Importing Quicken for PC to Quicken for Mac

I'd like to give you some helpful ideas but I can't. I've failed importing Quicken files into anyother program, GnuCash, MoneyDance, MS Money, etc.

The only thing that seems to cut down on errors and might help you is to import only one account at a time.

I have no knowledge about Quicken for Mac.

I could start from the bottom up, or the top down ... I'm taking a shot that the top down has a chance of being a shorter route.

If Quicken for Mac has a limit on the length of account names that is shorter than Quicken for Windows allows, you might - depending on your Quicken account names - have unwittingly caused Quicken for Mac to be unable to create a new investment account when it wanted to, then to try to import investment account transactions for that account into a non-investment account with a similar name.

[Example (VERY simplified): you have Quicken for Windows accounts named "ABC Checking" and "ABC Brokerage". If Quicken for Mac limited account names to no more than 3 characters, the import would only be able to create a checking account named "ABC" (the checking account is probably the first account the import would encounter), and might (later in the import process) attempt to import transactions for ABC Brokerage into the Quicken for Mac "checking" account named ABC.]

Test the theory by attempting to create a new account in a Quicken for Mac file where you make the account name as long as Quicken for Mac will allow. If that name is short enough to make two of your Quicken for Windows account names appear to be the same, you can fix that part of your "conversion" problem by shortening all your Quicken for Windows account names to the max allowed by Quicken for Mac, before you try the export/import.

[I agree with the previous poster that it is probably a good idea to create one file for each exported Quicken account, so you can import them individually into Quicken for Mac. There may be a devil or two in the details; so if the above suggestion doesn't help and if you need more info, post back.]

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Gary, you might wish to reconsider your decision to move from Q for PC to Q for Mac and continue to run the PC version under Parallels, VMware or Wine.

The Mac version of Quicken is generally considered to be a pale imitation of the PC version. Furthermore, the most resent version 2007 is the last of its form. Quicken announced during the January 2008 WWDC that they were going to discontinue Quicken Mac 200X and introduce "Quicken Financial Life for Mac". Intuit have told users that this new program with have less functionality then at present. Since this statement in January, Intuit has been silent on any further developments here.

Your difficulty in transitioning your data from PC to Mac is not unusual and perhaps typical. Quicken is virtually alone in presenting this difficulty to users.

So, while it might not be the advise you wish to hear now, it might actually be wisest to reman where you are.

If you are convinced that you wish to make the conversion you probably ought to check out the discussion formums over at Intuit. There is an entire section devoted to this topic..