Help Opening Old Quicken Mac Files

ssherman68

Hello. I'm on Quicken Classic Deluxe for Mac version 7.10.1. I have two of my older Quicken files that I would like to look at and they are both listed in the finder as Quicken 2007.

When I go to open or import them into Quicken I get a message saying there is no resource fork. I checked the file using ls -l@ in terminal and there is a resource fork. These files were created using Quicken for Mac and have always been on a Mac so I doubt the resource fork has been stripped off (also, I thought resource forks were no longer being used?)

I've been using Quicken since 1986 and these files go back to 1996. I'd like to be able to access the data when needed. It's one of the reasons why I use Quicken.

How do I open or convert these files so that I'm able to see them on my current version of Quicken? Also, if I Import them into Quicken, will that add the data to my current file or open it as a separate one?

John_in_NC

When you get that error, it is usually game over. The file likely has a resource fork-an empty one.

You are correct in that resource fork usage was phased out years ago, but 2007 still hid data in there as it was a very old program at heart. And Quicken 2007 is very old by today's standards as well.

I don't know the provenance of your data, but something happened to them to strip out the data in the resource fork.

I don't wish to be the prophet of doom, but I have never seen a successful recovery from that error. (And I have been using Quicken Mac maybe 3 years less than you.)

Jon

It's not necessarily game over. Try renaming your old Quicken 2007 file to have a QDF QDFM file extension and then try importing it again. You might lose some things like saved reports but I think all your accounts & transactions will still be preserved.

Usually resource forks get lost because the file was saved to a drive that wasn't formatted for Macs.

(edited since I got the extension wrong the first time)

ssherman68

Hmmm. Not good but thank you for weighing in. I'm pretty sure it does have a resource fork. ls -l@ in terminal shows one and the finder identifies it as the correct file type (which was one of the functions of the resource fork IIRC). Still, it does sound like the file is corrupted somehow.

I have gone through maybe 4 Macs in that time and from what I can remember I've used the built in transfer utility to move everything from the old Mac to the new one. Though this last one I may have copied my files to an external drive and built it from scratch. I was considering doing that at least. I don't know if the drive was Mac OS extended or FAT. I just looked at my current external drive and it's Mac OS. I remember opening one of the file successfully in the last 6 years or so but it was probably before I migrated to my current Mac.

I'd really like to be able to access this data so if I can't get any answers here I'll try to take it up with Quicken themselves…

ssherman68

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20476599#Comment_20476599

Thanks! I'll give that a shot.

Jon

One other thing you could try would be to use the "ditto" command line utility to make a copy of the file without the resource fork. Use the "--norsrc" flag to strip off the resource fork, then change the extension to QDFM.

John_in_NC

I hope Jon is correct.

The two disabling errors frequently reported in Quicken 2007 and older were "Unable to Load File" (sometimes recoverable), and the error about the no resource fork (data). IIRC from the programmers who worked on that old file format, all the lists (category, securities, etc.) amongst other essential information were persisted in that fork, so your couldn't operate without it. I never recall it being something you could recover to a lower fidelity data file with. I suspect your file has a blank (to Quicken) resource fork for whatever reason.

I haven't seen this error reported in years as it was more common 20+ years ago with external backups/servers with different file systems/backups that didn't properly reassemble the forks for Mac.

ssherman68

Well, semi-good news. Attaching the file extension did allow Quicken to try & open the file. It asked me if I wanted to use Cloud to convert the file. After saying yes it tried to convert but failed saying that files before 2004 could not be opened and I need to open it in Quicken 2007.

Is there a way to convert these files without opening them in the actual Quicken 2007 app? Someone mentioned a conversion app in another post but I don't know if it still exists.

Thanks for all the help!

Jon

If you have access to a Windows machine you could try doing something similar to what's in these instructions. Import the file into QWin 2004, upgrade it to QWin 2013, then import that into Quicken Mac. I was able to do this a few years ago to import some very old Quicken Windows files from the mid-late 90s into Quicken Mac; it might work if you can get QWin 2004 to import the old Mac files.

jacobs

I'm sorry, but I think you may be out of luck. I don't believe an old Quicken Mac data file can be converted by old Quicken Windows; I hope I'm wrong, but my memory of these details from more than a decade ago has started to fade.

