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Vanguard Transaction detail for Quicken Mac

LindaE

My Vanguard accounts are no longer downloading the transaction detail to my Quicken for Mac program. It is telling me I have to do it manually! I have been downloading transactions automatically for 10 years to Quicken. I am using Quicken Connect in the program. Can you advise me how to get the transaction data?

I just renewed my Quicken program, but this is a real problem for me and I would have explored other options

Linda Ely

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Quicken Mac

Comments

PQuincy

I kept getting a connection error with my long-standing Vanguard accounts. I transitioned to their new brokerage account last year without incident, and everything worked fine until last week, when it wouldn't connect.

So I disconnected, and then re-connected, linking to the existing, long-standing account… and now all my account history is gone, and the "Transactions" view is dimmed out and the "Columns" icon is also dimmed!! All I see is holdings, price, and day change, and value.

When I reconnected there was a screen saying that "Vanguard-Personal Investors only supports Simple Connection" (or something like that)… but why would it disappear all my past transaction history? This is alarming, as I have just lost a year's data. I don't need Vanguard to track capital gains, etc., but simply to report transactions… but why have my own past transactions all vanished???

PQuincy

Follow up: When I went to the Account Settings screen, it's set to "Simple (positions only)". When I click on detailed, I get an error saying that Vanguard "does not support downloading detailed investment information". But I don't want to download this information from Vanguard, I just want to download transactions and let Quicken track it. This is seriously screwed up! (see screenshot)

Screenshot 2025-02-24 at 8.17.13 AM.png

PQuincy

More follow up: when I turned of downloads, my transactions were back… but Vanguard had manually done a "Remove Shares" of all of my holdings as of today, then a "Add Shares" of the same amount. This is freaking bizarre!

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @PQuincy,

Thanks for reaching out with these issues.

Are you still experiencing issues with Vanguard? Are you receiving any error codes or messages? We do currently have a reported trend with Vanguard and I would like to gather some more information to determine if your issue is related.

Let me know!

Quicken Kristina

Hello @LindaE,

Thank you for letting us know you're encountering this issue. You are not able to see transactions because you are connected via Quicken Connect, which typically supports only Simple tracking (which does not show transactions).

To be able to see transactions, you would want to backup your Quicken file and switch to Direct Connect so that you can use Detailed tracking (which does let you see transactions).

Unfortunately, there is currently a known issue with Direct Connect. Please see the alert linked below for more details.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7960293/update-2-24-25-vanguard-ol-295-a-and-error-16503

For now, I recommend staying connected via Quicken Connect, then switching to Direct Connect once the issue is resolved. You can bookmark the alert linked above to be notified of any updates, when available, and know when the issue is resolved.

I hope this helps!

T73

Quicken for Mac just had me change vanguard setup. Result. I lost all transaction history and the inability to track future transactions. The cost of Quicken never goes down but if you're going to remove features, please adjust price of product.

Kathy Muench

Changing from Direct Connect to Quicken Connect (in Quicken Mac) is not acceptable for those of us with transaction history going back 20 or more years! Vanguard wasn't very helpful when I called them.

fkick

I too almost just lost over a decade of transactions in Vanguard because it wanted to convert to "Simple" (thankfully I had a backup of the database file).

Is Vanguard dropping support for proper tracking with Quicken for Mac? Or is this just a bug?

Jon

From what's been said by the Quicken folks and what others have reported being told by Vanguard it doesn't sound like the current state of things is intended to be permanent. But I don't know if the goal they're working towards is for Direct Connect to come back, or for Quicken Connect to allow Detailed tracking, or both. Personally I would prefer to see Direct Connect come back but would be satisfied if we just got Detailed tracking with Quicken Connect. Simple Tracking just isn't enough for me, I'd rather disconnect & manage by hand if that's all we get.

StanQkn

Will there be a subscription extension for customers who rely on the direct connect capability between Quicken and Vanguard since the product is not functioning as intended. My subscription expires this week and do not wish to extend it until I know this is fixed?

Jon

No, they don't give out free subscription time because of connection issues.

jacobs

@StanQkn Quicken can't accept financial responsibility every time a financial institution makes a change which breaks Quicken's ability to connect. Quicken connects to more than 10,000 financial institutions, and on any given day, there are probably dozens which are temporarily out because a financial institution has moved their server, changed a security protocol, updated login procedures, etc. In a perfect world, every financial institution would plan these changes in advance, notify Intuit (who is actually the one which handles connectivity services for Quicken) weeks in advance, provide a testing server for Intuit to use to verify whatever coding changes are needed, and the switchover would be smooth and transparent — but it often doesn't work that way. Unfortunately, connectivity to third-party financial apps like Quicken is usually pretty low on the priority list for financial institution IT teams — as we're seeing play out with Vanguard right now.

