Quicken 2004 No Automatic Backup

"JulesP" wrote

The Quicken automatic backup folder, BACKUP, is always located in the same folder where the file it is backing up is located.

I have never heard of there being no Quicken auto backup files. Make sure your Windows Explorer folder options are not hiding any files or folders.

That narrows it. I have four different quicken databases, all located at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Quicken Data\. I see that three of them do back up automatically to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Quicken Data\BACKUP. My main database called Personal does not and a computer-wide search doesn't show autobackups of this database anywhere else. I have the show hidden files option set. I don't know if it's relevant, but I do manual backups of the Personal database to the this backup folder where the autobackups should be.

If you have more thoughts on what I can check I would appreciate it.

JP

Hi, Jules.

I'm running Q2006 Basic, so some of the details may be slightly different. For one thing, my Quicken.ini has no backup entries at all.

As we've discussed in several older threads, those two settings are slightly misleading. When I open Quicken and click Edit | Preferences | Quicken Program | Backup, the first box says "Remind after running Quicken: ___ times (0-99)"; the second says "Maximum number of backup copies: ___ (1-9)". I've forgotten what the defaults were, but I have them set to 3 and

2. This means that the 3rd time I shut down Quicken after my last manual backup, it will ask if I want to backup before closing. If so, I can pick the location for the backup, just as if I had pressed +B. I can backup to a folder on this HD, to a different HD, or to a CD-R (maybe; this behavior has been inconsistent in recent versions of Quicken and Windows) or other location. The point is, the choice is mine.

The other setting tells Quicken to keep 5 generations of automatic backups (one per week) in the Quicken\Backup folder - or the \Backup folder created in whichever folder holds my Quicken data file (actually a fileSET containing the QDF and related files, as I'm sure you know). I don't get to choose the location for these automatic backups.

Nothing. Just use Quicken. The automatic backups should, as the term suggests, just happen automatically. You can choose how many of these, from

1 to 9, but since the minimum setting is "1", there should always be at least one - after the first week, of course. For the first seven days after you install Quicken, there will be no automatic backups YET. After a week, you should see at least one, with one more added each week until you hit the number you have set. The first one will be named QDATA1.*. Assuming you've set it to 5, the second week QDATA1 will be renamed QDATA2 and the new backup will be saved as QDATA1. Each week thereafter, each set will be renamed by adding 1 to the QDATAx number. When you hit the maximum (5 weeks in my case) plus one week, the oldest set (QDATA5) will be deleted before the others are renamed, so that you will always have the full number of automatic backups you have chosen, numbered from QDATA1 to QDATA5 (or whatever).

From your second post...

BAD idea, in my opinion. Let Quicken handle the automatic backups. Put your own manual backups (whether in response to Quicken's reminders or not) into some OTHER location. Then, even if the automatics get lost, you still have your manual ones - or vice versa. Put at least one recent backup and at least one "milestone" backup (from year-end or other important cut-off point) onto media (floppy, CD-R, USB flash drive...) that you can remove from the computer and store in some other physical location so that even a fire or theft won't cost you your data, even if you lose Windows and Quicken.

and...

Quicken backups are not hidden, by default. But, even if they are, they can't really hide. Here's how to find them, using an old MS-DOS tool, the Dir (Directory - that's what we used to call a Folder):

Open a Command Prompt window and type at the prompt: dir c:\*.qdf /s/a

This will produce a listing of files with any filename using the .qdf extension, starting at the Root of Drive C:. The /s switch will cause it to search all subdirectories and the /a switch will cause it to show ALL files, even those with Hidden or System or other attributes set. If any .qdf file is anywhere on Drive C:, this command will show it. If you have multiple drives, just try again with Dir X:\*.qdf /s/a. Once you find the *.qdf file, the related files (*.qtx, *.qel, etc., depending on how YOU use Quicken) should be in the same folder.

In summary, Quicken provides for three kinds of backup:

1. Automatic - no action required on your part - always to Quicken\Backup, every seven days.
2. Manual - voluntary - press +B (or click Backup) and put them wherever you want, as often as you want.
3. Reminded - same as Manual, just in case you forgot to do that for a while.

RC

R. C., Thanks for the response and summary of how backup should work. My Edit Backup Preferences are Remind after running ... 3x, Maximum number of backups ... 9. I should have said that at times I use the default automatic backup location for my manual backups, but in reality I select different manual backup locations each time to minimize overwrites of recent backups. Automatic backups are not happening with this database named Personal; i.e., no Personal1.*, Personal2.*, etc.

I wonder - I have my XP operating system set for an administrator logon and two user logons. Quicken will not run under either of the user logons, but only runs from the one with administrator privileges. I don't use that one for much else, and I run a "window cleaner" on it every couple of days to clean up cookies, unwanted registry entries, and temp files. I wonder if this may also be erasing some file that Quicken writes to, say date of last backup. This is conjecture only, but I intend to test it. Thanks for the responses. JP