OK. I’m not happy. This is a not-so-happy post about my favorite money manager, Quicken. I did the buy-TurboTax+Quicken-and-get-$30-rebate thing. As I installed Quicken, I was informed that the Starter edition “can’t convert a data file from a previous version of Quicken”!!!
This is enough of a change that Quicken felt the need to alert me before installing itself. That’s a good move. It would have been even better if I had been alerted before I purchased the product!
I grabbed the original box and checked to see if I’d missed some fine print. Well, I kind of did, maybe. In the really fine print, the box says “Quicken Started Edition 2009 imports data from Quicken 2008 only.” I have Quicken 2002 on my computer. I’m on the road and have Quicken 2008 at home but never upgraded. So, I don’t know which is correct yet — the inside of the box or the warning dialog box. The dialog box did not say my version was too old, it said none, nada, zippo conversions from previous versions.
So, now I don’t know what to do. Do I pay for the upgrade to another Quicken version so I can use it while on the road? Or do I wait until I get home, install Quicken 2008 to see if Quicken 2009 can convert data files from Quicken 2008?
Any of you have ideas?
Update: I’ve spent about 2 hours researching this “can’t convert a data file from a previous version of Quicken” problem. It’s real. The Quicken Community forums have some unhappy long-time users of Quicken. (Read here…) I found this statement in the forums: “The Starter Edition is for new users only. You cannot open a Quicken file from a previous version with the Starter Edition. You will need to upgrade to Quicken Deluxe or higher to convert and open your Quicken data file.”
Looks like the marketing folks went overboard in segmenting the market.
I think you should beat your head repeatedly with the box.
What?
Not the type of help you were looking for?
Your thoughts are kinder than the ones I’ve been having!
This probably comes too late. You could export all your transaction data from the older version and then import that into the new version. You’d still have to recreate your reports and other things.
Saw your page and read about Quicken 9. For what it’s worth…I’m still using Quicken 99, and very happy, thank you! I previewed Quicken 2002 but hated all the changes they did to it, and sighed over all the man-hours that would be wasted as I tried to re-learn a program I had been using very successfully for about 10 years, and decided I didn’t need the internet connectivity aspects. I manually enter my bills so it keeps me closer in touch with my budgeting and expenses. Downgrades/upgrades like Quicken 2009 are not something I would ever want to mess with.
I heard your message too late. Quicken Support confirmed it. The warning should have been more explicit. I’ve used Quicken for a decade +. The alternative is to just keep using Basic 2007 (I use it as a checkbook proxy) and go to my bank to download transaction informtion. Not too hard, but it don’t seem right.
Hello, I want to subscribe for this blog to obtain newest
updates, therefore where can i do it please help.