QuickBooks passwords

For QuickBooks files (*.qba or *.qbw) created in versions of QuickBooks up to 2002 (incl.), password recovery is instant, but for some very large files the program may work a few seconds until the password(s) will be shown. If you have a slow CPU (like Pentium 200) and less than 32 megabytes of memory, the process may take up to a few minutes.

Sometimes, the program cannot recognize the version of QuickBooks the given file has been created with; in that case, it prints some technical information (country code and version code) into the log window, and shows the list of supported versions you have to select from. If (after selecting proper version) the password(s) still will not be recovered, please contact our technical support.

Please note that starting from version 6/98, QuickBooks can have multiple "accounts", i.e. pairs of user name and password. AINPR recovers all of them, but may show the "phantom" accounts as well – the ones which don't actually exist (i.e. have been already deleted). Just ignore them. All you actually need is a password of "Admin" user, which is being recovered in any case.

In QuickBooks 2003..2007, protection is much stronger – the passwords are not stored in the data file anymore. First, AINPR tries (using the brute-force approach) to find the short passwords (not longer than 3 characters; containing letters, digits and punctuation marks only) – it usually takes a few seconds. Then, for all users that have the rights to open the file, the program shows password information: either the password itself (if it is short), or <none> if the given user has an empty password, or <too long> if password contains four or more characters. As already noted, long passwords cannot be recovered, but can be removed: to clear the password of any given user, highlight the user name and press Remove long password button at the bottom of the window. After confirmation, the password for that user will be removed, and the program will create a backup copy (*.bak) of QuickBooks file (you can remove more than one password during the session – multiple backup files will be created (*.bak, *.bak1, *.bak2 etc).

Password for any QuickBooks account can be copied into the Clipboard using Copy password to Clipboard button (and so you can paste that password into QuickBooks by pressing Ctrl-V or Ctrl-Ins).

Please note that the program has been tested on all US versions of QuickBooks, and some Australian, Canadian, German, New Zealand and UK versions. Support for all non-US versions is not guaranteed.