What is this extra backup folder?

Question

Quicken Classic for Windows, R59.18

After each Quicken session, I run a backup, saving to a dedicated folder $USER\QBackup. Today (after decades of using Quicken) I noticed a folder Documents\Quicken\BACKUP which has files named similarly, and of similar sizes, to the backup files in my QBackup folder. They go back about 18 months.

What are these files in the BACKUP folder, and can I delete the old ones? Or does Quicken delete old ones automatically after some time has elapsed?

volvogirl · Accepted Answer

There are 2 kinds of Backups in Quicken, Manual and Automatic.  For Manual Backups you can tell it where to put the backup file and if you want to add the current date to the end of the name or to overwrite any existing backup file.  If you add the date to the end of the name over time you will end up with a lot of files.

In addition to any manual backups you make, Quicken makes an automatic backup after so many times (which you can set). Quicken makes all automatic backups to a folder named "BACKUP" in the same folder where your Quicken data resides.  So if you have data files in separate folders then each folder will have a separate Backup subfolder.

splasher · Accepted Answer

The Quicken/Backup folder is the default location of where Quicken puts its automatic (versus manual) backups (see Preferences) and has been around for as long as I can remember.  Automatic backups have both the date and time in the files name.  If there is also the release # like xx.xx, it is the backup that Quicken creates when the in-program software installs a software update, so that there is a backup of the data file prior to the upgrade.

nmestanas · Accepted Answer

You can go to Edit/Preferences and select Backup.  You'll see the dialog box that allows you to set how often it backs up and how many auto backups you keep.  You can even change the folder to another one if you wish.

How far they go back depends on how often you use Quicken, the frequency of the backups, and how many you keep.  Once you hit the limit (20 in this example) Quicken will delete the oldest ones.

Yes, you can safely delete the older ones.

It may seem redundant to keep a lot of auto backups if you manually back up regularly.  I keep my auto backups on my local drive but regularly manually backup to my NAS which, in turn, gets backup to another NAS (you could save to cloud storage as well).