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Downsizing a Quicken File

Doug Dubowski

I have been using Quicken for over 20 years and my file is getting large (>165 MB)! The size is not the concern, it is the amount of dead information from old accounts of all sorts that I no longer need. All these old accounts are "hidden" but when doing reports or looking through drop down menus, a lot of these old accounts still appear and simply get in the way. I do not want to delete them, but am struggling trying to figure out to strip them out of my existing file. I see a few options:

Create a backup, make a new file and only move the active accounts from my existing file into the new one. Not sure if you can copy accounts, or can you only move them? Would then go through all my categories and strip out a number of old categories that are no longer pertinent. After doing this, the backup would contain all tombstone data, the new account all of my current accounts, and the stripped down file would be deleted.
Create a backup and then delete all of the dead accounts from my existing file. The backup would contain any tombstone data I would like to retrieve from old accounts. Would then go through all my categories and strip out a number of old categories that are no longer pertinent. Not sure if the existing file would still reflect removed accounts and deleted categories in drop down menus and reports, though.

Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks,

Doug

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Comments

mshiggins

Maybe test drive a less drastic approach first? Try renaming your old unused accounts to prepend ZZ to the beginning of the account name. That way these old account will show up at the bottom of account drop down lists.

Doug Dubowski

Thanks for getting back to me. Will give that a whirl, but would still prefer to eliminate very old data and accounts.

Markhfx

I am struggling with the same scenario, would be nice to delete a lot of old things but not an easy solution as far as I know

mshiggins

Some things to consider before deleting data from your Quicken file:

Deleting data will have little to no performance impact on the speed of the file. If the file is slow now, it will still be slow after data has been deleted.
If you split the file into more than one file via File Copy or Year End Copy, you will not be able to recombine the files back into one file. To ensure you can continue to open the multiple files, you’ll need to keep track of each file’s password or periodically open and update the password for all files to your current password.
You’ll want to delete all the reminders in the files with the older data to prevent reminders from being entered in account registers when you open the older data files.

I have data going back to 1996 in my file. I have never deleted older data, just renamed accounts and set those accounts as hidden. I don’t have trouble with old accounts showing in drop down menus or reports.

Arctic Hare

@Doug Dubowski - similar to the comments from @mshiggins, I recommend you map out the pros and cons of splitting files and/or deleting data before proceeding. FWIW, my Quicken file is 1.3 Gb and I have no intention on splitting it, archiving data, etc. I also use the Close account and Hide account features. Do you close old accounts before hiding them? If you are determined to downsize your file, then I don't know that there is any one best way to do it as each approach has implications and/or consequences. You might want to experiment with a few options before committing to a plan. Only you can weigh the benefits against the costs and implications of any of these approaches.