Quickbooks cannot open company file on shared mac folder

I use quickbooks all the time, you have to set it up correctly

quickbooks(windows version) requires a multiuser control on the same virtual machine or computer as the data files. (It is a windows program) so the data file has to be located on the windows machine and the windows machine has to be running (not in standby or vm turned off) in order for other quickbooks users to access the data files--quickbooks itself does not have to be running
I backup to my time machine so I have windows do a scheduled task of copying the datafiles to a mac copy once an hour and let the time machine back the files up with no further work on my part
the data files are on a laptop with a solid state drive that can be left on all the time
getting the windows program to utilize the mac copy of the data files is impossible
this works with xp and 7 with a 3 user quickbooks system on a peer to peer network
been using it for years
Jeff
 
I found another work-around that has worked for my team.

You can install Dropbox (you can get 2 GB free at www.dropbox.com) on both the Mac side of the computer, and also on the Windows/Virtual Machine side. Move the Quickbooks file to Dropbox, and then open the Quickbooks file from the Windows side (from within Dropbox...it should appear near your clock, and works just like a normal folder on your computer).

Just remember to always use the Dropbox version of the file. The Dropbox version is always the most-up-to-date, and (according to the Dropbox website), very secure. (And, since Dropbox is online, you now have a back-up copy of your QB file.)

Note: when installing Dropbox on the Virtual Machine, it will default the storage space to the same location as the Mac storage. You will need to change the default location of the Virtual Machine to somewhere like C:/Windows/Users/Public (or somewhere that won't cross with the Mac version of the Dropbox program.) This way Dropbox believes it is truly on two separate machines, and will allow you to share the file.

And, as a plug to Dropbox (I've been in love with this software since I first learned about them), you can access the Quickbooks file anywhere from the web by logging in to your Dropbox account. (Your accountant, attorney, CPA, whoever also needs shared access to the file) can be added as a "shared user" to the specific folder on your Dropbox account.

Good luck!
 
Parallels 6 solves QuickBooks file access

Just wanted to report that the new Parallels 6 solves the QuickBooks data file access problem. Hurray! With PD 5, I had to keep my QuickBooks data file on the local virtual "C:" disk, and then made backups to the shared disk/folder from both QuickBooks 2010 and 2011.

With both QB 2010 and 2011, data file access to the shared folder works just fine. (And, performance is faster in general, too.)

Just thought I'd post to this thread in case anyone does a search...
 
The notion that it is impossible to access a QuickBooks company file in a Parallels Shared Folder under XP is not true. It may be not true the way some people have it set up, but it is not generally or necessarily true.

I have used QuickBooks beginning with QB 2004 Pro thru QB 2010 Pro with various versions of Parallels (currently P6) and have traditionally worked on the company file in a ~/[myusername]/Documents/[machinename] Shared folder so I could back it up with Time Machine.

The only time I had problems was when I recently set up a multiuser machine with the company file in a /Users/Shared/[machinename] folder. In this case, there was a Mac permissions issue that came into play because two different Mac users were running Parallels. However, a sudo Unix command in terminal cleared all that up instantly. Don't know about Windows 7, although P6 really does a much better job of handling shared folders.

Also, watch out using Dropbox to sync files between a local VM and your host Mac. You can get date conflicted copies if you aren't careful, and that is a pretty workaround when you think about it.
 
DrKarl said:
Just wanted to report that the new Parallels 6 solves the QuickBooks data file access problem. Hurray! With PD 5, I had to keep my QuickBooks data file on the local virtual "C:" disk, and then made backups to the shared disk/folder from both QuickBooks 2010 and 2011.

With both QB 2010 and 2011, data file access to the shared folder works just fine. (And, performance is faster in general, too.)

Just thought I'd post to this thread in case anyone does a search...
Click to expand...

