Not able to connect to Vanguard on any of my accounts. I see a pinned post referomg to Quicken for Mac, but this seems to be occuring on PC as well. On latest version of Quicken (R61.20). Issue started today (2/20/25).
Hello All,
This is now considered a known issue, though we do not have an ETA on resolution at this time. While the investigation remains ongoing, please refer to this Community Alert for any and all available updates and information.
We apologize for any inconvenience in the meantime! Thank you.
Vanguard has blocked all direct connect connections while they fix an issue with it. This affects all financial softwares that use Direct Connect to download transactions. See this Alert: UPDATE 2/25/25 Vanguard OL-295-A and Error 16503.
In addition, you might want to read through and bookmark this discussion thread on regarding this issue: Re: Quicken Classic for Win - OL-295-A Errors at Vanguard.
There is a way you can download transactions: Use the Web Connect method. WC is where you log into your online account and then manually download and import your transactions from there. There are a few posts in that thread confirming that this works and some of them provide some tips on how to successfully use WC with Vanguard.
Does this answer your question?
I think others have said you need deactivate your Vanguard account(s) and then do Add Account selecting direct connect as the connection option. To do this, type in Vanguard in Add Account. Then click on Advanced Options…NOT on Next.
Then click on Direct Connect and then on Next. Follow the prompts to complete the setup of DC, making sure to Link the downloaded data to the correct Vanguard account(s) already in Quicken.
[revised 3/27]
Here is a summary of the steps needed to reconnect your Vanguard accounts.. Some of these steps may not be necessary in every case, but I want to cover as many bases as possible.
If you have attempted to update while the accounts were in Simple mode, you may see Added or Removed transactions during that time. You will need to delete these. If there are problems, restore the backup file you saved and you will be back to where you started.
Please let us know if this works for you.
Yes, I see that, thanks.
Vanguard transactions still do not download, even from their website.
The values of the funds updates, but no transactions.
What date range did you select for downloading the QFX file? And have you confirmed that there were transactions to be downloaded inside that date range?
Also, when you download the QFX file make sure you save it to your computer. Then right click on that file and open it with Notepad to see all the data that was downloaded. Are there transactions included there?
On R61.21 on Windows 11
Did the manual workaround downloading into .QFX file. I have multiple accounts and all worked well. FYI
I too have several accounts, have been doing the exact same since all this started and have had no trouble whatsoever. While it is a bit of an inconvenience I can get the downloads completed at the same time one-step update is running.
Ok, I have about lost all patience with Vanguard. We have been Vanguard clients/owners for more than thirty years. Over the past approximately five years we have noticed a decline in customer focus in general. Their arrogance of going forward with a connection change knowing it would negatively affect a significant subset of their clients is beyond unacceptable. And now nearly two weeks later and they have not resolved it and the only commitment I get from them is it will be resolved "in the near future". I am beginning to research moving everything to Fidelity or Schwab. And I am learning they have better offerings anyway. This might be the issue that finally pushes me to overcome the anxiety of changing everything. Is anyone else thinking this way?
If this keeps up, I might.
Where did you learn or hear they "knowing it would negatively affect a significant subset of their clients"? I agree that their testing and implementation seemed inadequate, but I don't think I ever heard they knew this was going to be a problem to a very small (that's us, Quicken users) of their total customer base.
Any news on Vanguard. What is the issue?
@Carefree posted here in the Quicken Mac thread on this issue:
"I just got a reply from a Business Development Exec at Vanguard which gives me some hope. March 4th 845am MST.
'Our technology team is very aware of the situation, and we do understand the value it provides to our clients. While the service is temporarily disabled and an exact ETA is not currently available, please know that we are working diligently to restore this functionality.
As you know, you can download your transaction history in full on vanguard.com and upload the file to [Quicken/third-party software]. While this is not an optimal, it is the only method available while we repair the issue. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.'"
As you know, you can download your transaction history in full on vanguard.com and upload the file to [Quicken/third-party software]. While this is not an optimal, it is the only method available while we repair the issue. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.'
Boatmaniac:
I was doing an OSU as usual, so it should select the transactions itself (I don't Know what the default date range is). I did a fund buy two days prior so I expected the txn to download but no luck. Txns also don't download from Vanguard website to each account when done individually from the Vanguatd's "Download Center", but at least it now convenient (if inefficient) to print a selected range of txns from the Activity screen. Of course each txn is a double since Debits must equal Credits😀
But it's not just Quicken users, they broke the interface to most third parties (Quicken, Empower, Yodlee, …). Whatever this rollout was, it was definitely botched on their end.
This situation is mind boggling! How often does the Q team actually talk to the Vgd tech team? Did you not see this coming?? Was there no testing of the new security interface?? How can this persist? How are other FIs getting through? INCREDIBLY BAD.
Indeed, hope that's true. I don't use other aggregators, but I did read about those others as well in this community. If so, adds to the group of people putting pressure on Vanguard for sure.
