Quicken can't write to shared folder

J

janiner

Member
I have been using Quickbooks under Parallels for quite a while, and never had any trouble writing backups to a shared folder. However, Quicken refuses. It lets me navigate to the shared folder just fine, which results in a directory path of \\.PSF\QB Backups. However, when I hit the OK button to actually start the backup, it says "Please enter a valid directory".

I contacted Quicken support about this. To their credit they got back to me within 24 hours, but the answer was less than helpful:

"Jeanine, if I understand you correctly, you are unable to back up on your dual Intel based MAC.

If that is the issue, yes we will not be what we need to do is we need to back up on the hard drive of Intel and then we can copy on the place you wish to.

This is the only possible solution we have to resolve the issue."

I can't tell if he actually understood the problem, or even knows what Parallels is, but clearly useful help is not going to be forthcoming from there.

Having to back up to a directory within Parallels and then manually copy the file out to OS X is not the end of the world, but it's an extra step I'd rather not have to try to remember. Is there actually any solution to this? I realize that the problem lies within Quicken, but that's not going to be fixed so I'm looking for a workaround.

Thanks in advance!
 
You need to go into the control panel of the VM and re-establish the link to the shared folder.

I would guess you have installed a new version of parallels at some point. After that, you may need to reestablish the link to the shared folder on the MAC.
 
Purplish said:
You need to go into the control panel of the VM and re-establish the link to the shared folder.
Click to expand...

But the shared folder works from within Quickbooks, and from Windows Explorer - only Quicken is complaining. My assumption was that they are doing some sort of simplistic validity check on the path, like checking for a drive letter or something, and that's why it's being rejected.

Will re-establishing the link change it to something Quicken will think is valid?
 
I can only say that I am running 1970 and Quicken 2006 and the shared folders work for me. At one point they did not work after I upgraded to 1970 and I had to reestablish the link in Parallels.

Currently, my backup points to:
\\.PSF\Shared Folders with Windows XP\Quicken Backup
 
I've been using just about every beta and release build, and my primary application is Quicken 2006 and now Q2007. My quicken files and backups have always been via a shared folder (i.e. \\.PSF\Documents\Quicken).

The only problems I've had are:
1) when I couldn't get parallels tools to install in betas,

or 2) when I launch Quicken, and my primary file is on a shared folder, quicken won't "auto-find" the file. It launches asking the question if I'm a new Quicken user, or do I want to open an existing file.

What I've done for the second case is to put a shortcut in c:\ to my quicken file, since that's where quicken defafults to opening files from. A minor annoyance, but it's fine for me because my mac gets backed up and parallels doesn't.
 
Well, I tried deleting and recreating it, but to no avail.

Maybe I'm doing this wrong? In the browse dialog Quicken puts up I go My Network Places -> Entire Network -> Parallels Shared Folders -> \\.psf -> QuickenBackups (the name of the new shared folder I created). This results in the path to the backup folder being \\.PSF\QuickenBackup and Quicken still fails to recognize that as a valid directory.

Jus for grins I tried adding c: to the start of that, both with and without the double slash, and Quicken then tells me it doesn't exist and asks if I want to create it. Which tells me that the real path is passing the existence check, but then failling some kind of validity check further on.

Can anyone spot what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions so far!
 
Let me try to make this more clear:

First, make sure you know how to navigate to your shared folder from the MAC side.

Next, Open the Parallel VM but do not start the VM. You should see the console.

Now you should be able to click the EDIT button and go into the configuration editor.

Click on "shared folders". Make sure it is ENABLED. If not it will be grayed out. And make sure the path to the shared folder is correct.

Now save your changes. Shut down and reboot the VM. And see if that works any better.

This may not work since you are still able to access your shared folders from other applications, but it is worth a try.
 
Yep, they're enabled, and that's where I went to delete the existing shared folder and make a new one. Didn't help.

Is there some way to make an alias to this location that would start with a drive letter? I'm betting that's why it's failing the check in Quicken.
 
OK Let's try one more thing. Since your shared folders are enabled and working, this should work.

In Quicken, select File/Backup

In the Backup Dialogue Box, click BROWSE to find your shared folder.

In the BROWSE, select "My Network Places", then "Entire Network", then "Parallels Shared Folders", then keep drilling down until you find the folder you want to use for Quicken.

That should work. Let us know if it doesn't.
 
Problem in WordPerfect 11 too

janiner said:
But the shared folder works from within Quickbooks, and from Windows Explorer - only Quicken is complaining.
Click to expand...
No so fast. I'm having a similar problem with WordPerfect. I can load the files from the shared folder(which happens to be a USB flash drive). But when I go to save the document, or save over it, WP tells me that it can't find the file. The only way to get WP to save the file is to give it a new filename or save it to a different location and then drag it back to the directory I wanted it in in the first place.

I don't think this issue is limited to just Quicken.
 
Purplish said:
In the BROWSE, select "My Network Places", then "Entire Network", then "Parallels Shared Folders", then keep drilling down until you find the folder you want to use for Quicken.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I've been doing. It lets me select the folder and leave the browse dialog, but then when I hit OK to start the backup, it tells me to enter a valid directory.
 
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