly.

But you can determine for yourself whether deleting all your Reminders helps; with very little, if any risk.

Make a Windows copy of your Quicken data file (I would put it in a totally different folder). 

In that Copy, delete all the Reminders. Then do a Validate (and possibly a Super Validate. 

Then do One Step Updates in the two files until you determine whether deleting the Reminders is worth doing. 

If deleting the Reminders eliminates the problem, you can delete the Copy and repeat the delete reminders/Validate process in your regular file.

-JP

bwtv

mshiggins: That's an elegant and easy way to test it out! I should have thought of that. (palm-to-face) 😳 Thanks!

bwtv

Update.

I followed mshiggins suggestion to create test file find out if removing scheduled reminders would fix the error that locks up Quicken.

As you can see in the attached photo, the Quicken file has no scheduled reminders. Nonetheless a validate report shows that there is a damaged scheduled reminder.

How can that be?

markus1957

Try the Copy on your test file. It won't impact your everyday file; those connections will remain intact. Only the Copy will be disconnected.

It appears you have a hidden corrupt reminder. The Copy might skip over it.

If that works, then you have to decide if you want to Copy your everyday file.

Adding- I would avoid doing OSUs with your Windows copy where you deleted the reminders. The original and copy are connected and OSU could screw up reminders because reminders sync whether you have Sync turned on or not. It is never a good idea to run OSU on 2 connected files. In fact for others looking at this thread, it would have been better to do the Copy template action that disconnected the files in the first instance. That will avoid the files messing with each other during OSU.

RalphC

Do you have a known-good backup you can restore?

bwtv

RalphC: While I backup everyday, I have lived with this problem so long (year+ or longer) reverting to a backup wouldn't be worth it. Thanks, though!

Markus1957: Interesting point about making a Copy Template. I'll keep that in mind and put it to use in the future!

I tried your idea of copying the test file and then validating. Sadly, same error as you can see below.

RalphC

Well, clearly, you've got a corrupt data file that's unusable. In an effort to retain as much valid data as possible, I would restore my earliest backup. If it's good, I'd go ahead 8 months and try that. If that's bad, I'd restore the earliest plus two months. This will help zero in on how far back you have to go to rebuild your data file.

markus1957

Spitballing here- After you validate/super-validate, have you tried immediately validating/super-validating again before performing an OSU? As I mentioned before, even with SYNC Off, Quicken still syncs certain parts of the file to the cloud like reminders and memorized payees. If you find that the second validation does not show the damaged reminder, it may be that Quicken is downloading the corrupted reminder from the cloud during the OSU (Adding-or Sync if you have it On). You can use Reset your cloud data in Preferences>Mobile & Web to delete the existing cloud data file and make it conform to your current desktop state.

The process can be finicky and the key here is to make sure you do the reset with your file in a state before it can sync back to the cloud and redownload the corrupted reminder. That means declining any offer to Sync before doing the Reset. Also, the reset can only be performed with Sync On so if you have it Off, it may try to sync when you turn it on. After Sync is On, run the validate back to back without OSU until the error does not show. Then do the cloud reset and refuse any prompt to sync before the reset.

I would do this process on your everyday file rather than a copy. As I said running OSUs on connected files is rolling the dice for a corrupted file. Good Luck.

mshiggins

"Adding- I would avoid doing OSUs with your Windows copy where you deleted the reminders. The original and copy are connected ....".

For some reason I had the idea that there was one Cloud file for each Quicken file; it appears that's not the case. I apologize to the op.

It seems though that one can test the usefulness of simply deleting reminders in a Windows Copy to determine whether there is some corruption in the Bill & Income Reminders List - just leave out the OSU.

The fact that in this case Validate in the Windows Copy with reminders deleted still found, but couldn't delete, the "damaged" reminder seems a sure sign that the reminders List is corrupted and I agree that a Quicken Copy could make that go away.

