How best to rename a Quicken file

My Quicken data files have a name that includes the year. I want to rename it to include 2010. However I notice there are several Quicken data files: *.qdf, *.qel, *.qph, *.qtx, etc.

What is the best way to rename my data file without messing things up? What effect will that have on backup files?

Thanks, Jeff

Reply to
Jeff
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Q2008 has a rename function: File | File Operations | Rename

What version are you using? Does it have the same function?

Reply to
Notan

Thanks for pointing that out to me. I found it and it worked like a charm. I have Quicken Deluxe 2008.

Reply to
Jeff

Hi, Jim.

Starting with Quicken 2010, Intuit has greatly simplified the structure of a Quicken "file". Previously, what Intuit called "a file" was actually a set of related files with extensions such as the ones you mentioned. Quicken knew to include the full fileset when we used options in its File | File Operations menu. Now, all those subsidiary files are included in the single QDATA.QDF file.

Now we can use normal Windows tools, such as Windows Explorer, to just right-click on the QDATA.QDF program file and Rename it there.

But I haven't actually tried that, so it probably would be safest to use Quicken 2011's File | Save a copy as..., give it the new name, and then load that new copy. Or use File | File operations | Copy... in the same way. When you are sure it is working right, you can delete the original.

Unless John Pollard has a better idea...

RC

Reply to
R. C. White

I used to use Quicken's backup to make a fast copy of my existing data (when I didn't want to rename).

That's not very practical now, what with the new Quicken backup file naming convention.

As it stands today (Q2010 and Q2011), if I am in a hurry, I use Windows; if not, I probably use the Quicken "Copy" feature (if wanting to replicate a "rename", you'd need to delete the old file after the Copy).

I wish Quicken still had the "Rename" feature; not only for continuity and simplicity, but because it could rename the file that was currently open.

Reply to
John Pollard

Same for the Delete feature (File -> File Operations -> Delete).

For Q09 and earlier you can use this feature to delete the entire set of Quicken files . But for Q10 and Q11 you have to delete the single QDF file using Explorer.

It's a little trickier if you're on Q10 or Q11 but have older-version Quicken DBs lying around, i.e. DBs that you used for testing purposes. You can manually delete all files in the set but there's a safer (and cuter!) way to delete them.

Reply to
Jerry Boyle

replying to Jeff, marksilvester wrote: I?ve been using Quicken for almost 30 years (Quicken for DOS starting in

1989, before Windows). My habit, up until now, was to upgrade every other year since financial institution interfaces lasted for 3 years with each upgrade. I?m going to wait until 2019 comes out before I upgrade, and then I?m going to take a look at other programs before I commit to an annual purchase for an unreliable product To me, the biggest issue with Quicken is the ?fragile? data base. I admit I haven?t cleaned out my Quicken file in about 12 years now (accounts have data going back to 2006) so I?m probably stressing the file more than I should. But a fully functional financial program should use an SQL database with new tables for each year (or fiscal year). An annual closeout, that closes the previous year and starts a new one, should happen automatically on the first entry for the new (fiscal) year. I had a situation recently where I withdrew a large chunk of money from a Savings Goal. The withdrawal from the goal worked but Quicken must have crashed before it put the money into the originating account, leaving me $thousands short of cash until I found the error. Recently (starting in July), Quicken started duplicating some downloaded transactions in multiple accounts: I have 4 accounts with my investment broker and when a dividend was received in 1 account, Quicken put it in 2 others, even though those accounts didn?t have any of the stock that was paying the dividend. I discovered this in August through a reconcile process that wouldn?t balance: Quicken had $hundreds of ?bogus? transactions that had to be manually deleted. I don?t know if this was the fault of Quicken or the financial institution.
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Reply to
marksilvester

I started using it around the same time.

Same with me. Also because there haven't been any significant changes or improvements in a long time.

2019 has been out for quite a while now.

What you look at and what you decide to use is, of course, entirely up to you. But I completely disagree that Quicken is an unreliable product.

Reply to
Ken Blake

In Quicken 2007, how do I change the name of an account?

Reply to
joe

You mention "Account" in your question but reference an article about "files". Two different things. A Quicken file contains one or more "accounts". So what are you asking, accounts or files?

Reply to
Andrew

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