Learn how to find your company file or most recent backup.
QuickBooks makes it convenient to locate your working or backup files.
Just select the Find a company file option on the No Company Open window. You normally see this window when you first start QuickBooks or when you close your company file.
The Find a Company File window automatically scans for the following file extensions:
- .QBW, your QuickBooks working file.
- .QBB, your QuickBooks backup file.
You can also select the side menu and rescan for removable media, such as a USB flash drive, or your network.
Manually locating your files
You can also find your files or backups by using File Explorer to do a wildcard file search. Here’s how:
Search using file explorer:
- Open the Windows Start menu
- Type File Explorer into the search and open File Explorer.
- Select My Computer or This PC from the navigation bar.
- In the search field, be sure to include the asterisk (*) before the extension type (*.qbw, *.qbb) to find all corresponding files. You may also search for *.qb for QuickBooks.
What else to look for?
- The usual location for a QuickBooks Desktop company files is:
C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Intuit\QuickBooks\Company Files - View the file name, date, timestamp, and or size to see which is the most current.
- If your file is hosted through a Hosting Service, contact your service directly for assistance.