Quicken Mac 7.10 – Can't open file - Due to lack of space

@Garry@ I can't answer whether Quicken could check for available space prior to an update; I don't know if macOS can report to Quicken how much space would be required to decrypt a DMG file without actually decrypting it.

However I have a couple thoughts about things you might want to consider doing differently. If you have so little space on your hard drive that there's not enough free space to open the Quicken data file, you're flirting with other possible problems due to lack of swap space the operating system needs.

It wasn't clear from your post whether the addition of a Quicken update download, plus the backups of both the program and the data file Quicken makes when doing an update is itself the problem, or whether your Quicken data file is in a large encrypted DMG with lots of other data. If the latter, have you considered moving the Quicken data file into its own, separate encrypted DMG file, so opening it doesn't require space for the other things in your existing DMG file to be touched?

But my overriding thought is that if you're so tight on drive space, and it's been this way for three years, is that a small investment in an external hard drive would be well worth it to avoid these problems. For under $100, you could get a 1 TB hard drive or 500 GB solid state drive which would give you lots of breathing room. If you don't already have a drive for Time Machine backups, you could get a 1 or 2 TB drive and partition it so you can use part of the drive for Time Machine backups and part for Quicken and other data (or leave Quicken on your current drive and move less frequently-used data to the external drive).

I don't think OP is complaining that they can't open the DMG in the first place [but] it's that there's not enough empty space within the disk image to open their Quicken data file after they've already unencrypted & mounted the DMG.

@Jon So let's look at what happens when there's an update to Quicken Mac. The installer first renames and moves the Quicken.app application from the Applications folder to the Trash, and then installs the new version of the Quicken.app. So that consumes about 210-220 MB of space — but I assume applications live outside the encrypted DMG. Quicken also makes a backup copy — "Backup (PRE-UPDATE)" — of the current Quicken data file, which lives in either the User Library folder or whatever folder the user has designated for backups. The space used depends on the size of the user's data file. My backups are under 50 MB in size for my ~110 MB live data file, so that's not a lot of space. But some users have much larger data files, particularly if they store attachments in them. Each new version of Quicken generally involves an update to the database due to new functionality in the code, but these are very small increases in size.

I had a Mac where I hadn't installed version 7.10.0 yet, so I measured free disk space before, during and after download and installation. My used disk space decreased by about 373 MB after downloading the new version and by an additional 77 MB by the end of installation. The latter makes sense, because Quicken generated two backups as part of the installation: a normal backup when it closed my data file, and a spacial pre-installation backup before running the database update code. Those backups are 40 MB each, so a decrease in used space of 77 MB makes sense. I'm assuming the download is the actual Quicken.dmg installer which one can download from Quicken.com, which is only about 3 MB in size, plus the a compressed copy of the actual application, which Quicken reports is a 150 MB download. Once the installer runs, the new Quicken.app in the Applications folder weighs in at 216 MB, and the downloaded 150 MB installer must get moved to some hidden system folder for purging — so my total used space should increase about 216 + 150 = 366 MB, which is very close to my observed 373 MB of used space.

All this said, I come back to my original point. The total drive space, and the free space in the encrypted DMG file, should not be so close to full that installation of a new version of Quicken — which at least temporarily uses about 370 MB for the application plus two times the size of your Quicken backup data file — runs out of space. For most people with a data file between 50 and 150 MB in size, the whole installation process uses up less than 1/2 of 1 GB (some of which is eventually recoverable when the Trash is emptied and invisible purgeable files are removed). If your free space is really less than about 1/2 GB, I'm suggesting it's time for more drive space.

I still think you’re misunderstanding. It’s not the app stored in the DMG it’s the data file. 

@Jon Nope, not misunderstanding. ,😀 As I wrote above: "I assume applications live outside the encrypted DMG."

I was just addressing overall drive space as well as the DMG, because it's not clear what's running out of space (just the DMG? or the total hard drive?), and how the DMG is configured (e.g. fixed size? max size limit which is nearly full?). I'm just guessing that if the DMG is running out of space, but the overall hard drive has plenty of free space, Garry would just enlarge the encrypted DMG. But perhaps he can't, which is why I was looking at the entire process, not just the data file.

You're correct that the data file format was updated in 7.10. (There are several new pieces of data to be stored for the Zillow integration and for the Capital Gains Estimator.) However, as I noted, this increased the size of the data file only very slightly — only about 1 MB in my case. And I don't think there was any ballooning of hard drive space used during the update, as I watched the space used on the hard drive as it was running, and it never jumped high and then back down.

Now maybe Quicken should be able to handle not corrupting the data file, but that is a slightly different subject.

True, but it's worth noting that with Quicken Mac, the program makes a backup of the data file before starting the database update for the new version. It also moves the old application to the Trash, so it can also be pulled out and used. So if/when necessary, moving back to the prior version — application and data file — should be possible with just a few seconds of work.

@RickO I'm not sure if being able to download a fresh copy of 7.10 would help @mark303 here, as the problem seesm to be during the "updating database" part of converting a data file to version 7.10.

@mark303 Just checking: you don't have your data file on any cloud storage service (e.g. iCloud, Dropbox, etc.), do you? Having the data file in the cloud can produce a variety of odd-to-disastrous results. What is the location of your data file?

Also, if you haven't done so, try restarting your Mac. It sounds silly, but that can sometimes cure some unexplainable glitches.

By the way, if you try the upgrade and get stuck again, you don't have to delete the Quicken application and download it again. The first step of the upgrade process is for Quicken to make a backup copy of your data file and to move your existing Quicken application to your Trash folder; then it installs the new version of Quicken, and then pints the data file to update it. So if you have a failed update, you can trash Quicken.app and move the prior Quicken application from yourTrash folder back to the Applications folder. The old Quicken application in the Trash has the build number in the name: "Quicken (709.54540.100)". Pull it out of the Trash and you can rename it "Quicken.app" or "Quicken 7.9.1.app" if you wish.

@Charles DeWitt You said you're experiencing the same issue as users above, but you also said you can't download version 7.10.1 to your Mac.The issue above is not with downloading the latest version, but that once downloaded and installed, it fails to open your existing data file. Is that what you're experiencing, or is it that you can't download the update or a fresh copy from Quicken.com?

For anyone experiencing a problem after initiating an update, it is easy to roll back without losing any recent data entry. Quicken creates a backup of your data file before starting the update; you can find these PRE-UPDATE backup files in your backups folder. Quicken also renames the old version of the program to have the build number and moves it to the Trash.

So if you encounter a problem and want to step back to before the update, (a) delete Quicken.app in your Applications folder, (b) move the Quicken app from the Trash to your Applications folder (you can, optionally, rename it “Quicken.app”), and (c) drag the pre-update backup onto the restored Quicken.app in your Applications folder, and it will launch the old version with the old data file. So in 60 seconds, you can be back exactly where you were before attempting the program update. 😀