-JP

Rocket J Squirrel

I'll jump in here out of left field to say that Validation log messages are generally incorrect and cannot be believed. They were probably accurate decades ago, but no longer. I believe the message strings over time have been disconnected from their original error conditions and are now mostly meaningless.

"Found a damaged reminder and removed it" is a lie. Some data repair was attempted (and perhaps succeeded), but you cannot rely on the log message to be accurate.

The only ones I still believe are "Damaged data block" and "Damaged data record". Those indicate your data file is irreparably corrupted and can not be restored to a usable state.

bwtv

Update:

Markus1957: Before trying your idea I confirmed the same problem exists. I did a computer reboot and OSU of my main file. Once again, after accepting a transaction and trying to work on another transaction, Quicken locked up giving me the hourglass icon and, like in the past, Windows Task Manager showed Quicken "not responding." So I tried your idea. I closed Quicken. Opened it again. Ran an OSU. Ran two super-validates …..and ….. I get the same error message about finding a damaged reminder and removing it. :( Too bad Quicken doesn't actually "remove" the damaged reminder, right?

Rocket J Squirrel: I would be happy if the only problem was the error message! I could live with that! :) But the real problem is that Quicken always locks up after accepting a transaction or other work on a transaction immediately after completing an OSU. Doing a validate or super validate is the only thing that clears the problem and allows me to work in Quicken until the next OSU. Doing those validates is when I see the error message about finding and removing a damaged reminder. This has been the case since I first noticed the problem over a year ago. I never got that error message before then and so that's what leads me to believe they are related.

bwtv

mshiggins: First I rebooted computer. Opened my current Quicken file. Made a copy of it. Closed Quicken. I reopened Quicken with the new copy. Did NOT run a OSU. Ran two super-validates. I got the same error both times.

Then I tried your idea. I deleted all reminders on this new copy of Quicken. Closed the file. Reopened the file. Ran two super-validates. I got the same error both times. :(

markus1957

Do you use or have you used the Online Billers feature. There is a separate routine in the Bills Tab gear icon to Review & Repair Online Billers and Payments. It's possible that RJS is right about the error not being exact, but it may be related to online billers.

If you have sync turned on you might try running with Sync off for a while. Also if Sync is on, you can do a sync outside of OSU. That may help flesh out the problem as it seems to be an end of OSU problem and that is when Sync takes place.

Adding- Searching for Damage Scheduled Reminders led me to the link below which seems to implicate an Online Billers reminder as the potential cause.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20096958#Comment_20096958

bwtv

markus1957: First, thanks for the continued help on this! No I don't use the online billers feature and never have. I just checked and cloud sync for mobile and web is toggled off.

mshiggins

@bwtv

I don't see where you have posted that you followed markus1957's earlier advice, namely (what you tried to avoid in the first place): 

"Try the [Quicken] Copy on your test file. It won't impact your everyday file; those connections will remain intact. Only the Copy will be disconnected.

"It appears you have a hidden corrupt reminder. The Copy might skip over it."


Until you have tried that, at this point I think you're wasting your time.

If the Quicken Copy cures the problem in the test file, there's a good chance it will do the same for your regular file. As markus said: "If that works, then you have to decide if you want to Copy your everyday file."

Personally, I do not think that having to reActivate your accounts for downloading is that much of a burden; especially if it addresses the problem you're experiencing here.

If you can't fix your current problem or live with it, I suspect your ultimate option is to create a New Quicken file (to replace your existing file). There are some possible ways to try to capture some of your original (uncorrupted) data, but there are no guarantees.

-JP

bwtv

mshiggins. Thanks! I did try Markus1057's advice and on June 25th posted this:

"Markus1957: Interesting point about making a Copy Template. I'll keep that in mind and put it to use in the future!

I tried your idea of copying the test file and then validating. Sadly, same error as you can see below."

