Re: Community Discussion: I have to say I'm getting weary of all the download problems

On 10/29/24 7:53 AM, Andrew wrote:
> On 10/28/2024 9:51 PM, John Pollard wrote:
>>
>> https://tinyurl.com/5cu32b7p
>>
>> The following comments apply to the posts in the above discussion as 
>> of October 28, 2024 @ 10:17 AM.
>>
>> Note the lack of information supplied by the posters in the above 
>> whine- fest.
>>
>> Not a shred of evidence that their complaints are due to Quicken 
>> (qw.exe) deficiencies including more frequent releases of Quicken). 
>> Quicken (the desktop application) has very little to do with the 
>> majority of download problems.
>>
>> Not all download problems are the same. there can be many causes; 
>> without detailed information it is impossible to attribute cause.
>>
>> And there are 4 entities involved in most Quicken downloads:
>> - Quicken (qw.exe) - which usually initiates downloads.
>> - Quicken servers - which act as "middlemen", transmitting download 
>> requests (from qw.exe) upstream, and processing download results 
>> coming downstream to Quicken.
>> - Intuit services - which do the bulk of the request/download 
>> processing, passing Quicken requests upstream to the financial 
>> institution and sending financial institution data downstream to Quicken
>> - The financial institution - which is 100% responsible for the 
>> content/ format of downloaded transactions, balances and holdings 
>> (with 1 exception - see below)
>>
>> The only download type (Connection Method) in which the financial 
>> institution is not involved with choosing and formatting the data to 
>> be downloaded, is SOME "Express Web Connect" downloads. In those 
>> specific cases, Intuit does what's called screen scraping by "reading" 
>> the financial institution data as it appears on the FI's web site. 
>> This is the download type with the greatest risk of sending 
>> incorrect/incomplete data.
>>
>> Download type (Connection Method) is chosen by the financial 
>> institution, and Express Web Connect is the cheapest download type - 
>> hence its widespread use.

> One thing the OP does say "...they set your opening balance to something 
> random" which is true, and I've mentioned that before. (Although 
> "random" might be the wrong word)
> 
> Sometimes when you do a 'reset' as she calls it (I believe she is 
> talking about the 'DEACTIVATE' online panel followed by the subsequent 
> account online set up), Quicken indeed DOES strangely adjust the opening 
> balance in the account.  Subsequently, it will offer an Balance 
> Adjustment to bring the ending balance up to sync with the online 
> current balance.  I've learned to life with that and copy all the 
> balances (online, current, and ending) to the side to deal with this by 
> manually adjusting things later (like changing the opening balance back 
> to the original) and deleting the balance adjustment transaction.
> 
> Quicken has acknowledged this (at least for EWC+ accounts, but I seem to 
> remember this happens in other types as well) and said they're working 
> on a fix in a future release: 
> https://www.quicken.com/support/why-did-my-opening-balance-change-after-changing-ewc-quicken-windows/  ("Some users are reporting that this opening balance adjustment causes issues when reconciling the account. We are working to make changes in a future release to prevent these reconcile issues from arising.")

Yes, there is a too-long-standing Quicken bug that sometimes incorrectly 
alters the Quicken account opening balance transaction.

But no evidence (in the referenced post or anywhere else I know of) that 
implicates some out-of-the-ordinary Quicken bug-rate. Nor anything 
linking the problem to the switch to a subscription model of Quicken.
It's just one bug and it's fairly easily overcome. I've experienced it a 
couple of times myself.

The generally recommended aid to repair the problem (which I use), is to 
put the true opening balance amount in the Memo field in the actual 
Opening Balance transaction.

Then when encountering a Quicken reconcile with an unexplained 
"Difference", one of the first places to look is at the account opening 
balance record.

[One of the OP's complaints is that Quicken would " ...download[] 
randomly into the wrong accounts ....". That complaint has been made by 
multiple users, but never supported by evidence.

What typically creates this false impression is when users reactivate 
multiple accounts at the same financial institution at the same time, 
and do not pay attention when Quicken presents the accounts "found" at 
the financial institution. Quicken occasionally "links" a "found" 
account to the wrong Quicken account - which would cause downloaded 
transactions for the correct account to go to the incorrectly linked 
account. But it is the user's responsibility to verify that the Quicken 
"Link to" account is correct ... which is trivially easy to do.]