Schwab connection method switch - finally out of the woods, maybe?

After my third try it looks like I am almost completely out of the woods with the Schwab transition. It looks like everything is working normally, with one small caveat I will mention below.

*The backstory: First failed attempts*

My initial attempt at doing the Schwab connection method switch was last Thursday 11/18, using the instructions here: https://www.quicken.com/support/how-manually-change-connection-method-charles-schwab-accounts

While I didn't have any problem deactivating existing connections or configuring the new connections, the aftermath was a disaster. Dozens or hundreds of transactions that were already in my Schwab account registers and already Reconciled (in the case of my Schwab Bank accounts) had been modified/corrupted, losing payee, category, and memo data, and had their status changed to (c) Cleared. Transactions that were transfers between Schwab accounts seemed to have gotten orphaned/disconnected from the other account involved in the transfer, and account balances were off by thousands in some cases.

I reverted to a good recent backup before the changes. Then the next day 11/19 the old Direct Connect connections stopped working, so it was time to try again. This time I first installed the mondo patch to update to R37.25, then tried again using the same instructions linked above. Also, instead of clicking the Schwab logo in the Add Account popup, I searched for and used the one called "Charles Schwab Bank - Investor C". I only set up / re-linked my Schwab Bank accounts, not the brokerage accounts, hoping that limiting the scope of the changes might have better results. The outcome for my Schwab Bank accounts was exactly the same (exactly as bad) as my first attempt.

I again reverted to the good backup and decided to wait til after the weekend in hopes that something would get updated or straightened out before I try again.

*The successful attempt*

For my third attempt today, here was the process I followed. This was still using the R37.25 I have been running since installing the mondo patch for my second try. Similar to my first attempts but with a couple of important details:

(First note, if any of your Schwab accounts are set to automatically enter transactions, first turn that off! That way the downloaded transactions will stay in your "Downloaded Transactions" area below the register, where you can check and delete them as needed later in the process. I've never used "automatically enter" anyway so this was not an issue for me, but I wanted to mention it in case you need to switch this off first.)

1. Edit --> Preferences --> Mobile & Web --> Sync: OFF
(I had read some posts here on the forum that thought that something with the Cloud Sync might be causing some of the changes/corruption to existing/reconciled transactions. Since I don't even use Quicken Mobile or Web, it was no problem for me to turn this off. If you do use Quicken Mobile or Web, I would try turning it off for this connection method switch, then turning it back on once the dust settles afterward.)

2. Deactivated all Schwab accounts' online access (Tools --> Account List --> Edit --> Online Services tab --> Deactivate)

3. I can't remember, but I may have closed Quicken and re-launched it. Doesn't hurt to, anyway.

4. Tools --> Add Account --> Clicked the Schwab logo on the popup. Went through the whole authentication process with Schwab through the popup browser window. Note: changing the Schwab password near the end of the process is only an optional suggestion; it is not necessary. I did not bother.

5. Once the process returned me "back to Quicken," I linked each of my Schwab accounts I had authorized to my existing Schwab accounts in Quicken. The dialog where you do this is a little wonky/glitchy. For example, I have two IRAs, and I found that after linking the first one (a Roth), the second one (a Traditional) was no longer in the list of available accounts to link my Traditional IRA to. I had to go up and un-link the Roth one, then both IRAs were available to choose from for the Traditional, so I could link the Traditional. Then I was able to go back to the Roth and link it. Also when I linked my Schwab Bank accounts, the little drop-down where it shows the account type appeared to change from "Checking" to "Brokerage". However, if I ignored that and then clicked in the next account's drop-down box where the Add/Link/Ignore options are, then the drop-down for the Schwab Bank account's type would correct itself back to Checking.

6. Once that was done, Quicken downloaded everything for all of those accounts. As before with my first two tries, it downloaded an assortment of transactions (but not all the transactions) for each account going back to about July 2020. However, this time in the process, *it left my existing account registers alone!* This was key to this attempt's success. No lost payees, categories, or memos. All transfer transactions were intact. All (R) Reconciled transactions remained that way; nothing switched to (c) Cleared at all. Account balances remained what they should be.

