Guide
How to open a .mny file
Microsoft stopped selling Money in June 2009. The files did not go anywhere. Here is the free official way to open one, the point where that route runs out, and what to do when you need the numbers out rather than just on screen.
What a .mny file actually is
A .mny file is the database Microsoft Money kept everything in — accounts,
every transaction, payees, categories, investments. It is not a document you can rename
and read. Underneath it is a Microsoft Jet database in the MSISAM variant, and it is
encrypted: the header is masked and each page is scrambled. That is why
double-clicking it does nothing, why Access will not open it, and why a text editor shows
you rubbish.
It is worth being clear about that up front, because most advice you will find online assumes .mny is an ordinary Access file. It is not, and the usual tricks do not work on it.
The free route first: Microsoft's own Sunset edition
When Microsoft retired Money, it did something unusually decent. In 2010 it released Money Plus Sunset — a full version of the program, free to download, with no activation required. It exists precisely so people could keep opening their own files after the online services were switched off in January 2011.
If all you want is to look at your records, start here. It opens .mny files from Money Plus and the older versions before it, and you can browse accounts, read the ledger and run reports exactly as you used to.
It is still available from the Internet Archive and from several long-running freeware mirrors. We are not going to send you to a download we do not control — search for "Microsoft Money Plus Sunset Deluxe" and take it from a source you are comfortable with.
Where the free route runs out
Sunset is a genuine solution to one problem: seeing your data again. It is not a solution to the other problem: getting your data somewhere it will still be readable in ten years. Four things stop it.
- It is Windows software. If you have moved to a Mac, or the household PC has gone, you need a Windows machine before you can even begin.
- It exports badly, or not at all. Money's export options were limited when it was current and they have not improved. Getting a clean, complete transaction history out of it into something modern is the part people get stuck on.
- It is a dead end by design. Online banking, statement downloads, share prices and tax integration all stopped in 2011. You are keeping an old program alive on an old operating system to read one file.
- It does not help a damaged file. If Money will not open it, Sunset will not either — it is the same code.
So the honest summary is this: if you want to look, Sunset is free and you should use it. If you want the data out, it is the wrong tool.
Getting the data out instead
The other approach is to read the .mny file directly and write the contents into formats today's software understands — no Money, no Windows, no keeping a 2008 program alive.
That is what Microsoft Money Rescue does. It performs the MSISAM header de-masking and per-page decryption on your own machine, then writes out:
- QIF and OFX — so the history walks straight into Quicken, GnuCash, HomeBank, Moneydance and most desktop finance software.
- CSV — for Excel, Numbers, or anything else you like.
- A written recovery report — what came out, and honest notes on anything that did not.
It reads Money 2001 through to Money Plus 2008, and covers accounts, the full transaction ledger, securities, the category tree and the payee directory. Password-protected files from Money 2002–2008 open with the password you supply — your file, your password. It does not guess passwords and it does not break them.
It works on a copy and never writes to your original. That matters when the file is the only surviving record of a decade of accounts.
Which route should you pick?
| What you need | Best route |
|---|---|
| Just to look something up, and you have a Windows PC | Money Plus Sunset — free |
| To keep using Money as your day-to-day finances | Money Plus Sunset, accepting no online services |
| To move your history into Quicken, GnuCash or Excel | Microsoft Money Rescue |
| You are on a Mac and have no Windows machine | Microsoft Money Rescue |
| You need the records kept somewhere readable long-term | Microsoft Money Rescue |
See what is in your file before you pay anything
You can run Microsoft Money Rescue against your own .mny file and see exactly what it finds — the accounts, how many transactions, the date range — before deciding whether it is worth £39 to you.