Quicken For Mac 2018 Complaints

Quicken for Mac. Quicken provides two different versions of their financial planning software—one for Windows and one for Mac. Quicken for Mac has been routinely recognized as a best personal finance software for Mac users, and the 2017 version features a ton of new upgrades and improvements. So how does Quicken 2018 compare with predecessors and should you continue using it. Here are Quicken's technical requirements for Mac.

Comments

• edited January 2018

  The Mac version is still behind..with a completely different interface (more like Mint).
  It has prehistoric reporting, most of which aren't useful or don't total. There is also no accommodation for handling transfers in reports or budgets. So, you can't get a report to include a mortgage principal payment (because it transfers to the loan account). And you can't budget for that same transfer principal payment.
  There still is a very long way to go to get even close to the Windows version.
  However, that being said, if you subscribe to Quicken 2018 you get BOTH Windows and Mac versions included.
  So, you can always play around with the Mac version and see if it meets your needs, while still using your Quicken Windows version.
  BTW, the data files are not compatible between the Mac and Windows versions. They are separate and distinct.
• edited August 2018

  As mentinoed, they are quite different products still and the data files are not compatible and interchangeable.
  Note that if you decide to migrate your data, you do need to convert. If your data is from QW2010 or newer, the mechanics are quite simple..copy data file over to Mac. Open data file with QM2018. The built-in conversion process will step you through but there are a few things you need to know; here is the entire process:
  https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/faq-converting-from-quicken-for-windows-includin..
  Since you did not specify what version of QWin you are currently using, review all the prep and background info before:
  https://www.quicken.com/support/things-do-converting-your-data-quicken-mac-2016
  If you need to use an intermediary version, as mentioned on that page, instead of getting QW2010, you can try using QW2013 available from Quicken for FREE here: https://www.quicken.com/support/how-and-when-use-intermediate-version-convert-older-versions-quicken
  (that first page needs to be updated ;-) )
  NOTE: Be aware that at this time, it is very difficult to convert back from Mac to Windows, as there are many problems with the reverse conversion process.
  I also suggest that you make sure that Quicken 2018 for Mac will meet your needs, since it was re-written from the ground up (starting in 2010 with Quicken Essentials) and is not the same product as the Windows version, so there are some features that are still not there e.g. full loan amortization*, 2-line display, QuickMath, or are not as fully developed yet, e.g. Customized Reports, some investment performance reports and stats (therefore some data may not carry over). You can start here:
  http://www.quicken.com/mac/compare
  *NOTE: Support for fixed rate loans has been released as of QM2017 v4.5.x but there is no announced timing for support for variable rate or simple daily interest loans.
  You may want to review the List of Obstacles and Hindrances for Migrating from QM2007 or QWin to Quicken for Mac. Add your vote to any features that are missing for you. Your VOTES matter!
  Be aware of data that will and will not carry forward:
  https://www.quicken.com/support/what-data-gets-carried-over
  Then look at the updates since the original release here:
  https://www.quicken.com/support/2018-release-quicken-mac-release-notes
  You will also want to look at a more detailed comparison done by a SuperUser which also identifies nuances not mentioned elsewhere (and read on for comments from other users too on that same discussion thread):
  https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/can-anyone-who-has-switched-from-2007-to-2015-he..
  Take a look at the following videos to give you a better idea:
  https://www.youtube.com/user/QuickenMac
  Note that there are many differences that are rather subtle, that are not necessarily identifiable via documentation, for example, the 12-month budget feature does not allow including transfers, including investment income, selecting specific accounts, or have rollover capability.
  If you find that QM2018 does not meet your needs, the alternative is to run Quicken for Windows in a virtual machine on your Mac. There are 5 popular products you can use: Parallels, VMWare Fusion, Oracle VirtualBox, Bootcamp or CrossOver. The first 4 require you to also buy a copy of Windows. The first 2 cost $50-80, the third and forth are free. CrossOver also costs about $50-$80 but does NOT require you to buy Windows.
  If you plan to keep your PC & Mac, you could also run Quicken on the PC and use remote access (several free options, e.g. NoMachine and Teamviewer) to access Quicken from your Mac (or even a tablet or phone) (see this great article for complete review of many options (most are free): http://machow2.com/rdp-for-mac/ ).
  (If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click 'Like', so others will know, thanks.)

