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quicken mac 2007 import issue

lar9

Hi all, I am not a tech person but have 2 issues that I hope you can help me with!

First, I have 2 quicken data files (I'll call A&B here) created in Quicken 2007 and I have been working with a mid 2012 MacBook pro running High Sierra 10.13.6. Late last year, when working in file A, if I close it and open file B, it still appears that I'm working in File A. All of the data reflected is file A's and vice verse. If I locate a prior file B and open it successfully, then close it and open file A, all of the data from file B is what I see. (A community member wrote that it could be because apple changed to APFS for the hard drive…. but I'm wondering what to do.)

I have a 2021 MacBook Pro and today I subscribed to Quicken Mac Classic with the goal of importing the 2 files and hopefully continuing forward. (There is a very, very, very, very long history in those files.) The import failed due to "a resource fork." The Quicken chat support person says that it is impossible to use my old data since it was created on High Sierra….

I am wondering if there is anyway to save and work with my data going forward. What do you all think?

Thank you! Lars

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Jon

You used to be able to fix the resource fork error message by giving the old file a .QDFM extension and then importing that into a new Quicken file, I don't know if that still works but give it a try.

lar9

Jon thank you. I did add the extension and then tried the import but alas….

Jon

Here's something else you can try:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7931455/solved-another-solution-to-open-a-quicken-2007-resource-fork-is-missing

lar9

I'll look into this. Though I wonder which OS they worked in with 2007 as the Quicken Chat support person told me that High Sierra was too old to make any type of effort work.

lar9

I will be so happy to try anything with potential!

jacobs

How did you move the files from your old Mac to the new Mac? If you used a flash drive which was formatted as MS-DOS (FAT 32) — as many are by default — that will cause an old Mac file to lose its resource fork.

If you still have the old Mac, try transferring the file by doing this: click on the Quicken 2007 data file and select File > Compress in the Finder. This will create a .zip file. Now move the .zip file to the new Mac. Once on the new Mac, double-click it to decompress it back to a .qdfm file. Now try launching Quicken Mac, go to File > New, select to start from a Quicken 2007 data file, and select the one you just moved.

If that doesn't work, there are a few other things we could try if, if you still have the old Mac to work with.

lar9

Oh yes, that flash drive may have been formatted MS-DOS. I really don't know. I'll give this a shot! And yes, I still have the old mac and still work on it. I'll give this a try in the morning with a fresher brain. The sharing of your knowledge and ideas is most appreciated!

lar9

Jacobs! I had luck importing file A in the manner you mentioned, though I did it via airdrop because the first effort via external disk didn't work. I need to check the data integrity from file A and then follow by trying to import file B later this morning. This new version of quicken is very different obviously so it will take some exploration too. Wondering where the file is living. I want it to be local. It did require that it go through the web (?) when importing. More to come.

jacobs

Yay! I’m glad you were able to get the conversion to work. Unfortunately the Quicken Support representatives know little or none about Quicken 2007 and often give wrong answers about it.

The conversion process uses a Quicken server, but that’s only because it needs to run some old code to extract data from Quicken 2007’s unique file format which won’t run on a current Mac; it was a one-time thing. Your data file lives on your local Mac.

Quicken chose an obscure default location for data files — I’ll spare you the history 😂 — which is easiest to find if you click on the “Q” logo in the upper right of the screen, and select Show in Finder.

To navigate there manually, you need to access your User Library folder, which Apple hides by default. To do that, in the Finder, hold down the Option key while pulling down the Go menu; select Library on that menu. Then open the Application Support folder, and in there you’ll find a Quicken folder. Inside the Quicken folder are two key folders: Documents, which contains your data files, and Backups, which contains Quicken’s auto-generated backups and any manual backups you generate.

You can change the location of your data file if you wish, using the File > Move To command. (If you decide to move it to your Documents folder, make sure your macOS settings for iCloud Drive are not set to store you Documents and Desktop folders on iCloud; odd and bad things can happen if your live data file is stored on iCloud or any cloud storage service.) You can change to location if you backups if you wish, using Quicken > Settings and clicking the Backup Folder button. (While you’re on this Settings screen, increase the number of backups Quicken keeps from the default of 5 to at least 20 or 25.)

Once you have your A and B data files in the modern Quicen Mac, you should be able to switch back and forth using the File > Open Recent menu choice, where the file you currently have open will be first and the other will be second. So you won’t need to navigate to your data files to switch which one you’re using.

