Fidelity Download problem

[thrombus]

It seems to me that these brokers don't want to give out access to smaller companies like Beiley Software. With FDX they can control who has access, and for probably multiple reasons only seem to give it out to the big players.

Mark - do you have a Fidelity case number for this situation? Those of us are irritated enough to consider moving our assets to Schwab could cite this as the reason.

[Mark]

Hi thrombus,

I don't have a case number. About all I have is this phone number:

Fidelity Electronic Channel Support Group at 800-544-7595

and the general buzzwords would be you'd like to have FM be able to access their new FDX server to download your data.

[Mark]

Seem to work with some exceptions (like any bills or checks) but that for now manually is OK. I do have an issue with one account (taxable account where account # starts with X) - that one when importing CSV and then "scan" for account, is not found and then clicking all accounts instead delivers an exception that NONE of the transactions can be imported based on "action value not recognized" - so I'm guessing it's related to the "scan" not finding the account. I don't know where the scan looks.

The "Scan" button looks at any/all files you have specified in the "File(s) to Import:" section right above the "Accounts to Import from Files(s):" section. If you have a CSV file that isn't working as expected, please sanitize it, verify the problem still exists, and then email it to us.

To "sanitize" it you can open it up in a text editor, like Notepad, and do a global search/replace on the account number and then re-save it.

[bwessely]

Seem to work with some exceptions (like any bills or checks) but that for now manually is OK. I do have an issue with one account (taxable account where account # starts with X) - that one when importing CSV and then "scan" for account, is not found and then clicking all accounts instead delivers an exception that NONE of the transactions can be imported based on "action value not recognized" - so I'm guessing it's related to the "scan" not finding the account. I don't know where the scan looks.

The "Scan" button looks at any/all files you have specified in the "File(s) to Import:" section right above the "Accounts to Import from Files(s):" section. If you have a CSV file that isn't working as expected, please sanitize it, verify the problem still exists, and then email it to us.

To "sanitize" it you can open it up in a text editor, like Notepad, and do a global search/replace on the account number and then re-save it.

I figured it out - when you deal with foreign currency in the account, the headings are different (after Type):
Exchange Quantity Exchange Currency Currency Price Quantity Exchange Rate Commission Fees Accrued Interest Amount Cash Balance

Without foreign currency, exchange Q/exchange C/currency/Exchange Rate are not columns that export and several columns (price/fee/amount/cash balance) include a $ at the end. So your CSV conversion looks at the base case (not sure if it could adapt to the other fields).

[Mark]

Hi bwessely,

FM is aware of both cases, where you have the exchange rate stuff and when you don't. If you have a case that isn't importing properly, please email me a sanitized version of the as downloaded CSV file. I can take a look.

[Mark]

Hello Everyone,

We have just released an update to make a variety of improvements to the Fidelity CSV import. Version 2026.19.5 is available now on the download page.

This update adds support for all the action codes we've seen so far. If anyone still receives warnings about skipped transactions during import, please let us know.

[JeanneMarie]

Mark, thanks as always for all your work.
I've upgraded to FM 2026.19.5.100.
I have two Fidelity *.csv files in a directory, one file name contains the word "activity" (61 records), and the other contains "position" (50 positions).

The files are unchanged since download, but Fund Manager finds nothing to import. My import dialog attached. What am I doing wrong?

Ever grateful,
Jeanne

[Mark]

Hi Jeanne,

Some ideas:

1) Could you maybe have already imported these transactions? You have on the option to "Skip transactions already in Fund Manager". You can temporarily turn off that option, and do the first step of the import, and then go back or cancel on the Preview page.

2) If you choose to import just the "Single File" and browse to the 1 activity file, do you see any transactions?

FYI. If you only want to import transactions from a single activity file, and prices from a file in the same folder you can use either "Single File" or "All Files in Folder". In both cases it automatically pulls in prices from any *Positions*.csv file in the same folder with the same "Date downloaded".

[sgurd4oilop]

With the latest release 2026.19.5.100, all of a sudden I can't get my reconciliation to work with the csv. I have all of my securities in various sub-portfolios. I can double click in the reconciliation window on the ones that it believes are not there and it takes me to the transaction in the correct subportfolio. But the reconciliation says it is not there on the statement. Is the input format: ACCT,MM/DD/YY,SYMB,BNUM correct? That does not match the csv file at all.

