missing file for state W-2

Thanks for getting in touch with the Community, ChanceGardener. I appreciate your screenshot and detailed information.

Since you've already confirmed you're up-to-date with your product's latest release and tax tables, I'd initially recommend troubleshooting with the Verify Data utility. This identifies known issues within company files and informs users if their Rebuild Data tool needs to be utilized afterwards.

Here's how it's used:

1. Click Window, then Close All.
2. In your top menu bar, go to File.
3. Choose Utilities.
4. Select Verify Data.

In the event its results show a "Your data has lost integrity," message, this indicates there's damage in your file. You can use the Rebuild Data utility to fix it. For specific errors, there may already be a resource for them on our support site.

If it displays a "QuickBooks detected no problems with your data," notification, or you've searched our help articles and didn't find any existing resources about the specific error it displayed, you can continue troubleshooting with our QuickBooks Tool Hub.

Here's how:

1. Close QuickBooks and download a copy of the utility's most recent version, then run it.
2. Follow along with your on-screen steps to complete installation and agree with our terms and conditions.
3. Once it's installed, double-click its icon to open the tool hub. If you can't find your app, perform a search in Windows for "QuickBooks Tool Hub" and select the program.
4. Access your Company File Issues tab and use the Quick Fix my file and QuickBooks File Doctor tools to troubleshoot your company file. In the event you need additional assistance, choose File Dr Help.

In the event you continue receiving the error messages when trying to click efile State W-2 and access W-2 forms from your Employees screen, you'll want to get in touch with our Customer Care team. They'll be able to pull up the account in a secure environment, conduct further research, and create an investigation ticket if necessary.

I've also included a detailed resource about fixing other payroll errors which may come in handy moving forward: Fix payroll errors

Please don't hesitate to send a reply if there's any additional questions. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

@ZackE 

Data problems that might be found have no effect on the state W-2 template file.

Rebuilding your company file will have no effect on the state W-2 template file.

Using the file doctor will have no effect on the state W-2 template file.

All of these things should be obvious to you.

@ChanceGardener 

If you go to the location in the error message, is the file present there?

If not, then resetting and getting your payroll updates again should replace it.

Start on the Employee menu in QuickBooks and pick Get Payroll Updates and then get the updates while the Download entire payroll update option is selected.

Then check again to see if the file is present. If so, then it should work.

Thanks BigRed! The file is there but if I double click it I get and error message that it is "only valid for installed components". If I open it from it from Excel it opens, with a message about enabling macros, but of course there's no data in the spreadsheet. The issue seems to be QB not recognizing Excel. I have an office 365 subscription and I installed the apps on this machine. Is it possible that QB 2021 doesn't recognize the latest version of Excel?

RE: "only valid for installed components"

This suggests that somehow VBA may not be installed with Excel. It's odd, but it happens. Try repairing Office from the windows add/remove programs control panel and changing the options to include VBA support. Even if already included, repairing office may help with the various errors you've reported.

RE: If I open it from it from Excel it opens, with a message about enabling macros, but of course there's no data in the spreadsheet.

Yes, that's how it works. There will be no data until you connect to QuickBooks to pull the data, and then the code will create the W-2 worksheet and later the EFW2 file for your state (or Federal) from the worksheet. Once you enable macros, then the worksheet should create a menu and perhaps a window to connect will appear automatically. I can't quite remember.

So it turns out that when I installed Office 365 it defaulted to a 32 bit installation because of a previous installation of Office 2007. I had to download and use a Microsoft tool to thoroughly uninstall Office and then reinstall as 64 bit. Bada bing, bada boom, everything works! Thanks for the help!