YNAB4 Converter Tool [alpha]

[dreesemonkey]

Hi @dreesemonkey you can enable the check column by right clicking "all accounts" and/or the account and clicking the check box for it. The check numbers should all be there. LMK if you have any problems with that!
[/quote]

Thank you!  I didn't know I could right click, thanks worked for me!

[machei]

I've tried to make this work, but I'm having weird results. I manage to everything just fine--locate the .ynab file, convert it to .json, import it to Financier. But once it gets there, it doesn't look like I expect. Only one of my 5 accounts is there, the budget categories are there, but they aren't populated. It's certainly pulling *some* of the data, but it hasn't seemed to have run the whole thing.

Any ideas? While I don't expect to have my historical data here when I move from YNAB, it would sure be awesome if it was. 

Thanks,
m.

[RPNnerd]

I've tried to make this work, but I'm having weird results. I manage to everything just fine--locate the .ynab file, convert it to .json, import it to Financier. But once it gets there, it doesn't look like I expect. Only one of my 5 accounts is there, the budget categories are there, but they aren't populated. It's certainly pulling *some* of the data, but it hasn't seemed to have run the whole thing.

Any ideas? While I don't expect to have my historical data here when I move from YNAB, it would sure be awesome if it was. 

Thanks,
m.

I had only partial import happen -- it was actually a specific date (April 28th 2016).  This was on a Mac.  When I did the import process on a PC that was also using dropbox then it worked without a hitch.

[machei]

I've tried to make this work, but I'm having weird results. I manage to everything just fine--locate the .ynab file, convert it to .json, import it to Financier. But once it gets there, it doesn't look like I expect. Only one of my 5 accounts is there, the budget categories are there, but they aren't populated. It's certainly pulling *some* of the data, but it hasn't seemed to have run the whole thing.

Any ideas? While I don't expect to have my historical data here when I move from YNAB, it would sure be awesome if it was. 

Thanks,
m.

I had only partial import happen -- it was actually a specific date (April 28th 2016).  This was on a Mac.  When I did the import process on a PC that was also using dropbox then it worked without a hitch.

Aha. That could be it then. I'm entirely mac-based. Maybe the import tool isn't for me, then. I don't actually have a copy of YNAB running anywhere but a mac. Alas.

Thanks for the feedback!

[RPNnerd]

I've tried to make this work, but I'm having weird results. I manage to everything just fine--locate the .ynab file, convert it to .json, import it to Financier. But once it gets there, it doesn't look like I expect. Only one of my 5 accounts is there, the budget categories are there, but they aren't populated. It's certainly pulling *some* of the data, but it hasn't seemed to have run the whole thing.

Any ideas? While I don't expect to have my historical data here when I move from YNAB, it would sure be awesome if it was. 

Thanks,
m.

I had only partial import happen -- it was actually a specific date (April 28th 2016).  This was on a Mac.  When I did the import process on a PC that was also using dropbox then it worked without a hitch.

Aha. That could be it then. I'm entirely mac-based. Maybe the import tool isn't for me, then. I don't actually have a copy of YNAB running anywhere but a mac. Alas.

Thanks for the feedback!

Alex indicated he'd take a look if he could have the file setup that shows the problem.  I tried to do more debugging on my own as I wasn't ready to provide my full budget.

If you're comfortable, I think he'd be open to trying to correct it.

[machei]

I've tried to make this work, but I'm having weird results. I manage to everything just fine--locate the .ynab file, convert it to .json, import it to Financier. But once it gets there, it doesn't look like I expect. Only one of my 5 accounts is there, the budget categories are there, but they aren't populated. It's certainly pulling *some* of the data, but it hasn't seemed to have run the whole thing.

Any ideas? While I don't expect to have my historical data here when I move from YNAB, it would sure be awesome if it was. 

Thanks,
m.

I had only partial import happen -- it was actually a specific date (April 28th 2016).  This was on a Mac.  When I did the import process on a PC that was also using dropbox then it worked without a hitch.

Aha. That could be it then. I'm entirely mac-based. Maybe the import tool isn't for me, then. I don't actually have a copy of YNAB running anywhere but a mac. Alas.

Thanks for the feedback!

Alex indicated he'd take a look if he could have the file setup that shows the problem.  I tried to do more debugging on my own as I wasn't ready to provide my full budget.

If you're comfortable, I think he'd be open to trying to correct it.

Oh, I think I'd be fine with that... there's nothing there that'll reveal any information about my bank accounts anyway. But, I would like to wait until I go in whole-hog with Financier. There's no point if I don't start using it from where I am, and right now, I'm still poking around to see what it can do. Just waiting on the mobile app... 

I'll let you know when I'm ready and if the offer is still open then, I'll fire it over. Thanks so much.

m.

