When updating Quicken, what if I get the message, "An error occurred. The update failed to install."

Several different situations may cause this error:

Quicken may be installed on the root of a drive (e.g. C:\).
Your Windows Temp folder may be too large
A running application may be conflicting with the update process.
The Quicken installation may be damaged.

The procedures below show you how to troubleshoot and resolve these issues.

Check the Quicken installation location

If Quicken is installed to the root of a drive, the patching engine error may occur. The following procedure shows you how to determine where Quicken is installed.

Right-click the icon you use to start Quicken and select Properties.
In the Target field, verify that Quicken is installed to a folder.
- For example, C:\Program Files\Quicken\qw.exe is in a folder, no changes are needed. Continue to the next section.
- If the target is C:\ or other drive letter without a folder, reinstall Quicken to a folder on your hard drive. Information about reinstalling Quicken is available on our support site.
Open Quicken and apply the patch.

Empty the Windows Temp folder

The Quicken patch uses the Windows Temp folder during installation. If your Temp folder is large, the patch may not be able to locate the files needed to complete the patch process.

Exit Quicken.
On the Windows task bar, choose
and then choose File Explorer.
In the left panel, Right-click your Windows (C:) drive and select Properties.
Click Disk Cleanup.
Select Temporary Files.
Clear all other items on the list.
Click OK, and then click Yes to the confirmation prompt.
When Disk Cleanup completes, click OK.
Open Quicken and apply the patch when prompted.
- If the issue persists, continue to the next section.

Download and apply the manual patch

If you're updating from within the Quicken program and are receiving errors when installing the patch you should download the patch file and install it with Quicken closed.

Visit the Quicken updates page and select your version of Quicken.
Click the manual update link.
Download the latest patch file and save it to your Desktop.
Double-click the patch file to apply the patch.
- If the issue persists, continue to the next section.

A running application may be conflicting with the update process

Another program running on the computer may be conflicting with the Quicken patch. The following information shows you how to correct this by applying the patch in safe mode.

If you haven't already done so, download the manual patch as described in the section above.
Reboot your computer in Safe Mode.
Double-click the patch file to apply the patch.
- If the issue persists, continue to the next section.

The Quicken installation may be damaged

If the Quicken installation is damaged, you're likely to receive errors when trying to apply the patch. Uninstalling and reinstalling Quicken in Safe Mode will ensure a clean install.