How to reduce size of QDF by deleting attachments?

Jack Redwine

I want to reduce the size of my QDF file. I have been using Quicken for decades and value having the transaction history, so I don’t want to just create a new file with less transaction history. Attachments occupy most of the file’s space. I'm looking for answers to the following 5 questions;

1. If I delete attachments in the quicken program and then run Super-Validate will the file created from the Super-Validate be smaller?
2. Does Super-Validate ignore deleted attachments and not copy them to the new file?
3. Does Copy ignore deleted attachments and not copy them to the new file?
4. Does Backup ignore deleted attachments and not copy them to the new file?

Various discussions on the Quicken Community site suggest that some file operations only remove the link to the attachment and do not remove the attachment and therefore the QDF size is not materially impacted.

In summary, I’m looking for a way to selectively remove various transaction’s attachments inorder to reduce the overall size of my QDF. Additionally, I would like to better understand how the various file operations (Super-Validate, Backup and Copy) differ and specically what data is and is not physically copied to the resulting new QDF files.

Chris_QPW

If you delete an attachment, and then run validate it will reduce the size of the QDF. The other discussions are about transactions. Transactions are stored in the database, and it will not reduce the size for deleted transactions unless you use Copy. Attachments on the other hand sit outside of the database (The QDF file is actually a compressed file with several files in it and a whole folder/file structure for the attachments).

The biggest problem in my opinion is that you can only delete one attachment at a time, so this is going to be painfully slow.

On the other hand, the Copy operation does have an option not to include attachments, but again there are a couple of pain points to this. It is all or none, and the Copy operation will disable all online services in the new data file, so you will have to reset them up.

Chris_QPW

If you delete an attachment, and then run validate it will reduce the size of the QDF. The other discussions are about transactions. Transactions are stored in the database, and it will not reduce the size for deleted transactions unless you use Copy. Attachments on the other hand sit outside of the database (The QDF file is actually a compressed file with several files in it and a whole folder/file structure for the attachments).

The biggest problem in my opinion is that you can only delete one attachment at a time, so this is going to be painfully slow.

On the other hand, the Copy operation does have an option not to include attachments, but again there are a couple of pain points to this. It is all or none, and the Copy operation will disable all online services in the new data file, so you will have to reset them up.

RalphC

I have a 30+ year old data file and it got quite large at one point because I do like to keep large purchase receipts, tax payment receipts, and important documents with the transaction(s) since the functionality exists in the software. However, after three years, you can usually delete the attachments as they are no longer required by the IRS for documentation purposes. I sorted my transaction registers by the attachment column so that all attachments are at the top, This made it easier to delete them, albeit one by one.

But, it's worth the effort. Even without validating, I immediately cut my data file in half so I'm not sure validating is necessary. However, I do validate on a weekly basis to insure I have a healthy data file. I plan to do delete attachments on an annual basis, just like I clean out my paper files once a year, so it's not so tedious.

Chris_QPW

Note I don't use attachments, so what I did to test was to add a very large attachment, then exit to see the QDF file size. Then I went in and deleted the attachment and tried Validate and Repair and noticed the size was back to the original size. So that is why I said Validate and Repair "works". I didn't check if doing nothing other than deleting the attachments work. It makes sense that it might not be needed.

Jack Redwine

Chris_QPW,

Thank you Chris_QPW. I appreciate your fast responses. I have also done a bit of testing and found you are correct that deleting the attacments reduces the file size. I did check the properties (Windows File Manager) of my QDF before and after the deletion. The actual file size didn't reduce until after I ran Validate. I assume the deleting of the attachment in Quicken releases the space within the data base but only after the Validation and Repair does the Windows QDF data base file space decrease. Thanks again for all your help.

Ralph C.,

Thanks for your suggestions. I like your ideas regarding periodically purging old attachments, sorting by attachments to make the cleanup easier and running the Validate weekly.

Thanks,

Jack