Vanguard error OL-304-A

kmagnush · July 2020

Have been downloading transactions just fine from Vanguard, and I have triple-checked that the password is correct. Have been getting error OL-304-A since Saturday. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Frankx · July 2020

Hi @kmagnush,

Thanks for the updated information. I think that the next step you should take is to "deactivate" and then "reactivate" your Vanguard account(s). The following are the steps you should take to do that (BUT before you start - make sure that you backup your Quicken data file first):

Deactivate and reactivate online services for the account

Open the account register and accept any downloaded transactions.
Choose Tools menu > Account List.
Click the Edit button next to the account name.
In the Account Details window, click the Online Services tab.
Click Deactivate, and then click Yes to deactivate online services.
Click OK when prompted to confirm your choice.
Back on the Online Services tab, click Set up Now.
Enter the name of your bank and click Next.
Enter your credentials, select Save this password (if using password vault) and click Connect.
Choose LINK on the screen displayed after Quicken finds the available accounts at the financial institution for your login credentials and carefully link to your existing Quicken account(s). Please note, you cannot link an existing loan account. Those can only be added as new accounts
Go to your account register and click Account Actions > Update Now. This will refresh your online setup information.

Let me know how this goes.

Frankx

Frankx · July 2020

Hi @kmagnush,

Have you tried logging in to your Vanguard account via the web? If not, please do that to make sure that nothing has changed on their end and get back to us.

Frankx

kmagnush · July 2020

I spoke with tech support at Vanguard. They haven’t made any changes on their end, and no one else has reported any problems. I have also logged in to my account at Vanguard and no problems there.

William Bailey · July 2020

I'm having the same problem and it too started on Saturday.
QV R27.28
Build 27.1.27.28

kmagnush · July 2020

> @Frankx said:
> Hi @kmagnush,
>
> Have you tried logging in to your Vanguard account via the web? If not, please do that to make sure that nothing has changed on their end and get back to us.
>
> Frankx

@Frankx I answered your question; no known Vanguard issues, they told me. Any other thoughts as to what to do to correct this problem?

Frankx · July 2020

Hi @kmagnush,

Thanks for the updated information. I think that the next step you should take is to "deactivate" and then "reactivate" your Vanguard account(s). The following are the steps you should take to do that (BUT before you start - make sure that you backup your Quicken data file first):

Deactivate and reactivate online services for the account

Open the account register and accept any downloaded transactions.
Choose Tools menu > Account List.
Click the Edit button next to the account name.
In the Account Details window, click the Online Services tab.
Click Deactivate, and then click Yes to deactivate online services.
Click OK when prompted to confirm your choice.
Back on the Online Services tab, click Set up Now.
Enter the name of your bank and click Next.
Enter your credentials, select Save this password (if using password vault) and click Connect.
Choose LINK on the screen displayed after Quicken finds the available accounts at the financial institution for your login credentials and carefully link to your existing Quicken account(s). Please note, you cannot link an existing loan account. Those can only be added as new accounts
Go to your account register and click Account Actions > Update Now. This will refresh your online setup information.

Let me know how this goes.

Frankx

William Bailey · July 2020

I ran my daily OSU this morning and It worked for the first time since last Friday.

Frankx · July 2020

Hi @William Bailey,

Glad to hear that it is working again!

@kmagnush,

Have you tried downloading from Vanguard this morning? If not, try that before doing the steps I posted above (this morning).

Frankx

William Bailey · July 2020

Today, Friday, it didn't work. Ran my daily OSU as usual and got the OL-304-A
error - Your financial institution doesn't recognize the account.....

Frankx · July 2020

Hi @William Bailey,

I would suggest that you backup your current file, and then "deactivate" and then "reactivate" your Vanguard account(s) - see detailed instructions above in my post to @kmagnush dated 7/23,

Let me know how that goes.

Frankx

jasonbrla · July 2020

How many of these issues with Quicken and Vanguard strings do I have to get on? I had everything working fine, then Quicken forces upgrade to Build 27.1.27.28, and now I have this issue. When i deactivate and reactivate Quicken doesn't find the 401k account anymore. It found it earlier today when i did an OSU before the update to the new build. So then i closed the program and reopened it...it doesn't give me the error but my 401k quote did not update. Fingers crossed that its temporary.

tsumiec · July 2020

Experiencing the same issue this morning. Deactivate and reactivate works for a one time download to the account. When I run OSU, account not found again. Come on Quicken, I have been having issues with Vanguard downloads for months now - it goes from one problem to the next with a generic fix offered that does solve the issue. Please get on top of this.

darbusa · July 2020

My download worked yesterday morning but this morning I get OL-304 on all my accounts at Vanguard. I don't have a feel for who is at fault since both Vanguard and Quicken has quality control issues.

darbusa · July 2020

One additional thing. When I look at update summary and click on the accounts it says for each account "Holdings information updates as of 7/25/2020 5:00:00 PM." Obviously something wrong with that since not accounts updated and the date shown is today but the time shown is at least 6 hours later than my actual time of update which was about 10:30 AM. It is now 11am my time as I write this.

kmagnush · July 2020

@Frankx Yes, deactivating/reactivating worked for me. Thanks.

Frankx · July 2020

@Kmagnush,

Happy to help!

Frankx

kmagnush · July 2020

@Frankx Issue came back. It worked yesterday after deactivating and reactivating, but then I downloaded again this morning, and got the same error.

William Bailey · July 2020

I'm having the same problem. Unpredictable success and failures since last Saturday.
I've looked at the Connection and OFX logs and, in my opinion, the problem is originating from Vanguard.
I don't know how to get Vanguard's attention.

