At the moment, would you recommend file recovery? We're hanging on to your every thread needing any info possible....

• Community_Guru_Nic (Dec 17, 2007 10:20 am)

I can't believe this is still not officially documented by Intuit.

2006 only?

2007 only?

both?

We are working on testing out a file recovery procedure, so stay tuned.  If you unable to wait until we've found a working procedure, and need to move forward with your own file recovery, I can understand, but for now I'd recommend waiting until our engineers can work out a reliable method for recovering lost files.

Thanks,
Nic

• jamesjjjjjjm (Dec 17, 2007 10:27 am)
• Irishbard (Dec 17, 2007 10:28 am)

So you are saying that the autoupdating of quickbooks will no longer cause files to be deleted from the desktop? Is that what 'resolved' means?

So, for those of us who have not yet used Quickbooks or lost anything, waiting for a fix, we can now open it with no worry?

• Community_Guru_Nic (Dec 17, 2007 10:30 am)

WHAT WAS THE FIX? IS THE EMPLOYEE THAT DID THE ERROR FIRED? WHAT ABOUT US?

• tonyc25sox (Dec 17, 2007 11:59 am)

Patience has it's virtue but many of us have been up all night and have very busy schedules. Apple service, Tekserve in NYC offers a thorough file recovery for $600 -$1200 depending on the hard drive size along with a 4 to 7 day wait. Please find out if Intuit is willing stand by their product and credit the recoveries process. We await your reply.

The last post was at 9:20 AM....where are we as of now?

It appears to be resolved, based on our internal testing.  As a paranoid former sysadmin, I'd recommend the following just in case:

Make sure you have a backup of everything on your Desktop before you open QuickBooks!

or

Move all files from your Desktop to another location (except for a test file that you leave in place).

Thanks,
Nic

http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/dosearch.aspx?kbid=1009249

YOU ARE MAKING THIS WORSE BY NOT POSTING ACCURATE INFO!!

The KB article is listed under QB 2007

But the article only mentions QB 2006

Even though files don't appear to be deleted, you do realize that something strange is happening to 2007 users as well??

My issue is so minor compared to the missing desktop files that resulted from installation of the recent QB Pro (Mac) update, however, about that update... I'm running QB Pro 2007 for Mac and I got a notice of update, then an error message that said I wasn't connected to the internet (even though I am), and then it went right to a "downloading update" dialog box. Except, it wasn't and didn't download an update (thank God, as it may have turned out).

So is there an update or not? And where would I find this update assuming it was safe to install?

Thanks

• Community_Guru_Nic (Dec 17, 2007 10:51 am)

There is no new update - the message that there is an update available is incorrect.  Expected behavior is that now when opening QuickBooks you should not be prompted to install any updates.

We are still sending updated information to the Knowledge Base article here, and I'll post any new information as it comes in.

Thanks,
Nic

At this point, having spent quit a bit of time deal with clients on this, I suspect that Intuit will not find a way to recover files. I would like to suggest that Intuit at least provide free upgrades to the latest QB for Mac for all the QB 2006 users affected by this debacle.

• Kimmmy (Dec 18, 2007 11:08 am)

Community_Guru_Nic:

Could you confirm that this issue does not effect QuickBooks 2005 at all (or does it)?

Also, could you explain specifically what you mean by the issue has been "resolved"?

Does that mean, for example, that you identified the problem solely in the software update, stopped sending it, and eliminated all risk to all users from this bug?

Thanks for clarifying.

• Community_Guru_Nic (Dec 17, 2007 11:14 am)

I think you are holding out some false hope to people about being able to recover the lost files. Unless they can recover from a backup such as Time Machine or other backup program those files are lost except to advanced data recovery programs. Although you did mention this you need to stress that the computer can be used for nothing else until a data recovery program is installed and run. As you know, every time a file is saved there are very good odds that the save will happen in a place on the disk occupied by an old file that has been marked as deleted and will overwrite that file. That means that even surfing the Internet should not happen because of temporary files being saved. Nor should any program be run -- effectively anyone who does not have a backup and who wants to recover their files should deprive themselves of any and all usage of affected computers.

Seeing as these advanced recovery programs cost money (I am aware of none that are freeware) I would suggest that Intuit quickly reach a license agreement with one of the vendors and make the program and instructions available for download asap and free to affected users. Or, Intuit should offer to pick up the cost of any such a program.

Your offshore tech support people (and this is a prime example of what is wrong with not hiring USA-based support people) need to be brought into the loop right now. Most of them are quite ignorant about computers and you need to give them a proper script they can use to read from to see that people do not inadvertently make this problem worse for themselves.

