Vanguard credentials not working via FM, but do work on-line

[BobT]

Since 11/2 transaction downloads (and reconciles) have been failing in FM. I use two VG accounts, one works, one doesn't. For the account that is failing, the xml file ofxretr.txt looks like this:
OFXHEADER:100
DATA:OFXSGML
VERSION:102
SECURITY:NONE
ENCODING:USASCII
CHARSET:1252
COMPRESSION:NONE
OLDFILEUID:NONE
NEWFILEUID:NONE

<OFX><SIGNONMSGSRSV1><SONRS><STATUS><CODE>15500<SEVERITY>ERROR<MESSAGE>Login failed due to invalid credentials.</STATUS><DTSERVER>20141104185606<LANGUAGE>ENG<DTPROFUP>20140605083000<FI><ORG>Vanguard<FID>15103</FI><SESSCOOKIE>D049D629BBD0C73EA9FB91BF5E6E1D1E.shH8X8atSIQKU_hnwprd01_1</SONRS></SIGNONMSGSRSV1><INVSTMTMSGSRSV1><INVSTMTTRNRS><TRNUID>5059-FM7-20141104185606.765-765<STATUS><CODE>15500<SEVERITY>ERROR<MESSAGE>Invalid signon</STATUS></INVSTMTTRNRS></INVSTMTMSGSRSV1></OFX>

This behavior started after I improved the password quality for the VG account but neglected to make the change in FM to use the new password. I tried several FM downloads before realizing this. When I tried to access my VG account on-line, I received a msg that I needed to change my password (again) because of excess login failures. So VG sensed the multiple bad logins via FM and disabled access. I fixed the on-line password problem (and verified the new password) but it looks like VG is still telling FM that the credentials are not valid.
Is this definitely on Vanguard's side of the interface? Has anyone had experience trying to explain this to vanguard? Any help would be appreciated.

Bob T

[Mark]

Hi Bob T,

Are you using the latest transaction module (197)? There were some Vanguard changes around a month or two ago. Did you remember to change the password in your FM transaction retrieve settings for this account after you changed it with Vanguard? If none of this helps, then you may need to ask Vanguard for help. You can ask them for instructions on what password you should be using with Quicken, as FM is using the same interface.

[BobT]

Mark

Thanks for the quick response I should have mentioned software configuration in my original post--I am up-to-date on most of the software:

Fund Manager 2014 is: 2014.13.3.
Quote Module: 472
Transaction Module: 197

I'm going to update FM 2014 to the .4 release just in case.

I've double and triple-checked the passwords in FM so I'm sure I've got that right. I've also got a working acct for comparison purposes.

I'm sure there's a good explanation--when I figure it out I'll let you know. It almost seems like Vanguard has some security block that they erect if the OFX server gets "too many" login failures for an acct.

Bob T

[BobT]

Mark

I have resolved this problem. When I originally modified my Vanguard on-line password, I was interested in improving security, so the new password included an ampersand as the second character (the password began "Y&" (no quotes)). The new PW worked fine on-line, but failed every time when accessing Vanguard via its OFX server. My initial theory was that the OFX server had permanently locked me out due to excessive log-in attempts, and Vanguard needed to "unlock" me.

However this morning I verified that the OFX connection was still not working, then I modified the password (changed the ampersand to another character, nothing else) and voila, all is well.

So either Vanguard has character set limitations for the OFX server that aren't enforced on-line, or FM has some kind of quirk and is not sending the right credentials in the ampersand situation.

This was an aha moment for me. I never called Vanguard. Hopefully this info helps you or other users.

[Mark]

Hi BobT,

Thanks for sharing your solution. Now that you mention it, I believe others have ran into this problem with Vanguard before as well. We have a "tips" section for using Vanguard, I should have thought to look at earlier:

https://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/tin ... l#Vanguard

It mentions only using alphanumeric characters also.