Merrill - Unable to Import Information - "Please attempt to login again" error message - TurboTax Desktop 2024 (Windows)

others with Merrill issues had success after changing their password, for some reason...

I have the same problem, unable to import from Merrill Edge. The same error message. Contacted ML , I was told it is TT. Called turbotax was told it is ML.  Spent hours on the phone, sharing screen with TT's multiple representative. They suggested to enter 1099 manually, some even tried, to do it with me , just to realize, it is too big job, to enter it manually, and accidentally dropping off connection. My 1099 b has thousands of entries, 140 pages.

Some articles on internet pointed to TT limitation of import to 10,000 transaction , 4MB. I cannot find, if my 1099 is affected by this limitation.

Others suggested turning of firewall. Turned off fire wall, tried to import, no luck, the same problem.

I also wiped out my computer to factory setting , reinstal and updated TT, antivirus and trried again to import, the same error.

changing my password did not work for me.

I have been having the same issue with Turbotax Premier on a desktop Mac.  Changing the password has not worked; deleting all the caches and cookies for both Turbotax and Merrill has not worked  I have checked the sizes of the files, and my 1099 in .pdf is nowhere near the limit (400 kB for 110 p) and the .csv file, which might be the format for Turbotax imports is only about 300kB.  Merrill Lynch support was of little help and simply referred me to Turbotax.  Turbotax support has been completely useless, only suggesting I enter the summary data manually and mail a paper copy of the complete 1099 (about 120p) to the IRS for processing prior to filing electronically.

how many of your transactions have 'adjustments' for wash sales, AMD or non-covered securities.  If that's not many you can input those as "one by one" with the details which will generate a form 8949, put in the rest at summary level, it will all get consolidated on Schedule D and you shouldn't need to mail anything.  I suspect you're doing a lot of trading which may be generating wash sales so this may not help you but wanted to let you know if not aware.

I, too, have been having this issue for last week.  Using TT Premier Desktop for Mac.  Specifically my issue is encountering unsuccessful outcome after entering ML login credentials to TT import screen when attempting to "establish(ing) secure connection".  Activity meter goes back and forth for several seconds then nothing - some times a beep / tone.  All other institutions (e.g., Schwab, Fidelity, BoA even) connect / download fine.  Problem is specific to ML, though I was able to connect and download 1099s earlier in February prior to recent release of 1099s from ML last week. 

 

Spent hours scouring online forums including TT community and it appears many people are encountering similar issue.  Also spent A LOT of time on phone with TT "technical" support to no avail.  Verbal response to TT investigation yielded no success, pointing to issue residing with ML.  I have tasked my ML advisor to find someone within ML technical support familiar with TT secure connection functionality to troubleshoot.  So far, no progress. 

 

I have performed many of the troubleshooting actions you and others suggest - including ML password change, clearing cache / cookies (though this functionality is from TT desktop directly to ML, so no browser involved), and updating TT SW and MacOS.  No change with issue. 

 

Manually entering 100s or more of 1099B transactions is a non-starter for me.  I would rather find another SW product that works OR revert to last year's tax preparer.  Very disappointing!!! 

I would need to enter 1000s of 1099-B transactions, which is patently absurd, and when my import fails, I don't even get an error message of any kind.

For Merrill, I saw another user changed their password for Merrill and then was able to import. 

User solution:
The ultimate solution, although I do not understand why, was to change my Merrill password. Once I did this, the import worked fine. My previous password worked in Merrill, but for some unknown reason when I used the same ID/Password in TurboTax, I could not log in.. Simply changing my password in my Merrill account and then attempting the import with the new password worked.

I have thousands of transactions and virtually none of these are wash sales, etc.  They're just normal trades.  It would take many days to input all of these manually.

Changing password did not help.
i am using Mac desktop. Is there a way to exchange product key for a PC?

I believe people that succeeded with password changes were using PC version (not Mac). 

@MVMacDave so if you don’t have many wash sales just input them at summary level?  If you do have wash sales or other adjustments like AMD or noncovered sales put them in as one by one with detail to avoid having to mail 1099B to IRS

Turbotax support suggested something like this, but also stated I should send the complete 1099-B, which I have as a 110p pdf file to the IRS, prior to filing.  Unfortunately, since the IRS office in Austin TX is a PO box address, this will require using USPS Priority Mail, not FedEx or UPS, and I've had horrible experiences with Priority Mail recently.

I keep seeing Turbotax people say that you need to mail the 1099-B but this is frankly incorrect and bad advice.  You only need to mail the 1099-B if you enter sales summaries onto Schedule D with adjustments, which does not generate Form 8949 with the details.  If you enter the sales items with adjustments at the detailed level those will generate Form 8949 and go onto Schedule D (line 1b, 8b etc), enter the rest as sales summaries and those go onto Schedule D on line 1a, 8a.  TT should provide a message saying you don't need to mail anything.  If you use desktop version in Forms mode you can confirm that also on the 1099-B worksheets, there is a checkbox at the very bottom indicating if anything needs to be mailed.

 

I'm not a CPA/Experrt but I've done this for many years and never mailed anything, and I do not import 1099s it's not worth the hassle especially if there are problems.  Give it a try for a few entries to see the process, you don't have much to lose.

Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a try.  Worst case is the IRS will want me to mail in the 1099-B, but if I don't need to do that, I will be much better off, especially considering the state of the US Post Office, and the way it's going.  I'd rather not trust my tax stuff to Priority Mail.

