Version R34.20 (July, 2021)

So when I do an 'About Quicken' (I am on "Windows 10 Home" using Quicken Deluxe), my version (as of 7/9/2021) is 33.24, build 27.1.33.24. WTF?

Hmm, so I did a 'Check for Updates' and my 33.24 Q told me I had the current version. Buit I did download the Mondo patch and lo and behold, indeed now on (on my laptop) it is updated to 34.16.

Now to find why the laptop didn't automatically update over these past few months since 33.24....

Mine says I have the latest version 34.19, build 27.1.34.19.

[I have experienced the same inability to upgrade past R33.24 as you. And even today (July 9) I can not update past R33.24 - not from within Quicken (Q still says R33.24 is the most current), nor from a downloaded patch file.]

I think there might be two reasons; I believe the two reasons are related, either or both could apply (my inability to upgrade using a downloaded patch file may be a different problem).

First. For some time now Quicken has had a policy of releasing new updates in two stages: stage one might also be called "gamma testing" ("testing" that follows "beta testing"). Quicken waits for the first n users to upgrade to the newest release ... then pauses future upgrades to see what sorts of problems the first batch of users report. If/when Quicken determines that a new release is good-to-go (by Quicken's standards - that does NOT mean bug-free), Quicken makes the release available to everyone.

Second. It seems to me that there have been some fairly serious problems reported with the post-R33.24 releases, and Quicken might have stopped allowing updates to those releases, even if their "gamma testing" policy had not been in effect.

No problems here with 34.19.

Great! But so far, so good. We'll see. Thanks for verifying John is it isn't me.

I got a somewhat (but not really, if I wasn't lazy, I'd open a new thread, but this isn't a bug in progress, more of an observation), but I digress) question for you.

Since I use two different copies of the Quicken program (one on laptop, one on home pc) which may be at any one time a different release (like this issue concerned, since I already had the higher release at home and didn't understand why my laptop told me I had the high release available which wasn't true) , have you ever heard of any *database* format issues that arise as a result? I don't mean from locking or corruption of that type of thing; more that Quicken makes during a new release some database format change int the database itself that a downleveled release can't handle.

Now this is not good programming practice, but it can happen. I've never seen any issues personally, but you are certainly in the know to offer an opinion which I hope you will. But this is just a curiosity (until it isn't).

" ... have you ever heard of any *database* format issues that arise as a result? I don't mean from locking or corruption of that type of thing; more that Quicken makes during a new release some database format change int the database itself that a downleveled release can't handle."

I won't argue with your hypothetical; but I don't think it corresponds to the recent Quicken reality.

Since Quicken changed what had been their long term approach, and decided to make Quicken data both forward and backward compatible, I am not aware of any problem such as you describe.

I too have one Q2020 release on one of my pc's, and a different Q2020 release on another of my pc's. Typically, I try to keep one pc current (or nearly so) for testing (for myself ... and others), while my other pc (where my real Quicken data resides) uses a release that I feel most comfortable with. In my case, both R26.17 and R33.24 tell me that R33.24 is the most current release.

[NOTE: For quite some time now, each new Quicken release includes all previous releases, starting from the baseline installation - so you now only get "Mondo" releases. That's why you can reinstall Quicken, then apply the most recent patch file and be up-to-date.]

I do suspect that a problem could arise if the user applied an earlier release (a patch file for an earlier release) directly to their current release, without reinstalling Quicken. When going directly "back" to an earlier release (without reinstalling Quicken), Quicken would not go through the old-to-new releases, so not have the opportunity to adjust for any changes in those releases. I believe that process would have the potential to create data corruption - but I have not read of any such result that was verified.

There is an approach that would avoid that potential problem, so I suggest users who wish to revert to an earlier release, plan to: uninstall Quicken (probably using QCleanUI), reinstall Quicken (while preventing Quicken from automatically upgrading to the current release), then manually running the patch file for the desired earlier release.

[Note2: I'm not in any way suggesting that Quicken can not (or does not) cause data corruption. But the reality is that it's something that's frequently difficult to prove. I think the odds are that Quicken does create corruption in some situations; but I also think the odds are against believing that to be true will produce beneficial results, without concrete evidence.]

Thanks. Yes, my original comment was indeed a hypothetical, not something I've actually seen.

Here's a Community discussion that suggests my suspicion may have been correct:

In that discussion, Quicken Paloma says, "At this time [July 19, 2021] version, R34.20 is no longer available for download since there were some issues with installing it."