I've just been in contact with Quicken support and they could find NO way to make the phantom payment go away. Damn. The best he could come up with is that I'll have to revert to an old-enough backup that doesn't have the problem. That scares the hell out of me. A few questions:
1) I vaguely recall that there was a way to *look* at a backup without its messing up the "active" one. I don't recall how, though.
My thought here is that the quicken support person kept insisting that there must be an *actual* transaction somewhere in my register that when I delete it all will be well. So what I'm going to do is go through my backups to find the last good one and the first one with the phantom. THEN. I'll just delete all the transactions in the later one until I delete one that makes the pending transaction go away. THEN I'll restart quicken [which I hope will come up with my real data] and delete that one transaction and see/hope that it fixes the problem.
2) if I do have to revert, what happens? My quicken would then be as it was a month ago.,.. then what. If I do a simple [hah] online update, will that grab *ALL* of the missing transactions in all my online accounts? What about the non-online accounts? [I have at least a few accounts that I enter the transactions into manually... and then pay the balance via my W-F account. I'm guessing I'd have to reenter all those manual transactions myself, by hand [so I think I'll have to take a screen shot or something to get that all correct.
Use Windows Explorer to copy your backup to another folder (a new empty folder, or any existing folder that doesn't have Quicken files in it). Use Windows Explorer to rename the backup: give it a name not used by any other Quicken file (and remove the "-backup" text from the name).
Then use Quicken File > Open Quicken File to open that file.
The last file BEFORE the first one with the problem, might have the problem transaction directly visible.
But I'm not sure anything you do will allow you to directly remove the problem transaction from Quicken files where it is not visible - though perhaps you can remove it indirectly.
The basic idea would be to "move" all the transactions from your existing Quicken bill pay account to a new Quicken account ... hoping that the underlying Quicken process will only work with transactions that are "visible" and "selected". Do the following when you do NOT have any unprocessed billpay transactions (except the "phantom" transaction) in your Quicken file.
You could try this (either backup first, and/or, do the following in a copy of your current file):
- create a new Quicken account of the same type as your current account that is activated for online billpay
- select all the transactions in the existing Quicken account (as you would select multiple files in Windows Explorer)
- right-click a selected transaction and choose, "Copy transaction(s)"
- in the new Quicken account created above, right-click in the register and choose "Paste transaction(s)"
- back in the original Quicken account, right-click a selected transaction and choose, "Delete"
At this point, you can take whatever steps that would normally give you the message that you have a bill pay transaction to Send. If the message does not appear (and your "new" Quicken account is correct), you should be good to go.
An alternate approach would be to substitute a QIF export from the old Quicken account and a QIF import to the new Quicken account, then delete the old Quicken account. Again do whatever you usually do that produces the message about a payment needing to be Sent. If you don't see the message, you should be good to go.
If you do see the message after the QIF file export/import, you have one more shot: you can open the exported QIF file and look for the problem transaction. A billpay send transaction will have "Send" in its Check# field, which you should be able to find in the QIF file (whose data is all human-readable).
Probably all the transactions that are downloadable (which depends on the financial institution - typically you can download the last 90 days ... but that's not a guarantee).
Any transactions that were originally manually entered (and never matched with a subsequently downloaded transaction) could not be downloaded. And previously downloaded transactions that you manually modified will have lost their manual modifications.
Yes. Unless you want to try exporting each of those accounts to its own QIF file, then importing that QIF file into your restored Quicken data file.
[so I think I'll have to take a screen shot or something to get that all correct.
It will be difficult to use screen shots for that: likely way too many transactions ... you'd need multiple screen shots.
Depending on which Quicken fields you used, you may be able to just print a register report (or a Banking > Transactions report).
But if you used fields like Notes or Flags, no report alone will do the job (and QIF file export/import will not get those fields either).
And you would also have to consider any attachments you might have in all your accounts (regardless of whether the account was activated for downloading) - I know of no way to move attachments from one Quicken file to another Quicken file (which is one reason why I rarely use attachments in Quicken, and when I do, I keep the originals in a separate Windows folder).
