Accessing QDF/QIF files after Quicken disaster.

[OzBoz]

Without going into too much detail, Quicken 2008 collapsed in a heap, and I can't reinstall it. Support is very thin on the ground, so I still do not have Quicken installed, although I have all my data (10 years worth) backed up ok. I reasoned it was time to try something else.

My problem is, having no Quicken, I cannot export my data files (QDF) in QIF format, so I'm having difficulty getting my data into My Money. All I have access to are the QDF files from my backup folder. Is it a forlorn hope that I can somehow access these files and get them into My Money, or has Quicken broken that as well?

Thanks for any help or suggestions

Brian

[mthadm]

QDF (Quicken Data Format) is an undocumented, binary format. We stopped supporting it about 6 month ago after we found that it changes not only between versions but also between platforms and between different teams at Intuit. There were other serious problems with it that we basically gave up.

I think the rational way of dealing with this would be to try to install either a different version of Quicken, either number wise or platform-wise, i.e. install an earlier/later version or install the same version into parallels partition in on a mac or vmware partition if on a windows.

Chances are that a fresh install in a new partition will get get it going again at which point you can produce QIFs that could be read by pretty much all other financial applications.

[OzBoz]

Thanks for the quick response.

I should have said that I have tried several earlier version of Quicken, and I'm getting the same error with them all. I cannot even roll back with a Windows System Restore without seeing that dreaded error message. So you can see I'm in serious trouble here.

However, you have answered my main question. Without getting Quicken up and running again, it's pointless me even considering using an alternative application.

I will attempt an install on my second hard drive, and see what transpires.

Thanks

Brian

[cclrk]

Hello ~

I found this thread googling for this issue, and although I appreciate it is a year old now, I am hoping that there may be some suggestions out there re QDF files and the following situation: I have about 6 different sets of accounts as QDF files, stored on a raided server and backed up nightly (a complete backup image of all the Quicken data). The data is accessed from a single client machine and a single user account running Quicken 2005 on XP through a mapped drive.

A few days ago I had a motherboard failure on the client machine, which resulted in a hardware replacement and complete reinstall. The Quicken XP user account was recreated exactly as before. No big deal I thought. But now I find that I am only able to see the Quicken snapshot at the time (about 18 months ago) when the network storage arrangement was first set up, and none of the thousands of transactions that have taken place since and been entered by the "same" user from the old client machine! I put "same" in quotes because I understand that a recreated user even with identical credentials does not look identical to the system(?)

So my big question, are QDF files locked to a windows user account? And surely, even if so I cannot be the first one to use this arrangement for Quicken, and have to recreate the accessing user?? There must be some administrative work around?

Yikes and help!!!

Sorry for long post, and TIA for any and all thoughts...

[mthadm]

Hello,

As we explained above, we don't support QDF formats so we don't know the details at whether the Quicken keeps its data per user or per system during the backups.


We wish we could be more helpful in this case,

Thanks

[cclrk]

Thanks for quick reply, appreciated.

Just for the record, here's the resolution, in case it helps anyone else. I had one of our techs go over it, and discovered that in restoring the client machine back up, the network drive mapping had been restored to its original state as well, and so Quicken was silently opening the archival account data retained from when the network storage was first set up, and (with deep embarrassment) I have to confess that the current production data was waiting to be accessed elsewhere on the network storage! When we corrected the drive mapping, everything "reappeared".

So with a -huge- sigh of relief, I can report that there were no problems accessing the QDF from another user... once you find the correct data.. _blush_

Christina.