Urgent Warning for QuickBooks for Macintosh

QuickBooks for Macintosh 2006 will delete all files on your Desktop

A serious bug in the auto-update feature of QuickBooks 2006 for Macintosh will delete all the files on your desktop. DO NOT LAUNCH QuickBooks 2006 until you have moved and/or backed up all the files and folders on your desktop. If you have any questions, please give Marcel Brown Technology Services a call at 618-580-6256.

To be clear, this bug does NOT affect any version of QuickBooks for Windows. This bug only seriously affects QuickBooks 2006 for Macintosh. The mechanism of this bug is not yet fully understood, but it appears to have begun manifesting itself late Saturday or early Sunday of this last weekend.

The bug also affects QuickBooks 2007 for Macintosh, but it does not delete all the files on your desktop. QuickBooks 2007 for Macintosh users will be prompted with “An update to your QuickBooks application is available. Do you want to download it?”. If a user chooses to download this update, they will soon get a message from QuickBooks stating “You are not connected to the Internet.” A file named “Desktop1.” is created in the user’s home folder, but otherwise no other problems occur. This message to download the update will continue to appear each time QuickBooks 2007 is opened. I recommend users to choose “Later” when this prompt appears until this bug is resolved.
Another message will be sent when more information is available. Please forward this message on to any Macintosh users you may know.