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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.

First, be sure that your vehicle is eligible for the credit.  Here is a link to check if your vehicle is eligible in 2024.   Second, be sure of the VIN.  The VIN has to match the number on the car and the form submitted by the dealer.  If you don't have a copy of the form submitted by the dealer you can ask for one and make certain that the VIN on that form is correct and matches what you are entering on the tax return.  If everything is matching and the car is eligible then the error may be on the IRS end and you will have to print and mail the return.   TurboTax has a limited number of places where it will allow you to attach an explanation for something that you are filing.  If you are in one of those areas you'll be offered the option to include a statement.  Otherwise in order to include an extra statement or explanation you'll have to print out the return and mail it in.   @elliott-family 

Click here for instructions on how to Amend Your Return for 2024.  It will be pretty much the same process as you used to amend your 2023 return. For the 2024 amended return, you should be able to e-file, however some people do need to mail it. 

@CatinaT1 wrote: No, I'm a real human. Thanks for confirming that.   Customer service doesn't know anything about this problem and there's nothing unusual in our accounts that point out a cause. Customer service also doesn't have any way to get information back to the product teams from what they've told me. If you spend and hour on the phone talking to customer service about this problem, you'll talk to 2 or 3 people until someone will eventually issue a new license to get you working again, and then the activations will continue to be used on that license as before. I've gone through this for the last 2-3 years of Turbotax releases. My last year's version of Turbotax, which was issued a 2nd license last year, is now locked out again, but I can't be bothered to spend another frustrating hour on the phone for that.   The most detailed information about the problem appears to be in this thread, and no solutions have been presented that have solved the issue. This year, it occurred on 2 computers for us, as mentioned above. All software was installed with the same intuit user, all installations were only run with the same computer user, all installations were on the internal hard drive, there were no hardware or OS changes to the machines after installation, and there was no VPN, etc. in the loop. In our case, all computers were Macs, although others in this thread are having Windows issues.   My next move will probably be to find someone on LinkedIn who works on the Turbotax product/dev team and point them to this thread, since there seems to be no other way to bring this thread to anyone's attention. It's hard to believe that the Turbotax product team doesn't check out Intuit's own Turbotax support community for things like this, and I'm also not aware of any email address or tool for reporting bugs, which is also quite incredible.

When you are in the return that shows a refund, did you do the amended return first?  Meaning did you hit Amend My Return and then go into it? If you did NOT, then this would have likely been your original refund if everything would have been correctly entered the first time.  On the other return, if you hit the amend button the amount you owe would be the return of the refund you received erroneously and the amount you actually owe. 

No one can call you from the user forum.  If anyone calls you beware of scammers and would-be identity thieves who would love to contact you and pretend to represent TurboTax.   This is a public web site that can be seen by anyone—including scammers and would-be identity thieves who would love to contact you and pretend to be from TurboTax.  Please remove the personal information you posted here ASAP by returning to your post and clicking the three little blue dots on the upper right to edit your post.  

Please follow these follow these steps to enter a required minimum distribution from your TSP:     Click on "Search" on the top right and type “1099-R” Click on “Jump to 1099-R” and enter your 1099-R Enter the RMD amount for this account on the "Let's get more information about your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD)" screen Continue until "How much of this distribution applied to your December 31, 2024 RMD?" screen and select "The entire distribution was an RMD" /or select "Only part of this distribution was a RMD" and enter the amount of RMD  On the "Here's your 1099-R info" screen click "Continue" On the "Did You Miss a Required Distribution From Any Retirement Accounts?" screen select "None of these plans failed to withdraw the RMD" if you met all of your RMD for 2024, otherwise select what is applicable.   

Vanessa, I did purchase the downloadable version of TurboTax Deluxe and it saved me! After attempting to do my complex taxes with 4 other programs - 1 of which was another paid for/downloadable version of H&R Block, not only did TurboTax calculate everything for me so easily with regard to the ACA recalculation for marriage, it also walked me through forms 2555 and 1116 and I realized that my husband actually qualified for form 2555 which deducted ALL his foreign income from being taxed, instead of giving me a credit for the tax he already paid. The other programs treated form 2555 much differently and acted as if his 330 day physical presence had to begin on 1/1/2024. The best part is that I'm now getting a refund back and therefore won't be penalized for submitting my taxes late 😁   Thank you! 

It's possible you have been a victim of identity theft, if you haven't filed a return.   Unfortunately your only option will be to paper file your return.  I would also suggest you Complete IRS Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit and mail it along with your return.   More information can be found here: Identity Theft Guide

As long as you haven't submitted payment, deducted the TurboTax fee from your refund, or registered, you can erase your return and start from scratch in TurboTax Online. Sign in and select a topic to continue your return. On the next screen, from the left-side menu, select Tax Tools, and then Clear & Start Over (select the menu icon in the upper-left corner if you don't see this menu). Answer Yes in the pop-up to confirm.