Getting Invalid Password message when trying to Direct Download from TIAA

I recently changed my passwords to a number of financial institutions. I do this from time to time without an issues. This time I keep getting an "Invalid User ID or Password/Pin" when I try to Direct Download from TIAA (only after the password change). I know both are correct though. TIAA web support couldn't resolve it. Quicken support couldn't resolve it (they suggested trying setting up the TIAA accounts again... new... and trying, but that didn't solve the issue). Both point to the other. Any help would be appreciated.

Best Answer

  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    Answer ✓
    TIAA figured it out. Posting the answer in case anyone else has the issue. And this can sometimes be the solution for other institutions too, I've discovered over time. Certain special characters in passwords don't play nice sometimes, and this can sometimes change seemingly arbitrarily. So deleting or changing a special character in a password can sometimes solve the problem, as it did here. Thank you, Rick and Anja for trying to help out.

Answers

  • Quicken Anja
    Quicken Anja Moderator mod
    Hello @dkjbg8,

    Thank you for reaching out to the Community regarding your issue, though I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing this.

    Do you happen to receive any numeral error codes with this or is it just the invalid login error message?

    Thank you,

    -Quicken Anja

    -Quicken Anja
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  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Try this:

    Quit Quicken
    Open the Keychain Access app from the Applications > Utilities folder.
    Delete all keychain entries containing TIAA.
    Open Quicken and try again.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • HI Anja, No numerical code. Simply a message "Invalid User ID or Password/ Pin". Any further help would be appreciated.

    RickO, I will try what you recommend, making sure to save the passwords elsewhere if needed. I use Keychain all the time, so I am pretty familiar with it. And I'd updated the Quicken passwords in keychain, and also Quicken has asked me to "set up" the accounts, to no avail. So maybe some bug would cause your suggestion to be a fix. I'll try it and see, and report back.
  • RickO, tried your recommendation. Did not work. Am able to sign in via the TIAA website, It asked me to change my password again, which I did. New one didn't work in Quicken either. Tried shortening it in case Quicken has a character limit for passwords. Also didn't work. Trying TIAA as institution get "invalid User ID or Password/Pin" message. Trying TIAA bank, get can't connect to server message, same with TIAA Brokerage Service, but I always only used straight TIAA as the institution in the past. Don't know why this problem has arisen. Any fixes?
  • Quicken Anja
    Quicken Anja Moderator mod
    @dkjbg8 thank you for trying RickO's suggestion and providing the update. 

    Quick question though, when you removed the keychain passwords, did you deactivate prior to deleting them and then try to reactivate (reconnect) your accounts with TIAA after deleting from keychains? If not, I suggest following the step-by-step troubleshooting instructions found in this support article to do so.

    -Quicken Anja
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  • Thanks, Anja. I followed step by step the article instructions, deactivating accounts, etc. No luck. When I tried logging in from the New Account menu, I still got the "Invalid User ID or Password/ Pin" message. No numerical code though. Just not working.
  • Quicken Anja
    Quicken Anja Moderator mod
    Thank you for the update.

    Can you please try adding the account in a new empty data file (test file)?
    1. Go to File
    2. New...
    3. Start from Scratch
    4. Follow the prompts until you receive the Add Checking Account screen
    Try signing in and adding the account in the new file and see if that works or if you get the same result and we'll go from there. To switch back to your original file you'll go to File > Open Recent > 2nd file in the list.

    -Quicken Anja
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  • Anja, I believe when I called Quicken phone support, this is exactly what they had me do.... whole new file from scratch. It still did not work. I will try again though to see if anything changes. Not checking accounts, but that shouldn't matter, I'd think. They ultimately said there was something wrong with the TIAA server, but TIAA said there was something off with Quicken. I'll try what you suggest though.
  • Anja, so I tried exactly what you suggested, starting from scratch. Same message: "Invalid User ID or Password/Pin" or something to that effect, no numerical code or other info. As I said, Quicken phone support had me try this, and certainly worth trying again. Still no luck.
  • Quicken Anja
    Quicken Anja Moderator mod
    edited June 2020
    Thank you for the update and for trying that again.

    May I ask what account type(s) it is that you're trying to connect?

    -Quicken Anja
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  • Retirement, regular 401A, 403B. Just got off a long call with TIAA. They are stumped too. Going to see if they can figure out anything on their end. I can log in to their website, and do web connect download, and link the files to my accounts in Quicken. It is just with the direct connect, I get the error message. Seems as though we've tried everything in our tool box: deleting all keychain passwords associated with TIAA, changing the TIAA password again to see if that helped, adding new accounts within the Quicken file, even starting completely from scratch in Quicken. Direct connect was working right up to just before I changed the TIAA password (which I've done in the past without this issue). We'll see if TIAA can find out anything more.
  • Quicken Anja
    Quicken Anja Moderator mod
    Okay, great! Contacting TIAA would have been one of my next suggestions as this seems to be an issue on their end since using Direct Connect is using their servers to download.

    My other suggestion would have been to collect your log files to see if I could find an internal error or block that could be causing this, which would also result in contacting TIAA since like I mentioned above Direct Connect is their servers. The log files would just provide more information should there be anything internal to discover within the logs that could be useful for TIAA to submit a ticket for it.

    Since you already contacted them though, we can wait until you hear back first of course, and go from there. 

    -Quicken Anja
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  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Do you have 2-factor authentication enabled on TIAA web login and if so, have you tried temporarily disabling it?
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Hi Rick, Yes, tried that. No luck. Was on the list of multiple things we tried to no avail. Hoping TIAA can get this sorted out.
  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    Answer ✓
    TIAA figured it out. Posting the answer in case anyone else has the issue. And this can sometimes be the solution for other institutions too, I've discovered over time. Certain special characters in passwords don't play nice sometimes, and this can sometimes change seemingly arbitrarily. So deleting or changing a special character in a password can sometimes solve the problem, as it did here. Thank you, Rick and Anja for trying to help out.
  • Quicken Anja
    Quicken Anja Moderator mod
    Anytime! Glad to hear they were able to figure it out and thank you for the update.

    -Quicken Anja
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This discussion has been closed.