Why has performance of online account updates deteriorated since last version update?

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Guinn53
Guinn53 Member ✭
edited January 2022 in Download, Add/Update Accounts (Mac)
Been a Quicken user since early 1990’s. This is the first time I have had an issue with this wonderful application. For the last couple of weeks (since the last version update that was supposed to make online account updates better), I have experienced terrible performance from "Updating online account" command. (I am a Mac user) Up until now, I could use my debit card somewhere and by the time I got home the transaction(s) would show up during "updating online account". Now, it might be a couple of days before it shows up in my Quicken register. I have found myself logging into the financial institution just to see what is really happening. What's up? Can't continue with this.
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  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
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    If your debit card uses Direct Connect (which is not common), your Quicken application connects directly to the financial institution's server and can pull in events in near real-time. If your debit card uses Quicken Connect (more common), your Quicken application connects to a Quicken server which in turn connects to each financial institution one time a day, pulls down your transactions, and holds them until the next time you connect. As a result, transactions using Quicken Connect are generally a day behind real-time. (Example: if the Quicken server connects to your bank at, say, 2 am, when you connect a few hours later at 7 am, it would seem up-to-date, whereas if you connect at 7 p.m., nothing since the prior 2 am will be available.)

    Your financial institution plays a role in this as well; some may do a once-a-day dump of transactions from their live systems to the server they allow Quicken to connect to. So imagine what happens if the bank changes its schedule to update the remote server for Quicken once a day from 1 am to 3 am. Now, the financial institution provides a day's worth of transactions at 3 am, but if Quicken's server still connects at 2 am, it will take another day until Quicken gets those transactions -- so things can be up to two days behind. (That is, if you purchase something at 1 pm on Tuesday, the financial institution updates their remote server for Quicken at 3 am Wednesday, and Quicken's aggregation server pulls in that transaction the next time it connects, which is at 2 am Thursday. So when you connect at noon on Thursday, you'll see your Tuesday transactions for the first time.

    These are just hypothetical times and examples to explain how Quicken Connect works and how changes in schedule of either Quicken's connectivity provider (Intuit) and/or the financial institution can affect when you see new transactions.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Guinn53
    Guinn53 Member ✭
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    So basically you are saying that my financial institution changed its mode of operation at the exact same time as the last Quicken update. That would be possible, but seems to me would be quite a coincidence.
  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
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    No, I don't know what has changed. I am staying that it's possible but unlikely that the update to Quicken resulted in a slow-down of you getting data. If you post the name of your financial institution, you can see if other users of that company are seeing similar results.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Guinn53
    Guinn53 Member ✭
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    I contacted my financial institution and they told me that they had changed nothing. I unhappily resigned myself to live with it. But lo and behold, since yesterday's Quicken December update everything is back to normal. I am happy!
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