Quicken 2000 Backup Won’t Open—But Quicken 2006 Converts It! Why?

Question

I backed up my Quicken 2000 for Windows file today and when I tried to reopen it, Quicken shuts down.  Neither the original nor the file backed up opens.  I am able to open other Quicken 2000 files—just not the one I backed up.  Yet, when I open Quicken 2006 for Windows on a different computer and convert the backed-up file, which didn't open in Quicken 2000, it successfully converts and I can use it.  Does anyone have suggestions for why I have that problem and any solutions?

Boatnmaniac · Answer

You will be hard pressed to find any help in this Community forum for QWin 2000.  Even contacting Quicken Support is likely going to result in them simply telling you it's no longer supported.  But my guess is that there is something about your file that is corrupted and QWin 2000 could not read it because of that but that maybe the QWin 2006 conversion process was able to fix it or read it.

If you are able to use it with QWin 2006, why not use that instead of QWin 2000?  But, again, you will have a hard time finding much support about that here…again, it's too old.  With QWin 2000 and QWin 2006 your data files are living on borrowed time.  Eventually the software will fail or it will not be compatible with more recent versions of Windows.

What you might want to do is download and install QWin 2013 Deluxe for free from

https://www.quicken.com/support/how-and-when-use-intermediate-version-convert-older-versions-quicken/

.  There are some detailed instructions in this Support Article for how to upgrade from your QWin 2000 version to QWin 2013.  It says there is an intermediate version (QWin 2004) that you would first need to install (the download link for this is in this Support Article, as well) and upgrade to it.  But recently there was someone else who posted that they were able to bypass the QWin 2004 upgrade step by upgrading recently to I think it was QWin 2006.  At any rate, there are still several users who know about and/or still use QWin 2013….including a super user who could be quite helpful should you run into issues with it.

Of course, if you decide to do this then make sure you save backup copies of all your data files before you try to convert them.

MontanaKarl · Answer

Ummm…. don't use a 25 year old piece of software and expect everything to work flawlessly?  Why aren't you just using 2006 then… if not the current release?

What version of Windows on each computer?