And yes, modern Quicken Mac looks quite different, so there’s a bit of learning and adapting ahead of you. When I first switched, I wasn’t happy about some of the differences, but over time I grew to really like the modern user interface — so give it some time for your brain to adapt. 😀

lar9

You're amazing!—It's true it's impossible to get adequate customer support when going from old to new from Apple, Quicken, etc.. All of the information you provided is so very critical and helpful! Both files imported (yay!) and I compared a summary of all years by category (for each discreet file) finding some discrepancies that I'll have to research and correct if necessary (One file goes back to 1997). I practiced moving between files and hope to avoid the cloud on everything as much as possible as it definitely caused file problems and privacy matters too! Right off, I see that I do wish the debits can be customized (red or parens) and saw a post where you said one can vote so I did but there are only about 18 votes….

Through all of this, I have been considering whether to simply build something for myself on Excel instead of using Quicken at this point, since the data can't be exported to other formats. Any opinion on that?

Wondering also if you share your valued knowledge on any other mac community discussions?

lar9

ps Backup question: Quicken won't backup onto my flash drive(maybe that formatting issue). If I airdrop to my old mac for safe keeping (they can't be run on it). Would that backup be viable? I do have my old computer's external bu drive and wonder if i do a time machine bu from the new computer onto that same drive, would it work, keeping all of the old bu from the old computer but adding the new bu? Thank you in advance for considering these questions too.

jacobs

I do wish the debits can be customized (red or parens)

Although you can't change the color or format of numbers, there is an option you might want to try: instead of the single "Amount" column with positiver and negative numbers, you can have two columns for money in. and money out. The columns are named appropriately for the type of account: for a checking account, it's Payment and Deposit; for a credit card account, it's Charge and Payment; etc. It takes more space to have two columns instead of one, but I prefer this as easy and obvious way to keep my debits and credits correct. (To change columns, click the Columns icon in the bottom toolbar, uncheck Amount, and check the two money in/out column names. While you're there, you may want to enable the Memos column if you use memos; hide the Attachments column if you don't use attachments; and possibly display the Transfer column, although Transfers can also be entered/seen in the Categories column. You can also drag column headings to change column order, and drag on the edged of the column headings to widen or shrink columns width.)

there are only about 18 votes…

Don't despair; thing happen slowly because the developers have so many feature requests, but the votes only need to reach 30 for the feature request to be passed to the developers for consideration.

Through all of this, I have been considering whether to simply build something for myself on Excel instead of using Quicken at this point, since the data can't be exported to other formats.

If it were easy to do in Excel, no one would be buying Quicken! 😉 So it depends what you use Quicken for. For me, compiling all my financial data in one place, from checking to credit cards to retirement and non-retirement investments, and having my entire history of transactions over decades is invaluable. I'm pretty adept in Excel, but I couldn't create something as useful or comprehensive or easy to maintain. For some people, it's the downloading of transactions from all their financial Institutions which makes Quicken invaluable. For some, it's the searching and reporting. And for some who use Quicken for not much more than a checkbook, Excel might be a viable option. We all use Quicken differently.

As for exporting, while it's true there's no way to export all your data in one easy way, it is possible to select all the transactions in a register and export them in .csv format — so there is a way to get a good amount of your data out should you need to.

Backup question: Quicken won't backup onto my flash drive(maybe that formatting issue). If I airdrop to my old mac for safe keeping (they can't be run on it). Would that backup be viable? I do have my old computer's external bu drive and wonder if i do a time machine bu from the new computer onto that same drive, would it work, keeping all of the old bu from the old computer but adding the new bu?

It's odd that you can't backup to the flash drive. Maybe try reformatting the flash drive with Disk Utility.

But I wouldn't use a flash drive as my primary backup. And yes, you could Airdrop backup files to your old Mac, but I'm not crazy about relying on a 12 year-old computer for your backup. There are several better options, in my opinion. One is iCloud. While a live .quicken data file shouldn't be run from iCloud, storing your .quickenbackup files on iCloud works fine and is safe. You can manually move backup files to iCloud, or you can make the Quicken backup folder a folder which live son iCloud so it's automatic. I'm also a huge believer in multiple levels of backup, and I think every Mac user should be using Time Machine backups.

Regarding the external drive from the old computer, I think you may find you may not be able to access the old Time Machine backup on your new Mac; the new Mac will immediately want to convert it, and it may or may not work. If the drive is large enough for you to create a new partition on the drive, format it in APFS format, and create a new Time Machine file for the new Mac. If not, consider if you can wipe the drive and start a new Time Machine backup. (Presumably you've migrated all your data to the new Mac, and you still have your old Mac as a backup — so do you need the old Time Machine backup?) Or consider a $100 investment in a new drive to use as a Time Machine backup for the new computer if you want to keep the old drive on the old computer.

lar9

Thank you—Totally agree about multiple backups which was why I thought I could use the flash drive too. Jacobs, I had/have bought a new external drive for backing up the new computer. I didn't "migrate" my files to the new computer because (long story) last time I tried that an Apple person lead me through it and his method caused file corruption. I wound up bringing the new computer back to factory mode. So at present the only files of mine on the new computer are the quicken files which I want to update first. My plan has been to then use the files from the time machine backups to import onto the new mac. (I need to update software before I can do that.) Sounds like you believe that plan won't work….