[Joel]

I've tried to make this work, but I'm having weird results. I manage to everything just fine--locate the .ynab file, convert it to .json, import it to Financier. But once it gets there, it doesn't look like I expect. Only one of my 5 accounts is there, the budget categories are there, but they aren't populated. It's certainly pulling *some* of the data, but it hasn't seemed to have run the whole thing.

Any ideas? While I don't expect to have my historical data here when I move from YNAB, it would sure be awesome if it was. 

Thanks,
m.

Are you sure you selected the most recent ynab data file?

Your ynab4 folder may contain multiple data folders which would have multiple files with the specific extension you need, and only one of those files is the current file you actually need.

[RPNnerd]

I've tried to make this work, but I'm having weird results. I manage to everything just fine--locate the .ynab file, convert it to .json, import it to Financier. But once it gets there, it doesn't look like I expect. Only one of my 5 accounts is there, the budget categories are there, but they aren't populated. It's certainly pulling *some* of the data, but it hasn't seemed to have run the whole thing.

Any ideas? While I don't expect to have my historical data here when I move from YNAB, it would sure be awesome if it was. 

Thanks,
m.

Are you sure you selected the most recent ynab data file?

Your ynab4 folder may contain multiple data folders which would have multiple files with the specific extension you need, and only one of those files is the current file you actually need.

On the mac it doesn't say point to a file-- it says point to the folder.  This could be a cause-- it was what I observed.

[Joel]

I know nothing about macs, but my understand was the ynab4 file structure is always the same. Are you unable to find a .yfull file on macs?

[Alex]

Macs have the .ynab4 file act like a ZIP archive. It's a pretty common pattern (right click on many "files" and "Show package contents").

But windows it's just a folder, and you cannot upload directories in all modern browsers in this day and age, so you must find the Budget.yfull.

@machei YNAB 4 does some weird things... If you save a copy of the budget w/o cloud sync and try to upload that it should solve the problem. I've also heard "budget compaction" solves the problem, whatever that is, lol.

[machei]

Hi everyone, and thank you for your feedback.

I tried this with a few different files. My YNAB data files are kept on Dropbox for easy syncing, and they are always the most recent. I have only one budget file which I have been using for years. I'm quite certain I chose the correct one, as it had a time stamp of today (in fact within the hour).

All that said, I haven't explored the idea that the .ynab file is actually a zip, and I may dig a little deeper on this. I'll report back any findings the next time I have a chance to sit down with it--probably tomorrow evening. Thanks again, everyone!

m.

[Joel]

@RPNnerd @machei - Can you log onto the dropbox website and identify and download the specific .yfull file you need (similar to the instructions for a Windows user)?

[machei]

@RPNnerd @machei - Can you log onto the dropbox website and identify and download the specific .yfull file you need (similar to the instructions for a Windows user)?

When I look at my Dropbox folder for YNAB, I don't see any files with a .yfull extension. There's only .ynab4 file. The question was whether this file was an archive, and this morning I checked it out and indeed, it is. It contains a lot of things. Multiple backups, scores of .ydiff files, and a number of nested folders. Many of these folders do indeed contain, among other things, a budget.yfull file. However, in my case ALL of them are not recent. The time stamps go back months, and in some cases years for the .yfull files. Anything with a date matching my latest save (which I assume are the ones within the past couple hours) do not contain any .yfull files that I can locate to this point.

But I haven't had chance to look deeply. I wasn't even going to do this much this morning, as I'm strapped for time. I will look again this evening.

Thanks!
m.

[Paul]

What you describe is certainly the same as for my Mac YNAB 4 "file"

[jeremiahsvow]

@RPNnerd @machei - Can you log onto the dropbox website and identify and download the specific .yfull file you need (similar to the instructions for a Windows user)?

When I look at my Dropbox folder for YNAB, I don't see any files with a .yfull extension. There's only .ynab4 file. The question was whether this file was an archive, and this morning I checked it out and indeed, it is. It contains a lot of things. Multiple backups, scores of .ydiff files, and a number of nested folders. Many of these folders do indeed contain, among other things, a budget.yfull file. However, in my case ALL of them are not recent. The time stamps go back months, and in some cases years for the .yfull files. Anything with a date matching my latest save (which I assume are the ones within the past couple hours) do not contain any .yfull files that I can locate to this point.

But I haven't had chance to look deeply. I wasn't even going to do this much this morning, as I'm strapped for time. I will look again this evening.

Thanks!
m.

I'm on a PC. When I went looking for mine I could not find it either. I had to "unhide" some of the hidden folders after doing a search. Apparently, the file I needed was in one of these hidden ones. I don't know if that is normal or not. But that is what happened with mine. I spent about an hour trying to figure it out, but then I realized what happened after letting the computer do the deeper search.

I don't know if this will help others, but just wanted to put it out there.