Vanguard - continued problems

bookemdanno

Hi, Vanguard direct connect has resumed for my vanguard accounts. however, i have one vanguard account that did not resume correctly.

i can now connect it via direct connect but it will only do so as 'simple investing' - so you can't see transactions. a help link within the edit account details window says vanguard only allows express web web connect (see ss attached).

as additional context, during the outage, i switched this account to web connect to download the transaction file from vanguard. to attempt to switch it back to direct connect, i disconnected the account in quicken then restarted quicken then reconnected the account in quicken. i've done that twice a week apart. still doesn't work.

can somebody help?

thank you!

EWC.png

Boatnmaniac

How are you reconnecting that account? Via Set Up Now? If so, that likely is the cause of the issue you are seeing.

Per many posts by other users with Vanguard accounts the resolution of this issue is as follows:

1. Back up your data file.
2. Deactivate the account on the Online Service tab of Account Details.
3. Change the tracking method from Simple to Complete on the General tab of Account Details.
4. Go to Tools > Add Account (or click on the "+" symbol above the Account Bar List which will open Add Account) to set up downloading with Direct Connect….DO NOT USE SET UP NOW.
5. During this process you will likely be prompted to decide what to do with the downloaded data. For the accounts that are already connected correctly, make sure to select "Do Not Add". For the account in question that you need fixed, make sure you Link it to the account that is already in Quicken.

Looking forward to seeing your reply.

Boatnmaniac

How are you reconnecting that account? Via Set Up Now? If so, that likely is the cause of the issue you are seeing.

Per many posts by other users with Vanguard accounts the resolution of this issue is as follows:

1. Back up your data file.
2. Deactivate the account on the Online Service tab of Account Details.
3. Change the tracking method from Simple to Complete on the General tab of Account Details.
4. Go to Tools > Add Account (or click on the "+" symbol above the Account Bar List which will open Add Account) to set up downloading with Direct Connect….DO NOT USE SET UP NOW.
5. During this process you will likely be prompted to decide what to do with the downloaded data. For the accounts that are already connected correctly, make sure to select "Do Not Add". For the account in question that you need fixed, make sure you Link it to the account that is already in Quicken.

Looking forward to seeing your reply.

bookemdanno

wow! that worked! thank you!

so it's some sort of bug that re-enabling direct connect through account details forces the account to 'simple'?

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20481434#Comment_20481434

Thanks for confirming it worked. We do not know why when setting up the DC connection some people got Simple Tracking switched on. Whatever it is, it is not unusual when there has been a major break in the download connection for it to take time for all of the options to function normally, again. Fortunately, a few of us found out the order of the steps that needs to be taken to resolve the issue and for almost everyone who follows them their DC connection with Complete Tracking is fully restored, again. I'm pretty sure the few "bugs" that still exist with download connections setups will be resolved over the next few weeks.

I'm reminded of last Sep when Citi broke all of the EWC+ connections for all types of accounts. It took 2-1/2 wks to get some connectivity restored for some accounts and about a month for all of the connectivity issues to be resolved. The Vanguard connection break occurred about 3 wks ago so hopefully it will all be history pretty soon.

So, is this unusual? Yes, but it is not unheard of. I think most people are just happy that Vanguard got DC with Complete Tracking is working, again.

bookemdanno

yeah, definitely happy it's working and very happy with the Quicken community! Great resource! Thank you for helping me!

bdegnan

You should not have to go thru all of this. Vanguard should make it more transparent somehow. There is also an issue of repeated Vanguard outages involving Quicken. I never experienced these with Fidelity. I moved 6 Vanguard accounts to Fidelity. Bonus points: Fidelity website is best of breed and customer service is awesome. Loving life now.

Matt K

Boatnmaniac, this work around fixed the problem for me too March 19th, after verifying the simple forced default still exists regular way of reconnecting after this major problem. THANK YOU!!!

Going to Fidelity is not the answer bdegnan, you get Quicken workin, but have inferior investment products and a predatory sales organization on your back now…

Thank you again!

Whothefuckcares

This fix also worked for me.
Crazy that the default “set up now” behaves differently than re-adding the account through the “Tool” menu bar. And when the account was added with “simple tracking”, it really sent me for a loop.

Thanks for this solution!

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20481894#Comment_20481894

Glad to hear it worked for you. You are welcome.