[Mark]

Hi sgurd4oilop,

It sounds like you aren't using "Fidelity CSV Position File" as your "Reconciliation Statement Source". There is no input format when using this. I think you're on "Generic Position File", which does ask for an input format string. Try using "Fidelity CSV Position File" and see if that isn't the problem.

[JeanneMarie]

Hi Jeanne,
Some ideas:
1) Could you maybe have already imported these transactions? You have on the option to "Skip transactions already in Fund Manager". You can temporarily turn off that option, and do the first step of the import, and then go back or cancel on the Preview page.
2) If you choose to import just the "Single File" and browse to the 1 activity file, do you see any transactions?
FYI. If you only want to import transactions from a single activity file, and prices from a file in the same folder you can use either "Single File" or "All Files in Folder". In both cases it automatically pulls in prices from any *Positions*.csv file in the same folder with the same "Date downloaded".

Thanks a bunch. No I had not imported before. And no, changing the last import options didn't make a difference. But importing only one file did the trick. So did I mis-read your write-up? I don't need to reference the entire folder to get the price update?

There was only one momentary head-scratcher: FM told me there were seven fewer transactions than expected. But that turned out to be the exact number of reinvested distributions. So I'm pretty sure reconciling will go smoothly.

Back to Merrill before I turn my attention to reconciling.

But as always, thanks.

[sgurd4oilop]

Hi sgurd4oilop,

It sounds like you aren't using "Fidelity CSV Position File" as your "Reconciliation Statement Source". There is no input format when using this. I think you're on "Generic Position File", which does ask for an input format string. Try using "Fidelity CSV Position File" and see if that isn't the problem.

Exactly the problem. I had been using the generic reconciliation during this transition - it did help me understand the input format statement! But the Fidelity CSV position file as the selection solved the issue.

Thanks!

[Mark]

But importing only one file did the trick. So did I mis-read your write-up? I don't need to reference the entire folder to get the price update?

There was only one momentary head-scratcher: FM told me there were seven fewer transactions than expected. But that turned out to be the exact number of reinvested distributions. So I'm pretty sure reconciling will go smoothly.

Hi JeanneMarie,

Correct, you don't need to reference the entire folder to get the price updated. The position file needs to be located in the same folder as the activity file, but you can just specify to import the activity file only, and it will still pull in prices from the position file too.

It should have worked either way (importing from a single file, or picking the folder). If you want to debug the folder situation, make sure it is the same folder as where your file is located, and the filename matches the format: *Account*.csv

When importing transactions if there are 2 transactions for a distribution and a matching purchase that form a reinvestment, FM will make those 2 transactions into a single reinvestment, so that does explain what you were seeing with the mismatch transaction count.

[sollner]

Hi Mark,
No errors on Transaction/History imports! Well done!

One odd thing happened, though. My monthly RMD distributions from my IRA account, plus the federal and state tax withheld, were put into a new investment with the Name UNM, but without a Symbol, and this investment was placed in a subportfolio that once contained an investment in the UNUM Group (UNM). I don't use this subportfolio any more, so these negative numbers will only affect agreement between FM and Fidelity on the IRA total value, which I can live with.

I didn't have this problem before the OFX server issues. The were probably ignored then. I thought maybe these would be classified as Transfers by Fidelity, and I could eliminate them from the History file by not selecting the Transfers button, but no luck.

As I said, I can live with this for now, but you might want to look into it.

One other thing that others might like to know. When one downloads files in Outlook, if there is already a file by that name in Downloads, the file name gets (n) appended, where n is the number after that original download. On Import, FM includes (n) in the file name. Importing transactions from a file named History_for_Account_filename(2), for example, will result in a new subportfolio set up with the file name "filename(2) containing all investments. It took me longer than it should have to figure this out.

Thanks,
Gerry

[Mark]

Hi Gerry,

I would expect the RMD and withheld taxes to come out of an assigned default cash account. Is this UNM maybe accidentally assigned as your default cash account? You can check this in the properties of the sub-portfolio. Or maybe that existing UNM investment has a blank symbol?

Yes, that is an important tip:

If you download an activity file for a single account the default filename provided by Fidelity should be maintained as: *_<account #>.csv where the account number is the last part of the filename. The account number is parsed from the filename in this case. For example, a filename like: History_for_Account_111222333.csv where 111222333 is the account number.