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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Geoff, either install an instance of QB desktop on the server, or use a client. However, performance is much better from the server than from a client. In fact, I always try to avoid running the backup function from the client.
I have a restoration problem. Just bought a new PC, running XP. Remarkably, managed to reinstall QB2005 with no problems, and started to retrive my data. I have four different companies/data files. The first (“company A”) loaded fine, but when i tried to restore the next (“company b”) from my backup, it won’t let me. I get to ‘Get company backup from…’, and no matter where i choose (desktop, backup hard drive etc.) to retrieve the data from, it gives me “you are about to overwrite an existing company file”. This is ok, but when I click after ‘are you sure’, it reverts to the other company file (“company a”). How do I get it to restore the second company?
Andy, I don’t have a coy of the 2005 product readily available (it is around, but buried on a system that isn’t usually running). I can’t say what is going on exactly.
When you restore company “A”, try physically moving it to another location and erasing it from the first location. Then try restoring the “B” file and see what happens…
No dice…i think i’ve just confused QB!! I can’t restore company b, as it keeps flipping back to company a after the ‘are you sure’ message. I’m tempted to delete everything except the files I need, reinstall QB, and start all over agin….
Sorry, with more current versions it shouldn’t be an issue. But there were some big changes after the 2005 release.
Another thing that comes to mind is that if you reinstalled, you may not have the most up to date release. If you reinstall from your CD you probably have the R1 release, and that almost always has bugs. The updates may fix the issue (but I don’t know that), but getting the updates can be difficult as that is one of the services that was “sunsetted”…
Press F2 and see what “revision” you have.
You may also find some help in the Intuit Community Forum…
I definitely have full updates (made sure i downloaded all QB updates before anything else)….company a is a backup from a few days ago, and restores perfectly. Thanks for the input…i’m going to try the full reinstall…fingers crossed…
I am trying to figure out a way to restore my clients file on her laptop, which does not have internet service, every time I update her file so that she can see the changes. What I’m running into is her laptop won’t let me restore the file because her version isn’t updated as recently as mine (with the various internet updates that go on). We have the same QuickBooks Pro 2009 version but since she doesn’t have internet service, her file isn’t automatically updated! Do I need to delete her file every time and then restore my file onto her computer? Would that work? Thanks!
Anna, I don’t have the specific steps, but essentially what you need to do is to go to the Intuit support site, find the update page for your year of QuickBooks, and download the “manual update”. This would be a file that you could put on a CD and take to the client. Run it there, and they are updated.
Q. I am trying to restore a company backup file from Quickbooks Pro 2009 and it does not automatically go to the place where the backup should restore to.
Where do I assign the backup to restor to on the program?
Jerry, you can save it anywhere you want, more or less. There isn’t a specific location that you HAVE to use. If you are a multi user situation you need to restore it to a place that everyone can access, on the computer that is set up to be the hose. If you are the only user, you can use a folder in your “my documents” folder if you wish. The typical location on a local computer would be something like “C:\Users\Public\Documents\Intuit\Company Files”, although that can vary depending on the version of Windows that you are using (that was a Windows 7 typical address).
Hello, Charlie–
Not sure if this thread is still live–
My understanding is that even the accountant’s copy file is not backwards compatible? Is that correct?
Thanks,
Erik Kortz
Erik, old threads never die, they just unravel over time…
If you have (for example) Premier Accountant’s Edition 2010, then a client can give you an Accountant’s Copy of their file from 2009 or 2010. You can make your adjustments, and give the client back the Accountant’s Changes information, and it will work for the 2009 or 2010 client. So the CHANGES can be posted back to one year prior. That isn’t exactly what you are saying, probably, but that is the only backwards compatibility there is.
I’m not sure how long ago they started that feature…
I always seem to have a problem getting this to work, I am using Windows XP Operating system and it seems to always go to the wrong place and when I try to find it manually after finally running it down to the Folder where the company files are stored it asks for a “disk” and it refers to the right drive (which is a USB backup stick, not a disk) and it won’t accept the USB stick even though it is recognizing the correct drive, any help please?
So while the above comment about storing the QB Pro 2009 backup file calledcwc2000.qbwis the name of the file I am attempting to restore and you suggested an example of a place to store it such as C:\Users\Public\Documents\Intuit\Company Files for windows 7 and mine is Windows XP, why does it ask for a “disk” when this file is actually a USB stick and then hangs up there when it is the proper lettered port or drive? I go through the motions as follows: Restore a backup copy next then it goes to local backup “F drive” which is correct for the stored backup next it says “open Backup File” and I click open then it asks “Where do you want to restore the file?” and I click next then it goes to “Save company file as” and gives a .qbw on the original USB stick (which is the restore from drive folder “F” and file extension only is “.qbw” on the “F” original drive and it is attempting to go to the source drive automatically) I have to then try to find the correct place to send the file to which is C\documents and settings\All Users\Application Data\my computer\shared documents\Intuit\Quickbooks\Company Files\cwc2000091510 then it asks for a disk in “F” drive which is the correct drive (USB) and I try to click on the correct file and it just blinks at me and won’t accept it.
