Yeah, I doubt SSD would have anything to do with periodic crashes. I was only conjecturing about the save to PDF crashes.

Yes "Mike the Engineer", good point.  About the SSD drive, there was a lot of discussion about this in the Intuit support questions forum, but, believe it or not, they have deleted MANY of these questions and discussions.  Customer service even got to the point of asking me to change my system memory settings (to which I laughed, yeah right, change my system memory to use TurboTax).   Here is one discussion they left, but it never went into the back and forth details like the ones deleted:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/4566617-my-turbotax-premier-is-crashing-frequently-while-attemptin...

I was hopeful and signed up for notifications of progress/updates that they suggested at the end but I have heard NOTHING. 

Anyway, SSD drives were discussed and that is why when you explained your experience it made sense to me, also knowing my situation and that was the ONLY thing I could not try.  I did try what you suggested though.  I attached a WD My Passport drive via USB.  I put my TT tax files on there.  I started TT and opened the tax file from there.  It still crashed.  It crashes at random times, not just saves.  I imagine the program is using something like you said on the SSD drive because that is where the program is installed and running.

Thanks so much for the input and suggestion and I would love any other ideas....but I need a backup anyway 🙂

For those that have put up with the crashes and completed your returns, have you been able to eFile the returns okay? 

I read this and I am hesitant to try to file:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/4620309-turbotax-deluxe-crashed-after-charging-my-credit-card-for-...

It crashes with either SSD or HDD

when switching from "easy steps" to "form", it crashes about every time.   Same when trying to save as pdf.

For what it's worth...

After random crashes in random places since beginning my return, I was entering Federal estimated taxes for 2018. Every time I clicked "Continue", TurboTax crashed. At least 15 tries.

Finally, after restarting TurboTax for the umpteenth time, I went to Online -> Check for Updates, knowing full well there were no available updates. After the check, I could finally click on "Continue" and get past this screen.

I can't say that this technique will help, but it does have a 100% success rate for me! (1 out of 1) Small sample size, but at least I was able to move forward.

Terry

Using TT Prem on my 2 older laptop without SSD drive and still crashes when trying to save.

Me too.  Using Home & Business 2018 that crashed 3 times tonight, losing the entries I had put in...

Everything else on my desk top kept working ok.

I've got a big return:  rental properties with many entries and supporting statements. Lot's of time involved here.

This is OBVIOUSLY UNACCEPTABLE -- WTF !!!!!

Intuit is obviously not interested in fixing their desktop product and steer you towards their online solution.

But guess what!   Try to file at the last minute, and their servers may not scale.   And furthermore, they just announced a massive breach , where some of your personal information including social security, and tax info may have been compromised.  That's why I will never consider their online alternative.

I follow the advises on this rom and was able to finish filling out my tax return, you will need to constantly hit the update button for it to save your return. But now I have trouble transmit my return for e-file, it is crashes a minute after I hit the transmit button, I also found out today that if I try to save a copy in PDF it also crashes, my return is some what large, it is about 65mb, my last year return which I had no problem with is about 30mb.

Here's my story. Spent hours and hours working on my taxes on Home and Business version of TT.  It crashed over and over.  I had to re-do the taxes several times.  Finally after saving the document in 10 locations and countless hours of doing my taxes.  I got to the end.  And the return would not e-file or print.  Spoke to support for hours.  Literally hours and they could not fix the issue.  

I got a refund. Downloaded HR Block software and while watching my 2 children under 2 i was able to complete my taxes in a few hours.  

If you are having issues with the program crashing, files being corrupt.  Stop. Get a refund. And go to HR block.

2+ weeks after I opened a ticket with Intuit about the crash,  they asked me for the system logs.  Just be a little bit more patient, request a tax extension, I think it will be fixed by October....

Me too, weeks after I reported the problem I received a request for my error logs.  Let's hope....