Money suddenly asking for a password...OR NOT?

[Jeff Markus]

Hi,

I am using Microsoft Money 2000 Deluxe Canadian Edition. I have never put a password on my MNY file. I recently had an issue where I had to delete an investment account from my file because it kept crashing when I tried to reconcile the investments.  I exported the investment account to QIF files and then deleted the account from Money and reimported the QIF files.

Everything was working okay for a while. I imported some account statements as OFX files and worked with the MNY file normally.  I exited Money (and saved a backup) and came back to it another day and it asked my for a password.

The next sequence of events is a little unclear to me, but I recall the following:

- Sometimes, when I clicked ok on the password dialog it opened my MNY file without issue

- Sometimes, when I clicked ok, it kept asking for a password, so I clicked cancel and it opened my MNY file without issue

- eventually, it would not open at all whether I clicked ok or cancel, as it kept asking for the password (which doesn't exist - at least not one which I had created)

I have tried opening my recent backups and other copies of the files which I had made while I was fixing my investment account issues and all of them are asking for a password now.  I was able to open a backup from 2 months ago, so worst comes to worst I can use that file, but it was not very current and will take a long time to update it.

I am also worried that even if I work with the old file, somehow Money will think it needs a password as well and I'll be back to square one.

...AND NOW I just tried to open the MNY file to confirm the message about the password before hitting send on this, and IT OPENED WITHOUT ASKING FOR A PASSWORD!!!!????!!!!!??

Any advice?

Thanks,

Jeff

[Tom Roberts]

Do like I did 4 years ago : export all Money 2000 accounts and import to Money Sunset. I had 20 years of data. It was easy and I had about 30 accounts. After planning, the actual process took about 30 minutes.

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[Jeff Markus]

My understanding is that Sunset doesn't work with Canadian MNY files.  Am I incorrect?

[Tom Roberts]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Tom Roberts <tomandre...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2024, 15:36
Subject: Re: Money suddenly asking for a password...OR NOT?
To: Jeff Markus <jeffrey...@gmail.com>

I was using Money 2000. I first recorded the exact names and type of each account, then extracted each account using the same name. The install Sunset and this uninstalls Money 2000. Create the new accounts using the same type and name in Sunset. Keep an original copy separate.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/microsoft-money/50acf306-564c-412d-85a2-469a299b44b0n%40googlegroups.com.

[Cal Learner]

1. I think we may find a version of North American Money 2004 or 2005 that can convert Money 2000 to Money 2004 or 2005 respectively. Then Money Sunset can convert those. If it was a full version of Money 2004, you might want to just use it, because that was from before Money 2005 got so online oriented.  The one thing that comes to mind that Money 2000 could not do that Money 2003 and later could do would be to read OFX version 2 files. It will read OFX version 1. There are probably other things.

2. I don't remember how, but I think it is possible, if you read carefully while installing a newer version, you can get it to leave both versions in place. The file associations will be with the last-installed version. And Money 2000 would not be able to make any sense of a later version's files.

3. I think Money 2000 was from before "Passport" came out. So for Money 2000, I think it is probably easy enough to remove a password. However I think maybe Money 2000 was one of those that would give a false password error, when the real problem was the Money version was older than the version of Money that wrote that file.

4. If you find a *.mn8 file, that is a Money 2000 Money file that some later version saved as it converted to a newer version. So the presence of such a file would be informative. If it were recent enough, it could be useful.

[Jeff Markus]

I tried to install Money Sunset Deluxe (after making yet another backup copy of my Money 2000 MNY file).  It "tried" to import the MNY file but it reported that it was unable to (I can't recall the exact error, but I'm guessing it couldn't read the old format).

I also had intentionally added a password to one of the MNY files (in case it asked me again, so that I had one).  It (Money 2000) worked for a few days (with the password), and then a week later it wouldn't accept my password.  So I think Cal's comment about a "false password error" seems to be what is happening, however it can't be due to a Money version older than the one which wrote the file since I was using the same MNY file with the same version of Money all along.

I don't suppose there is a tool to remove the flag (or whatever) that makes Money think there is a password on the file?