  Have Questions? Check out these FAQs:

  • Quicken Windows FAQ list
    

  COMPLETE list of Product Ideas - Quicken for Mac to VOTE on
  Object to Quicken's business model, using up 25% of your screen? Add your vote here:
  Quicken should eliminate the LARGE Ad space when a subscription expires
  (Canadian Q user since '92, STILL using QM2007)
  

Comments

• edited November 2018

  Downloaded Quicken 2018 Premier this morning from Quicken.com. ZERO problems. Bill pay is sooo much better. The product works very well. I think with Quicken separating from Intuit, the product is much better.
  I am still exploring but so far am satisfied with the product.
• edited October 2017

  Downloaded Quicken 2018 Premier this morning from Quicken.com. ZERO problems. Bill pay is sooo much better. The product works very well. I think with Quicken separating from Intuit, the product is much better.
  I am still exploring but so far am satisfied with the product.

  Quicken 2018 Premier, Version R2.1, Build 27.1.2.16
  No regrets. Other than the 'click through' bug I'm happy with it. Everything I've tried works. Typically I did have to re-set a couple of my Preferences. Even seems to be a bit faster than my QW2017.
• edited November 2017

  Thanks for your replies. Since it controls an important information, i am being cautious about being on the bleeding edge.
• edited November 2017

  For mac notepad++. Thanks for your replies. Since it controls an important information, i am being cautious about being on the bleeding edge.

  I'm not using Quicken 2018 yet..and won't until at least Christmas or before tax time..giving Quicken plenty of time to address all sorts of updates to fix what will surely be a litany of bugs and seeing how the sale prices and tax bundles shake out.
  What I've surmised is that I have copies of Quicken Windows 2017 AND Quicken Mac 2017. I have plenty of 'download life' left before I will need to upgrade.
  And since your subscription basically starts on DAY ONE when you install the software, I'm in no rush to upgrade yet.
  Besides, is there anything earth shattering in either version that I have to have? Nope.
  YMMV.
• edited October 2017

  I just upgraded to the Rental Property Manager version. I personally would wait before trying 2018. I've spent the last 2 days messing with it (and I am a computer software programmer, so I know what I am doing), and I finally decided to just start all the way over. This is going to take forever! It will only add 1 account at a time. It says it doesn't recognize the other account types, but they are accounts I've already added. This is very frustrating and I am very disappointed with Quicken! I hope they have a quick fix for this!
• edited June 2018

  I upgraded from mac 17 deluxe to mac 18 premier. Just noticed that I can not manage my auto renewal feature online. I am required to contact customer support. I should be able to manage my account settings without having to speak with customer service. It reminds me of the old days when i had to call the operator to make a phone call.
  Come on Quicken, we are old enough to make decisions and manage our own account settings!
• edited November 2017

  Before I start paying for another subscription (kind of pricy for Premier). Quicken is going to have to convince me that 2018 is much better then the crap they produced in 2017. Think I will take a wait and see attitude until about spring before I even consider jumping into it. I try to learn from my past mistakes.
• edited October 2017

  I upgraded from mac 17 deluxe to mac 18 premier. Just noticed that I can not manage my auto renewal feature online. I am required to contact customer support. I should be able to manage my account settings without having to speak with customer service. It reminds me of the old days when i had to call the operator to make a phone call.
  Come on Quicken, we are old enough to make decisions and manage our own account settings!

  They don't want you to easily stop auto-renewal. I hate it when other companies default to that. They want to entangle you in their telephone menu systems so you will give up.
• edited November 2017

  Yes, i am concerned that my disc based Office programs, are now subject to the whims of a corporate giant. I minimize my cloud usage as we know nothing stored there is private or secure. If you read any of these use contracts closely, you see that they limit your use of their product, but they reserve the right in the future to do just about anything they want with our information.
  Once they lock you in, you either succumb to their terms COMPLETELY, or lose use of your data.
  For now, Q says there is a data guaranty for other than starter versions.
• edited November 2017

  I've been a Quicken user for many, many years. Currently running '15 and I expect the 'sunset' soon as the 3-year support ends.
  Last year I reviewed Money Dance and found it OK, but not as well finished a product as Q. At a cost of $60 / 3 years, Quicken 2015 seemed the best value.
  Quicken 2018, at $45 / year is more than double the cost.
• edited November 2017

  @Mark .. I suggest you go to eBAY and buy a new in the box Quicken 2017 while it can be found there. Can be had there for very little $. Quicken 2017 will keep you going until the year 2020.
  Can tell you that there is very very little difference between Quicken 2017 and Quicken 2018.
• edited November 2017

  Does the new 2018 version have color back in the toolbar or is it still all gray with the overbearing bright white background throughout the screen?
• edited November 2017

  Before I start paying for another subscription (kind of pricy for Premier). Quicken is going to have to convince me that 2018 is much better then the crap they produced in 2017. Think I will take a wait and see attitude until about spring before I even consider jumping into it. I try to learn from my past mistakes.

