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Quicken Validate is DANGEROUS! How do I find the exact damage that it did to my files?

rcstevensonaz

I think I am running into similar issues reported in 2020 (over FIVE YEAR ago) in the thread below.

As I've run validate, I have had a range of things done to my files:

Categories are reported as removed
"Duplicate" transactions between downloaded and reconciled transactions deleted
Reconciled balances messed up because of case #2 above

But in the validate log, it never gives useful details of the specific categories or transactions that were affected — which used to be the case with Quicken for Windows years in the past.

Surely there are more detailed logs somewhere that I can probe, since the status screen is useless dribble that it fixed something (without giving any details on what exactly was done).

For example:

QDF:

Validating your data.

Repaired your data file by removing a damaged category. Please check your category list for missing categories by going to Tools>Category List.

As a side note, I keep running validate a lot because it seems to always find damaged indexes, categories, duplicated transactions, etc. over and over. And yes, I am still working though multi-year backlog of downloaded transaction data that has not yet been processed. And I keep shifting between accounts as each one is brought up to date month-by-month.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7879590/acct-cxx-error

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Accepted answers

Jim_Harman

There is a 7 year old Idea post requesting a clearer report of what Validate and Repair has done but sadly it has been in the "Planned" state for 2 1/2 years now. There is no way to add a vote but you can still add a comment.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7850837/need-a-tool-to-really-truly-repair-data-corruption-13-merged-votes

All comments

splasher

In case you need it, the Validate process creates a backup of the data file in the Validate folder where the data file is stored.

You can use it to restore the data file to its original condition.

Chris_QPW

Yes, a lot of people don't realize that it is dangerous. There is very good reason why Quicken makes a backup before doing validate and repair. Validate and repair's goal is to make the data consistent, and it will remove data to get it consistent if it has to. What's more it is code like any other code, and as such it can have bugs in itself.

I don't think there is any way to tell what it has changed.

Since the error is pointing out categories one step to take would be to print out the category list before and after that validation.

If you are having constant data problems, I would suggest making sure you aren't don't anything that is corrupting the data, like storing the data file in a network drive or in the "cloud folder" that is being synced. Or leaving Quicken open all the time, and especially not allowing Windows to go to sleep or hibernate when the Quicken data file is open.

rcstevensonaz

How do I compare the backup it made against the new modified version? The core issue is changes are being made without any statement of that change.

A long time ago, validate listed every single transaction issue that was identified. Now, it just says "I removed what I think was a duplicate downloaded transaction". But I don't know which transacaction(s) and accounts were affected.

Jim_Harman

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7850837/need-a-tool-to-really-truly-repair-data-corruption-13-merged-votes

rcstevensonaz

Thanks Jim.

Sadly, Quicken completely regressed in this area from what I was used to (before taking a 6 year hiatus from tracking finances).