File overwritten Again

Stikman · ‎March 11, 2026

I always file desktop. I py for Deluxe which included five returns. I file one or my wife and another for our Niece. TWICE now in three years the second file has overwritten the first file! I believe overwrite is the default. WHY. It is far too easy to overwrite the file than it is impossible to recover it. First off I want ti so I will not need to start from scratch next year. This year, I need to file an amended return. When I pull up my own return it is gone - Replaced apparently by My niece's return. After the first time I asked that the default is NOT to overwrite. To Overwrite should only be after a BIG RED pop-up warning that you are about to overwrite another return. had I known that this fault still existed I would have saved my return on a Thumb drive. Please don't let others have to learn the hard way.

SteamTrain

For Desktop users:

The best way to avoid it is to always use "Save-As" the very first time the second file is saved....and make absolutely sure the new file has a unique filename at that time.

_____________

For most folks this happens if the second person's had the same first name as the first one which was prepared.

But....can also happen if they didn't actually start a brand NEW file for the second person.

____________*Answers are correct to the best of my knowledge when posted, but should not be considered to be legal or official tax advice.*

Stikman

Thanks for the quick response. The first time it happed the new return had a name that stated with the same first letter. That was two or three years ago. Had no problem again until this year. I do not recall any prompt. I can possibly recover the file from my backup program as I need to file an amended return. My point now is that programmers should be made aware so that they can look at this process in the future. I was a Systems Analysts once and worked with programmers. They could improve this faster than I can recover my overwritten file! Just needs a pop-up warning.