BTW, The Quicken Deluxe I purchased has both US and Canadian categories. Is that how it comes now?

I'm sorry for all of the questions, but do so appreciate your help!

jacobs

Last questiton first…

BTW, The Quicken Deluxe I purchased has both US and Canadian categories. Is that how it comes now?

There is just one Quicken Mac program for both US and Canada. You can toggle between certain US- or Canada-only features, or having both, in Settings > General with the preference for "Show features for:" and selecting Canada, United State or Both:

So at present the only files of mine on the new computer are the quicken files which I want to update first. My plan has been to then use the files from the time machine backups to import onto the new mac. (I need to update software before I can do that.) Sounds like you believe that plan won't work…

Sorry, I'm a little lost here, and re-reading your original post, I'm confused about the current state of the "A" and "B" files. You say the new computer has Quicken files, and you want to update them, but then you said you want to restore Quicken files from the Time machine backup to the new computer as well. Is that because you want to move forward with two different "A" and "B" files?

The only thing I said I wasn't sure would work is connecting the old Time Machine to the new computer. If the new Mac recognizes it and Time Machine asks you to Inherit the old backups, it will start backing up your new computer. You may not want it to do that if you have a new external drive you're going to use to back up the new computer. It's possible to mount the old Time Machine drive without turning Time Machine on, and then manually navigate into the "Backups.backupdb" folder to the folder which contains a folder for every backup Time Machine has stored, and then navigating with that to find the file(s) you want to copy to the new Mac. This can get tricky, and you may have to work around permission problems, so instead of going there…

Since you still have the old Mac and the old Mac's Time machine drive, why not use Time Machine on the old Mac to locate the file(s) you want in the backups, and restore them to the desktop of the old Mac. Then you can transfer those files to the new Mac (AirDrop is probably easiest, or you could make them .zip files and transfer them by flash drive or email.)

Jon

Regarding Canadian vs US Categories, it asks you when you create a file which ones you want: US, Canadian, or both. Changing the US/Canada setting after the fact doesn't seem to do anything to the Categories.

lar9

Sorry for the lack of clarity with my last question. You did answer it though. :)

So as noted, Quicken did import files A&B and I did notice discrepancies which, on inspection, seem to be pretty pronounced. I'm going to try to use what it gave me and to review every entry for 2023 to make corrections. Prior to that, we'll see. Ugh.

Many Thanks for your help

smayer97

Consider looking for the Opening Balance entry.

lar9

Backing up New Quicken… I've updated one of the quicken files and ran time machine to backup everything to the new external hd. Today I decided to check to make sure the files are backing up and strangely, the time machine backup doesn't seem to contain the folder housing the Quicken backups. I didn't change the folder so it's that one in the library, application support, quicken… In time machine, the application support folder doesn't show Quicken. Also, thought I'd backup to my old USB 3.0 flash drive (with USB-C adaptor) as a way to save that one file while I work out this issue, but the computer doesn't see that flashdrive.

The Main Time Machine backup of Quicken is the priority question….

lar9

To be clear on my main computer Quicken > Settings shows "automatically back up data file when quitting Quicken" (checked) and save to "Backup Folder" When I select "Backup Folder," the path shows Library > Application Support > Quicken > Backups > and here I see a list of files starting with the word "BACKUP… that are grayed out.

lar9

I drilled further. Ultimately, I can find the data file on my HD in the hidden library folder (after some confusion and effort) but in Time Machine, I don't know how to access that hidden library folder to see if it actually being backed up.

lar9

On Dec 2021, I see a discussion on this site that may hold the answers so feel free not to answer my recent question. (Folder names that are duplicated (such as library) or hidden, causes frustration in trying to see where things are really located— and that's before looking at time machine backups which also appear different…. Grr.)

pheath

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20410163#Comment_20410163

Jon, I don't have a good file to get the missing the com.apple.FinderInfo and com.apple.ResourceFork Flags info from. But wondering if it is common that someone could check theirs and them give it to me to copy in my corrupted 2007 file? I only have one file I saved 7 years ago. I need to have someway to fix this… Thanks! Pat

jacobs

@pheath You posted in a long thread from another user, so it would help if you gave more details about your current circumstances.

You have an old Quicken 2007 data file which you want to open in modern Quicken Mac? And Quicken Mac won’t recognize it to convert because it is missing a resource fork? Does the file end with a .quickendata extension? If not, add it, and see if that simple change makes a difference; it might. And I assume you don’t have access to the old Mac? Please fill in some details so we can try to help. (Sorry, I don’t think I have my old Quicken 2007 data files any longer.)