Lost Quicken Data
February 13, 2010 7:52 AM   Subscribe

Where’s my 2009 Quicken For Mac data?

I’ve been using Quicken for business and personal checking for at least a decade. In 2007, I seamlessly transferred all my Quicken data from a PC to a Mac G4 I inherited, using Quicken 2007. Wish I could say the same for my recent Mac to Mac transfer:

1. Bought a new Macbook and had the Apple Store xfer all my old stuff to the new laptop after copying all my Quicken ledgers onto two separate external hard drives. That included a Quicken folder on my desktop, which Apple copied along with all my other stuff. Since Apple won’t xfer applications, I had to buy a new Quicken 2007 disk (my old Quicken for Mac 2007 software disk is unavailable.)

2. Installed the new Quicken 2007 but couldn’t get in to my Quicken folder at all. Error message: "Cannot load the files." I tried everything, including a chat fest with a Quicken techie that went on forever. (I even let the guy access my computer remotely and nervously watched him do everything I had just done.) Last thing the Quicken tech guy typed was:

"I am sorry, we will not be able to open the file as the operating system got changed. You need to open the data file on your old computer and export the File in QIf and then import it in your new mac."

I am sorry too, and my head exploded, thank you very much. I had already told him I no longer had my old Mac.

3. Tired of looking at my panicky face, my husband tried to open the Quicken data from one of the external hard drives on his Mac, even though he doesn’t have the Quicken software! Amazingly, he got it open, but the data only went up to the beginning of 2008. He then did the same fiddling on my computer. The Quicken accounts were there, but no 2009, which was definitely on my old Mac up to the day I got the new Mac! I need 2009 for my accountant in two weeks.

4. Meanwhile, I’ve got a blizzard of Quicken icons on my hard drive from the unsuccessful mano a mano chat with the tech guy. I access the now incomplete registers from the Quicken icon in Finder. I now have to recreate 2009 from my online bank accounts and credit card statements--a total headache. (No, I don’t have a printout, just the two external hard drives because I didn’t have a printer for most of last year. Me bad, I know, but I did have the data in three places I thought were safe. Wrong.) I've now created a new 2010 register and started inputting stuff just to see if I could do it. It seems to save, but I don’t trust the new software.

I haven’t checked the second external hard drive Quicken registers because the new Quicken supposedly converts the old data instantly and I’m afraid to corrupt the last place where 2009 might be. (However, I don’t actually know whether that second external hard drive has the complete registers or has what I thought I saved a few weeks ago. Last time I saw 2009 was on the old MAC. I quickly opened both external drives to see if the Quicken data had copies, which it had, but I looked at it so quickly, I really don't know if 2009 was on those drives.)

Any thoughts or suggestions on where my 2009 Quicken registers might be and how I can get them back?
posted by Elsie to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)
 
Sounds like you need to have a look at those files on the second external drive.

In the Finder, copy those Quicken files from your second external drive to your internal hard drive. Your Desktop is a fine place for them; make a subfolder to keep track of them since you already have lots of Quicken files.

After copying them, unmount and disconnect the external drive.

Now you can open those files, and let Quicken convert them, while the original unconverted copies are safely out of the way.
posted by maniabug at 3:58 PM on February 13, 2010


I've worked with Macs for ages, so a friend of mine wrote me about something similar. His emails weren't 100% clear about whether the problem happened in Quicken or Quickbooks. Here are relevant excerpts:

"[An employee's] father has a Mac desktop that is a couple of years old. Recently he went on vacation and returned. While gone his Mac was turned off and not used by anyone. He says that when he returned from vacation that some data files were gone. Specifically, two years of Quicken financial info was missing."

I recommended a store near him that I trust - MCS, a longtime independent Apple Computer dealer in Knoxville, Tennessee. Allen is the person I recommended he talk to. He wrote back a few days later:

"[Employee's] dad took the computer to MCS. Allen said that there was a known bug in quickbooks that will automatically create a new company and move some files. He restored everything with no issues."

I have no idea how they would handle long distance troubleshooting (assuming you're not near Knoxville). Also, no affiliation, etc., just a good working relationship when I was troubleshooting Macs there.
posted by dmo at 7:05 AM on February 14, 2010


"there" meaning in Knoxville, not at MCS.
posted by dmo at 7:06 AM on February 14, 2010


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