I appreciate you comment, "Personally, I do not think that having to reActivate your accounts for downloading is that much of a burden; especially if it addresses the problem you're experiencing here." While I may end up doing this, if a copy of the file without any scheduled reminders still gives me the error message when validating, should I expect a different result doing it on my "live" file?

mshiggins

"if a copy of the file without any scheduled reminders still gives me the error message when validating, should I expect a different result doing it on my 'live' file?"

Depending on what type of "copy" you do, yes.

What I haven't been able to determine from your responses is whether you realize that the "copy" that might help now is not the same as the "copy" you originally did.

Originally (in this discussion), it was suggested by me that you make a "Windows Copy" of your data file. 

But what markus1957 suggested and I re-suggested was: "Try the [Quicken] Copy on your test file ...".  
File > Copy or Backup file > Create a Copy or Template. Choose to Copy ALL your data.

A "Windows" Copy of your data file should produce an exact duplicate of your Quicken data file. 

A "Quicken" Copy of your data file should clean out unneeded data - including removing "logically deleted" data. Which will not produce an exact duplicate of the copied file. 

When Quicken deletes data as the user dictates, it typically does not physically remove the data from the file; Quicken may simply "mark" the data in such a way that in the future, Quicken will know to treat that data as not being present in the file. That is known as "logically deleting" the data. I believe that when you deleted your reminders from the "Windows" copy of your file, those reminders were only "logically deleted" - meaning the actual data for those reminders is still in the file.

Sometimes that "logically deleted" data may cause problems which physically removing it MAY cure. 

When you do a "Quicken Copy" of your data, Quicken tries to physically remove all the previously "logically deleted" data. 

When there is logically deleted data in your Quicken file and you do a Quicken Copy of that file, the resulting Copy will typically be smaller than the copied file. That's a good indication that "logically deleted" data was physical removed from the file.

-JP

bwtv

mshiggins: Thanks. For the first couple of tests I took a freshly "validated" live file and used Quicken>File>Copy or Backup File>Create a complete backup. I then validated or super-validated each of those copies. In both cases I received the same error message about finding a damaged scheduled reminder.

For this test I used Quicken>File>Create a copy or template>. As you can see below I left all the boxes checked.

I then validated this copy (which still had all my scheduled reminders) I was pleasantly surprised to find NO error about any damaged scheduled reminders. I then super-validated the file just to make sure. Again, no error message. Great!

Given Markus1957's warning about not doing an OSU on a copy, what do you suggest I do next? Should I adopt this copy (renaming and moving to proper folder) as my new "live" file? Then run a OSU to see if I no longer get errors and the file no longer locks up?

Thanks!

markus1957

Good catch @mshiggins, I thought the OP did the Copy/Template already.

You should adopt this Template copy file and use it from now on. The template process disconnects the file from the cloud and acts like a new file. You will need to reconnect all of your FIs in this file as they have been disconnected. Good Luck.

bwtv

@markus1957 & @mshiggins. Thanks for all the help! I'll give it a try and report back in a few days.

bwtv

Success!

After using @markus1957 & @mshiggins great advice, I have been able to use Quicken with no lock-ups and no "damaged scheduled reminder" error codes. After several days of use (including many OSUs, transaction entries, validating and super-validating, etc.) no problems have come up. I'm crossing my fingers it remains that way!

The key, as you both mentioned, was doing a copy/template using: Quicken>File>Copy or Backup file/Create a copy or template/(check all boxes). That worked.

What didn't work was: Quicken>File>Copy or Backup file>Create a complete backup,

As you mentioned, I did have to reconnect all my financial institutions. But at least now I don't have to use Windows Task Manager to exit Quicken after it locks up.

Thanks!

BHunsaker

I started having the same problem a month ago. Validate reports:

QDF:
Validating your data.
Quicken found a damaged scheduled reminder and removed it. Please check your scheduled reminders by going to Tools>Manage Bills and Income Reminders.

2 damaged scheduled transactions deleted

I had hoped an update would fix the problem.

Alas, I guess I'll generate the template to see if this fixes the problem.