Before the first check: copy the file. Put a copy somewhere separate and do everything from here on to the copy. If this is the only record of years of accounts, a well-meant fix on the original is the one mistake you cannot undo.

Check 1 — is it the program rather than your data?

Microsoft Money keeps two quite different things on a computer: the program, and your data. The program is a file such as MS Money.exe. Your accounts, transactions and categories live in a separate data file whose name ends in .mny.

When people move to a new computer, it is easy to copy the program and leave the data behind. Nothing can read your accounts out of the .exe, because they were never in it. Go back to the old drive and search it for *.mny; that is the file you want.

Check 2 — is it a backup (.mbf)?

Money wrote its backups as separate files ending in .mbf. A backup is not the same file as the .mny it was made from.

The free route: restore it in Money itself. Microsoft’s free Money Plus Sunset edition still opens .mny on Windows if you have a copy, and Money’s own File › Restore Backup turns a .mbf back into a .mny. Copy the backup somewhere simple, such as your Documents folder, before you point Money at it. Once you have a .mny, you can open it, or come back to this page with that file.

Restore it in Money first, then work from the .mny it gives you.

Check 3 — is it already an export?

If the file ends in .qif, .ofx, .qfx or .csv, it is not a Money database. It is better news than that: it is already in an open format, and you do not need a recovery tool at all.

  • .csv opens in Excel, Numbers or any spreadsheet.
  • .qif imports into Quicken, GnuCash, HomeBank and Moneydance.
  • .ofx and .qfx are bank-download formats that most finance programs import.

Our guide to moving Money data into Quicken or GnuCash covers what to check after the import.

Check 4 — is it another program’s file?

Some households used Quicken as well as Money, and an old drive can hold both. A Quicken data file (commonly .qdf) is not a Money file and will not read as one. If that is what you have, Quicken is the program that opens it.

Check 5 — did the copy finish?

Look at the file size and ask whether it is plausible. Years of household accounts showing as zero bytes, or a handful of kilobytes, did not survive the journey. Possible causes: a copy from a failing drive where an error was clicked past, a cloud-sync folder where the file was still only a placeholder, or a transfer that stopped early. Fetch it again from the source and compare sizes.

Check 6 — does it look like a Money file inside?

You can check this yourself in a minute, for free. Open the copy in a plain text viewer (Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on a Mac). Almost everything will be unreadable, and that is normal, because a .mny file is a proprietary, encrypted Jet/MSISAM database. But in the Money files we have examined, the words MSISAM Database appear right at the very start.

  • Those words are there — it is a Money database, and the problem is something else: damage, a password, or the version. Go to when a .mny file will not open.
  • Those words are not there — it is very likely not a Money database, whatever its name says. Go back to Checks 1 to 5.

Close the viewer without saving.

If it really is your .mny and it is still refused

If it really is your .mny and the app still stops, email support@highcaliberapplications.com and tell us which version of Money wrote it. We would rather know about a version we have not seen than have you guess.

Honest scope. Recovers Money 2001 through Money Plus 2008 files. Money 2000 — not supported. If Microsoft Money Rescue can’t open a file — or it’s damaged beyond reading — it says so plainly and stops. It will never guess at your finances, and your original is untouched either way.

This version cannot open a file that genuinely requires its password: such a file is reported and left unopened. Honest scope: investment positions/trades aren’t recovered, so investment accounts export as cash ledgers in QIF; and Money’s currency table isn’t decoded, so you can supply a currency code for OFX if your file isn’t in USD.

Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit) · macOS 10.15 or later on Intel and Apple silicon · code-signed, and notarised by Apple on the Mac

The order to work in

  1. Copy the file. Work on the copy.
  2. Make sure it is the .mny data file, not the Money program.
  3. If it is a .mbf backup, restore it in Money (Sunset is free) to get a .mny.
  4. If it is already .qif, .ofx or .csv, import it directly — you are done.
  5. Check the size is plausible; fetch it again if not.
  6. Look for MSISAM Database at the start of the file.
  7. Only then treat it as a damaged or unusual Money file.