Mac 2012 backup to Windows and vice versa not working.

New Member

02/03/12 9:56am PST
Viewed by asker 02/18/12 10:08pm PST

Mac 2012 backup to Windows and vice versa not working.

US QuickBooks for Macintosh : 2012

History: I converted from QBW 2009 to QBMac 2012 about 5 months ago. The conversion was flawless and I like the Mac version WAY better!

Now it's time for taxes and my accountant uses QBW, so I dutifully used the option to Backup to QuickBooks for Windows and sent him the resulting QBB file.

Long story short, he couldn't open it with ANY version of QBW. I even tried the file repair (no errors were found) and regenerated for him to no avail.

After three hours talking to Intuit, he finally gave up and sent them the QBB file. Intuit sent him back a file he could open (we still don't know what was wrong).

He made his changes in QBW 2012, exported for Mac and sent me the QBB file. Predictably, the file will not restore.

Oddly, we've had a frightening change of file sizes:

QBMac 2012 File: 2.6MB

QBMac 2012 QBB File: 3.2MB

QBW 2012 QBW File: 15.1MB

QBW 2012 QBB File: 908KB!!!

He's given up (and rightly so) and sent me the modified QBW 2012 file, which of course, I can do nothing with as my old version of QBW is 2009.

Any help appreciated here.

Solved!

13 Replies

SkinnyRaven

Allstar

02/03/12 12:08pm PST

What was the error message on the Windows side? What was the error message on your end?

Mac OS X 10.7.3
QuickBooksMacPro 2012 V13.0.0 R9

New Member

02/08/12 7:20am PST

Mac side screenshots attached. Not any useful info there other than QB is very confused as the file was created with QBW 2012.

Biscotti

Employee

02/03/12 1:16pm PST

The Mac backup to Windows should have been restorable in QB Windows 2012. That it wasn't indicates to me that there was perhaps an error in transfering the file - that the Windows accountant didn't receive the full file and it got damaged during transfer/email/etc.

Those files sizes look really small to me. Would you be willing to send the original QB Mac file (before you sent it to your accountant) to the Mac PD team to have a look? If so contact me at my email address in my profile here and reference this thread.

New Member

02/06/12 6:17am PST

The accountant just said that the file couldn't be restored, so I don't know what the specific error message was. On the Mac side, QB just popped up a dialog box saying it couldn't be restored. I have a screen shot of it at home and can attach it here when I return tomorrow.

I sent you an email concerning the file. The QBB file was transferred to the accountant via Dropbox.

New Member

02/08/12 7:21am PST

OK, sent you an email with DropBox links to all the files. Thanks for your offer to help!

New Member

02/11/12 8:30am PST

Is anything happening with the files? I've not heard anything.

Employee

02/15/12 4:09pm PST

NewfD90, let me contact Biscotti and see what he's found. I'll get back to you.

Biscotti

Employee

02/15/12 5:29pm PST

I was tied up - getting back to the forum now. Got your email and forwarded it to jfisher who is checking into it.

Employee

02/15/12 6:14pm PST

NewfD90, it appears that, in at least one case, your accountant sent back to you a "regular" QB for Windows backup file. That is one for which I, too, receive your error messages.

I can't account for what errors your accountany may have been experiencing because your original Mac file went back-and-forth to QB for Windows easily. ?

I've made a "backup for Mac" copy of the .qbw file which successfully opens in Mac 2012 R8. That file includes many transactions dated 12/31/11 and some from Jan 12, 2012. To your knowledge, is that the most-current work s/he did? If so, I can make the .qb2012 copy available to you in dropbox also, if you like.

Let me hear from you soon.

New Member

02/15/12 7:32pm PST

Thank you so much for looking into this!

That's bizarre as I walked him through the steps to produce a Mac QBB file and the file name that QBW produced and that he subsequently sent me was named correctly:

CBA Holdings.MAC Feb 01,2012 02 25 PM.QBB

Really weird!

Anyway, those transaction dates look correct and would most appreciate the qb2012 copy that you most graciously generated.

Thanks again, Chance

Employee

02/15/12 8:14pm PST

You're welcome. It will likely be tomorrow. I'll send an email to your private address.

By the way, I did notice the disparity in the file sizes and will consult more with the engineers as to what might account for that. But, your Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, links, targets and the number of transactions are identical in Win and in Mac. And all lists elements are intact. I compared them side-by-side to be certain.

New Member

02/15/12 8:51pm PST

Excellent, thanks again!