Money crashing on open

[Ellen S]

My files were doing so well--until now.   1 small file still works fine, but my personal, much bigger file is crashing.  I have to go back and try several older backups to find one that will open.  I use Money Sunset Home and Business on Windows 11.

The problem seems to relate to one investment account.  I recently transferred investments from another account, and the broker made over 100 transactions after Labor Day.   I first used iCreateOFX to produce an OFX import file (including testing with the OFX analyzer); this process to import transactions had worked very well since spring, but this time it seemed to successfully load only about 10 transactions.  I looked for errors and problems but couldn't find any.  When it crashed again, I decided to manually enter the transactions.   

I found a working backup, saved to a new name, entered about 10 transactions, closed and then successfully reopened the file.  Since the new file seemed to be working, I decided to continue entering the remaining transactions.  But after doing so slowly and carefully, the newly saved file would not reopen.  I tried repairing Standard level, but still no go.  

in all the crashed file cases I can see the related .lrd file in the folder.  I'm guessing that means the .mny files aren't closing properly, but I have no idea why.   Backups are on the hard drive.

Any ideas?  is there a way to check a file to locate the problem?

[Bob Smiley]

Have you replaced the mnyob99.dll with a repaired version? Make sure that you replace the installed version with the correct version for Business. See other posts about replacing the dll.

Please follow the instructions on the following page:

https://microsoftmoneyoffline.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/windows-8-64-bit-version-compatibility-with-sunset-money/

[Cal Learner]

If Money is closed, feel free to delete *.lrd files

Make sure you have the patched  mnyob99.dll for Home and Business Sunset.https://microsoftmoneyoffline.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/windows-8-64-bit-version-compatibility-with-sunset-money/ has a link for that.

For repairing, do Quick repair, Standard level 1, and Quick repair again.

Probably this one is not involved, but, worth checking...

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

Tools->Settings->ProgramSettings and set the
(GeneralDisplay:)StartMoneyWithThisPageOpen:AccountList

Open the problem file.

Then Tools->Settings->HomePageDisplayOptions and Remove the
Investment Performance module.  There has been a problem where a
lot of investments triggers a crash upon opening where Money opens
to the "Home Page".

[Ellen S]

First, yes, the .dll file was fixed a long time ago.

Someone commented on an issue with iCreateOFX.  I don't see the comment here, but I am aware of issues with truncated digits that cause errors but don't show up in the OFX analyzer (which I use religiously).  Phillip is happy to check the file and fix his module, but I just decided to enter everything manually this time.

Now, to Cal's suggestions:  

yes, I've been deleting the .lrd files until I realized I was having trouble keeping track of the "bad" files. I decided to leave them in for now.  

re repair: quick standard quick:  I restored a recent backup and did a quick repair on it, but the standard repair is what allows you to select a different file.   I selected a .mny file that I knew was having trouble, ran the standard sequence and then the quick repair.   With this "repaired" file open, I changed the start page to Account list, then closed/saved and successfully reopened.  I was so happy to see all my manually entered transactions intact.  yay!   For the record, I did run the standard repair previously, tho not the quick-standard-quick sequence.   But changing the start page did the trick.

Then, just in case, I also removed the performance module on the home page.   I know it often slowed file opening, but I rather liked it, so I'm wondering about adding it back in.  However, it is now gone from the drop-down list, for this .mny file at least.   I opened a different file and discovered the new settings did not carry over--this one opened to the home page and included the performance module.   Then I reopened my primary file and discovered it reverted to the home page start, even tho the setting still says open to Accounts.  weird.  The performance module is still not found.   I'll experiment a bit with other files, but for now I'm just thrilled to have my data back. 

Thanks for all the suggestions, especially Cal's.  I knew you'd come to the rescue!  

[Bill & Michelle Becker]

Ellen,

Earlier this year I spent almost two weeks running down an issue like this. Some things that I found:

- iCeateOFX is a great program but it can create OFX files that will crash Money. This is very much a function of the content of the csv data file that you download from your investment accounts.