If Quicken gave refunds for every outage, even though not their fault, they would have to raise the price of the subscription. How would they even calculate the refund value of a particular financial institution's outage? If you have 7 financial institution and one doesn't work for two weeks, would they refund you 1/7th cost cost of two weeks of a subscription , or 10¢ or 20¢ per week for such an outage? Would a "big" institution like Vanguard of Chase or Citi merit a larger credit than a small local credit union? Imagine how much it would cost them to create tracking services and add staff to their support teams to handle all the micro-refunds they'd need to deal with. So the bottom line is that Quicken just can't practically give refunds due to a financial institution outage which is out of their control to fix. It feels frustrating, to be sure, but that's the only practical answer.

That all said, if this drags on for more than a month, you might find that if you call Quicken Support and complain, they might make a one-time allowance and do something like add a month to your subscription. I'm not sure it's worth the time to call and wait and state your case to lobby for a month that's worth perhaps $4-$6, but I've seen a few users who have in the past reported that they've gotten some credit like that as a customer courtesy when they've pursued it with Quicken Support.

mikevio16

I am having the same issue with Vanguard! Quicken Connect only. Absolutely needs to be fixed ASAP.

StanQkn

I agree or at least a resolution date should be provided. This is not a free app and the subscripton price keeps increasing.

jacobs

@StanQkn How would you expect Quicken to provide a resolution date for something they don't have control over? As has been documented in multiple posts now in these Vanguard threads, it's up to Vanguard (and their third-party connectivity provider) to restore access for Quicken and other personal finance apps.

StanQkn

Good point @jacobs. I called Vanguard and they could not provide a date either.

Barb A

Same issue here. I tried calling Vanguard but the call line was extremely long. When I followed the steps outlined I was't able to see the currant transaction download into my Quicken program. Disappointing as I just upgrade my Quicken program because of how easy it was to balance my investment account.

serotta88

This is going on way too long. Quicken, this need to be fixed asap. Do you have the right amount of resources on it for a pay application?

jacobs

@serotta88 If you read some of the posts above, you will see that this disruption was caused by Vanguard, and there’s nothing Quicken can do except wait for Vanguard to fix it. Vanguard has acknowledged it and said they are working on a fix, but they have given no ETA.

Log into your account at Vanguard, go to transactions ,download a QFX file, match it to your vanguard account in quicken, problem solved. It takes maybe 2 minutes longer than a direct connect, and it's probably temporary

TomP-51

Downloaded Vanguard transactions this morning 3/8/2025 @ 4:16 AM. Very welcome surprise.

emclusk

I use both Quicken Mac and Banktivity ever since Quicken stopped providing detailed downloads. If competitor Banktivity can update all Vanguard and Fidelity transactions automatically, why can't Quicken for Mac do the same? Based on my experience, I seriously doubt this is a Vanguard problem. Quicken needs to get on top of this or it's time to drop my decades-long subscription to Quicken.

Jon

@emclusk All my Vanguard & Fidelity accounts are updating fine, have been for days now. And if Vanguard reps were saying it was a Vanguard problem I see no reason to doubt them, regardless of what was going on with Banktivity.

(And if you think Banktivity never has connection problems like this, I can tell you from personal experience you're wrong.)

emclusk

Agreed—both programs can have connection problems. But I cannot get detailed transactions for either Vanguard or Fidelity, so I don't see how you might be getting that detailed download. Again—Banktivity gives me the detailed download.

Jon

I use Direct Connect with both Vanguard and Fidelity, Detailed Tracking is still available from both firms using that connection method. I set up a new Quicken file just now & was able to set up Direct Connect to both.

If you're using Direct Connect but aren't able to access transactions, you may have to disconnect & reconnect your accounts. I created a test file a few days ago connected to Vanguard and it won't let me change the tracking method, all accounts are stuck on Detailed, but in the file I created just now it does give me the option to switch tracking methods. Same accounts in both files & both using Direct Connect.

dwright59

I still am not able to use Direct Connect with Quicken for Mac and Vanguard. Even if I disconnect the accounts and try and reconnect, the Direct Connection option is greyed out and when I try to change the connection method to Detailed, I get this error message:

Jon

I connect to "Vanguard", not "Vanguard - Personal Investors"; I have no experience with the latter.

fdittmaier

I am also unable to choose Direct Connect. Says that Personal Investors only support Simple Investment Tracking. The "Detailed Investment Tracking" option is greyed out.

This has been going on for nearly a month already. Has Vanguard discontinued the Detailed Investment Tracking ability for Mac users? I need the Transaction downloading ability or my Quicken Premier account has lost its usefulness to me.

jacobs

@fdittmaier Instead of using "Vanguard - Personal Investors", you should be using "Vanguard".

Screenshot 2025-03-15 at 12.17.34 AM.png

"Vanguard" supports Direct Connect, and therefore detail investment tracking.

fdittmaier

jacobs, you made my day. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Got everything downloaded and can now see all my transactions.

Thanks again,

Fred D.