2023 tax file missing after extended search through hard drive

[gardenpidot]

I know there are several posts about this problem, encountered by me when I installed the 2024 TurboTax premier program and it could not locate my 2023 tax file that was created on last year's program. And yes, when I open last year's 2023 TT software (which is still on my computer), my tax files from last year are entirely missing and I can't amend that return or even look at it through the TT software, though it was filed by TurboTax through that program last spring. 

I then looked for the tax file (searching through my entire hard drive for .tax2023 and *.tax2023), and nothing was found. (I kept a pdf of course of my 2023 tax return for my records, but the TurboTax file is just gone.) There are many carry forwards and other data from last year's return that I need to have the 2024 program load from last year's filing, so this is important to me. I've been using TT software for several decades and this has never happened before. 

Needless to say, this is confounding and annoying, and TurboTax owes me and everyone affected an explanation as well as a serious effort to address the problem. I sense from what has been written that some update in the TurboTax software may have deleted or hidden last year's tax file, but I can't possibly know why my last year's TurboTax file has disappeared.

Thanks for any solutions to this problem that work. While I've viewed a lot of activity on this site about this issue and have tried a number of the leads described, I don't see anything that resolves it. I fear my TT tax files for 2023 are just irretrievably gone. 

[VolvoGirl]

You didn’t save a backup?  Do you use one drive?   Some other ideas.  If you have multiple Windows user accounts, log into each one and do the search for the *.tax2023 data file from within each one and checking the Recycle Bin in each one.

Don't know if this will help any Turbo Tax users but one Quicken user found them......

What I found was that my Quicken Data files ended up in the One-drive Recycle bin. Not sure how, but I found them there.  I placed the files back onto the laptop and brought the files into Quicken and now have all my data back.

[VolvoGirl]

I’m searching my notes and the forum for you.  One user doing 2020  found……

I installed my Turbotax 2020 DVD Windows 10 ver and did 3 returns.  The next morning after exiting and restarting the program I could not find my files.  What a sinking feeling!  I searched using file explorer with no luck although "Recent" short cuts  were there.  They were not in Recycle Bin either.

When you install the program I recall it asks for Admin rights.  So I logged off my account that I WAS in when I installed the program and logged in as administrator.  I started TurboTax under the Admin account and my files were there.  In the C:\Users\Admin\Documents folder.  I NEVER USE THIS ACCOUNT!

I exited the program and account and went back in using my normal user ID.  I then restarted the program by Right-Clicking the icon and selecting Run as Administrator.    The files were there...made my day.  I opened them and did a "Save As" to the file folder that has all my past returns and matches the User ID I was in when I set it up. 

In short TurboTax is saving them in the default C:Drive Admin account document folder and if you are not starting as an Administrator they are invisible.  Hope this helps. 

[gardenpidot]

Thanks for your reply. As my post says, of course I have a pdf file of my 2023 tax filing, but this is of no use in getting TurboTax to load my last year's TT tax file (now missing from my hard drive) into this year's program, which I need it to do to populate all the carryovers and other stuff from last year.

There is no other user of my computer, and I don't use any other Intuit software.

Yes, I have One Drive that backs files up, and I can look there, but I believe it only backs up document (ie, Word, PDF, etc) and picture files, not TurboTax program files. And, if TurboTax has deleted my last year's tax program file (which I gather from other posts here it has done with a number of folks), it would also likely be automatically deleted in One Drive, even if OD kept a copy originally. However, I will look at One Drive, without much hope. If it is successful in retrieving the missing TT tax file from last year, I'll certainly announce it here. 

Thanks again for your reply. 

[VolvoGirl]

I didn’t follow you.  Installing Turbo Tax would not uninstall last year’s program.   The program would not be on the OneDrive just the data file.   The data file ending in .tax2023 is not kept in the program.  It is a separate file.   

If you don't have the main .tax file you might have one that starts with a Tilde sign ~ like  "~your name.tax2023".  That file is if your computer crashes or your real file gets lost or deleted or corrupt so you can restore it.

[gardenpidot]

I also ran the TurboTax program for both 2024 and 2023 as "administrator", with the same result, that is no 2023 tax file found, even though my taxes were prepared on the 2023 program and submitted to the IRS and State by the program. 

As indicated previously, I did keep a pdf of last year's filing, but that doesn't work to transfer all the data (carryforwards, etc) to this year's return. In decades of using TurboTax, this has never happened before. 

[gardenpidot]

Just to get this clear, of course I know there is a difference between the TT software program and the file it created for my 2023 taxes, the latter of which has disappeared. I have both the 2023 and 2024 Turbotax programs installed, as well as those for many prior years. There is no reason why the program installations or their updates should have disturbed my 2023 tax file created by Turbotax, but it has disappeared, and judging from other posts here I am not alone with this problem. I will look in the One Drive backup next and see if there's anything there, and report the results. I'll also search for the file using the different extensions you mention. 

[gardenpidot]

I searched in One Drive, with no results. I searched using the different extension options you suggested, again no results. At this point, unless someone has another suggestion, I expect my TurboTax 2023 tax file cannot be retrieved and something caused it to be eliminated from my computer and One Drive backup. I will reluctantly have to reconstruct the carryforward data that that file downloaded to the new 2024 tax software. I expect that this and other problems encountered over the years with TurboTax will result in my no longer buying their tax software in the future, which I have used for decades.

If you or anyone has another idea, of course I welcome it.   I do thank you for your trying to help.