[GNC] Exporting Quicken Data into QIF Files for GnuCash truncates Memo Fields

[Mark at Lorimark]

Tom, I can give you a hand smooshing that QIF. Reach out if you like.

~mark petryk
~w:http://www.lorimarksolutions.com
~q:i don't know where it's going to go,
     ...and i don't know what to wear when it gets there.

On 8/28/25 16:13, Sherlock wrote:
> 
> Hi Tom,
> 
> Your guess is correct.  The script used the exported .txt file to 
> identify each transaction that would have truncated memos in the QIF, 
> then located the truncated transaction in the QIF file.  To limit the 
> accounts you need to export, scan the QIF file to identify the accounts 
> with at least one memo value at the limit.
> 
> Unfortunately, I have not been locate the script.  I'm not even sure it 
> was something I would have saved.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Sherlock
> 
> 
> On 8/27/25 11:38 PM, Tom Route-36 wrote:
>> Hi Sherlock,
>>
>> I'm guessing that once you produced the Transaction Reports in Quicken 
>> you then had to export each of them to Excel Compatible Format (i.e. 
>> Tab Delimited Export Files .txt).  I could probably do that, even 
>> though it would take quite a while; since I'd have to do it account by 
>> account (and there are 20+ years worth of them).  And since I can't 
>> really be sure which transactions have truncated memos, I'd pretty 
>> much have to assume all of them have problems.
>>
>> But where I'd really run into trouble is trying to figure out a script 
>> to correct the truncated memos in the QIF files -- which I'd probably 
>> also need to do account by account.  Do you still have any such 
>> example script files that I could study as a guide in how to setup 
>> such scripts?   I've never really tackled anything this complex before.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>>
>> On 8/27/2025 10:53 PM, Sherlock wrote:
>>> Hi Tom,
>>>
>>> In September 2022, I successfully migrated our 25 year old Quicken 
>>> data file to GnuCash 4.12 on Windows 10. To work around Quicken's QIF 
>>> export memo truncation issue, I recall running queries in Quicken to 
>>> produce transaction report files with the impacted transactions and 
>>> then using a script to correct the truncated memos in the QIF file.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Sherlock
>>>
>>>
>>> On 8/27/25 8:46 PM, Tom Route-36 wrote:
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> This is more of a Quicken question than a GnuCash question; but I'm 
>>>> wondering if anyone here has run into a similar issue with 
>>>> transferring data from Quicken to GnuCash -- and (maybe) figured out 
>>>> a way around it.
>>>>
>>>> When I transfer transactions from Quicken 2016 into a QIF file for 
>>>> importing into GnuCash, I'm finding that all the Quicken Memo fields 
>>>> get truncated down to 30 characters regardless of how many 
>>>> characters are actually in those Memo fields.  For reference, note 
>>>> that Quicken 2016 supports Memo fields up to 64 characters.  And 
>>>> GnuCash v5.12 supports Memo fields of well over 100 characters.
>>>>
>>>> What I'm wondering or asking here is this.  Has anyone else run into 
>>>> this issue?  And does anyone have a suggestion for how it might be 
>>>> possible to export the full 64-character Memo fields from Quicken? 
>>>> (FYI, we're talking over 20 years of Quicken data here.)  Any help 
>>>> or ideas would be appreciated.
>>>>
>>>> Tom
>>>
> 
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