Now it was a matter of going through all of those downloaded transactions and dealing with them correctly...

7. For Schwab Bank accounts, I accepted transactions that were new (after double-checking them against my transactions in my account online on schwab.com). Everything else was a duplicate of a transaction that was already Reconciled in my bank account registers, even though they showed as "New" in the Downloaded Transactions tab. So I just bulk deleted them all. With bank accounts this is easy - just click the first one in the list under Downloaded Transactions, then scroll down to the bottom of the list, Shift+click the last one, and then delete them all in one fell swoop. Done! *EXCEPT* that I couldn't reconcile automatically, because Quicken shows the "Online Balance" of the bank account to be "0.00". This is the one remaining bug, but it seems like it is one that Quicken/Schwab should be able to iron out easily, and I don't mind living with it in the meantime.

8. For Schwab brokerage accounts, most of the transactions that downloaded were Matches, and showed that was (as "Match") in the Downloaded Transactions tab. I had a few "Near Matches" too. All of the Matches and Near Matches were fine and good. But each account also had a number of "New" transactions that were not actually new. Almost all of these were cases where I already had a sequence in my register consisting of a "Div" followed by a "Buy" the next day or something - basically the two transactions involved in reinvesting dividends. In some of these cases, I had ReinvDiv transactions that had downloaded that corresponded to these, but which Quicken did not recognize as a match and so labeled them "New." So for each brokerage account, I had to scroll through the Downloaded Transactions list and delete all of the "New" transactions one by one (no Shift+click in brokerage accounts like there are for checking - not sure why this would be). This was the most tedious part. Once I had deleted all of the "New" transactions for a brokerage account, then it was a simple matter of hitting "Accept all" to accept all of the Matches and Near Matches with one click. Done!

9. As some kind of collateral damage to the Schwab connection method changeover, after doing all of the above, I had four other NON-SCHWAB brokerage account connections, that have always worked fine, stop working on subsequent One Step Updates, throwing error OL-362-A. At first I thought I had to deactivate and reactivate the connections on each of these, but that turned into a bizarre game of whack-a-mole where only the one I had reset most recently would work. Then I found out that all I needed to do was to close Quicken and then re-launch it. Run a One Step Update again, and like magic, now all of those account were downloading just fine, no errors.

*End result (so far)*

All of my accounts (both Schwab now using EWC+ and all of my other non-Schwab accounts using either DC or EWC) are downloading fine as far as I can tell (I will be checking/updating daily and will come back here to update if it turns out things aren't downloading in days to come). Everything looks shipshape in all of my account registers *EXCEPT*: my Schwab Bank checking account show an "Online Balance" of 0.00, making reconciliation impossible. This is the one wrinkle that I am aware of that still needs to be ironed out.

Posting all of this in hopes that it can be helpful to someone.

Comments

  • artg
    artg Member ✭✭✭✭
    @Rob41

    Good morning Rob.  Okay, I'll share some of your optimism.  

    1.  Executed a One Step Update about 25 minutes ago.  Got my usual CC-501 error.
    2.  I "think" the CC-501 error maybe meaningless, I don't know.
    3. Two transactions downloaded. The first for my checking account.  I was able to accept the transaction.  That was the good news.  The less than good news was the account would not automatically reconcile (like usual.) The reason was my Online balance was $0.00.
    4.  The second transaction downloaded into my brokerage register accurately.  I accepted.  The account matches the Schwab web site perfectly.

    The CC-501 error message is still troublesome. The checking account online balance issue is annoying. 

    So, I welcome your thoughts.  
  • rozbod
    rozbod Member ✭✭
    Kudos to Rob41!

    I am having a lot of the same trouble, but with ONLY ONE of several Schwab accounts. I keep trying to reconnect/reauthorize that one account, but get looped back to that infamous page saying "It's not my fault....don't contact Schwab...They cannot fix this problem". Lists error code CC-501

    I updated to R36.38 - Windows, which is all that was offered. I don't know how to manually download/update to the "R37.25" that Rob1 mentioned. Would that help? Any suggestions?
  • redexces
    redexces Member ✭✭
    Rob41, in your step 4, did you select 'CS&Co' or 'CSB-Investor C' for the financial institution?
  • Rob41
    Rob41 Member ✭✭✭
    > @rozbod said:
    > I updated to R36.38 - Windows, which is all that was offered. I don't know how to manually download/update to the "R37.25" that Rob1 mentioned. Would that help? Any suggestions?

