Moving from Local Quicken to Cloud to help my Mom

willwillwill · August 18

I'm about to start helping my mom manage a property, and she tracks everything in Quicken Classic - Premier on her Mac at home. Currently everything is done via local files on her Mac, which she backs-up to a flash drive regularly. We want me to be able to access her files remotely (I live in a different city) - but I'm unsure what it would be like to move her files from local to the cloud: I don't know what our options are, I don't know how simple it is, I don't know costs, etc.
Can someone start pointing me in the right direction and make sure I'm doing the right things to inform both of us? (I'm relatively experienced with IT, just zero experience with Quicken.)

Thanks in advance for the help!

RickO · August 18

Quicken Classic is not a cloud product and there's no easy path to transfer all the data into Quicken's cloud product Simplifi. My best recommendation without incurring a whole bunch of work would be to have her continue to use her local Quicken Classic and for you to remotely access her Mac as needed. You can do this with the built-in desktop sharing process on the Mac. A quick Google search will tell you how to set this up.

If she doesn't want you to see everything on her Mac, then you could set up a Mac user account just for Quicken and move her Quicken file into that account. You would want to move only a backup copy or a zipped copy, not the live file.

jacobs · August 18

The one thing you definitely should not do is move her Quicken data file to a cloud storage service (iCloud, Dropbox, Google Cloud, OneDrive, etc.) and then both of you try to run it from there. You will experience possible slowdowns, data corruption, or even being locked out of your file.

That said, you can certainly use a cloud service to move a data file back and forth between her and you. This may sound onerous, but after you do it a couple times, you'll find it adds only a few seconds each time you want to use Quicken.

There's one more caveat: you shouldn't move a Quicken Mac data file (one ending in ".quicken") between computers; you should move a backup file or a compressed copy of the file.

You can create a backup file in Quicken by pulling down File > Save a Backup in Quicken. The resulting backup file (ending in ".quickenbackup") is smaller, but more importantly, this format of file won't be damaged by moving it to another computer.
You can create a compressed copy of your data file in the Finder by selecting the file and pulling down File > Compress. The resulting file (ending in ".zip") is smaller than the original and has a special "wrapper" around it to prevent damage to the data within it when moving the file from one computer to another. (To locate your data file quickly, in Quicken you can click the red "Q" logo in the upper right and select Show in Finder. then quit Quicken, select the file, and do File > Compress to create the .zip version.

I prefer the second option because you might run into possible issues if you're repeatedly restoring from backup file as you move the data file back and forth.

Once you have on elf these safe-to-move copies of the data file, it's fine to move it to the cloud storage service of your choice. The issue will be one person granting permission to the other person to access a file/folder on the cloud storage service. You'll need to establish a workflow where she places the safe-to-move copy of the file in your cloud storage when you want to use it — or possibly after each time she uses it if you're both going to be using it frequently — and to make sure you both don't try to use it at the same time. (For instance, your protocol could be that whichever one of you wants to use the file copies it to your local hard drive and immediately deletes the cloud copy; then when you're done working in Quicken, you place the safe-to-move version back in the cloud folder.

Another possible option: create the safe-to-move copy and simply email it to the other person; when that person is done, email it back. If your file isn't too large, the compressed copy will work as an email attachment. If your file is large and you use Gmail, it will automatically upload to Google Drive and send the user a link to download it. (I have 30 years of data in my file, and my .zip copy is under 40 MB.)

smayer97 · August 18

Unless something has changed, my understanding is that a Quicken Backup file, ending in ".quickenbackup", is a compressed file, so, not sure the advantage of a .zip file, other than a different workflow.

smayer97 · August 18

First, you need to understand that Quicken is not designed for multi-user usage, so, the options to "share" a data file are work-arounds. Even sharing a data file between computers with the "same" user is seen by the OS as separate users. Since you did not specify the level of access you are wanting to achieve, here are a number of options:

the first option is to move the data back and forth between users (as suggested above). In your case, you could move a copy of the data to a shared location, e.g. Drop Box, and each take turns updating the data. You would have to develop a sign-out process to make sure you do not both update a copy and overwrite each other's work. However, do not store and use the data file stored online directly. This often leads to a corrupted data file. Best practice is to compress the data file (either Quicken Backup or macOS .zip) before moving it to a cloud based storage to prevent problems with file permissions.
If you have mobile devices (iOS or Android) consider using Quicken Mobile. I am not sure of the current state of its functionality, but it was originally designed to only sync cash, bank, and credit card accounts. You can sync more than one mobile to the same data file located on one of the computers, as long as you use the same Intuit ID associated to the data file. Note that this was originally limited to sync 24 months plus new transactions (not sure if this has changed).
Quicken Web can be used for multi-user access but it is a companion to Quicken desktop (not independent) similar to QMobile. Again, not sure of the scope of functionality but it is always evolving. It provides functionality for data entry, budgets, etc. so has slightly more functionality than QMobile or QWeb, e.g. reconciliation.
use remote access software (several free options, e.g. NoMachine and Teamviewer) to access Quicken on one computer from the other, or even mobile devices (see this great article for complete review of many options (most are free): http://machow2.com/rdp-for-mac/ ). The advantage of these solutions is that you retain access to all the features of Quicken, unlike Quicken Mobile or Web. The trade-off is that the host computer cannot really be used for anything else while using Quicken with these remote solutions.

jacobs · August 19

Unless something has changed, my understanding is that a Quicken Backup file, ending in ".quickenbackup", is a compressed file, so, not sure the advantage of a .zip file, other than a different workflow.

