Restoring QuickBooks Backups
In the QuickBooks user forums I often see people complaining that they have restored a backup (either to move QB to a new computer, or restore after reformatting their hard drive) and they find that their company logo, on their invoices, isn’t restored. Other files may be missing, such as loan manager files. Today I’ll give you a tip on how to restore these files.
Everyone who uses QuickBooks knows that they need to make backup copies, right? If you don’t make backups, STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING NOW AND MAKE ONE! I’ll be nagging everyone more on this subject in the future. You should be periodically making backups with the QuickBooks backup function. However, if you restore that backup, there are some things you have to watch out for.
More than just your QBW file
When you use QuickBooks there is a file that contains your financial information, with a file type of “QBW”. This contains most of your information, but not all. Additional information may be stored in a number of places, including the company logo you put on your forms, dictionaries for spell checking, printer setup files, loan manager files, business planner files and more. If you are just backing up your QBW file by copying it somewhere (better than no backup at all!), you could be missing other important files.
When you use the QuickBooks backup feature all of these files are wrapped up into the backup “QBB” file, which is very helpful.
Restore might not do what you expect
When you restore a QuickBooks backup the program asks you for a location where you can restore the company file. However, the restore procedure only places the company (QBW) file in this location. The other files that were backed up would normally be stored in various places in your computer, and the restore does not put these back into the proper place.
Why not? You may be restoring an older archived backup to look at some older information, and you don’t want to lose your current information. You can put the company file in a different place, but not these additional files. So, the restore puts these files in a separate folder for safety. The only problem with this – you have to manually move these files.
How to fully restore those files
Once you restore your company file you will see a folder with the name “Restored_company name“, where company name is the name of the file you restored. For example, I’ve restored a backup for a company named “Generic Premier 08 bbtest” to the “qb” folder on my H: drive. You will see the following folders after the restore:
The Generic Premier 08 bbtest – Images folder is created by QuickBooks to hold the logo files that you place on your invoice and other forms.
Note that there is a folder named Restored_Generic Premier 08 bbtest_Files, which a number of sub folders. These sub folders (and there could be others than what I show here) contain files that would normally be placed
So, after you have restored your company file, you need to copy files from this Restored folder to particular locations on your computer:
- Image files (files used as logos) should be moved to [Company Name]-images.
- Word Letters and Templates should be moved to Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks [version]\QuickBooks Letter Templates.
- Printer Setting (PrintEng.ini, wpr.ini, and QBPrint.qbp) files should be moved to Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks [version].
- Spell Checker (spell.ini and UserDictionary.tlx) files should be moved to Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks [version]
- Financial Statement Designer Client (FSD clients) files should be moved to Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks\Company Files\FSD\Clients.
- Financial Statement Designer Data (FSD data) files should be moved to Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks [version]\Components\FSD\Data.
- Cash Flow Projector (.cfp) should be moved to the same directory as [Company Name].qbw.
- Business Planner (.bpw) should be moved to the same directory as [Company Name].qbw.
- Loan Manager (.lmr) files should be moved to the same directory as [Company Name].qbw.
In the Restore folder you will find a file named HowToRestoreExternalFiles.txt that will summarize this information.
Once you have done this you will find that your files are complete. By simply copying (for example) the image files your images will show in your invoice templates without any further work.
Category: General Tips
About the Author (Author Profile)
Charlie Russell is the founder of CCRSoftware. He’s been involved with the small business software industry since the mid 70′s, focusing on inventory and accounting software for small businesses. Charlie is a Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Look for Charlie’s articles in the QuickBooks and Beyond blog, as well as his California Wildflower Hikes blog.
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Charlie,
I am pretty sure it is a QBB file. The file name actually does not have quotation marks. I put them on it to separate it from the info. If I knew what program Quickbooks uses to save data, I think I could open the file.
Jack, I meant the slash / character, I just put it in quotes to separate it.
If it is a QBB file, you would run QuickBooks and select the option to restore a file from the File menu, you wouldn’t open it directly.
Where do i find documents and settings in windows 7…. not finding any luck on where to copy and paste the printer settings and word and letter templates. I just moved the file from my pc that was on it’s way out to a new laptop. Everything else copied perfect with your directions!! Thanks
Scott, for templates, in Windows 7, in my system I found the path to be \Users\Public\Documents\Intuit\QuickBooks\Company Files\[version]\QuickBooks Letter Templates… Note that you may have to change some of your folder options to actually see this. Also note that depending on how you are looking for this you may see a different path – the “Documents” portion of that path could be “Public Documents” in some folder views.
One thing that I do is to go into QB and “rename” or copy one of the templates, then do a search for that newly named template to see where it was placed.
For the printer files, in my Windows 7 system, I found them in \Users\All Users\Intuit\QuickBooks [version]
Bought a new computer, reloaded Quickbooks 2010. Did a backup and saved it to a stick drive. Tried to open it from the new computer, and it says, “Quickbooks 2010 cannot open this company file because the file has been updated to a newer version of Quickbooks.” Please help!
Sounds like you need to update your new install. QuickBooks 2010 is at the R16 level at this time. When you reinstalled it, you may have reinstalled from a CD, so it may be the R1 version. You can use the “Update QuickBooks” option in the Help menu to update to the most current release.