.QFX QUESTION, CAN'T IMPORT THE .QFX

For years I imported QIF which I imported from Citibank. Quicken got rid of QIF, and so I download now .QFX.
Last year I imported them all fine. Great!

But just now I'm clicking import and an annoying sign comes up saying;

Oh no! Your connected services have expired, You are no longer able to download from you banks. etc...

BUT I never connect to my bank ever in 20 years of using Qucken. I download the Quicken file on my own to my hardrive and then I import them. So why am I getting this?

I have all the .qfx files on my hardrive, I'm not connecting or wanting to connect to the bank. Thanks

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Answers

  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    @kevs  It sounds like you're apparently using an old version of Quicken. Quicken considers any form of importing data -- even data you've downloaded as a .qfx file -- a "connected service." That's because there are some background services that take place in cleaning up Payee names and auto-applying Categories, even when importing information -- and it's part of their business model.

    If you upgrade to a current Quicken subscription, you'll be able to import your data. If you don't want to pay to stay current with Quicken, you can continue to access your existing Quicken data, and you can enter transactions manually -- but you won't be able to import data.

    You might not like the answer, but don't shoot the messenger. ;) 
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    Thanks Jacob, yes can you answer this then:

    How have I been able for then the last 2 years to download and then import the .qfx files with no problem?
  • volvogirl
    volvogirl SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    What version are you on?  Like 2007 or 2017, etc?

    I'm staying on Quicken 2013 Premier for Windows.

  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    @kevs  Yes, please clarify what version of Quicken you are using. That will likely provide the basis to answer to your question.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    Quicken for Mac 2017 standalone.
  • John_M
    John_M Member ✭✭✭✭
    2017 + 3 years = 2020. Your subscription has expired, so it doesn't download anymore.
  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    John/ Chris, thanks. Still confused.
    I'm not "downloading " anything never have. I download from the bank to my hardrive. I never connect with Quicken to my bank ever.

    I have these dozen files on my hardrive now, yet when go to import, which has worked fine for last few years, (and for 8 years with Quicken 2006) I get that annoying message.

    Also, I don't have a subscription; I bought a standalone application specifically not to have a subscription.
    I"ve been using since Quicken for Mac 2003 and Quicken in 90s too.
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    If you look at what I pointed out in the policy you will see that it includes "importing financial data".  As far as Quicken Inc is concerned they don't care how you are importing the transactions, it isn't allowed for non supported versions of Quicken.

    As for you being able to do it in the past.  I know that people have reported being able to do it, but that isn't by design or policy, it is by the fact that the process they used to stop that wasn't working right.  And evidentially they finally closed the whole on your version.

    Note another reason for the confusion for Quicken Mac 2007 and probably Quicken Mac 2006 is because of Intuit getting themselves in a bind.

    Normally the old versions of Quicken stop allowing importing about 3 years after they are released.  So Quicken Mac 2006 should have stopped in 2009, and Quicken Mac 2007 should have stopped in 2010.

    But in 2007 Intuit started the rewrite of Quicken Mac.  The result is that in 2010 they came out with Quicken Essentials for Mac.  One would expect that because there wasn't another version until 2010 Intuit just kept 2006 "alive" for another year, and when the new version came out in 2010 cut both 200 and 2007 off.

    But Quicken Mac Essentials lacked so many features, and it didn't sell, they didn't cutoff support for Quicken 2017, and I guess Quicken 2016 came along for the ride as far as importing of transactions is concerned.

    Move forward to I believe it was 2015 (maybe 2016) they decided that they now had enough features in current version of Quicken to drop support for the older version(s), and eventually that results in it not allowing you to import on the schedule that I posted above.
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  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    Thanks Chris appreciate it.

    Still confused about one thing: I have a standalone app. I'm not connecting to the web. How can they not allow me suddenly to import my already downloaded files, and then not allow me now? They are not in the house. It's the same app. I'm not online, How do they do this control? Puzzling. STandalone app, and the files are on my hardrive, as i've been doing for 20 years. Download from the bank and then import into the Standalone non subscription, non - web connecting App.

    BTW, I use virtually no features, just use app about once year for about an hour in . Download 12 files and do report done. Thats it.
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    Programs can do anything they like.   ;)

    In this case what they are doing is "calling home" before any QFX import.
    If the server doesn't say it is OK, you get what you see.

    Your application might be standalone, but that doesn't mean they can't check whatever they want to do whatever they want (within the policy of what you signed up for when you purchased the program). They could have done the same thing by looking at your system clock's date, but then again crafty people might set their clocks back.  You can't fake the server saying it is OK.
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  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    Chris, thanks, hard to get my head around that. ON my standalone, non subscription app, the software pings back to Quicken in a nano second? ie somehow using my internet connection to go to Quicken?
  • J_Mike
    J_Mike SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    kevs said:

    How do they do this control?
    During the QFX import process, Quicken "calls home" to verify two pieces of information:
    • The FI is a valid participant.
    • The version of Quicken is currently supported.
    Failure to pass either test item causes the import to fail.

    QWin & QMac (Deluxe) Subscription
    Quicken user since 1991

  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    What is FI?
    Call home behind scenes in nano second with my internet connection?

    BTW, I only got this a year ago.
  • John_M
    John_M Member ✭✭✭✭
    FI stands for Financial Institution. Lots of acronyms on this site.
  • volvogirl
    volvogirl SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Actually all Quicken versions are stand alone programs.  You don't have to go online. It is a Desktop based program.  But you do need a current supported version to import even from a file on your own computer.  When an older version expires you have to enter everything manually.  You need to update to the new version if you want to import or download transactions.  Read the Discontinuation Policy listed above again.  There is also a link posted to it.

