more than one computer

ilene's Avatar

ilene

Aug 16, 2016 @ 12:43 AM

Can I install Money Dance on more two computers and transfer any data between them? I have two houses and would need to transfer data between the two computers.

  1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Ethan on Aug 16, 2016 @ 01:11 AM

    Ethan's Avatar

    For non-business use, our licensing policy allows you to install the version of Moneydance you have purchased on as many computers as you need in your household, regardless of operating system.

    Please note that this licensing policy only applies to purchases of Moneydance made directly from our website. Other third-party sites, such as the Mac App Store or Amazon.com, typically have much more restrictive licensing policies than ours, and you will be bound by the one from whatever site you purchase Moneydance.

    To share your data between your two desktop systems, you will need to share your main data file between your computers via either a shared local network drive or through an online syncing service. The instructions I'm going to give are for doing this via Dropbox, but you could use any equivalent service.

    First, you will want to locate your main data file on the desktop version of Moneydance that is most up to date. Assuming that you haven't specified a custom location, your data file will be saved at a location described at http://help.infinitekind.com/kb/moneydance-2015/where-is-my-data-st..., and will be called something like yourfilename.moneydance. You will want to move this file to your Dropbox folder by following the instructions at http://help.infinitekind.com/kb/moneydance-2014/how-to-move-your-da...

    Once your data file has been moved, reopen Moneydance, use the Open Other option from either the welcome screen or from the menu bar at File -> Open -> Open Other, and select the data file in its new location. If you can now see your data, this computer should now be set up. Make sure that the Dropbox program is running and you are connected to the internet.

    Moving on to the other computer, assuming that you have Dropbox set up and installed on this computer and either are using the same Dropbox account or have shared the data file with whatever account you are using, you should now be able to see your data file in the Dropbox folder on this computer. Follow the same instructions using the Open Other option in Moneydance to point the program to this file. Your data should now be available on this computer.

    Moneydance will remember the locations of your data file once you tell it using this 'open other' option, so all of this setup should be a one time event. In the future, you should just have to launch the program, and Moneydance will open the last known location of your data file. If you are using multiple data files, you can quickly switch between them by using the File -> Open menu.

    It is also important to only have Moneydance open on one of your computers at a time. Otherwise, you will run the risk of one of your computers overwriting the data that the other one is trying to make at the same time. You should get in the habit of completely closing the program when you are not actively using it.

    Finally, Dropbox uses SSL connections and AES-256 bit encryption to store your data, which provides a high level of security. If you are using a different service, you should check whether they have similar levels of security for your financial data. Starting with Moneydance 2015, Moneydance data files are also encrypted by default. You can also make your data file more secure by going to File -> Password from the Moneydance menu bar to set a password for your current data file. This will mean that you (or anyone trying to access your data file) will have to enter a password to open it no matter where the data file is stored. Note that we haven't built any 'backdoors' into our encryption, so if you forget your password, we have no way to help you retrieve your data.

    Please let me know if I can be of further assistance,

    Ethan
    Moneydance Support

  2. Ethan closed this discussion on Aug 16, 2016 @ 01:11 AM.

Comments are currently closed for this discussion. You can start a new one.

Keyboard shortcuts

Generic

? Show this help
ESC Blurs the current field

Comment Form

r Focus the comment reply box
^ + ↩ Submit the comment

You can use Command ⌘ instead of Control ^ on Mac