Regarding Fidelity: Sorry to hear you have such a low opinion of them. I've had accounts with Fidelity for over 15 yrs and have been pretty pleased with the competitive performance and costs of many of their funds. I've never observed them acting as predators. The only concern I have about them is that their advisors are not fiduciaries but I have never observed them acting in ways promoting products/services that were not in my best interest. Still, I wanted a fiduciary advising me so a couple of years ago I changed management of my accounts to an independent firm (Churchill Management). Churchill still invests in Fidelity funds but they have added more non-Fidelity funds to the mix. BTW, all of my investment accounts are still held at Fidelity but they are no longer involved in advising/managing them. I must say that while I am generally pleased with how well downloads from Fidelity work Fidelity has had it's share of download issues, as well.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20482309#Comment_20482309

Thanks for confirming it worked for you, as well.

Add Account and Set Up Now work a little differently from each other. Add Account easily provides access to the entire financial institutions list where we can then select the best financial institution option for our needs. Set Up Now "searches" the Add Account list for the one Quicken "thinks" should be the default for that financial institution. For some financial institutions Set UP Now works just fine but for others is it better to use Add Account so you can view and select the best connection option for your type of account, type of online service and download connection option. So, it does not surprise me that Add Account works one way but Set Up Now works a bit differently. (FYI: It's gotten to the point where I now rarely use Set Up Now and will almost always use Add Account.)

What is confusing to me is that the QWin FIDIR list shows Vanguard has just one listing and that listing shows support for DC and WC only….not for EWC/EWC+….and this is what is supposed to and does show up in Add Account.:

15103 15103 15103 Vanguard https://investor.vanguard.com/home/ 1-888-285-4563 https://investor.vanguard.com/corporate-portal/ ACTIVE INVESTMENT,401K,ACCOUNTINFO&DIRECT INVESTMENT,401K&WEB-CONNECT NOT_QBP NA

So Set Up Now setting up an EWC+ connection in QWin should not even be remotely possible but it is apparently happening anyway. IMO, this means that there is something seriously broken with Set Up Now as it regards Vanguard. Hopefully, this gets fixed, soon.

baehrtime

Did not work for me. Quicken is still not downloading Vanguard Brokerage transactions. Is there any new definitive instructions from Quicken that fix this? Thank you.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20482338#Comment_20482338

Please clarify what you mean by "…still not downloading Vanguard Brokerage transactions."

• Is it that you cannot get a download connection established?
• Is it that you cannot get the correct download connection established? (You need Direct Connect, not Express Web Connect+. What does it show your connection is on the Online Services tab of Account Details?)
• Are you getting an error message or code? If so, what is that error code or what does the error message say?
• Is it that your account shows a dashboard with holdings and values instead of an account register with actual transactions?
• At the top of the register directly below the Account Name: What does it show was the date and time of the last download?
• Is your Vanguard account and original Vanguard account or was it previously with a different company that was later acquired and merged into Vanguard? If it was merged into Vanguard, what was the account number prior to the merger?

baehrtime

It is that my account shows a dashboard with holdings and values instead of an account register with actual transactions. How do I change from dashboard view to an Account Register view? I'm using Direct Connect. Now there is an error code OL-297-A. It says "Quicken is unable to establish an internet connection". That's a new one - I just tried again after letting it sit for 2 days. It's an original Vanguard account. Thank you.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20482789#Comment_20482789

If you truly do have a good DC connection and you are seeing the dashboard (Simple Tracking), go to the General tab of Account Details and select Complete Tracking.

If you cannot select Complete Tracking, then it appears you have the same issue that many in this thread have had. If this is the case, see my 3/16/2025 post above (under "Best Answer"). Have you tried taking those steps? (Make sure you do not use Set Up Now…must use Add Account or the "+" symbol.)

Regarding the OL-297-A error code: See this Support Article… https://www.quicken.com/support/error-when-using-online-services-ol-297/ . It is quite possible that Vanguard was doing some system maintenance yesterday. It is quite common that when a financial institution has had a major connection issue and there are still some bugs remaining after the "fix" to that has been put into place for them to periodically continue to have intermittent connection interruptions while they work on fixing the remaining bugs. Most such interruptions will occur at night and on weekends so as to not cause issues during normal business days and hours. When it is caused by financial institution system maintenance it will go away when they have finished doing the maintenance.