} On Friday, February 12, 2021 at 12:20:03 PM UTC-6, Bernie Cosell wrote: } > I've just been in contact with Quicken support and they could find NO way } > to make the phantom payment go away. Damn. The best he could come up } > with is that I'll have to revert to an old-enough backup that doesn't have } > the problem. That scares the hell out of me. A few questions: } > } > 1) I vaguely recall that there was a way to *look* at a backup without its } > messing up the "active" one. I don't recall how, though. } } Use Windows Explorer to copy your backup to another folder (a new empty folder, or any existing folder that ... doesn't have Quicken files in it). Use Windows Explorer to rename the ... backup: give it a name not used by any other Quicken file (and remove ...the "-backup" text from the name). } } Then use Quicken File > Open Quicken File to open that file.
Perfect. Thanks!!
} } > My thought here is that the quicken support person kept insisting that } > there must be an *actual* transaction somewhere in my register that when I } > delete it all will be well. So what I'm going to do is go through my } > backups to find the last good one and the first one with the phantom. THEN. } > I'll just delete all the transactions in the later one until I delete one } > that makes the pending transaction go away. THEN I'll restart quicken } > [which I hope will come up with my real data] and delete that one } > transaction and see/hope that it fixes the problem. } } The last file BEFORE the first one with the problem, might have the problem transaction directly visible. } } But I'm not sure anything you do will allow you to directly remove the problem transaction from .... Quicken files where it is not visible - though perhaps you can .... remove it indirectly.
Ah, I see, I think.
} The basic idea would be to "move" all the transactions from your existing Quicken bill pay account to .... a new Quicken account ... hoping that the underlying Quicken process ... will only work with transactions that are "visible" and "selected". Do .... the following when you do NOT have any unprocessed billpay ... transactions (except the "phantom" transaction) in your Quicken file.
} You could try this (either backup first, and/or, do the following in a copy of your current file): } - create a new Quicken account of the same type as your current account that is activated for online billpay } - select all the transactions in the existing Quicken account (as you would select multiple files in Windows Explorer) } - right-click a selected transaction and choose, "Copy transaction(s)" } - in the new Quicken account created above, right-click in the register and choose "Paste transaction(s)" } - back in the original Quicken account, right-click a selected transaction and choose, "Delete"
I can probably manage that :o). I can tell you, though, that Quicken wouldn't let me *inactivate* the account [because of the phantom]. What's interesting is it did let me deactivate online billpay and the phantom disappeared. but as soon as I reactivated billpay the phantom came back.
So.. I deactivated bill pay and then it would let me completely deactivate Wells-fargo!! So I did and when I reactivated my W-F account.... the damn phantom transaction reappeared. There must be something in the register that evades super-validate that is hiding the transaction
} > 2) if I do have to revert, what happens? My quicken would then be as it } > was a month ago.,.. then what. If I do a simple [hah] online update, will } > that grab *ALL* of the missing transactions in all my online accounts? } } Probably all the transactions that are downloadable (which depends on the financial institution - typically you .... can download the last 90 days ... but that's not a guarantee).
} Any transactions that were originally manually entered (and never matched with a subsequently downloaded transaction) could not be ....downloaded. And previously downloaded transactions that you manually ... modified will have lost their manual modifications.
} > What } > about the non-online accounts? [I have at least a few accounts that I } > enter the transactions into manually... and then pay the balance via my W-F } > account. I'm guessing I'd have to reenter all those manual transactions } > myself, by hand } } Yes. Unless you want to try exporting each of those accounts to its own QIF file, then importing that QIF ....file into your restored Quicken data file.
} [so I think I'll have to take a screen shot or something to get that all correct. } } It will be difficult to use screen shots for that: likely way too many transactions ... you'd need multiple screen shots. } } Depending on which Quicken fields you used, you may be able to just print a register report (or a Banking > Transactions report). } } But if you used fields like Notes or Flags, no report alone will do the job (and QIF .... file export/import will not get those fields either).
The only things I use are categories and memo, so that should be OK
} And you would also have to consider any attachments you might have in all your accounts (regardless of whether the ...account was activated for downloading) - I know of no way to move ...attachments from one Quicken file to another Quicken file (which is one ...reason why I rarely use attachments in Quicken, and when I do, I keep ... the originals in a separate Windows folder).
I haven't used any attachments so I should be OK.
What an adventure this is going to be.. UGH Than ks for the help!! /b\
Before restoring a Quicken file backup (or opening an earlier version of a Quicken file), I suggest deleting the Quicken Cloud dataset (aka cloud account) associated with the Quicken file. Note: You need to open another Quicken file to delete the appropriate cloud account. You may want to review:
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The other Quicken file needs to have a distinct file identifier so that we may delete the cloud account associated with the original Quicken file. For example, you may create a new Quicken file (select File > New Quicken File...) without any accounts and enable sync in preferences so you may view and delete the cloud account associated with the original Quicken file. This is necessary because when we open or restore an another version of the Quicken file with the same file identifier, Quicken is not resetting the cloud account appropriately at this time. I hope they will let us know when they have addressed this issue but, for now, before opening another Quicken file that has the same file identifier embedded, delete the cloud account.