  Historically Quicken has come with 3 years of support. I'm not familiar with '17, but I've always spread my initial purchase cost over that time to reduce the annual cost.
  I suppose software has always been a subscription model.
• edited October 2018

  Can anyone call out specific NEW features of 2018 (vs. 2017) that they find useful? The little I've seen says there's not much different (except for the subscription model). Looking to see if I stick with 2017 or upgrade?
• edited November 2017

  Can anyone call out specific NEW features of 2018 (vs. 2017) that they find useful? The little I've seen says there's not much different (except for the subscription model). Looking to see if I stick with 2017 or upgrade?

  @Mitch Javelin .. I have worked with both Quicken 2017 and 2018. I'm very Quicken savvy. I promise you that you will kick yourself in the butt, 8-) if you spend the $ for Quicken 2018.
  There is very very very little difference between Quicken 2017 and 2018.
  I'd say the majority of Quicken users would be hard pressed to actually realize that they were using 2018 and not the 2017 they were used to working with.
• edited October 2017

  Does the new 2018 version have color back in the toolbar or is it still all gray with the overbearing bright white background throughout the screen?

  @JRFL .. Still the same white background. Icons look a tad different but really not appealing in my opinion.
• edited October 2017

  I've been a Quicken user for many, many years. Currently running '15 and I expect the 'sunset' soon as the 3-year support ends.
  Last year I reviewed Money Dance and found it OK, but not as well finished a product as Q. At a cost of $60 / 3 years, Quicken 2015 seemed the best value.
  Quicken 2018, at $45 / year is more than double the cost.

  I did what Rhinecliff recommended and upgraded my 2015 to 2017 yesterday. I got the Home and Business for $50 on ebay which will be supported for a couple more years. You might want to grab a copy of 2017 soon, as the price may go up as others catch onto the same idea. I figure upgrading to 2017 allows me a couple more years to make a decision.
• edited November 2017

  Can anyone call out specific NEW features of 2018 (vs. 2017) that they find useful? The little I've seen says there's not much different (except for the subscription model). Looking to see if I stick with 2017 or upgrade?

  I think their product page along with the release notes spell it out pretty good.
  And they are worth looking at because you might even miss them if you don't know where to look.
  https://www.quicken.com/whats-new-quicken
  Note that on the 'Online Bills' (Bill presentment) that has been in Quicken since 2016, but the retrieval of PDF statements is new. But it is quite limited in which billers are supported for this. Like they are claiming 11,000+ billers, I think the ones that will return a PDF are probably less than 1,000. Also there have been reported bugs in the PDF feature where sometimes you can't view/download them even when Quicken shows them to be there.
  The release notes have some more details:
  https://www.quicken.com/support/update-and-mondo-patch-2018-release-quicken-windows
  Anyone looking for more than 'incremental changes' over Quicken 2017 are going to be very disappointed for the most part. But it has been reported that Quicken 2018 is now working better with 4K displays that Quicken 2017 is doing with the latest patches. I don't have a high DPI screen so I can't verify, just reporting what I have seen in other threads.
  Some people might like that for the report graphs you can change the colors. Note that doesn't extend into all graphs like say the projected balances.
• edited November 2017

  Downloaded Quicken 2018 Premier this morning from Quicken.com. ZERO problems. Bill pay is sooo much better. The product works very well. I think with Quicken separating from Intuit, the product is much better.
  I am still exploring but so far am satisfied with the product.

  I updated to Quicken 2018 Premier last night took one look at the Bills Tab and found that Quicken split the Bills from the Deposits so I no longer see all my upcoming Transactions on one page. I actually liked the Stacked Bill Reminder in Quicken 2017 Premier and the total overview of what was due. The split version of Quicken 2018 gives you a Stacked view for Income on a subtab and a Bar Setup for the Bills on a separate tab. The Calendar View just looks way too busy. Needless to say I reverted back to Quicken 2017 and cancelled the subscription. The jury is out if I will follow through with Quicken 2018 to me they fixed what wasn't broke. I guess they are taking a page out of Microsoft's book i.e. The start button removal and Xbox One lack of backward compatibility. I would just like the option to keep the 'Classic' View.
• edited October 2017

