David,
The reason for having to go thru this rather long complicated process is
because Quicken desktop software on the Mac -- all versions, from the
oldest to the current subscription version -- fails to include any
option to export a .qif file. I don't have a Mac system myself where I
could check that; but all the user forums and AI info that I looked at
seem to confirm that. You have to do the .qif export with Quicken
Windows software. Ugly, but that's Quicken.
As far as troubles with opening an ancient Quicken 2007 .qdfm file,
you're absolutely correct. Quite a few users have reported issues
trying to do that. Unfortunately, if there is a problem opening the
file with the latest Quicken Classic desktop software, the database
itself may have issues inherent in the data structures. And even if you
can successfully open the .qdfm file with the original Quicken 2007
software, it's quite likely that exporting it to a .qxf file, and then
attempting to open it with Quicken Windows (any version) is likely to
have problems as well. There's no real good way of getting around
that. If it's any consolation, the encouraging bright spot is that the
export of the data is likely to export basic checking, savings, and
credit card accounts and categories in those accounts intact and correct
(at least based on the reports that I've seen). Where problems are more
likely are with stock and mutual fund type accounts, especially when
they involve tracking stock splits and capital gains. I suspect that no
matter how the conversion goes for Steve there's going to be a lot of
manual tweaking involved in Gnucash. It's the reality of dealing with
nearly 20 year-old software.
Tom
On 09/30/2026 11:54 PM, David T. wrote:
Tom,
I hope you're right, but I'll note that I've seen some troubling pages
from the Quicken websites that suggest that the current versions of
Quicken won't directly open a Quicken file from 2007. That would
complicate things drastically.
Also, I'm not certain, but wouldn't Quicken for the Mac also have a
QIF export?
David T.
On October 1, 2026 7:54:44 AM GMT+05:30, Tom Route36
<[email protected]> wrote:
Steve,
I think Kalpesh's advice is on the right track here. But I think
there's a simpler way of getting to where you want to go. (Well,
maybe not simpler. There's a bunch of steps involved.) My
suggestion would be to let Quicken provide you with the means of
converting that data. First (and don't get scared off just yet)
it *will* involve you purchasing a Quicken subscription. *But*
you should be able to ultimately accomplish all this on the cheap
-- i.e., for FREE! Bear with me here while I explain.
If you go to the Quicken website (not a third-party, that's
important) and purchase a subscription from Quicken for "Quicken
Classic (Windows and Mac)" (that specific product name is also
important), you'll get the current Quicken desktop software. Once
you get that program loaded on your Mac computer, as soon as you
go to start it for the first time (after logging in with your new
Quicken ID), the program should ask if you have an existing file
you want to open. That's where you specify your Quicken 2007 .qdfm
file. I would avoid any requests or options to cloud sync your data.
Once you've opened the .qdfm file on your Mac computer with the
latest Quicken Classic desktop software, don't try to change
anything. Just immediately go and export the data (all accounts
and categories) to a .qxf file. Be sure to save that .qxf file
somewhere where you can access it from a Windows PC.
Next, go to your Windows PC (or borrow one if needed), and go back
again to the Quicken website, this time on the Windows PC. Login
to your Quicken account (using the same Quicken ID you just
created earlier on the Mac). And download and install the same
Quicken Classic software that you previously installed on the
Mac. Your subscription should allow multiple installations of the
software. Once the Quicken software is installed on the Windows
PC, select the option to create a new empty Quicken file. Once
you've got the new empty Quicken file open, then go and import the
.qxf file that you previously created on the Mac.
Now that you've imported the .qxf file to create a Quicken
database on the Windows PC, you can finally export the data from
there (on the Windows PC) into a .qif file. And be sure to save
it someplace safe. That's the file that you need to get the data
into Gnucash.
So you're finally done. Uh, not quite. Remember what I said
about doing this for free. Well, this is where you go back and
contact Quicken customer support. You tell them you tried their
software and didn't like it. And so, you'd like to take advantage
of their "30-day Money Back Satisfaction Guarantee". You should
be able to get a full refund of all your money.