Doing a conversion on Macs will be a challenge. You'd need to obtain Quicken 2007 from somewhere, and have a Mac which can run Quicken 2007. It turns out there are two versions of Quicken 2007! The later version is the one which runs on Macs up to macOS Mojave, but it can't open files from Quicken 2004 or earlier. The original version of Quicken 2007 can open older files, but requires an older mac running macOS Snow Leopard or older, which is probably pretty rare now. There are more details on this site, or we can dig back and post them for you, but it will likely require jumping some major hoops.

John_in_NC

Yes, and I am pretty sure Jacobs that the older version of 2007 has to be running on an actual PowerPC based Mac to process 2004 (and older) files.

Years ago, I used to help people with some of these odd conversions using my older Macs, but those machines have all been retired. I do remember, though, the outlook was almost always bleak with the "no resource fork" error. I can't really any successful recovery, but that was years ago when we would see that error.

I don't know of any way of getting Quicken for Windows to open a Mac 2007 and older file. It had to be converted to QIF on the Mac side first which requires a file that can be opened to accomplish the export.

ssherman68

Any idea if you can run PowerPC versions of OS X in a VM? I work in IT at a university and they might have an older Mac somewhere too. I still have my last Mac but I think it's circa 2012 so still too new. I can't be sure what version these files are but my Mac identifies them as Quicken 2007.

Any idea if there are ownership issues with the codebase? Meaning does Intuit still own the older code and Quicken owns the newer stuff?

Jon

I'm not aware of anything that's still being maintained. There was PearPC but that hasn't been updated in a decade - it might still work on your 2012 Mac. VMWare Fusion & VirtualBox won't run any MacOS that will support 32 bit apps so those are out. Parallels will apparently run MacOS all the way back to 10.7 - that won't let you run the PowerPC versions of Quicken but it would let you run the Lion version of Quicken 2007 if you have that & Lion (or probably anything later than Lion up through Mojave - I'm not sure exactly when Quicken 2007 stopped working) .

smayer97

@ssherman68

Glad you sorted out the "Missing resource fork" issue… a red herring most of the time, most often an incorrect error message due to the missing file extension.

As already mentioned, there are two versions of Quicken 2007. The answer to access 2004 Quicken files is simpler BUT it is not easy. You need a copy of Quicken 2007 v 16.0.x, the PowerPC version or older (nothing else will read those files) but NOT Quicken 2007S x16.1.x or newer, the aka Quicken 2007 for Lion. BUT you do not need a PowerPC to run Quicken 2007 16.0.x. What you need is any Mac that is running Mac OS X 10.6.8 or older, even as old as Mac OS X 10.3.9, according to the manual, which include Rosetta (1) that runs PowerPC software.

But of course, getting a copy of Quicken 2007 16.0.x (or older) is one of the hard parts.

What version of Mac OS X are you running on your 2012 Mac? I have a 2010 Mac running Mac OS X 10.6.8.

CORRECTION → P.S. PowerPC cannot run in a VM, as most VM's are Intel-based, so cannot support it. What you need is emulation. Read up using QEmu, on Linux, if you want to try, but may only run up to Mac OS X 10.5. Turns out UTM (based on QEmu) has an emulator that can run PowerPC versions of Mac OS.

P.P.S PearPC is an emulator that can run PowerPC software on Windows, but only Mac OS X 10.1 to 10.4.

smayer97

See my correction above about PowerPC

ssherman68

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20477436#Comment_20477436

Well, it looks like all of my worrying about old versions was unnecessary. In trying to figure out when my data on the old file ended I looked deeper into my current Quicken file. I found out that my old bank account and one of the old credit cards goes back to 1996 when I moved from Apple II Quicken to Quicken Mac. They were hidden at the bottom of my accounts list.

Strange because I remember clearing out that old data and starting a new file in the mid 2000s due to too much data and too many memorized transactions gumming up the works.

It appears that at some point I saw the impending doom of incompatibility issues and transferred all the old data back to my main file. Possibly because I had closed those bank accounts and speed wasn't an issue anymore. I don't remember doing that.

At this point I should have all the data I can reasonably expect to have. If I ever need to open the files I have a Mac from 2012-2014 and a Snow Leopard CD which should have Rosetta. Not 100% sure if Snow Leopard will run on that Mac but I couldn't find anything saying it wouldn't. As you say, getting a copy of Quicken 2007 is the hard part. With the data I have, it's not worth the effort to try and open the files at this point.

At some point I'd like to get a hex editor and look into the older file. I'd like to figure out what years it includes.

Thank you for all the help and suggestions.

smayer97

Glad it worked out for you.