Errors in the Microsoft Money Data File

If you get problems such as 'this transaction cannot be entered', 'this operation cannot be completed', 'this operation cannot be performed' or 'Money could not write to your money file' then it is highly probable that you have corruption in your file. Corruption can occur in Money files, and having a good backup policy (Article 199) should be the first thing you consider with your data.

The easiest and arguably the best way to fix this, would be to take a backup copy of the your current Microsoft Money file, by closing Money, and then making a copy in Windows Explorer of your .MNY file. Then open your most recent backup. The backup will have slightly less information in, as any transactions you had put in in the session where the corruption occurred will not be in the file, so you will need to put these in (either through the online download service or manually typing them). Unfortunately, the backup file sometimes has the same problem, especially if the problem has existed in the file for a time.

If this is the case, and you don't have a backup file which works correctly, then you may need to repair the money file. Make sure you always take an additional backup before trying any of the repair or salvage options.

If you have Microsoft Money 2004 or later, then the file repair tool is on the File->Repair Money File menu option. There are two tools, a quick and standard repair. Try the quick repair tool first.

Earlier versions will need one of the methods below:

1. The basic repair method is to use the '-s' parameter on the command line. Press 'Start'->'Run' and type in the following (include any double quotes):
   
   
   • Money 2007 or Money Essentials: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Money 2007\MNYCoreFiles\msmoney.exe" –s
     
     
   • MS Money 2006: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Money 2006\MNYCoreFiles\msmoney.exe" –s
     
     
   • MS Money 2005: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Money 2005\MNYCoreFiles\msmoney.exe" –s
     
     
   • MS Money 2000-2004: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Money\System\Msmoney.exe" -s
   
   
   
   • MS Money 99 and earlier: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Money\Msmoney.exe" –s
     
     
   If you have installed Money in a non-default directory, then you will need to modify the paths appropriately above.
   
   
2. If the basic repair doesn't work, then you'll need to use a more deep repair. The repair tool can be downloaded from the patches page (under the Microsoft Money 2000 section). This tool should be extracted into a temporary directory and then run. You will need to specify the source Money file and a new file to save the repaired data to. Don't forget to open the correct file after repair. A walkthough of using this tool can be found in Article 328.

The repair options can have a side effect of reducing the size of your Microsoft Money file. This is a good thing, but don't use the repair tools just to try to do this.

Note also, repairing the file may get it usable again, but keep a good backup mechanism going. If you've got to this stage, then you need to think about that (see Article 94 and Article 199).