Jerry, this is a bit difficult to follow – and I don’t know if I can help you through a blog comment like this. When you save a backup, in the “Do you want to save your backup copy…” window, there is an “options” button. Click that and select the folder that you want to use, see if that helps.
Hi Charlie,
The computer that i was running QB’s on has a problem and I need to reinstall the operating system so, before I do that I have taken the harddrive out and put it into an enclosure so that I can retrieve various files including my QB files. I have located the proper files and opened them and everything looks to be just fine now, how do I restore these files to my 2nd computer so that I have the invoices, sales receipts and customer info transfered to this 2nd computer? Also, after I do the transfer, then go back to my messed up computer and reinstall the OS can i then restore these files back to that computer again without any problems? Please help. I’m just not sure how to proceed considering the files I have on my enclosure hard drive are not files taht I’ve backed up but are current files. Thanks for your help, Kristine
Kristine – it is a bit hard to follow the details, and a blog like this isn’t a great place to do “tech support”. The Intuit Community Forum would be better, you can set up a dialog. Depending on what QB product you have, there should be a “QBW” file on the old drive. You can physically move that to the new computer and open it there. That takes care of 99% of what you need (maybe even more). All you would lose that way would be the “loan manager”, “Shipping manager” files, and possibly the logos/graphics on any templates you modified. You might not be using any of those. But this is just a general idea, you really should either talk to a ProAdvisor locally who can help, or work through the forum.
Thank you Charlie. I will do that.
Thanks for this blog! My hard drive failed, I got a new one, and have reinstalled QB2009 program (from website download). We are a small non-profit. What are the exact next steps for restoring my company file from a disk back-up? Do I open QB and go through the begining steps? will it ask me if I am restoring from BU? Or, do I simply insert the back-up disk first?
Thanks.
Yvonne, start QB and sselct “File” then “Open or Restore”, and select “Restore a backup copy”. At some point it will ask you where the file is, put in the backup disk then.
Ignore earlier post – got it! Not so hard – I was just worried, especially since QB doesn’t always give you all the necessary info.
I am presently running QB 2005. I want to upgrade to 2008 version. Will all information on my backup be downloaded when I restore on 2008 version from 2005 version
Bob, assuming that the data is in good shape, it should convert fine. Don’t install the 2008 program on top of the 2005 program, install it in a separate folder, just in case you have a problem.
We have five employees using the 2008 version of QB’s, we bought and installed the 2010 version for a new employee yesterday, and now, none of the computers running on the 2008 version are able to work. We uninstalled the 2010 and tried to restore back to the last backup, but receive error code -6177,0 everytime we try….
Lupita, I don’t have enough detail on what you did to be able to give you a definitive answer here. Debugging in blog comments just doesn’t work. You should find a local ProAdvisor who can help. Hopefully you made a backup copy of yur files before converting.
Take a look at http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/pages/knowledgebasearticle/192a1556 for info on that error, but it might not help in your situation. Someone needs to sit down with you to go over the details.
Is it possible to restore a 2011 quickbooks back up file to 2009 version?
Chris, no, the 2011 file won’t be compatible with 2009. You can export lists to IIF and import them back, but not transactions. You can play with third party utilities like the Data Transfer Utility from Karl Irvin, but that would be a bit of a hassle to do. You might be able to pay a service to do the transfer – check http://www.qbornotqb.com to see if they can do that.
Hi,
I am using QB Pro 2009 and cannot restore a backup (the client is on the exact same version). It is definitely a QBB file that I am trying to restore. After I select the backup and get to the screen where it says “save as” I enter a file name but it simply won’t save…I keep getting a “restore failed” message. I am at a total loss and have never had problems restoring backups. Any help you can give is appreciated!
Stephanie – either the file is damaged (that can happen), you are trying to restore from removeable media, you are trying to restore TO removeable media, or you don’t have permissions to create files in that location with that Windows login user. Or something along those lines. Make sure that you have the ability to create new files in that folder, make sure you restore from and to a fixed hard drive. If that won’t work, try restoring that file on another system. If that won’t work, either make another backup (if that is possible) OR if you need to, have the file examined by someone (which will cost a fee – see someone like http://www.qbornotqb.com)
Thanks so much – I will try what you have suggested.