    I'm staying on Quicken 2013 Premier for Windows.

  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2020
    kevs said:
    What is FI?
    Call home behind scenes in nano second with my internet connection?

    BTW, I only got this a year ago.
    More like a few milliseconds.  ;)
    volvogirl said:
    Actually all Quicken versions are stand alone programs.  You don't have to go online. It is a Desktop based program.  But you do need a current supported version to import even from a file on your own computer.  When an older version expires you have to enter everything manually.  You need to update to the new version if you want to import or download transactions.  Read the Discontinuation Policy listed above again.  There is also a link posted to it.
    Just to add to this statement.
    EDITED missing part of sentence
    Even if you have a supported version of Quicken, you can't import transactions if you aren't connected to the Internet .  It is obvious that would be true for "automatic" download/import, but it holds true for importing of QFX files for the reasons that @John_M stated.
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  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    Thanks all, can't get my head around it. I'm downloading from a file on my hardrive. But software has some code that knows when I use the software. Maybe just disconnect from the Orwellian internet?

    Of course, I may not understand anything written on this thread, if anyone can explain it in laymans terms better please do.

    I for the 2017 a year ago.
  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    Ridiculous all stand alone. I think stopped making standalone. All extortion subscription now correct? Based on the Adobe model no?
  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    @kevs  As Chris explained above, this has basically been Quicken's model for a long time. On the Mac side, there was a blip because of the discontinuation of Quicken 2007, which was allowed to continue downloading for a decade instead of the normal 3 years.

    They do run some background processes, even on imported files. One runs Payee names through a service that uses crowd-sourced data to clean up names like "Home Depot Store 4321 Anytown" to "Home Depot". Another runs Payee names through an auto=categorization engine which attempts to assign categories, so every transaction doesn't come in uncategorized. You may or may not want these services or find them useful, but they're part of how Quicken is built to work, and a piece of the fees users pay maintain these servers and services.

    Quicken also requires every financial institution to be registered with Quicken. In some cases, they (or Intuit, who still runs connectivity services) charge a fee, but in many cases, there's no fee to the financial institution. But Quicken still requires financial institutions to be signed on, so that if there are problems with importing a bank's data, Quicken has contact information for the right part of the bank's  IT department. Again, you might feel you don't need this, but it's the way Quicken's ecosystem works.

    You can call it extortion if you wish. It's certainly not the Adobe model, which is so expensive as to be prohibitive to many casual users. There are some users like you who would be okay with buying a version once a decade or so, but that just doesn't work in the software world these days. They have to invest lots of time and money on programmers to update the under-the-hood code to keep up with Apple's constant operating system changes and changes in banking security standards. Again, you may feel this shouldn't be relevant to you, but Quicken needs income to stay in business, and this is how they have chosen to do so. Most Quicken users decide that the small annual cost is worth it for what Quicken does for them; some users decide to ditch Quicken and use some other program/service that costs less or is free. Each of us uses Quicken differently, and solves that equation of what is or isn't worthwhile differently. 

    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    Thanks Jacobs, is there an equivalent that is free or cheaper that would work almost as good for casual user who just download once a year -- for Citi bank statements, and then does expense report? Thats it, I don't even use income stuff or anything else just that.

    Can I import ok if not connected to internet?
  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    Yeah, maybe that could work..
  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    PS I unplugged ethernet, to see if not online if import but still same message. How does Big Brother Quicken do in quick verification if not even online?
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2020
    kevs said:
    PS I unplugged ethernet, to see if not online if import but still same message. How does Big Brother Quicken do in quick verification if not even online?
    You are thinking of this backwards.

    The lack of an answer is "don't do it".

    Quicken sends a message to the server, "Can I do this import?"
    There are three possible returned values from that call.
    Yes, No, and Error (no network connection or no response at all).

    Quicken takes both No and Error as "No".

    The only time Quicken is going to allow you to import that QFX file is if it gets a "Yes" from the server, and it isn't going ever get that with an unsupported version or a lapsed subscription.
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  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    so even though the file is on my desktop, software itself, needs an ok from Headquarters. Or software itself knows it's expired, and does even need internet, like timer went off?
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    kevs said:
    so even though the file is on my desktop, software itself, needs an ok from Headquarters. Or software itself knows it's expired, and does even need internet, like timer went off?
    yep.

    Frankly I think you already clearly understand, you just don't want to except the fact that Quicken Inc can enforce the license agreement that you agreed to.  Well they can.

    They have certainly thought long and hard about such things before creating the software and have made sure they have plugged the holes that one might exploit to get around it.
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  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    ok thanks Chris, I tried to do chat with them today, but said their website is down!
  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    @kevs There was an announcement on this forum that they were experiencing some website issues, but they have updated it to say everything or working now, if you want to try again.

    That said, what Chris wrote above is the bottom line. Quicken 2017 is just not going to be able to import transaction data. I understand if you don't like the answer, but you'll be wasting your time trying to pursue that with Quicken Support. (I'm not here to support or decry their policies; I'm just a fellow Quicken user trying to help you out.)

    If you look at the Quicken discontinuation policy, or the screenshot of the relevant part which Chris posted above, it states that "downloading and/or importing financial data" are among the services that get shut off when the software is discontinued. And you can also see in the End User License Agreement for Quicken 2017 that this discontinuation policy is mentioned and incorporated by reference. Yes, that's a lot of legalese which most users never look at, but I'm just mentioning it so you're aware that they dotted their i's and crossed their t's and every Quicken user has had to live with the reality of Quicken expiring over time (every three years in the days prior to Quicken 2018, whenever your subscription expires since then).
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • kevs
    kevs Member ✭✭
    ONly thing is I did get 3 years, which I wanted to bring up with them.. well see thanks good info.
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