How to Back up or Restore Your Quicken Data

Overview

When you back up your Quicken data, you preserve your financial information (including reports, passwords, accounts, and attachments). This is a way to safeguard your records in case of a computer mishap or as a way to move your data from one computer to another.

Please note, a Quicken data file has the extension .QDF while a Quicken backup file has the extension .QDF-Backup (or quicken.backup in Mac).

Important: Quicken Cloud

Syncing to the Quicken Cloud does not create a backup; you can't restore Quicken data from the Quicken Cloud, and you can't access the Quicken Cloud from anywhere except the desktop and mobile Quicken products. A cloud backup is not automatically created when you back up your data file. However, the Subscription Release of Quicken includes 100GB of online storage with Dropbox that you can use for your Quicken backup files!

Back up in Quicken for Windows

1. Select File > Copy or Backup File...

2. Select Create a complete backup and click Next.

3. To make it easier to identify your latest backup, you can put a check next to Add date to backup file name.

4. Quicken will show you the location where your backup will be saved along with the name of the backup file (this is typically your Quicken file name followed by .QDF-backup).

• The default save location for backup files is C:\Users\[your name]\Documents\Quicken\BACKUP and we recommend to leave this unchanged.

• If you need to change this location, click Change... then select a folder to save the backup to. After making your selection, click Save.

5. Click Create Backup.

Back up to a USB thumb drive, CD, DVD, etc.

1. Insert the CD/DVD or attach the flash drive you want to use for your backup.

2. Open Quicken.

3. Select File > Copy or Backup File...

4. Select Create a complete backup and click Next.

5. Quicken will show you the location where your backup will be saved along with the name of the backup file (this is typically your Quicken file name followed by .QDF-backup). Click Change... to select where you would like to save your backup. This is where you'll select your CD/DVD drive or flash drive.

6. Click Create Backup.

Restore Quicken data

1. Go to File > View/Restore Backups....

2. Browse the Local and Online Backups tabs to find the backup file you want to restore. The Quicken backup file has the extension .QDF-Backup.

3. Select the file to restore and click Restore Backup.

4. Next, you will be given the option to overwrite the file you have open or to create a copy of the backup you're restoring.

   • If you Create a copy, you will need to select a location to save the copy to and you will also need to give the copy a unique file name. After naming the file and selecting the location, click Save, then click Yes to open the restored file.

   • If you are restoring a file over the current file, click OK to overwrite the current file then click Yes to open the restored file.

     What does it mean to overwrite a file?: Restoring a backup file replaces your current data with the data stored on the backup. Be aware that you'll lose any changes you made since the backup was created. If you want to preserve the current file, you must rename the current file or the file you are restoring. We recommend to avoid overwriting files.

Restore an automatic backup

Quicken creates a copy of your data every seven days and stores five of these copies in a BACKUP folder. If the backup file you've created becomes damaged, you may be able to restore an automatic backup and save yourself the need to reenter data.

First, check to see if automatic backups are turned on (this is on by default)

1. In Quicken, go to Edit > Preferences.

2. Under Setup on the left, choose Backup.

3. Make sure there is a check mark next to Automatic Backups.

   • To the right of Automatic Backups, there is an Open/Change backup directory link that goes directly to your BACKUP folder - a good way of finding them fast!

   • Choose to back up your Quicken data file after running Quicken X times (between 1 - 99).

   • Choose how many backup data files you would like to save (between 1 - 99 copies).

Then, restore the automatic backup

1. Go to File > View/Restore Backups....

2. Select the file to restore.

3. Click Restore Backup.

4. Next, you will be given the option to overwrite the file you have open or to create a copy of the backup you're restoring.

   • If you Create a copy, you will need to select a location to save the copy to and you will also need to give the copy a unique file name. After naming the file and selecting the location, click Save, then click Yes to open the restored file.

   • If you are restoring a file over the current file, click OK to overwrite the current file then click Yes to open the restored file.

     What does it mean to overwrite a file?: Restoring a backup file replaces your current data with the data stored on the backup. Be aware that you'll lose any changes you made since the backup was created. If you want to preserve the current file, you must rename the current file or the file you are restoring. We recommend to avoid overwriting files.

Back up and Restore using Quicken Online Backup

For more information about the Quicken Online Backup service, click here.

Back up and Restore using Dropbox

For backup instructions, see How do I backup my Quicken file using Dropbox on Windows?

For information on restoring data using Dropbox, see How do I restore backup files from Dropbox?

Troubleshooting

• If you restore and open a backup file and the file is empty, you may have opened the wrong file. For help locating Quicken files, click here.

• In order to move a backup file from Quicken for Mac to Quicken for Windows (or vice versa), you will first need to restore the backup file in the original program then convert it to the new one. For conversion steps, click here.

• If you receive a "File not backed up" error, click here.

• After restoring a data file, you may be asked for a data file password. For more information about data file passwords, click here.

• For Dropbox errors, click here.