Quicken is doing it again - duplicate / fake accounts

My replies to you keep disappearing.

Doing manual downloads, I encounter another problem. Sometimes it does not allow one to select what account to import them to. Rest of the time, you can pick out the correct account - out of a super long list of mostly old, dead and cleaned out duplicate accounts. I've cleaned up both installations of all dup accounts, keeping dead ones with real transactions.

I've rebuilt the database files, done everything I know, but these problems keep hitting.

Another oddity - on Amex, cleared transactions should download, but often don't for a couple days. That since Amex got the new connection method.

Thanks!

I provided a full response, hit POST, and it disappeared. I'll try again.

I run 2 copies of QWP. Both have had numerous problems, especially since the connection method changed for Chase and Discover, and then Amex. No updates, intermittent updates, and more.

In this case, on my backup PC, I'd not gone into QW for several weeks. Got in, did software update as prompted, then given all the changes, and finding oddities on what had or had not downloaded (first thing I noted was that my Chase Freedom Card had not updated), I reset a single Chase account. Most of the screen turned black for minutes, when it came back, the ADD or LINK screen popped up, BUT, the dropdown was disabled, exactly as you show in the first line of your example above (Don't add to Quicken). When all cleared, every single Chase, Discover, and Amex account had been duplicated. Piles of transactions from the past several weeks in them. Since I couldn't be sure what was correct, I had to clear out all of these downloaded transactions, CLOSE out each duplicate account, then went to do another reset, and this time it allowed me to LINK most of my institution accounts to those in QW. A few accounts that are 'active' did not update, so I manually downloaded them.

Doing manual downloads, I encounter another problem. Sometimes it does not allow one to select what account to import them to. Rest of the time, you can pick out the correct account - out of a super long list of mostly old, dead and cleaned out duplicate accounts. I've cleaned up both installations of all dup accounts, keeping dead ones with real transactions.

I've rebuilt the database files, done everything I know, but these problems keep hitting.

Another oddity - on Amex, cleared transactions should download, but often don't for a couple days. That since Amex got the new connection method.

Thanks!

Kristina, the latest round of problems began when I converted Chase in QWP to the new connect method last September. I had no idea of the mess it would make; I might have been better off waiting until I ran out of time. I went through ALL of these problems at least once or twice on both PC's (and some numerous times) but not at the same time. Files are stored on internal HDD's. And my intention is to 1. try to get Quicken and Intuit to fix all these bugs (I'm assuming mainly Quicken), and 2. as a result, get to a point where I'm not having them. I've gone through months of fixing resultant data errors like this, manually downloading and importing transactions, finding and eliminating bogus transactions and the like. I'd like to think that going into detail here will help.

Boatmaniac, you are absolutely right; TYPE has sometimes changed, for instance, either way between checking and savings. And when QWP keeps duplicating accounts, when you try to match up your bank account to one in QWP it is very easy to pick the wrong one, part of what makes this so painful. Imagine John-Checking, John-Checking1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8… Action is critical, but in this last case, when that box came up, it did not allow choice of ANY action. After cleaning up the mess that time, I reset again, this time it allowed MOST of my accounts to match action and nickname. That whole tool, as I suspect you've seen, is rather buggy and temperamental. So, with a bunch of accounts, real ones and fake ones in the drop down list, I put a lot of effort into matching them properly. Same issue when importing qfx files; it's very easy first to pick the wrong one, and then, IF it asks me to ADD or Link, to easily link to the wrong one. Doesn't help that these drop down boxes are both full of garbage AND in a much smaller font.

When I was a developer, I specialized in GUI usability. This started when, on a new bank IT job in 1990, I was tasked to rewrite an Account Manager's app. Talking to them, I learned that mine was to be attempt #3 to get them one they could actually use (bankers, not IT guys), and I wasn't happy to see that my boss, who 'arranged' for the first 2, wanted me to make it look the same. Instead, I designed a new GUI (using up and down arrows, ESC, Enter instead of '/' codes that had to be memorized. I worked up a prototype in a week, and the users liked it, and the resultant system. So when I comment on GUI issues, that's my inspiration - trying to shape the GUI into one that is usable and actually works. I've done lots of beta testing since then, also working with developers on their apps for a major information services provider.