  $100 for 24 months at Office Depot, best price I have seen. https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/189989/Quicken-Premier-2018-2-Year-Download/
  I'm running Q2016 Premier and have been annoyed by the display issues (microscopic fonts on a 5K monitor). I took a survey from Quicken and plainly told them that I'd be happy to switch to a subscription service rather than paying for shyte every few years. I'll put my money where my mouth is.
• edited October 2017

  Thanks for your replies. Since it controls an important information, i am being cautious about being on the bleeding edge.

  thank you so much!! agree.
• edited December 2017

  I upgraded from mac 17 deluxe to mac 18 premier. Just noticed that I can not manage my auto renewal feature online. I am required to contact customer support. I should be able to manage my account settings without having to speak with customer service. It reminds me of the old days when i had to call the operator to make a phone call.
  Come on Quicken, we are old enough to make decisions and manage our own account settings!

  Currently you must contact Care to turn off auto renewal.
  However, we are working to make this option available on quicken.com. We plan to have this feature enabled this year—well in advance of the first, 1 year subscription expiration dates.
  Apologies for the inconvenience in the interim.
• edited October 2017

  Does the new 2018 version have color back in the toolbar or is it still all gray with the overbearing bright white background throughout the screen?

  Right-click on the header and you can switch backgrounds to gray in 2018
• edited October 2018

  I am still running Q2014 Premier. I have not seen any strong advice to upgrade over the last few years (other than the loss of support at 3 years). Will 2018 run better on Windows 10 Pro than my 2014? I have tolerated display/font issues which I did not have before the Windows upgrade.
• edited October 2017

  You have a point there. I like having the updated tax tables. Also, some of the older software doesn't work so well on windows 10.
  After, the last windows 10 update, i could no longer view the tax planner, and another program had to be installed. Installing Q18 fixed it. (Of course, reinstalling Q17 might have done that too. )
• edited October 2017

  Last night I was going to reconcile one of my checking accounts. For some reason, the update was not working, so I just downloaded a file from my Wells Fargo account and imported it into Quicken 2018 Rental Property Manager. Quicken failed to import 7 of the transactions. They all had to do with transfers between accounts. I had to manually enter them to get it reconciled. I am now very worried about what else Quicken may be failing to do! I am trying to track many different rental properties, rents, and expenses. Has anyone else had this happen?
• edited July 2018

  I updated to QW 2018 to try to fix some issues I was having (like no online biller list). Didn't fix the issues. Started crashing constantly when I installed the 'R2.3' patch. Went back to QW 2017
• edited October 2017

  I am still running Q2014 Premier. I have not seen any strong advice to upgrade over the last few years (other than the loss of support at 3 years). Will 2018 run better on Windows 10 Pro than my 2014? I have tolerated display/font issues which I did not have before the Windows upgrade.

  I don't have a high DPI screen, but the comments in this thread suggest that Quicken 2018 is working better in this regard:
  https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/does-quicken-2018-have-4k-monitor-capability
• edited October 2017

  I updated to QW 2018 to try to fix some issues I was having (like no online biller list). Didn't fix the issues. Started crashing constantly when I installed the 'R2.3' patch. Went back to QW 2017

  Early adopters to new Quicken versions always pay the price for doing so.
  If you have Quicken 2015, 2016 or 2017 I'd be using those versions until the termination of downloads is very near. Only then would I upgrade to the new annual/bi-annual subscription model.
  Why? Well, first off you already PAID for your version and you have a lot of useful life left. Why pay for a subscription that will give you LESS useful life than the version you're already using?
  Second, as you've seen, it takes a very long while for Quicken to iron out all the inherent bugs of their newest version(s). Why? I have no idea. It IS beta tested, but from my experience, what is beta tested isn't always what users see in the production version.
  The only caveat to the above would be something earth shattering that is added or fixed. For example, if you're perturbed by the incessant 'click through' problem in the Windows version when backing up, and Quicken, by some miracle, actually fixes it..that might be a reason to upgrade.
  For Quicken Mac, if by some revelation they release a version with a robust reporting engine that accounts for transfer transactions and can have those included in a budget, then I would upgrade in an instant.
  But sadly..they haven't..on either version.
  Other than that..I'm good where I'm at and resist the temptation to upgrade daily. It's like being in a Twelve Step Program.
  LOL!
• edited October 2017

  Before I start paying for another subscription (kind of pricy for Premier). Quicken is going to have to convince me that 2018 is much better then the crap they produced in 2017. Think I will take a wait and see attitude until about spring before I even consider jumping into it. I try to learn from my past mistakes.

  2018 is an annual subscription. No spreading the cost out.