nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

How to reduce my data file that I have since 2008?

Dinis Couto

Hello,
my desktop "Quicken Classic Business & Personal" is running very slow (even knowing my computer is new). I realized I have account records since 2008 and one of the files is about 250MB in size.
Is there a way to archive or reduce the file size (as I do not go back to those old transactions) to improve performance?
Any other suggestions on how to increase performance as any screen move is painfully slow.
Thank you so much,
Dinis

Find more posts tagged with

Slowness

Performance Issue

Accepted answers

All comments

Tom Young

My Quicken file is approaching 364MB; it may be running slower that it did years ago, but not frustratingly slow.

Try making a QUICKEN Copy of the file. Quicken's copy function does generally result in a smaller file as it rebuilds the database from scratch, eliminating "dead space" and leftover data from deleted transactions, and the like.

You will need to reconnect all the Accounts in the file to their Financial Institutions for downloading.

RalphC

The size of the Quicken data file will not perceptibly slow down the software performance, except for copies or backups to other drives. However, if you want to shrink the size, delete any obsolete or unneeded attachments.

rahcoleman

I have the same problem. My file size is about 800 meg. I have about 30 years of data. Particularly with investment transaction it does run slow. I don't want to archive that data. In some cases I'm holding investments for 20 years+ and I don't want to lose the cost basis information.

I don't believe that I have that many transactions, maybe 100,000 between banking and investment transactions so I don't know what is taking up all the space. Also, the backup files are taking up a lot of space on my hard drive.

I really would like quicken to look into options to help us manage our file size, perhaps a compact and repair function. Or perhaps if stock quotes are the problem then maybe after a while only keep the quarterly ending prices. Any help would be appreciated.

cfrphoto

My Quicken file has grown to 132 GB. Some years ago, I attempted to selectively remove old transactions. Some data loss occurred which was mostly but not completely recovered. Quicken does not correctly manage transfers between accounts to be retained and accounts to be removed or truncated. If one half of a transfer is removed, the other half should remain with non-transfer category. Before doing this again I will remove as many split transfers as possible. Split transfers hide data that should be visible.

Modifying batches of transactions can be slow or extremely slow. If Quicken is not restarted periodically, operations like recategorize slow to a crawl.

I use a third-party desktop application to create and manage eBay listings. It is built on top of Microsoft SQL Server Express. I can create custom reports by writing queries.

I wish that Quicken would move to a relational database. I fear that the product will be moved to the cloud with all of the defects that web applications are forced to work around because of browser limitations, not to mention making the data all but inaccessible.

Tom Young

@rahcoleman

As I understand it, "attachments" to transactions take up a crazy amount of space, so if you routinely do attach documents in your file that could account for the bloat, and the slowness.

nmestanas

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20531278#Comment_20531278

132 GB!! Is that real or a typo?

cfrphoto

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20531920#Comment_20531920

You are correct - 132 MB. Quicken as a 32-bit application would turn into a pile of slag if confronted with a file that large. It is time for Quicken to be converted to a 64-bit application. I notice that making bulk transaction modifications causes Quicken to slow to a crawl. Restarting Quicken seems to reset memory and bulk transactions are faster, at least initially. Quicken is very slow compared to the 22GB database application that tracks eBay and HipStamp transactions. Moving Quicken to a true relational database (not My SQL) would be likely to make Quicken faster than it is now and improve data security.

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20533330#Comment_20533330

But the only way that anyone is going to even approach (or exceed) a 1GB data file is because it is mostly attachments. And the attachments aren't in the database. The QDF file is a compressed file like a ZIP file, and the attachments are stored in a different folder in that compressed file. People have decades of data, and their data files (without attachments) come nowhere never 1GB.

It is academic though; Quicken Inc doesn't have the resources to rewrite Quicken Windows.

For what is worth, I think performance problems in Quicken have very little to do with the database, and more to do with poor GUI, dependencies on the network, and general problems with the underline code.

Example. The find command over a long period. I'm very sure that the problem is that they are filling the GUI list directly and not using a virtual list.

nmestanas

I agree, a rewrite as a native 64 bit app would likely do wonders for this app and it's users.

I also agree that the DB is not the biggest issue (wish we knew what DB it actually is). My data file is 25 years old, and about 90mb (no attachments). I can "find" a record (even find all) is under a second (more like a blink). I can run fairly complex custom reports very quickly. However, once I display those reports, things get sketchy. Ghosting, persistent artifacts, known issues with multiple monitors are just some. Changing the display (date rang, interval, etc) show the table update quickly and they a laggy chart update.

While Find seems to work well, Find/Replace is a bit sluggish. It updates each record in the UI before moving on to the next record. On occasion, I decide to change or merge certain categories. Finding the "old" ones is quick. Changing to the new one does seem to take along time if there are 1,000s of entries

My sessions in Quicken are not very long. Just long enough to run OSU, fix any download errors (do get me started), check a few balances, maybe run a report or two, and I'm out. I'm in Quicken daily (sometime more than once) so I always have a "fresh instance" running.