Seriously….does Quicken EVER have an ETA for resolution? Surely someone, somewhere, must know if this is going to take hours, days, or weeks, or longer.
I used the Vanguard Quicken Download option today. It worked fine. I don't have complex accounts and once a month download is all I really need.
I also downloaded six accounts at once. Really took only a few minutes. BUT if you want portfolio checking and correction, I'm not sure how well that will work.
Exactly. Have conference with Fidelity in ten minutes. They say they have been very busy.
A couple additional thoughts: Vanguard generally has good customer service. For them to shut down Direct Connect with no notice and with no satisfactory workarounds is surprising, not typical of a major brokerage firm. Makes me think that there was some kind of emergency. For example maybe they've been hacked and had to act quickly to minimize the damage. Just wondering.
Also someone said that Quicken users were a small group and of little concern to Vanguard. Quicken claims to have over 20 million users who trust their platform to manage their finances. Other platforms also are affected, not just Quicken. Vanguard has over 50 million investors. No public information from Vanguard on how many people are affected by all this but it could be in the millions. And it's taking a long time to fix. That's why I think that something very bad has happened at Vanguard. Just a guess.
I'm wondering the same. Perhaps Vanguard is in the vanguard and detected a flaw in the protocol. People would be whining a whole lot more if there were a successful ransomware attack. I have used both Quicken and Vanguard for 25+ years; invariably the technical problems were Quicken's issue, usually after an update. On Quicken's behalf, since the split from Intuit the updates and downloading has vastly improved.
This is typical for Vanguard to mess things up again !!! [Removed - Rant]
@mike2567 Quicken's claim of 20 million users is (quoting from a press release)
Over 20 million people have turned to Quicken to track their budgets and grow their money over the past four decades.
I think that is a total of 20 million over 40 years, not the number of users who are currently active. Of the currently active users, not all use the investing features and even fewer are Vanguard customers.
But I can't recall any other discussion that has had as many comments as this one - currently almost 300 - and it is less than 2 weeks since this outage started.
I'm 2021, the ceo of Quicken Eric Dunn (I seem to recall that it is his name) stated 2 million were on Quicken proper. That 20 million figure has been widely dispersed & perhaps includes everything that Quicken has including Mint and whatever other products they have.
As a longtime Quicken user, I find this whole process frustrating and alarming. I’ve contacted Vanguard as well as Quicken and it “appears” there’s lots of finger pointing. Totally frustrated!!!!!☹️☹️☹️
I remain very frustrated over this issue but frankly, I don't expect Vanguard to ever fix it.
I spent an hour on Zoom with Fidelity. They have a lot to offer including service and incentives. They are very familiar with moving Vanguard accounts.
You don't expect them to ever fix it…..despite the fact that they have stated multiple times that they will fix it? Why don't you believe them?
So it's a known issue now. Where are our credits to your software as a subscription that quicken has become.
If you can't fix it, make with the credits.
This morning, I went to download all the various credit card, bank, and Vanguard data, there was a prominent window overlaying the Quicken screen acknowledging the Vanguard problem, saying it is being worked on, and providing a link with instructions already mentioned in this forum with the workaround to downloading Vanguard data. When I clicked that link that overlay went away and I did not capture it. So at least there was an official acknowledgement of the problem shown in the program.
Some have asked, "Why this this Vanguard/Quicken Direct Connect breakage going on for weeks?" Here's my .02 from working decades in various IT operations for how things should have worked. I have no direct knowledge of Vanguard's IT operations. What I do have is decades of seeing how changes should be planned and executed - especially for financials which operate with even tighter change restrictions.
BLUF: Change control and change management seems not have been planned and executed properly for this Vanguard IT change event. Why? With proper change control, there should have been a validated, documented and tested back-out plan to undo whatever change Vanguard IT did with the top priority being to restore downed or barely functioning services ASAP WITH ZERO to MINIMAL CUSTOMER IMPACT. Even the time window to recover services would have been required to be estimated (and tested) before the change would have been approved to implement. I'll add that for "high risk of breakage or loss" changes, the change owner would have had to document potential company financial impacts as well!
IT Change Management is a ISO documented proven process to moderate change risks. From the customer's vantage, Vanguard IT has created a significant service outage for what should be a FAILED IT change by whomever is running Vanguard's IT. This is basic change control rigor 101. The "workaround" Vanguard is offering customers is manual, time consuming and not the standard level of services Vanguard / Quicken customers expect.
Vanguard's IT should have tested this change with ALL vendors on DEV/TEST systems BEFORE unleashing it into production and breaking access as we see. My gut says it is highly unlikely a Change Control Board would have approved a risky change without all the i dotted and t's crossed when risking a multi-week high impact outage which is potentially costing Vanguard clients, unwelcome eyeballs, incident tickets, help desk calls and 1000's of registered complaints that will likely require an RCA by the change owner. Something's not quite right b/c if the above had been done, this escalating thread would have never existed. Just my .02. Peace.