@smayer97 You’re correct that a .quickenbackup file is a compressed file very similar to a .zip file. The reason for preferring using .zip file gets into some of the technical underpinnings of Quicken that I wasn’t going to dive into. In short, every data file has an associated unique Quicken Cloud dataset associated with it (even when cloud sync is set to Off), and each time a backup copy of a data file is restored, a new dataset id is created. This is not problematic for users who periodically restore from a backup, but can be a problem for a user who restores from backup files frequently — such as passing backup files between two computers. There is some internal limit on the number of cloud datasets per Quicken ID, and users have run into situations where they hit that limit and get locked out, requiring a call to Support to get the situation resolved. I don’t know if the engineers have improved this process in the past couple of years, but my advice has been to simply avoid the possible problem by using .zip files rather than restoring from backup files when regularly passing files between multiple computers.

willwillwill · August 20

Thanks for the support, all.

Strange that there's no way to migrate from Quicken desktop to a cloud product. I'd have thought that was the norm these days - to get people paying subscriptions as much as possible! :P

Unfortunately, remoting into her Mac is just not really a viable option at all. She travels a lot, doesn't always have good connectivity, doesn't necessarily want to leave her Mac on, and we live in very different timezones. (Which could actually help reduce 'collisions' in some ways too, but the previously listed issues still make it a problem.)

So I think the file 'sharing' is going to have to be our best option, it sounds like. However, I don't quite understand the point about working from a backup and not from the actual file work? Can you help me understand how that workflow would work from each of our ends? Does that mean we're backing up to a file on a shared drive, and then transferring that file to our local computers, opening it, working, and then backing up to the cloud again?

A couple more questions -
- Do Quicken files work between Mac and PC?
- It's very conceivable in our situation that in the future more than just myself would need access to her Quicken. Is there an option that makes that more feasible?

Jon · August 20

Does that mean we're backing up to a file on a shared drive, and then transferring that file to our local computers, opening it, working, and then backing up to the cloud again?

Basically yes. When you want to work on the file you would download the backup file from cloud storage, restore from backup into a new Quicken file, and do your work. When done, you would save a backup file & upload that back to cloud storage. Your mom would do the same thing when she wants to work on the file.

Do Quicken files work between Mac and PC?

No, Quicken Windows and Quicken Mac files are not interchangeable. It's possible to move data from Windows to Mac or vice versa but it's time consuming & not error free, so it's not something you'd want to do on a regular basis.

It's very conceivable in our situation that in the future more than just myself would need access to her Quicken. Is there an option that makes that more feasible?

Nothing better than what's already been discussed.

Chris_QPW · August 20

Given that Quicken Mac didn't even have business features until lately let alone rental features (which it still doesn't have) I would have to assume that this is all being done in checking/savings/credit card/asset accounts.

As such, it might be possible to do at least only the property management part with one of Quicken Inc's online products. This is Simplifi and a new Business and Personal. Being mobile/web only they could be used from anywhere, but there is that twist that you would have to have an Internet connection to use them, so if she was at a place where she didn't have that she wouldn't be able to access the data.

EDIT: Just to clarify. The online programs can't exchange any data with the "Classic"/Desktop programs. But depending on how much data is actually needed to manage a property, it might be worth re-entering it on Simplifi or Business and Personal (server version).

I will also mention that the Desktop applications can sync to the "Quicken Cloud dataset". The mobile and web "companion" apps are the "GUIs" for the "Quicken Cloud dataset". It is quite limited of what data you can sync, and what features you can use with the mobile/web apps, but it might be an option depending on what needs to be entered and such. The Desktop data file is still the "master" and needs to be synced to the Quicken Cloud dataset from time to time. This feature was sort of meant for someone that is traveling and didn't want to take their "Desktop computer".

RickO · August 20

However, I don't quite understand the point about working from a backup and not from the actual file work?

Here's a bit of technical explanation of the "why" of using a backup/zip file rather than the live file. On the Mac, the Quicken "file" is actually specialized folder containing many individual files that appears on the Mac as a single file (called a Package). When you move the file (package) between Macs without compressing/decompressing it, the file system permission structure within the package can get into a state where the current user can't read the files and thus the Quicken file becomes unusable. This can occur when moving the file between computers or even when different users/computers access the file that's stored on a cloud service. That's why you must move only a backup/compressed copy between machines/users. The decompression process restores file permissions appropriate for the current user account.

Moving from Local Quicken to Cloud to help my Mom

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