QB consistant crashing/freezing

Hi there, AZEmbroiderer.

I've got some information and troubleshooting steps to share with you. 

To single out this issue, let's run the Refresher tool to end QuickBooks processes running in the background. Please follow these steps to perform a mini repair on your software:

1. Close QuickBooks. 
2. Download the Refresher tool.
3. Save the file on your desktop.
4. Run the QBRefresher tool.
5. Re-open QuickBooks Desktop.

If the issue persists, you can follow the additional steps outlined in this article: Solutions for when QuickBooks stops working.

From there, you shouldn't have any further issues after running the tool.

Keep me posted how this turns out. I want to ensure this matter gets resolved.

Hi Jane

I'll touch base with you next week to let you know if this has worked.  I want to give this a few days.

Thanks

I have been having the same crashing/freezing problem for about a month now in QB 2019 Accountant version. I have uninstalled/reinstalled several times, had the IT guy update Windows 10 which took 1.5 hours, run the QB Desktop Install Diagnostic Tool multiple times, and made several calls to support. 

I am hoping this tool will finally fix the problem.

My program just froze again. It makes it hard to get work done if Quickbooks keeps freezing.

Any other suggestions? 

Hello, LP78704.

Are you trying to access your Employee Center when QuickBooks freezes? If so, you can follow these steps:

1. Open QuickBooks and log into a company file.
2. Open the Employee Center, left-click each employee until Quickbooks freezes to identify which employee(s) cause the issue.

You can export the employee list via IIF, then re-import it back into QuickBooks.

At this time, we don't know exactly what's causing this. Let's test this in a different company file to see if the issue exists there. If not, then we know it's specific to this file. If possible, we would like to get a copy of the file for research to try reproducing it internally which will help us find root cause.

If not, you contact our Customer Care Team to further investigate this.

Let me how these steps work by commenting below. I'll be right here to help.

No, it is not from trying to access the Employee Center.

I started keeping a record of what is happening, see below:

• 07/22/19 Emailing pay stub would not work, so changed preferences back to Outlook and it worked.
• -----------------------------------------

• 07/25/19 Could not email out invoices so changed preference back to Webmail. Quickbooks crashed when recording Credit card charges. It would not open back up.
• Ran the QuickBooks Desktop Install repair tool, opened QB’s and ran Verify Data, no issued found.
• ------------------------------
• 07/26/19 I was modifying vendor credit card payments QBs froze. I downloaded and ran the QB Refresher Tool.
• *Froze again when I was in the customer center and going back and forth to create estimates. Had to go to Task Manager again to close it. It reopened.
• *I was switching back and forth between my two computer screens to get emails and update job board which is on Office 365, QB’s froze after I printed a .pdf from an email. QBs would not start back up so I checked Task Manager and found two QB programs running in Processes, when I end one of them QB’s started up. To Do list opens up with incorrect Upcoming on a consistent basis – should be (19) but it shows (2) . When I close reminders and open the window it is correct.
• * At 10:59 I created an invoice and selected Email Invoice when the program froze.
•  
• I found QBs FCS module (32bit) and QBs Automatic Update running on Task Manager so I shut them down, then reopened QBs. It opened back up to the upcoming reminders at (2) when it should be (19).
• *I was able to create and send (3) invoices but it was sending from Outlook and I had been sending using WebMail. I went to Preferences and changed it to WebMail. I got the following error: QuickBooks is unabe to send emails due to network connection failure.
•  
• I closed the invoice and changed preference back to Outlook. I was able to send invoices.

 I have 'repaired' MS Office 365 in the Programs and Features by right clicking and running repair, and I have had the IT guy install the Windows 10 Update which took 1.5 hours last week. This problem started the first week of July when Windows 10 updated.

I don't email invoices or have payroll in any other 2019 files, but it has frozen when working in another 2019 client file as I was recording checks.

If I submit a copy of the file here by choosing a link, how do I keep the data secure and not have anyone else access it?

Thanks for getting back to the Community, @LP78704.