Separate PC's, separate HDD's. No connection between them. Years ago, the 2nd PC got a copy of the data file of the first. I run both because if QWP fails on one, maybe it will still run on the other.

I don't use Mobile or Web features. I do keep Sync turned off. At times, installing upgrades to QW has turned it back on, and then chaos reigns. While I'd love to have Mobile, IMHO it's not worth the risk, as you've noted.

FYI, I'm on the same version as you note, though on Win 10 Pro (though about says Win 10 Enterprise).

Let me see if I get this right. 2 separate PC's and separate storage. No web or mobile. Anything referring to web or cloud is turned off. When I've had issues in the past, I've always informed the Quicken reps I've talked to that I run 2 separate copies, the 2nd for backup purposes. But you are saying that despite all this, that Quicken somehow connects what the 2 PC's are doing, even though they have different settings (mainly display), different occurence names?

I did read this;

I made my copy to the 2nd PC several years ago, and I don't remember how I did it. As to the ID, are you referring to my ID based on my email address?

I do get that Quicken checks my licensing based on that, and that it uses Intuit servers to download transactions (I don't do Q bill pay) from FI servers. But each installation I have checks downloaded data against my installation's transactions already downloaded. So how would a problem come up?

The thing is, on that PC, I did do file copies at least a couple times along the way.

As to the ID's, it would really help if users could see what Id's the files have.

So I have 3 new problems;

1. A day or so later, I'm checking the results of online update. Looks strange. Then I realize - QWP has reverted to my old file. So I switch to the new one, do a backup, etc., and all looks good. A day or so later, repeat, and I find that the old file is open instead of the new one. This time, after switching to the new one again, I renamed the extension on the bad one to include "-bad". Obviously I'll check again in a day or two.
2. I use something called Wealthscape. Getting it up and running in the new file has been extremely painful, because there is no night or weekend or any realtime support. I had to get the account reset. So it's all set up again, it said that it was OK. Only one problem. Under the old file, turns out it had not updated in months. Having said that, on my 'primary' PC, it updates daily, though often hiccups on weekends (at the end of the weekend usually works normally). So after I set it up, I find there are still none of the missing transactions. Their website lets you download transactions in CSV format (without other data QWP needs). But Quicken should be doing this automatically as part of the download setup or Reset. When I run OSU, that account very quickly comes back COMPLETE.
3. I went into Password Vault, to check passwords. But it doesn't actually let me change any, says passwords are not needed (when of course they are).

Updates;

1. Wealthscape - the brokerage I use it for is working with Quicken on it, AND, negotiating with Quicken and / or Intuit to go directly to Quicken instead of using Wealthscape. Turns out Wealthscape's Quicken capabilities are extremely limited, including, when you are missing transactions, there is no built in qfx download.
2. I've noted a problem with Chase that is fairly new, I'm guessing with +. My Chase account shows 2 pending transactions, which, of course, will not download yet. But, QW gets the online balance as if they had already cleared, so Q does balance adjustments. A day or two later, the transactions download, online balance in Q is wrong, so Q does another balance adjustment. So on busy accounts, I'm now doing frequent cleanup of these bogus adjustments.

Is anyone still following this discussion?

An update regarding observed behavior with Chase and QWP. Let's say you have a PENDING transaction. Your available balance on Chase.com reflects it, as does the Online balance in Q, but the 'ledger' balance does not and you don't see the transaction in Q. But when you are reviewing the day's OSU transactions and reconciliations, Q tells you that you're off by the amount of the pending transaction and then does an ADJUSTMENT to 'fix' it. A day or so later, when that transaction has cleared, Q is out of balance again so it does another adjustment. OOPS! Quicken, please do something about this. Yes, I know that I can wait to reconcile, which is a way to avoid the problem, but this is messy and easy to forget to do. And shouldn't be necessary. There has got to be a better way!