It is still too difficult to find this information. Get the word out to the Mac Community in every way you can. Start by putting a headline and a link to this discussion on your front page at www.intuit.com. Make sure you get a release out to all Mac Internet media in the next couple hours or sooner.

Intuit has a clear choice. You can be known in the future as the company that caused the largest bug ever to hit the Mac computer and didn't fix it properly. Or you can known as a company that rose to the biggest challenge ever to face a Mac-oriented company in tech support and emerge victorious. Your actions in the next few hours will determine your reputation for years to come.

• turnstyler411 (Dec 17, 2007 11:08 am)
• cavenewt (Dec 17, 2007 11:33 am)
• yangyin (Dec 18, 2007 9:08 am)

Can any users provide an alternate to QB for mac.
I personally am moving on to another software.
Any suggestions?

• jgarcia (Dec 17, 2007 11:31 am)

We have lost all our recent QB files and entire desktop, just the same way as everyone else.

Please notify AS SOON as there is a recovery strategy.
sue@seapics.com

Apparently this Intuit disease affects more than the desktop with funky things. After having my desktop deleted, I also found that when I tried to turn my File Vault on, it gave me an error message that it requires an additional 4081.9 GB of free disk space.

• yangyin (Dec 19, 2007 1:56 pm)

We haven't received any reports of this happening for 2005 that I know of.  Resolved means that we have identified and corrected the problem that was causing the desktop to be deleted.  We don't have a resolution at this point for recovering files that were deleted, but stay tuned for more information. 

Thanks,
Nic

• sparky672 (Dec 17, 2007 11:21 am)
• steve4455mac (Dec 17, 2007 11:29 am)
• SnoopyCat (Dec 18, 2007 7:07 am)

NeilShapiro2: Many thanks for this post, and your others here.

Currently, the front page of the Intuit web site has links to:

<Wall Street Journal: Intuit's Steve Bennett on Success After GE>

<Fortune Magazine: America's Most Admired Companies 2007>

There is nothing about this major bug in their software that is causing untold anguish among tens or hundreds of thousands of Mac users.

The company's blithe indifference to their customers is beyond infuriating.

As posted here and elsewhere almost two hours ago:

::I just called Intuit tech support at 888-222-7276. The young man who answered is not a native speaker of English. After demanding my name, phone number and email address he told me I had to buy a tech support plan or he would not help me, (I am running the most recent version I'm aware of, QBooks Pro 2007), for which I paid something like $200 within the past year.

::He seemed unaware of the "desktop file deletion" problem.

::None of this, of course, was unexpected. But just a note to those of you who may have your hopes up that Intuit is somehow "on top of" this problem. Also, I can find nothing on their support pages regarding this problem.

::As usual, Intuit has left the Mac community twisting slowly in the wind. Any attorneys out there looking for a class-action plaintiff?

It is now 10:14 AM, PST, and nothing has changed when you call Qbooks tech support.

Also, please note that this exact problem occurred to my business partner in late July: all desktop files were deleted. No help from Intuit then either.

• DUKETYPE (Dec 18, 2007 1:37 pm)

LOKS LIKE INTUIT DOESN'T CARE ABOUT IT'S INTEGRITY, I'll BE CHANGING MY CUSTOMER BASE TO ANOTHER ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE. INTUIT ADMIT YOUR ERROR!

For the third time, can you please clarify your information regarding 2006 & 2007 ?

It seems to effect both very differently and you have a bunch of 2007 users wondering if they're really safe.

Mine (QB Pro 2007 Mac) created new desktop files in my home folder but nothing was deleted.

I deleted those new blank files. What I'm wondering is if these new files would have caused a disaster when I reboot.

If so, then you need to warn 2007 users not to reboot.

I think I'm safe now but considering the lack of good information coming out of Intuit, I'm not certain.

This is a problem. We run everything through Quickbooks and now I can't do anything? Can you guys please provide upgrade to 2007 or something that allows us to proceed with confidence with our business. Saying it shouldn't be a problem but back up doesn't suffice. Looking around outside this forum, if Intuit doesn't do something soon, it's about to become an even bigger, web-wide problem and mishap.

QB is really the best there is in the mac. Your only real option is MYOB. I saw the 07 version. The new version has some nice festures but the UI is not as nice as QB's and I've heard that it is cumbersome to use/setup. I've also read a lot of complaints about it so make sure you do your due diligence. I expect the 08 release of QB to be really good so you may want to wait.

There are a few other small options out there but lack things like on-line banking which most people can't live without.

I hope that helps.

• Lundgren (Dec 17, 2007 12:18 pm)