Subject: TurboTax Update Wiped Out My Entire File – Extremely Frustrating Experience
On the evening of April 16, 2025, at 9:33 PM, I completed the business portion of my tax return for both my wife and myself—over 10 hours of work.
The next morning, April 17, 2025, at 7:23 AM, I opened TurboTax, and a software update prompt appeared. I allowed the update to complete and then reopened the program. My tax file appeared in the usual location (upper left corner), with the same name, so I opened it—only to find it completely blank. None of the information I had entered was there. Everything was gone.
How can an update completely wipe out a file? But that’s exactly what happened.
I have over 10 years of experience using both Quicken and TurboTax. After spending 1 hour and 43 minutes on the phone with Intuit Customer Service, I was told there’s nothing that can be done—I would have to start over from scratch. Out of frustration, I searched online and discovered that this issue has been affecting many users since at least March 2025. Yet Intuit still hasn’t fixed the problem or even provided a simple warning like:
“Before updating, please back up your file to a USB drive or external source.”
Quicken prompts users to create a backup before updates or major changes, and displays all available backup files if something goes wrong. TurboTax, however, offers no such safeguard.
Thankfully, Florida extended the tax filing deadline to May 1st, which gives me some breathing room. But this experience is unacceptable. TurboTax has let down its users with poor software management and a complete lack of communication.
Very disappointed. Do better, TurboTax.
