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QuickBooks message "The company file that you are trying to open was created with a newer version of QuickBooks. Please upgrade your copy of QuickBooks."

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
March 4, 2019
7 replies
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I have QB premier 2017, my accountant send me premier-accountant 2017 qbw version, but a pop up warning showed up" the company file that you are trying to open was created with a newer version of QB. Please upgrade your copy of QB" Now I can't open the file. Help!

QuickBooks Desktop

Best answer by milibrli

Follow up: I had called QB customer service, and after waited almost one hour I got the answer: "use qbm instead qbw". Asked my accountant make a portable file and then open it on my QB, and the problem solved.

Rustler

Level 15

some updates to the version will do that. Ever notice that some updates when you start up the file again asks about formatting the data? It would seem that the accountants version is more up to date than yours

The accountant should be sending you a qbb back up file, or an accountants file if you first sent him one. not the qbw file

M

milibrliAuthor

Ok, I'll ask him to send me a qbb file instead qbw to give it a try, thanks.

M

milibrliAuthorAnswer

Follow up: I had called QB customer service, and after waited almost one hour I got the answer: "use qbm instead qbw". Asked my accountant make a portable file and then open it on my QB, and the problem solved.

F

Fix2015

How could you resolve it?

B

btautimer

Level 1

I have also seen this when more than one version of QB is installed, albeit not very often. It may still be worth double-checking the version by

Opening the Product Info Window in QuickBooks Desktop by pressing F1 on your keyboard or Ctrl + 1
Check the Product Information at the top of the window.

You can also check the QuickBooks Product grouping in Windows to see if there are any other versions of QuickBooks installed.

Locate your current QuickBooks Desktop by pressing the Windows logo Key and type in QuickBooks and select the year
Once QuickBooks is open, select the file you wish to open and proceed as normal with logging in

B

BookemDanno

You are correct and I thank you. I had 2018 and 2019 both installed(for back up) and I was trying to open a 2019 file in 2018

F

fcs659

I have a similar issue and do not understand the previous replies. I have installed QuickBooks Pro 2016 today on my home laptop. I am trying to restore the data from an external hard drive for my payroll that I have at my office.

When I choose the backup copy on the hard drive to restore, it tells me I need to update to a newer version, so I have gone to the Help button, and updated the files.... still the same thing. Using the little windows picture and typing in QB etc. tell me I have the version I see.

I see there is something about qbb, qbw qbn files, but have no clue what that means. Am I supposed to try and save these files somehow differently at my office....and if so, how do you do that? I seem to be travelling in circles ---- for the past hour & a half. Shouldn't this be just a smple "click?"

Where do I start?

Thanks for any advice!!

Jen_D

Level 8

Thanks for letting us know about your concern, @fcs659,

I can share some information about the error you're getting when opening your company file.

You'll normally get the alert when you restore a company file to a version that's higher than the one you previously use. For example, you're using QuickBooks 2017, and you opened the file in 2018 or 2019 editions.

Make sure to check the correct version before restoring it. Since you downloaded 2016 on your laptop, the backup file should also have the same version to avoid the error. You can also check the version from the original location by opening the company file there and pressing F2 on your keyboard.

If you have a backup of your company file before it was updated, you can restore it using the steps below:

Click the File menu and select Open or Restore Company.
Choose Restore a backup copy then press Next.
Select Local Backup then click Next.
From the Look In drop-down, choose the backup file location.
Locate the backup file from the folder. The file name should appear as [Company Name].qbb.
Select Open then click Next.
From the Save in drop-down, choose the location to save the restored file.
Type a new file name in the File name field then click Save.

Here are some extension you need to know:

QBW - Working Files
QBB - Back Up Files
QBA - Accountants Copy Files
QBX - Accountants Transfer Files
QBY - Accountants Change Files

See this article to learn more about locating and identifying QuickBooks files: Company file is missing or cannot be found.

Message me back if you need further help. I'll be right here to assist you further. Have a nice day!

F

fcs659

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, but I can only follow this until #6 - SAVE.....I added some info to the saved name on the external hard drive I saved everything on yesterday at my office, clicked next, and then got a pop up box that says "The company file that you are trying to open was created with a newer version of Quickbooks. Please upgrade your copy of Quickbooks."

This is where I am stumped. My office computer is set for atuomatic updates, so I assume that is the newest version. I just finally figured out how to download the actual Quickbooks program into my laptop this morning, so shouldn't it be an even newer version?

When I was first tyring this, I did go to Help and had updates installed from what ever I downloaded to, I guess, the current version of the program. There was a number of updates that were installed today.

Totally confused!!

Thanks!

K

Kathryn130962

I am using Quickbooks Pro 2012. I had a problem where I had to upgrade my computer to Windows 10. I had to install Quickbooks 2020 trial version just to help me through, I have now uninstalled it and still cannot open my Quickbooks 2012

Fiat Lux - ASIA

Level 14

@Kathryn130962

Do you want to reinstall your QBD 2012 on a new machine running on Win 10 or upgrade to QBD 2020?

K

Kathryn130962

I have reinstalled Quickbooks 2012 but cannot open my company file

P

phyllis111

The version I am opening is 2020. But it says 2017, and it will not open.

JessT

Moderator

Hi phyllis111,

This message occurs when you're opening/converting a company file from a lower version of QuickBooks to a higher version. If this is what you want to do, you can do an interim conversion.

First, you'll want to convert the file to a QuickBooks version 2018 or 2019. Then, back it up, and restore the backup in QuickBooks 2020. If you can't find someone with version 2018 or 2019, you can contact our Support team to covert the file. They'll be able to help you using their tools.

If you're not doing a conversion, you can update QuickBooks to fix any damaged components that are causing this behavior.

Go to the Help menu and select Update QuickBooks Desktop.
Go to the Update Now tab. Tip: You can select the Reset Update checkbox to clear all previous update downloads.
Select Get Updates to start the download.
When the download finishes, restart QuickBooks.
When prompted, accept the option to install the new release.

Let me know if you have other questions.

C

capnomo

I am getting this error since my file was updated with QB2020 and I need to open it with QB2018, creating a portable file gives me the same error. Help please!