Online Backup Backups Twice?

Question

I just started using online backup. I have both local and cloud backups checked. Whenever I click the cloud icon to backup I see both backup options. Starting backup both are running. The cloud icon shows it backing up and then a backup finished notice. However, when I close Q I get a popup window that says Q is backing up to the cloud. If it finished within the program why is it also running after the program is closed?

Sceptic · Answer

@EdandPeg thanks for the additional detail. Based on what you're describing, I agree that the file size itself does not seem like the likely cause. A 10 MB backup file should normally upload very quickly on most internet connections, and certainly not keep Quicken open for an hour if the backup had truly completed.

What stands out is that Quicken reported the backup completed successfully, yet displayed another backup window when you later exited the program. That suggests one of a few possibilities:

* The initial backup may have completed locally, but a separate cloud synchronization process remained active in the background.
* Quicken may have been waiting on a cloud service acknowledgement or synchronization task that never fully finished.
* There could be an issue with Quicken's backup status reporting, where it marks the backup as complete before all related cloud operations have actually ended.

Your concern about reliability is valid. If a backup window remains open for an extended period and Windows crashes or is forced to close before the process truly finishes, it raises questions about whether the backup was fully committed to the cloud. The fact that the backup dialog reappears at shutdown suggests Quicken itself may not have considered the operation completely finished.

The comparison to Dropbox is also telling. If Dropbox can upload a 90 MB file in seconds on the same system and connection, then a 10 MB Quicken backup taking more than an hour points to something other than raw file transfer speed.

One thing I'd be interested in knowing is whether the backup file actually appears in the cloud destination immediately after Quicken reports "Backup completed successfully." If the file is already present and accessible at that point, it would support the theory that the delay is occurring within Quicken's cloud synchronization or housekeeping processes rather than during the backup upload itself.

For now, I think your practice of maintaining an independent Dropbox backup is a wise precaution until the behavior can be explained. The key issue here seems less about the size of the backup and more about why Quicken is reporting completion while still behaving as though a backup operation is pending.

EdandPeg · Answer

That sounds plausable, however I don't think that is actually the case. I chose to backup using the cloud icon. Q stayed open for more than an hour. I did not call up any additional backups. The backup file is only about 10MB which would mean that it backs up quickly. When I finally closed Q the same backing up window popped up. It's confusing that the program reports that the backup completed sucessfully only to find that it is backing up again? when it is closed down. The concerning point is that if there is ever an incident when Windows closes prematurely or hangs the backup may never have taken place. I'm glad that I do a Dropbox backup as well. For one of my Q accounts of over 90MB dropbox concludes in just a few seconds. So, 10 MB should be almost instantaneous. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Sceptic · Answer

@EdandPeg what you're likely seeing is the difference between creating the backup and uploading the backup to Quicken Cloud.

When you click the cloud backup icon, Quicken can complete the local backup quickly and report that the backup has finished. However, the cloud upload may continue in the background. If you close Quicken before the upload is fully complete, Quicken may display a message indicating it is still backing up to the cloud and will wait for that process to finish.

If cloud backups are large or your internet connection is slower, it's not unusual for the cloud upload to take longer than the local backup.