    The Mondo patch download page (where you can always download the latest version even if your Quicken isn't yet prompting you about it) had R37.25 late last week when I was first wrestling with all of this. Now it has no mention of it, and the latest is 36.41. Very strange - I wonder if they decided 37.25 was not yet ready for public consumption or something.

    Here is the link to the download page I'm talking about:

    https://www.quicken.com/support/update-and-patch-20182019-release-quicken-windows-subscription-product
  • Rob41
    Rob41 Member ✭✭✭
    > @redexces said:
    > Rob41, in your step 4, did you select 'CS&Co' or 'CSB-Investor C' for the financial institution?

    I just clicked the logo, which results in having selected "Charles Schwab & Co., Inc".
  • Rob41
    Rob41 Member ✭✭✭
    @artg and @rozbod

    Quicken just posted an updated guidance document for those still getting CC-501 errors, so check it out if you haven't already:

    https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7902187/new-11-22-2021-charles-schwab-cc-501#latest
  • Ken Pirkl
    Ken Pirkl Member ✭✭
    Rob - yours was the best solution out there. A key was to turn off the auto enter of transactions. Learned the hard way first time through. Seems one-step working fine. PS - do you know how to delete zz-charles schwab????
  • jimaikins
    jimaikins Member ✭✭✭
    Thanks, Rob -but these steps do not work for me.
  • overkill
    overkill Member ✭✭
    It's Tuesday afternoon at 3:30. I haven't done anything to try and resolve this problem with my four Schwab accounts yet, except to download the mondo update on Saturday. I still got the 301 error and the "reauthorize" button never showed up. So that's when I quit.
    Has the latest fix just posted by Quicken here, actually worked without issues for anyone yet? I'm trying to decide whether to try this, or just wait a few more days. I don't want to risk screwing up my accounts.
    https://www.quicken.com/support/errors-when-updating-or-adding-charles-schwab-accounts
  • Bill25
    Bill25 Member ✭✭✭
    Quicken (and TurboTax FWIW) user since 1992.
    Windows IT Administrator since 2002.
    Windows 11 Pro running on a crappy off-the-shelf HP PC.
    Beer lover since 1968.
  • Andrew Jarabak
    Andrew Jarabak Unconfirmed ✭✭✭
    I had success in linking all my Schwab accounts. Thanks to all the prior posts that I read. This is a combination of some of those. First, I had joint brokerage account linked to a checking account, I had 3 of my own IRA type accounts, 2 of my wife's IRA type accounts, and one Donor advised charity account.

    1. Made a backup copy.
    2. Uninstalled Quicken, reinstalled a fresh version. This turned out to be a bigger task because just using windows uninstall did not permit me to install the fresh copy. I had to manually uninstall using instructions from a post I found in this community.
    3. Installed the mondo patch referenced in a lot of posts on this forum
    4. Deactivated all Schwab accounts and deleted the Institution Name and account number
    5. Picked one of my accounts and did a reactivate. Got the reauthorize prompt. Hit that and picked Schwab from the list of icons. Got a Schwab screen and logged in with my Schwab logins
    6. Was sent to a page with consent information. Checked off on the block
    7. After that i was shown a list of my Joint brokerage and IRA accounts, not my wife's.
    8. Linked these accounts and my existing quicken accounts. All my own accounts now were able to download transactions but not wife's or Charity account.
    9. Made a backup copy
    10. Hit tools/add account
    11. Search for Schwab and hit the normal Schwab company out of list of many Schwab's.
    12. Got presented with the Schwab login screen. Logged in this time using wife's logins. 
    13. Repeated steps 6 thru 9 on wife's account
    14. Now both mine and wife's account were ok. No Charity account.
    15. Hit Tools/add account.
    16. Search for Schwab, this time I picked Schwab Bank Investor C and logged in using my credentials.
    17. I was then presented every account I and my wife had to link to existing Quicken account including Charity account.
    18. I only picked the Charity account this time
    19. Made a backup copy.
    20. Tried to do a 1 step update but noticed it now was downloading from 3 separate Schwab links. This seemed to take a long time and also appeared to time out. One step report showed no Schwab accounts were updated.
    21. To allow for time to update, I clicked edit/preferences and turned off mobile web syncing
    22. This time all accounts including Schwab downloaded transactions.
    23. Had to work thru over 800+ redundant transactions but now all appears well.
    Hope this helps but quicken and Schwab need to explain to users how they are going to prevent this going forward. I'm still intending to call CEO of Quicken office if I can find the number. Users were left way too long to find solutions on their own.
  • rozbod
    rozbod Member ✭✭
    Fishing around the Quicken website, I found a programming "confession", - "Schwab Accounts Missing Investment Transactions."