Note: Only File > New Quicken File... generates a distinct file identifier. All other forms of creating a Quicken file, copy the embedded identifier from another file.
} Before restoring a Quicken file backup (or opening an earlier version } of a Quicken file), I suggest deleting the Quicken Cloud dataset (aka } cloud account) associated with the Quicken file. Note: You need to } open another Quicken file to delete the appropriate cloud account. You } may want to review: }
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I don't think I *have* a cloud account. Is there a way to tell?
} Sherlock snipped-for-privacy@nowhere.com wrote: } } } Before restoring a Quicken file backup (or opening an earlier version } } of a Quicken file), I suggest deleting the Quicken Cloud dataset (aka } } cloud account) associated with the Quicken file. Note: You need to } } open another Quicken file to delete the appropriate cloud account. You } } may want to review: } }
formatting link
} } I don't think I *have* a cloud account. Is there a way to tell?
Apparently I do. About which I know/knew nothing. What I've discovered is that quicken has a nice mechanism for "checking" backups -- you can restore from a backup file and then say "make a copy" and you get an out-of-sequence copy you can play with [I've determined that in feb 2nd the broken transaction was there but on jan 27th it was not]
Two odd things: first when I was restoring from the copied backup it said that it couldn't be done because it was "in the cloud" and not local. The file was on my NAS -- would that have confused Quicken? In any event I put the copied file in a "local" folder and it opened just fine. [hence my above determination]. BUT - -somewhere in there Quicken bogged down for a bit and said something about "syncing with the Quicken cloud" or some such. Is that normal? OK? I guess I don't care, since I have all my backups semi-locally [on the NAS]
I'm thinking that what I need to do is take screen shots of all of my accounts for the last two weeks. Then go back to the 27 jan copy, and do an online update. Then compare each account with the screen shots and make changes as required. If that works, how do I get that to become my default quicken file? Can I just rename it to be my MAIN.QDF and then double click on that file? This is all still scary but I'm getting closer...
From a comment on the community site neither I nor quicken will ever know what the problem was, so whatever caused it will not get fixed.
} I've just been in contact with Quicken support and they could find NO way } to make the phantom payment go away. Damn. The best he could come up } with is that I'll have to revert to an old-enough backup that doesn't have } the problem. That scares the hell out of me. A few questions:
Problem fixed!! Yes, I had to revert to a backup [from two weeks ago]. I did it the safe way: I told quicken to copy the backup and 4restore from the copy , which left my main file alone. I took screen shots from my main file of the non-online accounts. Working in the backup I did some futzing around and did an update. I entered the data into the non-online accounts by hand. The bank accounts came out perfectly!!
I got CC-501 errors on all my credit cards, so I contacted Quicken support and the solution was to deactivate all the accounts, then Add them again [and, of course, linking them to the old accounts already there] and then updated again. One card said "loading transactions from the last 6528 days" OY and I figured that it'd take me *days* to remove the duplicate transactions. BUT: quicken is cleverer than I thought and when it threw away the old transactions [invisibly and automatically] I only had about 7 transactions to "accept".
Then: I renamed my main QDF file to FILE-save.QDF , renamed the copied/restore file to be FILE.QDF. and just double-clicked on it and my quicken is now happy [and phantomless]
I have been watching your posts the way a rubber necker can't take his eyes off of a train wreck.
Glad you have returned things to normal.
Did you figure out what exactly went wrong? Were there one or two transactions that blew up? Or did you just go through the exercise and get things back to normal without knowing exactly what went wrong?
} Did you figure out what exactly went wrong? Were there one or two } transactions that blew up? Or did you just go through the exercise and } get things back to normal without knowing exactly what went wrong?
Another quickener [is that a word? :o)] on the community forum had the same problem and "solved" it the same way. Quicken support completely threw up their hands [both on the forum and directly with quicken chat support] and didn't have a clue. And that's the most irritating about this -- there were a few of us who got bagged by this, but since Quicken doesn't have any handle on what caused the problem how can the fix it? So it'll likely keep happening [even if rarely].
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