Desktop to Online Migration problems

You are unable to purge QBO Simple Start. If you want retry the migration process from QB Desktop, you should purchase the new blank QBO account with the same email address and cancel the old one.

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Hello @Davis13,

@Fiat Lux - ASIA is right, you'll have to cancel your existing company if you wanted to start and use a new one for the conversion. Yes, bringing over your company data from QuickBooks Desktop will be used as your business information once you start working in QuickBooks Online.

With the login credentials, you can still use the same email address and you'll have two companies to choose from while logged in. Don't worry, you can determine which one has the active subscription and the new working company data by checking your billing and subscription.

In the same manner, here's an article you can read to learn more about how you can convert your data: How to Import your QuickBooks Desktop Company File to QuickBooks Online?

On top of that, I've also included this reference helpful with the reference needed in understanding what you can expect after the conversion: How your Books Convert from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online?

Don't hesitate to post again here if you have other questions or concerns with QuickBooks tasks and navigations. I'm always around happy to help. Take care and stay safe!

I've spent three hours on this "simple process" and haven't accomplished anything.  I uploaded my desktop file and the online balance sheet contained balances for banks I haven't used for over 10 years.  The chat folks had me re-do the upload and said it would wipe out the old data.  It didn't.  Had a tech person go into my pc and we did it again.  Same problem.  He said it was because the data was old.  His answer was to not upload all the data, but to choose lists and balances.  Same result in the balance sheet, but of course all the historic transactions were missing.  I've tried the purgecompany approach to delete the company data so I can start over, but that produces a 404 error that I can't resolve.  It's hard to imagine that I would recommend this process to one of my clients when I can't get it to work for my own practice.

Thanks for sharing your concern in the QuickBooks Community, @YooperTom.

This isn't the kind of service we'd want you to experience. I can see how important it is for your business to upload these files into QuickBooks Online (QBO). Thus, let me help you with the process. 

Once you move your data, let's make sure that the company file isn’t too big to export. If the file exceeds the target limit (750,000) it can't be converted to QBO. The only option is, you can only import lists and balances into QuickBooks Online or start fresh.

This can be the reason why you're unable to refresh your data when redoing the migration. 

As a workaround, we can condense your QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) file for import to QBO. File size (MB) doesn't matter when importing to QuickBooks Online. Targets do. Here's how to check your total targets in a QuickBooks company file. 

1. Open your QuickBooks Desktop company file and access Product Information by pressing F2 on your keyboard.
2. Check the Total Targets number.

Once done, follow the steps in this article to condense your file: Condense your QBDT data for a QuickBooks Online Import.

To learn more about the steps you should take after moving files to QBO, please see What To Do After You Move From QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

You can add your reply in this thread about the result of this troubleshooting. I'd be glad to help you all the way in accomplishing your task. Take care and stay safe. 

@YooperTom 

Open your company file and hit f2 key. How big are your Total Targets?

Good thought, but Total Targets is only 11,226--FAR below the level where this should be the problem.  I've rebuilt the company file, but that didn't help either.  In short, nothing suggested so far has solved the problem.

Which QBD year version do you have? Make sure you are converting data from a supported version (i.e 2020-2023). If you're using a supported version, try installing a trial version of a newer year version to upgrade your data as the first step. If the same error persists, your file may be corrupted and consider purchasing a third-party conversion service.

First of all, the file is not corrupted, but to be sure, I rebuilt it with no errors showing.  Second, the desktop software is Enterprise Solutions Accountant 22.0.  And if I have to pay a third party to make this simple migration, you can rest assured that I would never recommend this conversion to a client.

You can open the sample file and try to convert it to QBO. If it works, it means your company file is corrupt and QB ToolHub can't detect the problem. You can also try to condense your file to make it smaller.

Creating a new sample file will prove nothing.  The problem occurs in transactions prior to 2016.  A new file, containing all current transactions will certainly fly.  The problem involves all of the historical data, and if it doesn't upload correctly, then the system is useless. As for condensing, the target count is substantially lower than the maximum.  What I would really like to do is wipe out the entire QBO company and start over.  I've followed the instructions, but always end up with a 404 error which fails to purge the old company.  I believed, and continue to believe that this is my best chance to do a successful migration.

I'm not asking to create a new sample company file, but opening the sample company file. If you can convert it to QBO, your QBD program is not a problem. If you believe that transactions in 2016 are the main culprit, you should run the Condense Data utility to remove them and convert the rest to QBO. Your client may consider purchasing a one-time license for QB Desktop 2022 Accountant for single user to open the archive file later (if they are using QBD 2022 or an older version).

Did you ever succeed? Or give up? I've tried migrating and re-migrating 5 times and have a mess. Each time I "verify" the file, it does not detect any errors. 

Any help would be appreciated!

Best

Julie

I appreciate you for chiming in on this thread, @JOvery. I'm here to provide insights to help you seamlessly migrate your QuickBooks Desktop's (QBDT) data to QuickBooks Online (QBO).

Suppose you encountered a specific error message while performing the migration process. In that case, you can follow the steps from this article to fix the error message: Fix errors when you move from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

If you haven't seen any error messages, I recommend reaching out to our QBO Support Team to assist you with migrating your QBDT data to your QBO company. Here's how:

1. Log in to your QBO account.
2. Click the ? Help button at the top right corner.
3. Go to the Search tab, then select Contact Us.
4. Enter a brief discussion with your concern, then click Continue.
5. Choose a way to connect with us.

Furthermore, you can check out this article to see details about moving your QBDT company data to QBO using an online tool: Move your books to QuickBooks Online with an online tool. You can read through this article for details to see the qualification to utilize the online tool.

When you switch to QBO, you may notice differences in how your books appear. But no worries, we have an article to help you understand how your data are moved. See these resources for more details:

• Learn how features and data transfer from QBDT to QBO.
• What to do after you move from QuickBooks Desktop for Windows or Mac to QuickBooks Online

You're always welcome to comment below if you have other QuickBooks-related concerns. I'm just around to help. Keep safe!

@JOvery 

Which QB Desktop year version?

Open your company file and hit CTRL+1. How big are the Total Targets?