Does installing turbotax 2023 delete previous turbotax returns?

[gpbbard-gmail-co]

All previous returns are gone after installation of 2023.

[SteamTrain]

@gpbbard-gmail-co 

20+ years using desktop software on Windows Computers...and it never has cleared them out of prior years.

Are you sure they are not on a cloud drive? 

I only work on them while they are on my main system disk, and make occasional copies to a USB flash drive as backups.

[gpbbard-gmail-co]

Nothing is on a cloud drive, everything is local to C.  Also, the install crashed on first attempt, had to hard boot the computer.  We have turbotax 2011 through 2022 installed on same machine and all returns are gone.

[fp46cool]

It does not - are you sure you installed it in the same directory where your prior year files are kept - you should search your hard drive for  .. ie Turbotax - or 2022 

[morrisgbp]

They (earlier versions of TurboTax) should still be present unless you removed them.  I have multiple TurboTax shortcuts on my desktop.  If I open any of ta previous year, that year of the software will open.

[gpbbard-gmail-co]

All previous versions of turbotax are still on the computer, i opened 2022 turbotax, it updated and there was no information from last years return.  The only option was "start new return" for 2022.

[edfitz1q]

I keep both the saved file which is created while doing the taxes and a PDF copy (option during printing or during preview of finished forms) in a folder labeled TurboTax 20XX. I have never lost a copy. The PDF file saves reloading and supplying the software license.

[gpbbard-gmail-co]

This is what i am saying, after the install of 2023... all the pdf saved files are gone as well as the turbotax saved files.  Everything has been deleted.  All versions 2011 through 2022.

[fp46cool]

Did you look i the recycle bin?

Also you can try a free file recovery - https://www.cleverfiles.com/howto/top-5-data-recovery-software-windows.html?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KC...

I have used #1,# 2 and #4 in the past for other issues.

[edfitz1q]

That is very bizarre. I read your reply and immediately went back to my files and every copy that I have of my TT collection is still in my documents file - PDF, saved file, backup or marker file with the cedilla type squiggle in front of it. Hopeful suggestion: if you did your 2023 Turbo Tax and transferred your information from the 2022 taxes, then the 2022 file is still on the computer someplace. It might be that the others are there as well. Start up 2023 with a new tax form and have it transfer 2022 info. Have it try to search for it if it has trouble. Try your browser searches.

TT creators are certainly aware of your need to save taxes for five years. They would never program a clean up feature affecting your personal copies of past TT taxes. Something else happened. First, think of where you remember storing the PDF (desktop, documents, thumb drive, cloud backup). Then think of how those files or folders might have been moved or changed or, as you say, erased. What did you or anyone else do that might have made them vanish? Has anything else vanished?

Last option would be to call Intuit to have them check with a software specialist to see if there is any possibility it could happen. To my mind, that would take very specific programming to identify and erase a set of files. Hopefully, this helps. It is all I have to offer.

[SteamTrain]

Well, I guess it's possible that the reason for the initial install crash, was an actual disk failure, which happened to wipe out, or corrupt, the directory that TTX uses for files...but it would likely take out a bunch of other stuff too.  Might be a good time to run an error check on that C:-drive.

_____________

But if you actually ran your file explorer, and searched your C-Drive for all Files for each year by putting

*.tax2022, or *.tax2021, or *.tax2021 (etc) in the search bar field, and didn't find anything.....then something else major happened to your files. 

(I just search the C:\Users directory to make it faster).

[TF25]

Did you find a solution?  This recently happened to me.  I was able to locate all of the years prior to 2023 on my hard drive but the update just wiped out 2023.