After I file my return, say in February, and I want to look at something in it in, say, October, my file has always been deleted off my computer. Why is that?

[cdpitman]

This has happened multiple times, to the point I also save the file on a thumb drive. I can pull up the file two or three months later, but later in the year and the file's gone. What's going on?

[SteamTrain]

Sounds like you are using desktop software?  (Your post question indicates "Online").

MAC or Windows OS?

_______________

If Windows, are you sure you're not saving your initial file, directly to a cloud drive, like Windows "Onedrive"?

...or...

Sometimes the internal shortcut to the file in the opening page for the Desktop software, that can be erased during various upgrades and reboots, but the file may really be there, and you just have to browse to the exact directory location to find it again  ( <File<<Open ).   When you save the file next time...check again to see exactly which directory it is being saved to.

_____

Yeah...regular off-computer Backups are absolutely necessary for any of a number of reasons.....strange ones, like this, can crop up occasionally.  But TTX doesn't have an auto-erase.

[cdpitman]

Thanks. No, I don't save anything to the 'cloud.' I prefer to minimize where I keep stuff on the off chance those places will be hacked. I use a desktop with Windows 11. Funny this isn't happening to any other files I'm aware of. I use my wife's computer because mine is a laptop that I take to Europe when we travel there and in the off chance it was stolen, I have minimal personal information.

Excellent suggestion to note the exact place the file is saved. Also, I'll do a more thorough computer search. Normally, Turbo Tax goes right to the file. This only happens after a few months. Also, yes, we do get periodic software updates to Microsoft and perhaps that is the issue.

Thanks for the assistance. 

[VolvoGirl]

One user said….
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.

Another user said……Some people have discovered their files were under their administrator username. They didn't remember that they had to log in with administrator privileges at some point when installing the desktop version, so they started their returns and saved them while using their admin user account. (In this case, people were returning and logging into their usual, non-admin user account, not realizing what happened and not finding their files under their primary "user".)

If you can't find them do a search for all files ending in .tax or .tax2022 or .tax2021  etc. And check the Recycle Bin. For Windows 10 check the One Drive. Did you make any backups? 

If you don't have the main .tax file you might have one that starts with a Tilde sign ~ like "~your name.tax2022". That file is if your computer crashes or your real file gets lost or deleted or corrupt so you can restore it.

The ~ is a tilde file. Those are temporary files that you normally don't see and normally are deleted. But now Turbo Tax is leaving them in the folder in case something happens like if your file gets corrupted or lost or your computer crashes. Then you can go back. If you can't transfer from the regular file you can transfer from the ~ file.

Find your Tax file in Windows
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-data-file/help/find-your-tax-data-file-tax-file-in-windows/00/...

[cdpitman]

I tried logging in as Admin but to no avail. I also did the search on my computer and that didn't yield any results. All is not lost as I do have a backup on a thumb drive. But I have run into this issue for four or five years and it is so frustrating. Why would I be able to access the file for two or three months, and then magically is disappears after a few more months? I'm beginning to think it does have to do with a Microsoft Windows update throttling some of my files ... but who knows?!

Thanks for the help. Some excellent suggestions I would have never thought of.

[cdpitman]

Thank you for the reply, and to the others that were submitted. I will make absolutely sure that I have the exact file location when I do next year's taxes. I have never intentionally saved anything to the 'cloud' ... just something else to get purloined! But I do save to an external drive, so I should be good. This is more of an annoyance that an irrecoverable situation. But I'd like to figure out what going on. If I'm back on this chat room at this time next year ...!!