Upgrade to PP2017, I can't see 'OldFiles'. How do I find it to open it?

peter.lang

I upgraded from Personal Plus 2015 to 2017 yesterday.  According to the Instalation and Upgrade Guide there should be a file called 'OldFiles, "located in the same folder as the data file you are upgrading".  But it is not there.  Why not?  How can I open it?

gazza73

Peter

If you are referring to page 8 or 18 of the installation manual of 2017,  check if they were put in a FOLDER  (by the way, that was a folder, not a file),   called BACKUP  which may be inside the  Quicken folder of your own "My Documents" folder.    You should recognise the  HCX   IDX   QEL   QPH   QDF    but more importantly,  the last ACCESS DATE of those files bearing your database name.

Gary

peter.lang

Hi Gary,

Thank you for helping me.  Yes, I am referring to p8.  There is no folder called "OldFiles" in the "BACKUP" folder, nor in the "Quicken" folder where the original files are located.  The Quicken folder contains three folders: BACKUP, VALIDATE and 'New folder'.  VALIDATE and 'New folder' are empty. The Quicken folder contains 33 files: six files for each of two PP2015 "files", add seven each for three copy of these "files".  The last automatic backup in the BACKUP folder was on 8/12/2016.

When I did the upgrade, I did not save the program to the default folder name.  I changed the folder name to Reckon 2017.  This may have been a mistake, because all future upgrades will presumably want to go into the same folder.  Perhaps I should start again.  But what are the consequences.  I've made various backups in the past two days and I would know what to delete.  I may end up making much more of a mess of this than I've already got.

I am very worried about doing more damage and wonder whether I can go on with what I have.

peter.lang

Gary,

Can you help me?  I think I may be opening and updating the PP2015 files instead of the PP2017 files.  I need help to understand how to sort out the mess I think I've got.

gazza73

call me on 0408 994799 (Vic)  or if late,  try:  03 97626293  and I'll call back.


Gary

gazza73

For the benefit of other readers of this topic, and to attempt closure......

Peter may update this at his leisure,  but problem is resolved.  Of note, is that the installation manual talks of a folder called <OldFiles>   but that should read as a SUB FOLDER of the 'Quicken"  data folder within your 'my Documents" area.

The inability to locate a folder <OldFiles> lead to concern by the client, as to whether there existed a proper pre-installation backup set, and from there,  the focus turned to naming conventions and the need to ensure that either an all-in-one archive called xxxxx.rkn  and/or a full compliment of the 6 (or 7) files that constitute the set of database files (for each entity being managed) actually existed, and where.

The use of the name "Personal Plus by Reckon (Aust) and the continued presence of program code that generates folder names like 'Quicken", in light of the separation from Intuit Inc (USA)  added with the best  practice  of splitting programs (and Operating Systems) from personal DATA (say C: versus drives),  also leads to naming questions in the eyes of even long-time clients,  with folder names of "Reckon" as well as "Quicken" and/or Intuit  on their PC's.    refer:  http://www.computerworld.com/article/3041032/desktop-apps/intuit-sells-quicken-to-private-equity-fir...
This situation, coupled with the movement of pricing information by Markit-On_demand when they were formerly Wall-St-On_demand (see:  http://advertising.aol.com/vendors/markit-demand-formerly-wall-street-demand )   all adds to the development support that Reckon Australia has put in, behind the scenes, of continually addressing this Personal Finance segment with the terrific PP product.

All that aside,  after some careful explanations the site is running OK as we leave off the 14th Dec!

Cheers


Gary

(PS: I welcome an update or correction by Peter)

peter.lang

Gary Pope and anyone interested,

Thank you for your help this morning.  You were an enormous help to me - very patient and generous with your time.  I learnt a great deal about how to use Reckon Personal Plus, the files and folders and what you can and can’t do.  As I am engineer, I appreciated your caution and was confident you would not risk damaging my 27 years of family and investment data. 

Your comment does not make clear that the <OldFiles> folder is wrongly named in the “Installation and Upgrade Guide”.  The folder is actually called <BACKUP> and, as you said, is a SUB FOLDER of <Documents\Quicken>. 

I got into a mess by trying to save my files, since the upgrade to PP2017, into a folder called <Reckon 2017> instead of leaving them in Quicken.  Since your help this morning, and more attempts to make my “What-If” of my main file, I’ve realised that, at my level of competence, it seems to be essential that I leave the PP2017 data files in <Quicken>. 

I was also concerned that I had not used the default folder name when I upgraded to PP2017 and this might cause me problems now or next time I upgrade.  I changed the name to Reckon 2017 to minimise the number of characters in the path (because path and file names longer than 140 characters in total are not backed up by Windows).  Gary assured me there is no need to be concerned, BUT definitely do not rename this or any other folder once the program is in it.