Saving Backups

neil154
neil154 Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭

I have quicken set to automatically a backup every 5 times it is used and to keep a maximum of 5 backups.

The backups are created correctly but Quicken seems to ignore the maximum number of backup. The last time I checked I had over 20 backups on my hard drive.

Is there a way to correct this issue?

Answers

  • NotACPA
    NotACPA Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    The backup count applies to SAME NAMED backups, to which Q will append an ascending number (1), (2), etc.

    If you're appending the date and/or time to the backup, they aren't same-named, and that "count" doesn't apply.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • neil154
    neil154 Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭

    The name of my quicken file is "QuickenData 9-5-24". So are you saying since I have a date included in the quicken data file that is the problem? Do I have to just name the file ?QuickenData"? Below is a screen print of some of the backup file with names

  • volvogirl
    volvogirl Quicken Windows Other SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 15

    Yes the date and time and AM or PM is part of the name. It's ok to have the 9-5-24 but the rest of it is different for everytime you backed up. There is probably a checkbox to uncheck adding the date.

    I might be wrong about that. My auto backups has those dates added too. But I make my own manual backups to an external drive with lots of room so I add the date. And I keep Quicken open so it never automatically backs up. Guess I should close it once in awhile.

    I'm staying on Quicken 2013 Premier for Windows.

  • neil154
    neil154 Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭

    The name of the fie is "QuickenData 9-5-24" without the time and according to you that should be okay

  • nmestanas
    nmestanas Member ✭✭✭✭

    Did you reduce the max number of backups at some point prior? Like from 20 to 5?

    I have mine normally set to 20 and 20 it keeps. I then changed the number to 5. Then opened/closed Q to trigger the auto backup. The auto backup worked but it did not purge the previous backups (so now I had 25). I then emptied the backup folder (moved the files elsewhere) and repeated the open/close process. It then saved the correct number.

    So to correct it just empty the backup folder (or whatever folder you configured) and start over. Of course, don't delete the files for now, just move to a different location. Once your sure it's saving properly, then delete the old ones.

    What I found odd was it did "cycle" through the 5. So the first auto backup after the change, left me with 21. The next, 22 and so on until I reached 25 total. It then deleted #21. One more loop and it deleted #22 and so on. It just never deleted the ones created before the change in setting.

    Another odd thing. Since the auto backup includes the date/time in the file name (qdata-2025-01-16AM07.44.QDF-backup), it will not create a new backup file if you quickly open/close Quicken, trigger a backup, and your clock has not ticked over to the next minute. While I was testing, I set the interval to 1 so it would create a backup every time. So if I opened/closed at 7:44:10 (10 seconds), I'd get a backup file. If I quickly opened and closed at 7:44:45 (45 seconds), no new file was created since they have the same. If I waited until 7:45, a new file is born. There was no warning about overwrite so I can't tell if it skipped or overwrote the file. No matter, as there were no changes. In normal use no one would do this so it's not an issue. I just thought it was interesting,

  • neil154
    neil154 Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for such a complete response. I will delete all backups (have them on USB drive just in case) and see if it works crrectly

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