QuickBooks bank feed not working or not updating: find your cause first
We make a file converter, so the useful thing to say first is this: most bank-feed failures are not a file problem, and a converter will not fix them. Intuit documents different causes for QuickBooks Online and for Desktop. Below they are separated, in Intuit's own words, with the fix each one prescribes — and then the three specific cases where converting a statement really is the answer.
🔒 If your bank only hands you CSV, Excel or a PDF, that is the one cause on this page we can fix — turn it into a .QBO free, in your browser, nothing uploaded. Every other cause below is Intuit's or your bank's to fix, and the page says which is which.
Before anything: how long has it actually been?
Intuit's own guidance is that “Most banks update transactions with QuickBooks every 24 hours, but times can vary.” And when the bank is the problem, “Bank outages usually resolve within 24–48 hours.” So a feed that is a day behind may not be broken at all. Check your bank's own status or alerts page before changing anything in QuickBooks.
One limit worth knowing while you troubleshoot: Intuit states that transactions older than 90 days cannot be downloaded automatically — those have to be brought in by hand however healthy your connection is.
QuickBooks Online: the causes Intuit lists
| Cause (Intuit's wording) | Their prescribed fix |
|---|---|
| Something in your browser | “sign in to QuickBooks through a private or incognito browser window then update the connection again” — this rules out extensions and cached data. |
| “the issue may be on the bank's end” | Check the bank's website for an outage or maintenance notice, and wait: outages usually clear in 24–48 hours. |
| “If you've updated your bank account number, username, or password on your bank's website, make sure QuickBooks has the same info” | Open the bank account's settings, choose Edit sign in info, enter the new credentials and save. |
The same article names error 390 and error 1000. None of these three is a file problem. If you are on QuickBooks Online and your feed stopped, work through this list first — there is nothing for us to sell you here.
QuickBooks Desktop: the OL and OLSU causes
Desktop failures usually arrive as an OL- or OLSU- code. Intuit's article names OLSU-1011, OLSU-1013, OLSU-1014, OLSU-1016, OL-202, OL-203, OL-205, OL-206, OL-209, OL-221, OL-231, OL-232, OL-249, OL-301, OL-332, OL-334, OL-392 and OL-393, and groups the causes like this:
| Cause (Intuit's wording) | Their prescribed fix | File problem? |
|---|---|---|
| “You have alerts on your online bank account you need to acknowledge” | Sign in on the bank's website and clear the pending alerts first. | No |
| “Your bank changed their service offering to Web or Direct Connect” | Contact the bank about the service change. | No |
| “You have an inactive bank account in QuickBooks with online banking” | Turn online banking off on the inactive account — “Deactivate All Online Services.” | No |
| “There might be a problem with their servers” | Try downloading into a new test company file to isolate it. | No |
| Internet connection problems | Confirm you “can connect to the Internet, and your Windows firewall doesn't block your connection.” | No |
| A problem with one or more bank accounts in the company file | Make a copy of the affected account and merge it with the original. | No |
| One bad account dragging the others down | Turn online banking off and back on for each account individually. | No |
| “Your bank's info isn't updated on the Financial Institutions Directory (FiDir) in QuickBooks” | Ask the bank to escalate through Intuit's OFX Connectivity page. | Partly — see below |
| “The file from your bank isn't compatible with QuickBooks” | “Download transactions directly from your bank in .qbo file format and import manually.” | Yes |
| “You're using a version of QuickBooks we don't support” | Upgrade to a supported version. | Partly — see below |
Seven of those ten have nothing to do with files. Clear the alerts, check the firewall, deactivate the dead account. Intuit's article is the right place for those and it is linked below.
The three cases where converting a statement is the actual fix
1. Your bank only gives you CSV, Excel or a PDF
Intuit's own fix for an incompatible file is to “download transactions directly from your bank in .qbo file format and import manually”. That is excellent advice right up to the point where your bank does not offer .QBO — and many only offer CSV, Excel or a PDF statement. That gap is the whole reason this site exists: turn the CSV, Excel or PDF into a .QBO and then follow Intuit's instruction. See CSV to QBO or PDF to QBO.
2. The Financial Institutions Directory entry is wrong or missing
A .QBO file carries your bank's FID and INTU.BID identifiers, and QuickBooks checks them against that directory. Get them wrong and you see “cannot verify the financial institution”. Intuit publishes the directory only as a raw file, so we made it searchable: look up your bank's FID and INTU.BID. This does not fix a broken connection — only Intuit and your bank can do that — but it does fix a manual import that is being refused.
3. Your QuickBooks version is no longer supported
If the cause is an unsupported version, Intuit's fix is to upgrade — and if you are not going to, the feed is gone permanently. Importing a .QBO by hand is a local operation and does not depend on Intuit's servers, which is why it is the usual route on a sunset version. The arguments on both sides, with the quotes, are here: Desktop bank feeds discontinued — can you still import a QBO file?
What we cannot help with, plainly
We do not restore a bank connection, re-authorise a login, clear a bank alert, fix a firewall or repair a company file. If your cause is on that list, this page has done its job by telling you so — go to Intuit's OL/OLSU article and work through it. If your cause is one of the three above, the converter is free and takes about a minute.
Sources
- Fix OL and OLSU Bank Feeds errors in QuickBooks Desktop — Intuit, for the Desktop cause list, the prescribed fixes and the full set of OL/OLSU codes. Article dated 5 August 2026; read 31 October 2026.
- Update your bank feeds and bank info — Intuit, for the QuickBooks Online causes, the 24-hour update cadence, the 24–48 hour outage guidance, the 90-day download limit and errors 390 and 1000. Article dated 6 August 2026; read 31 October 2026.
QBOKit is not affiliated with Intuit or QuickBooks. Quotations above are from Intuit's support articles, linked so you can check them; Intuit may revise them at any time.