If not, unfortunately, I'm back to where I was before...either use one of my old back ups and update the accounts again, and hope the file doesn't get the password error again, or export all the accounts and import them into a new Money Sunset file.  If I have to do the export - what is the best way to do that?  Will I be able to export all of my closed accounts as well (bank and investment)?  I assume I won't be able to include the budget planner or other tools which I have with Money 2000?

Thanks,

Jeff

[Tom Roberts]

I think this link below is where you can download Money 2004, following Cal's suggestion to you a few weeks ago. Someone else may know another site.

And if it doesn't import, you can export your accounts like i did. At least i know that works.

https://archive.org/details/microsoft-money-2004

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/microsoft-money/c42e048e-6014-4fc5-8fdb-1646173fce6an%40googlegroups.com.

[Bill & Michelle Becker]

Jeff,

If you decide to try using Money 2004 as a step to converting to Sunset, I've attached a pdf of some advice from Cal Lerner on upgrading from Money 2004 to Sunset.

Bill Becker

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/microsoft-money/CAEDzrA_XUPMa3-wE_BrjdYsKNemQ57YOmTu_5ur7TSXL19iNRw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jeff Markus]

I tried using Money 2004, but it also complained about opening the Money 2000 file.  This time, I captured the message "Money cannot open this file because it was created by an incompatible version".  I think this is because I have been working with the Canadian version of Microsoft Money 2000 Deluxe (which as far as I know, was the last Canadian deluxe version).

Sigh,

Jeff

[Tom Roberts]

I don't know about us-cad incompatability but i suspect it's not the issue. I would rather first try converting to Money 2001 and see if Money 2004 will take the new converted file. If it converts but won't open, then download Money 2003 and increment up by version until you get to 2004.

 These days, with fast download speeds, there's not much left to complain about!

https://archive.org/download/Microsoft_Money_2001

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/microsoft-money/433ed275-107f-4ec7-8540-3de9fcc06304n%40googlegroups.com.

[Bob Smiley]

1. Money 2004 will convert all versions lower than it. The US version is also the Canadian version. There will be no problem opening a Canadian file in a US version of Money.

2. When Money generates a password error, it is saying that it cannot decrypt the file. Every Money file is encrypted, even if you do not use a password. You will get that error for three different reasons:

a. You are entering the wrong password.

b. The file was last opened in a later version of Money, which the current version cannot understand.

c. The file is corrupted.

It sounds like corruption may be the problem.

Try running Salv.exe on the file, it should be in the same folder where you installed Money, within the hidden folder "MNYCorefiles".

Do a quick repair. Then do a Full repair level 2, creating a new file. Finally open the new file and do another quick repair.

[Tom Roberts]

There you go Jeff. Excellent, knowledgeable advice from Bob. Makes the user group valuable.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/microsoft-money/55d7c6c1-f590-46b1-bd01-d50f11fbbf5cn%40googlegroups.com.

[Jeff Markus]

I appreciate all the advice.  I read through this entire thread again and mucked around.

I started by opening my oldest known good MNY file without issue.  I then went through each of my different copies of MNY files which I had by going to File→Open.  In between each file, I made my way to "View Downloaded Balances" so that I could write down what the latest statement date was.

After going through several files successfully, I finally made it to my newest/most current MNY file (to which I had recently assigned a password) and I was able to enter the password and open the file.

Yay!

I then closed Money and opened it again, and it asked me for the password.  I typed it in and it told me I had the wrong password (but I know I typed it in correctly) and would not open the file!

I tried opening the old known good MNY file again and going through the process again, but eventually I got to a MNY file for which it asked me a password (even though that file didn't have a password) and couldn't get back to my current MNY file successfully.

I then realized that in some of my attempts, I double-clicked on the MNY file, instead of opening Money 2000 and going to File→Open, so I closed Money and tried that - and lo and behold, it worked!

I have since tried several times and confirmed that I can only open my MNY file by double-clicking from File Explorer, but not by opening from within Money 2000 itself!

With respect to the version incompatibility:
I installed Money 2001 and Money 2004.  Neither of them would import my Canadian Money 2000 file.  Both reported the message "Money cannot open this file because it was created by an incompatible version".  To confirm that it wasn't an issue of a corrupt file, I created a new Money 2000 MNY file with a few new accounts in it and then tried to migrate that file to Money 2001 and 2004 and it still wouldn't open.
So I'm convinced this is an incompatibility between the Canadian and US versions of Money, and maybe specifically the Money 2000 Deluxe Canadian version, (I think that was the last Canadian-specific Deluxe version released - which is why I have clinged to it all these years).

