How to restore a back up using the new Quicken Back Up Feature

Question

I'm considering signing up for the new Quicken Back-Up Online.  I travel across country twice per year and have Quicken Home and Business installed on two PC computers.  The current way I stay current is to move my data file onto a thumb drive after I have backed it up locally.  When I arrive at the other location, I insert the thumb drive into a USB port and move the data file to where it belongs on that computer.  I do all of this before launching Quicken.  When I do launch Quicken it just opens the data file as if it was always there and with the latest up to date transactions.  Obviously if the thumb drive were lost, stolen or damaged which is remotely possible I'd have no way of restoring my computer with the latest version of Quicken and my data file.  I'm also worried that being away for 3 months, many software revisions have occurred and those revisions are on my current data file but the software on that computer hasn't yet updated to the latest revision.

Does Quicken look for the latest revision first before loading the data file; then after updating to the latest revision open my data file?  I'm concerned that something could go wrong due to differences in software revisions between those two computers.  This new "pay for" back up feature would ease my mind if I knew it was just a matter of restoring the current data file from the Quicken Cloud Storage.  But how does that work when I launch Quicken and it is looking for my data file, but that file is out of date?

Thanks Bill

Quicken Kristina · Answer

Hello @William Luisi,

In addition to the information @splasher provided, I recommend reviewing this FAQ about Quicken Online Backup, since it will answer a lot of general questions:

https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-online-backup-frequently-asked-questions/

You must be using at least version R59.6 to access the online backup feature.

The feature is tied to your Quicken ID rather than to a specific device.  Because of this, you should be able to restore your online backups from any device that has a current enough version of the Quicken program on it.  Please keep in mind that Quicken for Windows online backups are available to restore only in Quicken for Windows.  Quicken for Mac online backups are available to restore only in Quicken for Mac.

Quicken does not automatically search for and restore your online backups.  For instructions on using the online backup feature, I recommend reviewing this help article:

https://help.quicken.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=194248716

Did you have any other questions about online backups?

I look forward to your response!

splasher · Answer

I haven't used the new online backup, so no advice there, BUT, regarding the software updates, here is my advice.

Before starting Quicken the first time after arriving at either location, download and execute the latest patch release available at this link: 
latest patch which is on the Quicken website, that way you know before doing any restore or starting Quicken that it is on the latest release.

As far as using the new online backup feature, you could do the same thing you are doing now using one of the cloud data file systems like OneDrive or DropBox to store your data file while you are in transit instead of the thumbdrive.  Both groups provide enough space for free to hold a single copy of your data file.