TimG · July 2020

I'm having a similar issue. I see what the issue is, but don't see a way to fix it. Quicken is trying to pull from investors.vanguard.com and my accounts are at personal.vanguard.com Vanguard considers them different web sites - how can this be changed in the default settings?

Chris_QPW · July 2020

@TimG that isn't the problem. Quicken isn't logging into the Vanguard website. For Direct Connect, which all investment accounts use, they log into an OFX server which may or may not be the URL as the financial institution's website.

It seems that there are now two threads on this, here is the other one.
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20107835

As I said in that thread I'm seeing the same "intermittent" failure since yesterday, and I suspect that Vanguard is doing some kind of maintenance over the weekend. They do that from time to time from what I have seen.

William Bailey · July 2020

I'm having the same problem intermittently and I've looked at the connection and OFX logs for this. It fails with the Vanguard servers sending an OFX Error 2003 which is file/account not found. This points to a problem at Vanguard not Quicken. I don't know how to get their attention. How do we contact Vanguard Web Technical Support?

Chris_QPW · July 2020

William Bailey said:

How do we contact Vanguard Web Technical Support?

Not really sure, but you certainly shouldn't be trying to connect to "Web". OFX has nothing to do with their website. Of course the "back end" technical people that service the website might be the same that know about OFX, but if you contact them you definitely want to make sure they know that this isn't about connecting to their website, it is about Quicken connecting to their OFX server and downloading transactions.

But personally my approach would be wait and see at least until past the weekend.

William Bailey · July 2020

Here are OFX log entries
20200726 15:23:15: QFN: Beginning send to https://vesnc.vanguard.com/us/OfxDirectConnectServlet

<STATUS><CODE>2003<SEVERITY>ERROR</STATUS>

20200726 15:23:15: QFN: End send to https://vesnc.vanguard.com/us/OfxDirectConnectServlet, netstatus 0

Further info
https://www.ofxhome.com/index.php/institution/view/479

markus1957 · July 2020

I experienced this over the weekend. I went to each of my Vanguard account registers and used Update Transactions from the gear icon. After each account was refreshed in this manner, I did not receive the error in OSU.

tsmith07 · August 2020

Have waited out this issue two weeks.

Have deactivated, but now now my Vanguard account cannot be found by Quicken.

Attempted to import a QFX files I downloaded from Vanguard into the current account, but Quicken errors out. I established a new 401K account in Quicken, did not set up a connection and was able to import the QFX file. Will move these transactions to my current 401K to stay up to date, but this issue is unacceptable.

I have texted with Quicken support, who goes back to it being an issue with Vanguard. I have no problem logging into my Vanguard account, getting any information, or downloading transactions to a separate file.

There must be a setting issue with my current Quicken install, but I cannot figure it out. Unfortunately, I need a Quicken account rep to call me back on the weekend, since I am working during the Quicken phone support hours. Quicken, please get with Vanguard and fix this issue.

Its overwhelmingly annoying that I have spent hours trying to fix this, only to be IM'd that its a Vanguard issue. No, it is a Quicken/Vanguard issue that Quicken support needs to work out, not the users of Quicken who are constantly plagued by this issue. Please engage and fix.

(Edited-Readability)

bpilk · August 2020

My first recent experience with the OL-304-A error happened last Saturday (...the financial institution does not recognize the account.......). I attempted to "reset" each account I have for Vanguard within Quicken, but when quicken connects to to Vanguard, there are no accounts in the list to match to- so reset is not an option. I tried deactivating, then reactivating, but again when quicken connects to Vanguard it shows no accounts to match to.

On Monday, there was an update to quicken (R27.42). I downloaded the update. From Monday until Friday (7/31), I was able to successfully use the one-step update with my Vanguard accounts and received no errors. I have no idea if the update was coincidental and totally unrelated to the problem, or if the update fixed the problem.

Now, Saturday 8/1, I am again experiencing the OL-304-A error and again am unable to use "reset"- same experience as last Saturday- Quicken connects to Vanguard using my credentials, but once connected shows no accounts to match to. I am now curious to see if the situation is corrected again by Monday.

ps56k · August 2020

bpilk said: Now, Saturday 8/1, I am again experiencing the OL-304-A error

I just encountered this today.... don't think I have seen this before today - Sat - Aug 1 -

Anyway, didn't do anything - just tried again later, and it worked ok.

William Bailey · August 2020

I have an open ticket with Vanguard for this issue as I am experiencing it, more often than not, too. I sent them the OFX logs, annotated, that shows them the problem is on their end. I was escalated to their Production Support team The ticket was opened on Wednesday. I've had no updates.

I suspect I am one of the few who has escalated this at Vanguard. The first level support doesn't understand how Direct Connect works and unless you can show them, as I finally did, they will keep blaming Quicken.

You may be able to get their attention by emailing their Web Technical Support Services group at [email protected] and put ATTN: WTSS in the subject line.

iseealine · August 2020

I am glad I am not alone with this issue. One step update stopped working for vanguard the other day but I could still go into the account/edit/update transactions to get a download. now that stopped. I downloaded a file from vanguard but quicken said no such account exists in quicken. I rebooted with no success. I tried to reset the account but no luck it didnt show up in the dialog box. I deactivated (as many suggested here but cannot get the reactivate to work. It takes my vanguard login and pw and trys to connect then stops without any error message. Next I tried to fix the file but no luck. I send a problem report to quicken.

miklk · August 2020

Since Vanguard is Direct Connect , You should almost always give it a few days and it should be back based on past experience. (Especially when an outage occurs on the weekends which indicates they are probably working on something).

Vanguard has been one of the most reliable of my many FIs.

PS: I just updated no problem now and I also got that error last weekend.

iseealine · August 2020

Thanks for the advice.

Vanguard error OL-304-A

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