I realize that it is possible I am "living on borrowed time" with Money 2000, and I may eventually need to export QIF files for all my accounts and import them into Sunset, but I'm stubborn and I'm going to keep making backups as I go and keep my fingers crossed.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Cal Learner]

Jeff, good observations. Good plan. Money 2000 cannot interpret version 2.x of OFX files. There are probably some other things that you might not be able to do. Money 2000 will have some advantages, including a working Help.

I am going to suggest some tests for information. I hope you can paste into a command window. If not, some searches will probably turn up how to make that work.

1. While your file is successfully open, do Help->AboutMicrosoftMoney. What does it say the version is?

2. Try this line  in a command window (it will take a while)

dir \*.mn8 \*.mn9  \*.m10 \*.m11 \*.m12 /s 

That will search for backup automatically saved during attempted conversions. In particular, *.mn8 would be a backup saved during an attempted conversion of a Money 2000 file.

3. Unlikely you will find any, but try this command in a command window:

dir \mny*.aw /s

I think that would only turn up if you had installed Money 2005 or later. I am not totally sure

[Jeff Markus]

Not much to show here.  By the way, so far things are still going okay with my MNY files since I started double-clicking (fingers crossed).

================================================

C:\Users\jeffr>dir \*.mn8 \*.mn9  \*.m10 \*.m11 \*.m12 /s
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 041A-9684
File Not Found

C:\Users\jeffr>dir \mny*.aw /s
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 041A-9684
File Not Found
================================================

Thanks,

Jeff

[Cal Learner]

I am glad it is working for you, but I am surprised that you cannot start by opening Money.  The things below are fishing for ideas.

With Money open successfully, if you click File, a drop-down list will occur. Near the bottom should be a "1." with the currently-open file shown. There will also be a "2." and a "3.". That is the most-recently-used (MRU) list. I am not sure what that is going to tell us.

I guess I might see what *.mny files are on your computer with this:

dir \*.mny /s

I am not sure what all that gains. Expect each installation will have sample.mny. It will also be interesting if you have any *.mny within "AppData\Local\VirtualStore"

Here is an idea for seeing what installations of Money are on your machine: 

dir "\Program Files (x86)\msmoney.exe" /s

I suspect you are careful about backing up your good *.mny file, including to external media.

[Jeff Markus]

I decided to go back to an older file that was opening normally and then I reimported the OFX statements which I had since that file was last updated (luckily, I kept them, which I normally don't). Lo and behold, it seems to be working normally now after using it for a while - whether I open Money first or double-click on the MNY file.

I guess there was some corruption that kept happening to the previous MNY files, and hopefully it won't happen again (but if it does, at least I have the backups).

Jeff

[Cal Learner]

Jeff: well done.  How far back did you have to go? 

You might want to review your backup practices. Money Plus makes it pretty easy to have multiple backups.  IMO, hard/flash drive space is cheap.

Users of Money 2005 don't have that feature, and they need to take action outside of the Money program.

For Money Plus, here are my suggested backup settings:

****In Money Plus: Tools->Settings->BackupSettings
 There are two SaveIn boxes. Make sure those point to folders that exist. This is important when you are setting up a new computer.
 I suggest checking
  x Automatically backup my Money file every time I close Money
   Save in [a place on your hard drive ]. It is best to Browse to
      a location rather than typing the path.
    x Ask me before backing up each time*
    x Compress Backup Files
    Keep only the _20_most recent backup files [adjust to taste; harddrive space is cheap]
 
  x Perform scheduled backups every _7_ days
   Save in [a USB flash drive location]
    x Ask me before backing up each time*
    x Compress Backup Files
    Keep only the _8_most recent backup files [adjust to taste]


 * The reason I have Money ask me for the upon-exit backup, is that I don't want to back up each time I exit. If I went into Money 5 times in a day, I would not want to back up 5 times, nor would I want it to delete 5 other backup files. You will be given the choice to BackUpNow or to Postpone. The main reason for asking for the scheduled backup would be if you don't have that backup drive always plugged in.