I appreciate your effort for processing troubleshooting steps to resolve issues that cause QuickBooks Desktop to stop working.

Since you've already performed the recommended steps and the issue persists, I encourage you to get in touch back to our QuickBooks Desktop Support Team. They have additional tools to do a remote session and investigate this further. They can also create a new investigation for this issue and once it has been open, you’ll be receiving an email notification about the updates and progress of the investigation.

Here' how to contact our technical support:

1. Select QuickBooks Desktop Help from the Help menu.
2. You can also press F1 on your keyboard to bring up the same Help Panel. 
3. In order to route you to the correct support expert, we need to know what type of question you have.
4. Click Continue.
5. We’ll provide you a few options. You choose which one is best for you.

Also, if you're trying to submit a copy of your QuickBooks company file, you can add password security to ensure the protection of your critical data. The minimum requirements for complex passwords include:

• At least 7 characters (letters, numbers, or special characters)
• At least 1 number
• At least 1 uppercase letter

To learn more about adding security password, you can check this article: Password security for QuickBooks Desktop. 

However, if this is for invoice or other transactions, you can save it as PDF then add security password. To do this, you'll need to contact your file provider. 

Please know that you're always welcome to post if you have any other concerns about QuickBooks service. Have a great day. 

I just got off the phone with ProAdvisor support. They renamed the QBW.user INI file and the ECML file.

I will continue working to see if the problem persist.

Just wanted to let you know that I've run into the exact same problem on Quickbooks Desktop Pro 2018.  I narrowed the problem to two employees, both with the last name starting with "G", that made QB unresponsive each time.  Thank God for the export employee list as an IIF file, and reimporting - somehow that has bypassed the problem for now.  I'm grateful to be back online for the moment.  If you would like my company file to test, I'm happy to provide.  

Thank you again for the export list suggestion - it saved the day (for now!)

My QB also consistently froze since the update. It froze with every attempt to open a register. It froze when attempting to edit a transaction. It froze when opening the window to see what version of QB is being run. It was useless.  Luckily, the QB Refresher mentioned in this thread fixed. 

Thanks for the info Jen.  I think I have seen it before, just haven't had the time to go thru it.

Let me ask you this...

When I go to:

Start, All Programs, Quickbooks

     - 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 are all listed.

Can I uninstall 2015-2018?  I have books in 3 different years due to some issues before I got to this company.  I ended up having to work with a gentleman to save the previous years books and then setup the company again (twice - in different versions) because of the nightmare messes left by my 2 predecessors.

When I open one of the previous companies, do I still need these previous software versions installed?  Or will my current 2019 version suffice?  And would this have anything to do, in addition to whatever else is going on, with the constant freezing and crashing.

If I can uninstall any previous software, I'd like to declutter my hard drive.

Thanks

Kim

Hello there, @AZEmbroiderer,

Good to see you here in the Community.

Yes, you can uninstall QuickBooks versions 2015-2018. Please take note you have to create a back up of your company file then restore all company files to 2019 to ensure you can open the files to the newest version. Also, you have to verify and rebuild the company files before converting them to 2019.

Top of that, if restore back up company file to 2019 is successful then that's the time you will uninstall them. Let me help you how you will restore your company file.

Here's how:

1. From the File menu, select Open or Restore Company.
2. Select Restore a backup copy and select Next.
3. Choose Local Backup and then select Next.
4. From the Look In drop-down, choose the location of the backup file.
5. Select the backup file from the folder. The file name should appear as [Company Name].qbb.
6. Select Open andthen select Next.
7. From the Save in drop-down, choose the location where you want to save the restored file.
8. In the File name field, type a new file name. (Note: The Save as type field will automatically populate QuickBooks Files (*.QBW).
9. Select Save.

Once done, please read carefully and respond to any messages that appear before restoration begins.

Please refer to this article for more information and detailed steps on how to back up your company file: Restore a Back up of your Company File.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you, I always have your back. Thanks for reaching out, wishing you and your business continued to succeed.

