How To Promptly Resolve QuickBooks Unexpected Error 5?

QuickBooks is essential for managing accounts and finances. If you own a small business, you must know how important this tool is. QuickBooks allows you to easily manage all your financial matters without the help of a professional. But, that doesn’t indicate QuickBooks is a glitch-free software. 

Like all other software applications, QuickBooks is also not free from technical glitches. One of the most common issues is the Unexpected Error 5.

Experiencing this error on your QuickBooks can hamper the accounting-related work for your business. So, it’s important to solve the error.

In this article, we’ll discuss a few easy fixes to solve QuickBooks Unexpected Error 5.

About QuickBooks Unexpected Error 5

You can face this error whenever you try to access a particular Company file. While doing so, you might get the following message: ‘Got Unexpected Error 5 in a call to NetShareGetInfo for Path’. 

QuickBooks Error 5 occurs when you don’t have the necessary permission to access any file.

Factors Responsible for this Error

These are the following factors that might trigger error 5 in QuickBooks:

  • Malware or virus attack can be a major factor. Various harmful third party applications come with viruses, which may damage or corrupt the registry files.
  • Accidental deletion or removal of registry entry of the system files or QuickBooks can often create this issue. 
  • Improper or incorrect installation of the QuickBooks software on your system.
  • Presence of invalid or incorrect entries in the Windows registry files.
  • Any sort of hardware and technical malfunction in your system. 
  • Sudden shut down of the device due to power failure or outage.

Easy Fixes To Solve QuickBooks Unexpected Error 5

If you are one of those users who’s facing this error, you need not panic. It is an issue that you can solve by yourself without any professional help. In this section, we’ll provide you with some easy solutions to deal with this error.

Before you go for the solutions, you can try out these general fixes. If the problem continues, then you can move on to the advanced solutions.

General Fix: Delete and Recreate the User Account

Deleting and then recreating your existing user profile can be a possible way to fix this error. Follow these steps to perform this general fix:

  1. At first, go to your Company tab and select ‘User’. Choose the ‘Set up Users and Role’ option.
  2. Now, choose your user handle and then click on the ‘Delete’ option. Finally, click on OK to confirm the deletion of your user profile.

Once your existing profile is deleted you need to re-create a new one. You can do this through the following steps:

  1. First, select the ‘Set Up Users and Role’ option. Now, pick a new username for your user handle. 
  2. Set up a password for the new account and confirm the latest password.
  3. After this, determine the roles of the new user and press ‘OK’.

Advanced Solutions

Follow this section, if you have tried the general fix but, failed to solve the issue at hand. Therefore, its time for you to move on to the troubleshooting tips to deal with QuickBooks unexpected error 5.

Solution 1- Make Use of the QuickBooks File Doctor

This is probably the best way to solve any issues pertaining to QuickBooks. You can use the QuickBooks File Doctor. To use this tool, the first thing that you must do is to download the application. 

The File Doctor application is available on the official website of Intuit. After downloading the application, you must follow the necessary instructions displayed on the screen to install it.

Once the downloading and installation process is complete, let the QuickBooks File Doctor check all the files. Scanning all the files might take some time. So, you must wait patiently for the scanning to be over. It will examine the files and make the necessary changes in the hosting settings. By using this tool, you can repair the damaged files of QuickBooks.

Solution 2- Apply the QuickBooks Repair Tool

Another way to resolve the QuickBooks unexpected error 5 is to use a suitable Repair Tool. So, follow these instructions to use such tools:

  1. At first, you need to download the QuickBooks repairing software and save it on your computer.
  2. Now, launch the Repair Tool and locate the option to initiate the scanning process. 
  3. Browse the file location and then click ‘Yes’ on the prompt that appears on your screen.
  4. After this, you need to uncheck the box next to ‘Automatic Scan’. However, you must select the ‘Install’ option to initiate the scanning process.
  5. When the automatic scanning is complete, select the ‘Start Repair’ option.
  6. After the completion of the process, you need to restart your QuickBooks software.Alternatively, you can also give the device a restart. Check to see if the error 5 still appears or not.

Solution 3- Give File Share Access

Providing access to your files can potentially solve the QuickBooks unexpected error 5. However, you must remember that this solution is only for Windows devices.

So if you have any other Operating System, then you can ignore this solution.

Here are the steps that you need to follow to give access to your files:

  1. At first, you need to click on the file explorer and open it.
  2. Now, right-click on the folder in which your Company file is located.
  3. In the meantime, go to the ‘Properties’ option and click on it.
  4. After this, go to the ‘Sharing’ option. Now, depending on your business’s requirement go for partial or full sharing of the file.
  5. Finally, click on the ‘Apply’ option and choose OK.
  6. Once the process is done, relaunch QuickBooks and check if the issue persists.

Concluding Remark

QuickBooks is a crucial tool for small businesses and financial organizations. Any issue with it can cause serious loss to your business. QuickBooks unexpected error 5 is a very frequently occurring error but, it can be resolved easily. In this post, we suggested these solutions to overcome the error code.

The fixes in this article are not only simple but, also proven to deal with unexpected error 5 in QuickBooks. Give these solutions a try before heading out to a professional technician.

Maria Colombo
Maria Colombo
Articles: 1190