Quickbooks Portable Company File not Responding

QuickBooks portable company file not responding error can occur because the user-created the .qbm file with a damaged company file or the portable file itself was damaged because of malicious software or incomplete creation process. Users may have to create a new copy of their company file, and then create a portable file from that new copy to fix this error.

Causes for QuickBooks Portable Company File not Responding

Here are the primary main causes of QuickBooks portable company file not responding error:

• Damage to Company File
• Incorrect company file location in QuickBooks
• Restricted user access
• Damage to QuickBooks program files

2-Step Process to Fix QuickBooks Portable Company File not Responding

When you create a portable file using the built-in utility in QuickBooks, and you receive an error, then the first step is to ensure that the company file isn’t damaged and that its location is set correctly.

So let’s get straight into this.

Step 1. Set a new location for the company file

In this step, we’ll create a new copy of the company file and store it in a different location on the same system. Using this new company file, we’ll create a new portable file in order to resolve this error: QuickBooks portable company file not responding.

Here are the steps to manually create a copy of the company file:

• Go to the Start menu.
• Click on File Explorer.
• Either search for or go to the location of the original company file.
• Right-click on the company file, which has an extension of .qbw
• Click on Copy, then go to Desktop.
• Right-click in any empty space and click on Paste. Wait for the new copy to be created.

Note: if you use the cut option, then the original file will be moved to the new location, something that we don’t want to do here. So go with the copy option.

• Launch QuickBooks without opening a company file.
• Go to Opening or Restore an existing file option.
• Choose Open a company file.
• Click on Browse and choose the copy of the company file from the desktop.
• When the copy launches in QuickBooks, click on File, then Create Copy.
• Choose Portable Company File.
• Click on Next, then follow on-screen instructions to create a portable file.

If these steps fix the QuickBooks portable file error, then it means that the location of your original company file is restricting the creation of a portable file. You should simply rename the old company file and append ‘old’ to it, and use the new company file to work.

If, however, you’re still getting the same error, then proceed with step 2.

Instead of creating, if you were trying to restore a portable company file, then follow these steps instead to fix QuickBooks portable company file error:

• Right-click on the Portable company file that isn’t responding.
• Choose Copy.
• Right-click in the empty space in the Windows desktop folder.
• Click on Paste.
• Launch QuickBooks desktop without opening a company file.
• Click on Open or restore a company file.
• Choose to Restore a portable version.
• Browse and select the copy of the portable company file.

If the file is successfully imported into QuickBooks, then the location of the original portable file was interfering with the import process. So you can use this version of the portable file instead of the original one.

Step 2. Create a Sample Company File

A sample company file lets you check if the QuickBooks portable company file not responding error is caused because of damage to the data file.

To create a sample company file to check for QuickBooks portable file error, follow the steps provided below:

• Launch QuickBooks as an administrator.
• Don’t open any company file; instead, click on Open a sample file.
• Choose one of the sample files present on the QuickBooks desktop.
• Follow the aforementioned steps to create a portable file, then save it to the desktop folder in windows.
• Go back to QuickBooks.
• Click on File, then Close.
• Select Company/Logoff.
• Test if the portable company file works.

To test if QuickBooks portable company file created using the sample works, follow these steps:

• Log into an admin account in QuickBooks.
• From the File menu, choose Open or Restore Company.
• Click on Restore a portable file.
• Click on Next, then choose the portable company file created using the sample file.
• Click on Open.

Note: always use a unique name for your portable company file; otherwise, it may overwrite the data in the original company file. If you want to go with the same name, then save the portable version to a different folder.

• Follow the instructions on Where you want to restore the file information page.
• Click on Next, open the file, then choose Save.

If the portable file created with the sample company file works properly, then the QuickBooks portable company file not responding error is caused by damage to your company file.

Note: Damage to the company file can lead to permanent data loss. We recommend that you reach out to one of our accounting and software experts via chat or call.

Other causes & solutions.

While a few other causes exist, they are quite rare. Users sometimes log in with a standard account that doesn’t have permission to create a portable company file, so they ultimately get the QuickBooks portable company file error.

So first of all, log in to QuickBooks desktop with an admin account if you’re planning on creating a portable file.

Damage to program files is also rare and requires little effort to fix. You can go to the control panel > programs and features > uninstall a program > choose QuickBooks desktop > select Repair/uninstall > choose Repair.

Once you’ve repaired the program files with the inbuilt repair utility, you can check once again for QuickBooks portable company file error.

Conclusion

We’ve listed all the causes and solutions for QuickBooks portable files not responding to errors. You should go through each solution step by step so that you can easily troubleshoot and resolve this error.

Note: if you still can’t resolve QuickBooks portable company file error, get in touch with our software and accounting experts via chat or call.

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