Thank You for the Fix!  I had been having this problem as well but only on one of my company files.  It didn't matter which employee I clicked on, they all would cause the freeze.  Again this does not happen on any of the other company files I work with only this particular company, but that could be because I never have to click on any employee in the other files as they all stay the same.

I just downloaded 2019 Desktop pro.  It crashes every time I try to import my backup file.   

Hello there, Lkfitch78.

Your old QuickBooks file may be corrupted, reason why it crashes every time you’re trying to restore it. To get this resolved, you'll want to go back to your previous QuickBooks version and fix the damage by running the verify rebuild data. The Verify Data utility can detect issues within the company file, while the Rebuild data resolves all issues found. You'll find the instructions for doing so below:

To Verify Data:

1. Go to File  at the top.
2. Choose Utilities  from the drop down option.
3. Select Verify Data.

To Rebuild Data:

1. Go to File and select Utilities from the drop down option.
2. Choose  Rebuild Data.

Once done, you can create a backup copy of your QuickBooks file then restore it again in QuickBooks 2019.

If the issue continues, I’d suggest contacting our QuickBooks Care Team for further assistance. They have tools capable of taking a deeper investigation behind this QuickBooks behavior.

1. Click Help at the top menu and select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. In the Have a Question? window, click Contact us.
3. Enter the details of your concern and click Continue.
4. Choose how you want to reach them and enter the needed information.​

Should you have additional questions about the process, please let me know as I'm always here to answer them for you.

Hi Charies,

I've followed the directions, so now it is a wait and see if this takes care of the problem.  By the end of the week, I will know and be able to get back you to.

Thanks!

Well, went thru all the different instructions and it worked for 2 whole days.  Tried to do it again and that didin't help.  The owner has gotten irratated that I've spent this much time with it.  Asked I if could live with it as is, and I pretty much can knowing that it could at any time freeze in the middle of what I'm doing and then have the box letting me know that Quickbooks has encountered an error and must close.  Easier to let it crash, and restart it and continue working rather than deal with someone popping into the office wanting to know why I'm still trying to fix it.

There's no shutting down normally either, same old thing - encountering and error and must close.

I'm forced to give up by the owner.  Thank you for all of the info to try to help me out.  I truly apprecitate being able to get help.  When 2020 comes out, I'll try the instructions again before I install the new version and hopes that solves the problem.

I just exported an imported my employee list.  However, when I imported there was an error message that one record was bad.  It said to fix and re import and created a file with the corrupt record.  How do I go about "fixing" this reocrd?

Hi mprugg,

When importing employee lists, make sure that you haven't included any special characters in the field. Let me provide you additional information and help you import your employee lists.

You can only import from supported file formats into QuickBooks Desktop. Here's an article for more information when importing files: Export Or Import Intuit Interchange Format (.IIF) Files.

Let me know if you need further assistance. I'd be happy to help.

Thanks for the information.  Once I was able to open the file, it says the record was rejected because the list element is already in use. Not sure how to proceed.  I haven't changed anything and this is a 6 year employee.

Thanks for getting back to us, mprugg.

Since you already verified the employee's information and still unable to import them to QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT), I highly recommend contacting our Phone Support team. They have tools such as screen-sharing (remote access) that can check your account in a secure environment and investigate this further.

Here's how to reach them:

1. In your QBDT, click the Help menu at the top to get to the QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. Select Contact Us at the bottom to connect with our live support.

Just in case, I'll be sharing this article for future reference: Export or import Intuit Interchange Format (.IIF) files.

Let me know if you encounter any other issues by leaving a comment in this thread, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Take care and have a good one.

I'm using Accountant Desktop 2020 and my files freeze every time I try to use the Employee Center - and seems to be getting worse. I tried the REFRESHER and that didn't work. Also exported the Employee List as an .iff file but it will NOT import. Message is "We weren't able to import right now. Try again later."   HOW DO WE OPERATE WITHOUT USE OF EMPLOYEE LIST???? please help.