Since it’s been around four years, you are probably aware of the QuickBooks Desktop Data-file Optimization option for the Condense Utility. You probably know this ‘Optimization’ (formal name) for the option better by its common moniker, “Remove Audit Trail.”
Example of a QuickBooks File Optimize option.
Even I first touted this functionality as a ‘great option’ for prolonging the life of otherwise bloated QuickBooks Desktop files. The reason was simple: it allowed you to substantially reduce the size of most QuickBooks Desktop Company files without losing your transactional data.
Intuit’s official name for this functionality was ‘Data File Optimization’ because it lets you keep all of your transactions while removing the audit trail for all periods up through the optimization date. In some cases, I tested as much as 54% of the file was extracted during this process, leaving a file that was only 46% the size of the original.
I know many ProAdvisors who found this condense option far more appealing than other forms of condense data, because, in many cases, it produces a much smaller data file than any other condense option except deleting all data.
But not long ago some ProAdvisors began reporting they were having problems with this Condense Option. Many reported that the process would begin, and then QuickBooks would simply close.
Those same ProAdvisors noted that the file had been fully verified before starting the process.
Because I hadn’t personally experienced this problem in QuickBooks Desktop 2023 or 2024, I began some testing using a few large files, including one relatively ‘beefy’ file, which seemingly was about 50% audit trail data. In fact, the file in question was ~1.03 GB in size. When the file completed optimization, it was only ~513 MB after the audit trail removal process. The outcome window is shown below:
Example of a QuickBooks Enterprise file used for Optimization testing.
Problem Identified
ProAdvisors, using the last few versions of QuickBooks Desktop, had reported QuickBooks shut down on them when trying to ‘optimize’ a Company file. In most cases it didn't matter if the file was larger or smaller in size. Without exact statistics related to file size, number of transactions, number of targets, number of links, and various list sizes, it was difficult to determine a probable cause without doing a variety of tests on different file of differing sizes and characteristics.
But after testing just one or two files, I was able to observe the situation which they encountered of QuickBooks "Ceasing operations." Further review of log files showed a "LVL_ERROR--Exception saving the cache."
I have identified that you are much more likely to experience this situation if you use QuickBooks in ‘networked mode’ (not the same as multi-user) than if you are not in ‘networked mode.’
QuickBooks stops when you start the Optimize process and you are in ‘networking mode’ because it loses connectivity with the Network Database Server while attempting to commit the required cache memory to open the file. This is because cache memory for QuickBooks Desktop running in ‘network mode’ differs from that for QuickBooks Desktop running in ‘local’ (non-network) mode.
I’m not talking about “being in Multi- or Single- User”; you obviously can’t be in Multi-user if you are not in ‘network mode’ even though you can be in Single-user while in ‘network mode.’
Words of Caution
First, you should never attempt any significant file (structure) work across a network. The QuickBooks Company file should always be on the same computer as the QuickBooks application you are using. Don’t attempt to run the ‘rebuild’ or ‘condense’ features across a network.
With that said, if you are using Terminal Server/Remote Desktop Services (RDS) actually to log into the Server and both the Company file and a copy of QuickBooks are present on ‘that machine,’ then that is a totally different matter because you are only sending keystrokes and images back and forth between computers, the real work is all on the same machine as far as QuickBooks is concerned.
Even so, the QuickBooks application where the optimize function will run should not be in networked mode.
You should ‘Stop Hosting QuickBooks’ before attempting to Optimize the file. This stops the QBDBMgrN.exe Network Database Server (SQL Anywhere Network Server) and starts the QBDBMgr.exe Local Database Server (SQL Anywhere Personal Server).
When running under the QBDBMgr.exe Local Database Server (SQL Anywhere Personal Server), the Optimize process seems to work perfectly, so long as the file verifies before hand, regardless of file size.
This seems to be a bug in this functionality that doesn’t appear to have been resolved in the initial release of QuickBooks 2024. I believe QBDT 2024 will have a new R-version (Release) any day now (if not by the time this article is published), and we will have to see if the engineers have resolved this issue therein.
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