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Hey everyone. I went into my mac directory where my QB file was and deleted all items ending in my_QB_filename.ND. I found 2 items. After I deleted these items ending in ND I successfully opened up my QB file. I hope this helps someone.
 
more fixes

still trying to fix. this seems to be working.

get ip address on your mac.
system preferences =>network=> click advanced tab on airport network section. =>click tcp/ip section and write down ip address. mine was 192.168.1.52.

go to your windows 7 in parallels. go to my computer>windows>system32>drivers>etc> you will find a hosts file.
drag this to your desktop. open this in notepad. add the following to bottom part of page.

your ip .psf
your ip psf


for example.
192.168.1.52 .psf
192.168.1.52 psf


that is all.
 
Can't See my Windows 7 machine on XP Machine

I just migrated to Quickbooks 11 moving my files to a Parallels install running Windows 7. I'm hoping to also open the files on my MacBook Pro which has Quickbooks 11, Parallels and Windows XP.

I've adjusted the hosts file, confirmed that the network names are the same, turned file sharing on and run the QuickBooks Connection Diagnostic Tool. However after spending hours trying to get the Windows 7 machine to show as a network place I'm no further along.

The quickbooks files are in the windows partition on the machine as discussed on this board trying to open them via the mac partition (with fire sharing turned on for directory that the files are in) results in the 6144 82 error
 
follow up

1.which file sharing did you turn on? you should only turn on in parallels the path to the folder you will use for your qb file. ie: macpath/accounting
2. I did not need to use the quickbooks diagnostic tool because I did not use qb server.
3. what did you add to the host file?
4. did it work?
 
i shared the folder and its contents via windows and could not connect from the other computer. Putting xp on both machines tomorrow. keyboard shortcuts dont work in Windows 7 either.
 
it looks like you are trying to do something different than what I did. I was running a macbook and had mac parallels load windows 7. No separate partition. .no reboot. mac parallels was running in my mac OS like any other program.

Then I configured the mac parallels program to share the mac folder with the mac parrallels virtual OS (windows 7). This means that when I load parallels windows 7 and I go to my computer it will show my shared Mac folder as a drive letter. for me it was drive Z.

Once I had this working I would load quickbooks on windows 7 (inside parallels). I would then open my file which was located on my mac folder but can be seen in parallels virtual.

At all times I was running Mac OSX. I hope this helps.
 
This discussion was very helpful to me - thank you!

I have been opening my Quickbooks Company File with Windows XP using a Parallels mapped drive for years with no problems. About two weeks ago this stopped working and I am not sure why. I am running Parallels 6, Win XP and QB Pro 2010. I do not know what changed, maybe an automatic update, but suddenly I started to get the error -6176 that everyone else is reporting. I am using Parallels Shared Networking. I downloaded the QB Network Diagnostic tool and it reported that .psf was unknown in the hosts file. I added an entry as kingflow suggested and that fixed my problem.

Since it is the localhost, I don't think you need to know the actual IP address, just add:

127.0.0.1 .psf

to the Windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts file.

Once I added this, QB opened the file with no problems.

I don't think you need Parallels 6 for this to work.

Good luck.
 
Actually, in Windows 7 I'm happy to report the problem has been resolved. Just make sure the path to your QB file looks like this \\psf\... and not \\.psf\.... (no leading dot at psf)
 
Quickbooks Multi Parallels 5, 6 on SAN

I have a client with Parallels 5 running XP on an iMac, Parallels 6 running XP on a macbook pro and a Dell desktop running XP. Want to share the company file on a Synology SAN hooked to the network. I tried the host file trick and not sure that is working. The Parallels 6 and Dell can connect to the File on the SAN but the iMac with Parallels 5 can't. Based on one of the posts I'm thinking that an upgrade to Parallels 6 for the iMac may fix the issue. Or maybe I should go to Parallels 7. Any thoughts on this setup? Spent several hours last night and ended up back to the single user QB setup on the Local drive. Not what the client wants. Help.
 
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