large file won't condense

More than likely you have damage in the file. What version of QuickBooks? ... When you're in QuickBooks hit "F2", the first line tells you what version and what "R" #.

So, the easiest thing to do, is to find a file on your machine called: QBWIN.LOG, rename it to QBWINLOG.OLD (this is the ongoing error log file for QuickBooks). Then we run a verify in QuickBooks. File, utilities, verify data. The verify may crash. If it does, or if it tells you you have damage in the file - that's our smoking gun. Even if it doesn't ... you'd still want to take a look at the QBWIN.log file.

After the verify, while in QuickBooks, do a CTRL -1, and then a CTRL - 2. Click on the open file tab, double click on QBWIN.LOG. Start looking for transactions that are listed in this file, there's a good bet that these transactions need to be re-entered. Most data damage that I've seen involves link damage of sorts. Delete out the transactions and re-entering them should work every time. Something quick to try before all of that though is to find the deposit the transaction is on and put the data 10 years in the future, save it, and then change it back and save it again. Run another verify - did that transaction come off? No? ... delete and re-enter the transactions. Rinse repeat until all of your transactions represented on the log report have been addressed. Then, run another verify. You want it to say - no problems found.

Once it verifies clean - go ahead and run a rebuild. This should reduce filze size a bit.

The thing is, 35MB isn't too too big. I'm guessing here that you want to make the file smaller to improve performance? Data damage usually causes QuickBooks to run slowly. List damage also is a culprit. Resort all of your lists as well, just in case some of them are damaged (list damage isn't fixed by a rebuild). Hope this helps.

-Elw00de