Anyway, I think this is probably the most straightforward way of
getting the .qdfm file converted for Gnucash.
Hope this helps,
Tom
On 09/30/2026 04:04 AM, Kalpesh Patel wrote:
In that case MacOS is the only way in Virtual Box instead of
Windows OS it sounds like. Two possible routes instead of one –
1) Older MacOS running an older Quicken version in Virtual Box
and then export it out as QIF, or 2) let newer version of Quicken
on MacOS upgrade that version into modern format, and then either
export to QIF directly from there or bring it over to Windows and
export. Note that Windows has been using QDF proprietary format
to store Quicken data.
I found number of Vagrant boxes for older MacOS that can run in
Virtual Box at
https://portal.cloud.hashicorp.com/vagrant/discover?query=macos.
In either case, though, you will end up with export-import cycle
which is the best route.
*From:*Tom Route36 <[email protected]>
*Sent:* Wednesday, September 30, 2026 12:08 AM
*To:* 'Stephen Lee Phillips' <[email protected]>
*Cc:* [email protected]; Kalpesh Patel
<[email protected]>; 'David T.' <[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [GNC] Download assistance sought...
Hi Steve,
After I saw Kalpesh's advice, it got me curious about those old
versions of Quicken, and I decided to run a few tests. If you
did get a Windows instance up and running, you wouldn't need to
worry about which version of Windows it was. For my testing here
on a current Windows 11 system, I was able to successfully
install and run both Quicken 2014 and Quicken 2007.
The bad news though is Quicken Windows can't open a Quicken Mac
(.qdfm) file. So I don't think doing that will help in your
case. As David mentioned already, you need Quicken (specifically
a Mac version of it) to open that .qdfm file so that you can
export it in one of those generic formats.
A piece of good news for you though is that newer versions of
Quicken (post-2007) can most likely open your .qdfm file. I
tested and confirmed that Quicken 2014 can open a Quicken 2007
file. At least it worked for me on Windows. So even if you
don't have a Mac system with Quicken 2007 anymore, I think if you
can find someone with a Mac system that has *any* version of
Quicken, there's a good chance it will be able to read your old
.qdfm file -- which would then allow you to export it as a .QIF file.
Hope this helps,
Tom
On 09/29/2026 07:25 PM, Kalpesh Patel wrote:
Your only and, one and only one real option is run a Windows instance in a VirtualBox
(Vagarant can provide a lot of plumbing if you know how) where you can install Quicken 2006
and export it out as a QIF format (OFX and CSV formats for export are not available in
Quicken) to import into GNC. Even that is not strait forward as semantics of two system
differ in many ways. I would venture to think that you would probably need either Windows XP
or Windows 7 as a compatible OS to possibly run that old of a Quicken version. You should be
able to get a copy of it from the archive machine
(https://archive.org/search?query=quicken&tab=all
<https://archive.org/search?query=quicken&tab=all>).
I remember writing up good hints to minimize pain to this group many
years ago from my experience of migrating over two decades of data from Quicken
2017 into GNC inn 2020 (and I am still fixing up some of that data).
-----Original Message-----
From: David T.<[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2026 2:32 AM
To:[email protected]; Stephen Lee Phillips<[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [GNC] Download assistance sought...
I'm pretty sure you won't find any success getting at that data from
outside the Quicken universe. Your only option, I believe, is to open the data
file in Quicken and export your data in a generic format like OFX, QIF, or csv
and then importing that into another accounting program.
David T.
On September 29, 2026 7:16:35 AM GMT+05:30, Stephen Lee
Phillips<[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected]> wrote:
Trying to find conversion for .qdfm (Quicken Data for Mac) file from
2007 and was directed to GnuCash, however I've been unsuccessful in
finding, downloading, and extracting/opening the correct iteration
to
run on Intel Mac OS Sonoma 14.8.9: Any suggestions would be most
gratefully appreciated...
Thank you!
Steve
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