    see here: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7902129/schwab-accounts-missing-investment-transactions#latest
  • Bill25
    Bill25 Member ✭✭✭
    Don't change a thing. They have fixed it. Works on R35.41 no Mondo no patch no update.
    Quicken (and TurboTax FWIW) user since 1992.
    Windows IT Administrator since 2002.
    Windows 11 Pro running on a crappy off-the-shelf HP PC.
    Beer lover since 1968.
  • bhinkston
    bhinkston Member ✭✭
    > @artg said:
    > @Rob41
    >
    > Good morning Rob.  Okay, I'll share some of your optimism.  
    >
    > 1.  Executed a One Step Update about 25 minutes ago.  Got my usual CC-501 error.
    > 2.  I "think" the CC-501 error maybe meaningless, I don't know.
    > 3. Two transactions downloaded. The first for my checking account.  I was able to accept the transaction.  That was the good news.  The less than good news was the account would not automatically reconcile (like usual.) The reason was my Online balance was $0.00.
    > 4.  The second transaction downloaded into my brokerage register accurately.  I accepted.  The account matches the Schwab web site perfectly.
    >
    > The CC-501 error message is still troublesome. The checking account online balance issue is annoying. 
    >
    > So, I welcome your thoughts.  
    @artg Almost exactly where I'm at. OSU gave/continues to give me *some* transactions ... even with an ending CC-501 error message .. but, still haven't seen some stock trades that just happened today. I will be checking tomorrow. Also, my checking account gives me a $0 balance so I am unable to reconcile.

    -B
  • Rob41
    Rob41 Member ✭✭✭
    @bhinkston I think the 0.00 online balance appears to be universal for us Schwab Bank users. I haven't seen a single Schwab Bank user mention NOT having that problem here on the forum - maybe they're out there and they're just not on the forum. But anyway, if you want to keep an eye on it, the 0.00 online balance issue is being discussed by itself over here:

    https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7902072/online-balance-is-zero-0-00-in-charles-schwab-bank-account
  • redexces
    redexces Member ✭✭
    For me I'm definitely almost out of the woods with today's release of patch R36.45 here: https://www.quicken.com/support/charles-schwab-transaction-download-changes

    With R36.41, I could only connect my CS&Co brokerage accounts to CSBank-Investor C and in this config, my CS&Co accounts would not download at all, likely because those accounts are not actually associated with CSBank (but oddly the accounts still appeared there).

    R36.45 finally allows me to connect my CS&Co brokerage accounts to CS&Co and download successfully, while still allowing my Pledged Asset Line, Donor Fund, and Quicken Mortgage accounts to remain connected to CSBank-Investor C.

    It's still got some hinky-ness to it however, I assume they got this patch out in hurry with some rough edges but still works 95% better with Schwab than before. My Donor Fund connects to CSBank, but I cannot download transactions while the PAL and Quicken mortage accounts download fine. Also, the OneStep Update status window reports that the PAL and Quicken mortgage accounts are deleted but clearly are not, and the 'Last Download date/time' is current in each of those accounts.

