QuickBooks has an optional backup setting that limits the number of backups stored in the backup folder to a number specified by the user. I have tried to get this feature to work in versions 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and now 2010 in my office and those of my clients without any success.
Does this feature work? I can only presume that I am missing the boat somewhere. Intuit would not include this feature for so many versions if it did not work.
Always worked for me, in fact I turn it off. go to save a back up, on the second screen there is an options button click on it. There is a check box to limit the number of back ups on a location check it click ok. You can adjust the number of uses also.
Haskel knows how to turn the feature on and set the number of backups desired. What I do not know is why it does not work for me or any of my clients (which I set up for them) in versions 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and now
2010.
This is formally known as the "Backup Wizard".
I just checked, and like you, I notice that it seems to not be working, in all the same QB versions that you mention, with multiple company files. So you're not crazy.
However, just a few minutes ago, for the first time, I got a prompt asking me if I wanted to delete the older files (version 2010). Then I said yes, and lo and behold it worked!
I think the key is this: after reading the "help" screen for this dialog box, I saw that it says the feature only works for backups created through the wizard, not any other way. Well, when I use the wizard, I usually hit the "Finish" button before I get to the bitter end, since it normally does what I want. By prematurely hitting the "Finish" button, I am not really using the wizard (I'm not letting it get to the final step).
But if you let the wizard proceed sequentially through every single step by hitting "next", it will eventually come up with a prompt to delete the excess files beyond the number your specified.
-Mark Bole
Thanks Mark. This feature has perturbed me for years.
Yes indeed, it will give the user the option to remove the oldest backup file when manually sequencing through each step after the limit is reached. It appears that the program uses an internal counter that only gets incremented when each step is performed manually. It should also be noted that the program must remain open for this to occur and not as part of exiting the program.
I have the QuickBooks in my office and those of my clients' set up to ask the end user if they want to back up each time they exit the program. Since the program closes after the backup (even if each step is sequenced through manually) the option box asking the user if they want to delete the oldest file never appeared in all these years.
Odd...it works fine here (QBP 2007). I have the options (via the options button on the 2nd(?) page of the wizard set to limit backups to 3. Each time I do a backup (which is after any work I do in QB), I click on the backup button and click finish on the 1st page, bypassing the rest of the wizard. It never fails to ask if I want to delete the oldest (and over the '3' limit) backup. I just checked my B/U directory, and there were about 22 files there, but the dates were widespread, and I assume those are backups left when I chose 'No' to the "delete oldest backup" question. If it were not deleting, I'd have several hundred b/u files there.
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