- It is essential to run any OFX file, and certainly one created by iCreateOFX, through an OFX analyzer such as one listed here:

http://moneymvps.org/faq/article/366.aspx

and correct any errors that it shows. This “OFXAnalyzer” program is very annoying in that it doesn’t give you a clear message as to which entry is not compliant with the OFX standard or maybe is just non-compliant with what Money can accept. You may need to segment the csv file and run each piece through the analyzer separately to pin down the problem entry or data field. Don’t import an OFX file if it fails the analyzer!

In my case The problem was too long a field:

<NAME>BANK INT …1624-031524 TD BANK NA</NAME>

in the download of one account. Weirdly, the very same entry in a download from a different account didn’t cause a problem for Money. I edited the csv file to shorten that name and all was well.

- Importing a malformed OFX file into Money can crash Money and then Money may refuse to open at all. The reason for this is that a corrupted registry entry can get left behind when Money crashes. This link give a description:

https://superuser.com/questions/1591861/how-to-fix-issue-when-importing-a-bad-ofx-file-into-microsoft-money-sunset

It also gives an example of a Money crash that was caused by a "TRNTYPE" descriptor that Money didn’t like.

None of this explains why you have problems when you enter your investment transactions manually, but I suspect that there is some data field in one of the transactions you are entering manually that Money doesn’t like.  It will take some experimentation to figure out what that data field is.

I hope that this helps.

Bill Becker

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[Ellen S]

Bill,

aha, yours was the comment I saw re iCreateOFX.   Indeed, I agree with everything you said.  I also religiously analyze each new OFX file before importing (a hard-learned lesson), which is how I became aware of the truncation problem.  To investigate such problems, Philip needs the downloaded data file, and while he has been sterling in handling my data, I remain skittish about sharing it. That is why I decided to enter the data manually and why I was surprised when that, too, failed.   

In my case, Cal's response provided the answer, ie, that Money's home page with the investment performance widget has trouble handling a large number of new transactions.  Once I started opening to the Accounts page and removed the performance widget, all was well.  I would like to add the widget back in but now can't find it in this main file, at least (it still shows up in other files); when i have some time to experiment, I will try copying my data to a new file.

Thanks for weighing in.

Ellen

[Ellen S]

PS/FYI to Bill and other iCreateOFX users:  Another problem that occurs besides truncation is the occasional strange character in a field (usually a memo field, at least in my case).  To avoid the problem, edit the csv/xls file before uploading to iCreateOFX.   The good news, however, is that the OFX analyzer will catch these problems.

[Ellen S]

Postscript:

Having lived with Cal's recommended changes for a while now--opening files with investments on the Accounts page and removing the performance module from the Home page--I discovered an interesting effect, reported earlier as "weird."   

When opening the modified file after an unmodified one that opens on the Home page, the modified file ignores the instruction (to open at Accounts) and reverts to opening at Home, even tho the setting still says to open at Accounts.   

I also experimented with the performance module using a very similar test file with recent investment transactions.  (The module disappeared from the drop-down module list on the modified file, hence the need for a test file.)   I modified the test file to open at Accounts but kept the performance module on the Home page.  After opening the test file after another working file, I found the test file crashed on opening at the Home page.

Bottom line, if you have files with investment accounts that sometimes include lots of transactions, I recommend taking both steps to avoid crashes. 

[Ameridan (microsoftmoneyoffline.wordpress.com)]

Elle, your finding concur with my article's paragraph:

One other adjustment that I advise:

 Customize your Money’s Home Page such that the only two modules are Reminders and Favorite Accounts.  Any of the Advisor FYI modules also play nicely, but other modules like Bills & Deposits and Investment Performance can consume some time/memory, and prevent you from working with your file right away (and have even been known to occasionally cause the program to exit).

[Ellen S]

Ameridan, thanks for mentioning as I did not see your article.  

You didn't mention Cal's advice to open at the Accounts page, which seems to help, but I will certainly follow your recommendation to remove other modules should it crash again.   (my home page still has favorite accounts, bills and deposits, reminders, spending tracker, current est tax, and flagged transactions.)  and when I get a chance, I'll also look at the other fixes in your blog to make sure Money is no longer looking for outside servers.