    So clearly they are moving in the right direction, just a few more bugs (at least visible) need ironing out.
  • snowmp
    snowmp Member ✭✭✭
    R 36.45 still not working properly: no brokerage transactions since 11/18 download. Interestingly, I get no error message, but Charles Schwab & Co does not show up in the One Step Update summary. When I go to an individual account and select "Update Transactions", it shows me the usual prompt for One Step Update Setting with only one box checked for Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.; shows me the usual second dialog box for One Step Update Progress for Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.; and then shows me the usual third dialog box for One Step Update Summary with a green check-mark next to One Step Update Complete -- with a blank dialog box: no financial institutions listed as being updated. Bizarre. For those at Quicken who apparently have time to edit these forums, but not to test software themselves, Rant-Speculation-Continued Disappointment and Unhappiness removed. ;)
  • Rob41
    Rob41 Member ✭✭✭
    Note to anyone following this, Quicken support now has a support ticket open for this issue; bookmark the support ticket to get updates if they reach a solution for it.

    https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7902329/new-11-24-21-charles-schwab-checking-account-missing-online-balance
  • artg
    artg Member ✭✭✭✭
    @Rob41

    Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving Rob.  Thank you for alerting us to this new support ticket.  I'd like to hear your opinion (and anyone else for that matter) as to why it took Q this long to open a ticket on this particular issue?  I say that because I have been reading our fellow users write about this particular issue all week.  I, myself, chatted twice with the help desk over this issue.  I've posted on this and other threads about this particular issue.  

    So, I guess my point is about responsiveness.  Again, thanks for posting that information and I've bookmarked it.  Happy Thanksgiving.
  • Laserjock
    Laserjock Member ✭✭
    Been through the myriad of problems with the new Schwab/Quicken download procedures. Have been able to deactivate/reactivate all schwab accounts, had to delete hundreds of match/near match/new transactions that were duplicates and now when I do a download from Schwab, transactions from one account are incorrectly downloaded to a second Schwab account. This never happened before and I've disabled/reenabled the accounts and tried it from a backup, but get the same issue. The one interesting thing is that while the 2 accounts have different account #s, they both have the same final 3 digits. Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.
  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Member, Mac Beta Beta
    I'm finally out of the woods, too (other than online balances for bank accounts not showing)... I have two Windows data files and one Mac data file all connected and downloading finally...

    Thanks for @Rob41 for his comments at the top of this thread, but what was key for me is what was described by @RetiredDoc in this post:
    https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20216992#Comment_20216992

    I was one of those people in the threads about not being able to deactivate Schwab accounts ... All of the solutions depended on deactivation, and the Deactivate button did nothing, Resetting made things worse, etc.

    Making a new Quicken Data file that contains a copy of all data in the file via:
    File menu > Copy or Backup File... > Create a copy or template
    and then selecting all dates.  I started in 1985 to make sure I got everything.  What the heck.

    This new file is disconnected from ALL online services, so has to have everything reconnected.  If you ARE able to deactive your Schwab accounts and clear all information (financial institution, account number etc) - then this "Create a Copy" would be overkill as you will have to re-connect all of your other financial instutions, not just Schwab.

    I was one of those people in other threads who never got the Add/Link/Ignore dialog box after signing into Schwab.  But, I was also almost always trying to activate via the account Edit>Online Services tab.

    Following @Quicken Alyssa tips and those of others... I never used the Online Services tab with this disconnected file copy, but always used the Add Account function for each financial institution including Schwab.  I always got the add/link/ignore dialog box this time and correctly linked all of my accounts.

    Some accounts belonged in one data file (a testamentary trust benefitting others) and others belonged in our personal file (including links to my wife's Schwab accounts).  All worked fine.  My Quicken Mac data file for the trust had always worked and still does.  Seems like after over 3 weeks of pain, life is back to normal.  Knock on wood.

    After connecting Schwab, among the notices for those accounts were these for two bank accounts:




    I was a little freaked out imagining how many transactions 5,929 and 4,656 days might amount to (16 years!) and kind of surprised if Schwab even kept records going back that far.  Fortunately, I only got random transactions for the past 18 months or so and other than a couple of honestly new ones, I just deleted all of the rest.

    Whew.

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Ventura 13.6.5 • Windows 11

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