FWIW, and after a lot of expasperation, I began using TT online to test if the ML 1099 import issue was across all TT / ML “secure connections” or local to the Desktop (Mac) version.  Lo and behold, I was able to import ALL ML 1099s to the TT online version, leading me to believe the original issue reported in this thread is a BUG with the TT Desktop SW.  ML Support and through my ML advisor contend the problem is with TT.  Given the results of my test, I am inclined to agree.  TT support declines to acknowledge the issue and / or to work collaboratively with ML and me to identify the bug and resolve.  

 

Disappointing that after spending $$ to buy TT desktop SW, I will now need to start over with the online version to complete Fed/State filing and spend additional $s.  I will seriously consider my 20+ year TT relationship given this experience.  

Thanks for the nice info about a possible bug in the Mac desktop version of the SW; I am also considering dropping my use of Turbotax after more than 30 years of use (pre-Intuit), considering their cost and support.

Update. After changing user ID and Pass for ML account, TT was able to access ML account. All 1099 were imported. 

A new problem surfaced. 1099 DIV,  was not added to divident calculation. Called TT support, shared screen. We  manualy entered 1099div in adition to imported one. This not only showed up in divident, but also helped to recognized the imported form. So now, I had doubled amount in dividents. I deleted manual entered 1099DIV. Imported 1099DIV was showing up correctly in dividents

I changed by username and password and Merrill and tried importing again into Turbotax.  I had the identical problem-no import, no error message.  In a previous year I managed to import 1099 data twice, with duplicate entries, which Turbotax failed to catch, either with the imports, or with the error checking software.  What are we paying for here?

YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE!!!  MAYBE THE CEO OF MERRILL LYNCH FORGOT TO ENGAGE IN EXCHANGES WITH THE TECHNOCRAT, KLAUS SCHWAB, CONCERNING POSSIBLE COMPUTER GLITCHES, I. E. INABILITY TO IMPORT INFORMATION FROM THE MERILL LYNCH SERVER.

There have been many import issues reported by Merrill and Schwab customers this year.

 

If your financial institution is a TurboTax 1099 Import Partner, you would likely have been able to import your 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, 1099-OID, 1099-R, 1099-NEC, and 1099-MISC (without entries in boxes 8 or 10) by January 31, 2025, and likely have been able to import your 1099-B and 1099-MISC (with entries in boxes 8 or 10) by February 15, 2025.

 

However, if your brokerage issues a consolidated tax statement with several types of 1099s, which is common, you might not have been able to import any of your 1099s until February 15, 2025. 

 

If you can find out from your broker whether the statements are going to be coming out in phases, it is probably  better to wait to import until the final statement comes out. This is generally an issue with way the statements are presented rather than a software issue.

 

Check here for updates to the Help Article with this information. 

 

When importing, make sure TurboTax and Windows are both updated, and temporarily disable all anti-virus software (including modem).  Make sure your broker does not require you to allow 'third party access', which you may enable in your broker account, if this applies. Some users reported that disabling security software solved the issue. See this thread for other experiences and suggestions. 

 

In TurboTax Online, you can attach a PDF of your 1099-B; however, in TurboTax Desktop, here's How to Enter a Summary in Lieu of Individual Transactions, which only requires a small amount of data entry.

 

See this help article for more information on importing investment data.

 

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@rfq1937 

@MVMacDave 

This is not very helpful.  I have been trying repeatedly since Feb 15, 2025 to import my Merrill investment information.  As far as disabling virus software, I have not needed to do this in 30 years of filing returns via Turbotax.  I have the same antivirus software now as when I filed my 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020 returns, and I did not need to disable the software to import brokerage data.  Another note, I was advised by Turbotax support that I needed to file by mail a hard copy of my 1099-B (110p) to the IRS before e-filing; now I am being told this is not necessary.  Which is correct?  Finally, in recent attempts to import 1099s from Merrill, I have been watching the Merrill log of log-in attempts for my account, and the log does not show any attempts by Turbotax to log-in attempts by Turbotax.  The log shows attempts by any computer or other device using my log-in information.  How is this explained?  It appears that Turbotax is not even trying to log in, and I never get an error message in Turbotax.  As someone who has used Turbotax since before it was acquired by Intuit, this is very annoying and frustating, has required enormous amounts of time on my part, and i am ready to abandon Turbotax and switch to another brand of software or a private accountant, with appropriate comments on social media.

Same problem. Nothing worked. I resorted to entering summaries manually. You are allowed to do this if your 1099B says 'cost basis reported to irs'. The detail goes to Form 8949 which carries to Sched D. These are the IRS instructions from Form 8949. Same for long-term. 

Note: You may aggregate all short-term transactions reported on Form(s) 1099-B showing basis was
reported to the IRS and for which no adjustments or codes are required. Enter the totals directly on
Schedule D, line 1a; you aren’t required to report these transactions on Form 8949 (see instructions) so see the instructions for each section.

Go to the broker page and select the broker but 'Skip import'.  You eventually get a choice of 'by line' or 'summary'.  Fairly easy if you don't have a lot. I couldn't wait on TT and ML to work together to resolve. I worked in IT for 30 years and we NEVER played volleyball with an issue. This is unacceptable!

Thanks, I'll go with this approach, and abandon TurboTax; I think their near monopoly status has gone to their heads, and they don't try very hard to solve problems with their software.  My research indicates this is not a problem with Merrill, it is a problem with TurboTax software.  When I try to import dats, I get no import and no error message in Turbotax, and my Merrill log on account  access shows no attempt by Turbotax to log in using my account information.

Some financial institutions take down their servers for maintenance, especially on weekends. Try on Monday. 

There have been many threads concerning various institutions where the OP says they can't import from XYZ. 

It's puzzling because I was able to import from certain sites while others say they couldn't. I am using Windows 10 and Edge. In some, but not all, cases OPs have said using a different browser worked.