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Need to Shrink my QDF File?

titan56

I have Quicken Home & Business running on a Windows 10 platform. Having used Quicken for 20 plus years, my data (QDF) file has ballooned to over 97 Mb. How do I shrink that file by getting rid of old transactions and business data, etc. going back nearly 20 years?🤔

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Boatnmaniac

97MB is not an unusually large QDF file size. I have one QDF file that is nearly 190MB with data going back to the mid-1990s and it still functions well. I have several other QDF files that are approximately the same size as your QDF file and they work well. I know others have QDF files that are much larger than 200MB and that does not cause them any issues.

Are you experiencing some issues with your data file or with Quicken's performance? If so, please describe the issue(s) so someone can perhaps assist you in resolving those issues. That is the path I would recommend taking first.

nmestanas

I have 23 years worth of transactions and a lot of closed accounts. I keep the closed ones for historical reporting.

My file is about 86 mb.

You can create create a "copy" and set cutoff dates to reduce the number of transactions. This apparently also compresses the file to remove the "empty space" from deleted transactions. However, making a copy also disconnects all of your accounts in the new file so you would need to reconnect them all.

https://info.quicken.com/win/how-do-i-copy-a-quicken-data-file

However, as @Boatnmaniac suggests, 97mb isn't all that large. "If it ain't broke …..".

ghendric

I have the same problem with file size. I back up my file to an external drive and usually keep about 3-5 copies of it. The problem is the disk space the backups take. My file size is 132,075,520 bytes. It would be nice if we could shrink the file occasionally. OR convert the data file to a SQL database file that could be managed with SSMS and have Quicken use that instead. Using the copy function doesn't shrink the file for me one bit. That's about useless..

NotACPA

@ghendric If you DON"T append the date/time to the backup file name, you can specify (via EDIT, Preferences, Backup) how many backup copies to keep. Q will append a sequential number to the backup and delete the oldest when creating a newer backup in that folder.

Windows can inform you as to when the backup was created, so the date/time of the backup, while useful, isn't absolutely needed.

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20469983#Comment_20469983

Price of a 500GB drive, about $40. Number of 135MB data files that will fit on it, 37.

Another possible option is to use a backup program that supports binary differences. Since very little actually changes from one session to another a good backup program will consume very little extra space per copy of Quicken data file backed up.

Using a different database just isn’t viable at this point, it would take pretty much a total rewrite of Quicken. What’s more from what I can see Quicken’s database is pretty efficient already.

ghendric

I occasionally have to validate and repair the file. I wouldn't have this problem if it was a SQL database file. I've been writing code for 4 decades. It wouldn't be that difficult to implement and you can download SQL express for free if you need to look at the tables. You can also compress those files. Encryption could be applied also so that your data can be protected. Maybe they should look into that.

ghendric

I have Quicken set to keep 3 versions of the backup, however; it creates more for some reason. I have to delete the extra files once in a while. I sync the backup folder to a thumb drive occasionally too..

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20472295#Comment_20472295

This is a Community forum of Quicken users, just like you and me. There are a few Quicken Moderators who are employees and they help to keep this forum compliant with Quicken's terms of use and also provide some assistance to those who are experiencing issues with Quicken or have questions regarding how to use it but they are not Quicken engineering/development.

If you wish you can suggest this as a Product Idea where other users can review the proposal and, if they agree, they can vote for it. The Quicken Team does review Product Ideas and the more votes an idea gets the greater the likelihood that at some point the idea might be added to their Development Plan. Here is where you can go to add Product Ideas: https://community.quicken.com/categories/quicken-product-ideas .

Jim_Harman

Note that if you have a 500 GB drive, it can store 3,700 copies of a 137 MB backup file, not 37 as noted above.

These days there is little if any reason to try to reduce the size of your Quicken file unless you are experiencing performance problems. And there are ways to address performance problems that do not involve permanently discarding old data.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20472296#Comment_20472296

Do you do manual backups or automatic backups?

I rarely do manual backups….only for special circumstances. Do you give the backup files unique file names? If so, that could be the reason why it saves more than 3 copies because each time the backup file name is changed is starts the file count process all over, again, and it disregards all the previously named backup files.

I do automatic backups for all of my data files (I have several) after every session and save enough backup files to cover all sessions for the last 20-40 sessions meaning I have 20-40 backup files for each main data file. For me, Quicken pretty reliably deletes older automatic backup files. The exception is when I changed the main data file name or the backup file name.