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Question

Merrill - Unable to Import Information - "Please attempt to login again" error message - TurboTax Desktop 2024 (Windows)

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 25, 2025
7 replies
0 views

I'm using TurboTax (Home and Business - Windows version) Desktop to do my 2024 taxes. I am trying to import my investment data from Merrill into TurboTax, but after entering my Merrill Login ID and Password, I get the message "Please attempt your login again. If you continue to have difficulty, please call 1.800.MERRILL(637.7455)." After first checking my login credentials about five times, I decided to call Merrill. The Merrill representative told me that there was no reason on their end for me to have any problems and said I needed to get help from TurboTax.

I am unable to figure out how to get help from TurboTax other than on this Community bulletin board. Based on my searches on this bulletin board, it appears that there are lots of people having the same problem as me. I have not found any solution to the problem. I also have investments with other companies and have not had any problems importing data into TurboTax with them. It appears to be an isolated problem with Merrill (at least for me). I know that I can manually enter the data, but that's a lot of typing and the main reason I purchased TurboTax was so that I wouldn't have to manually type in all of the investment data.

I'd love to hear from everyone that has had the same issue. I'd also love to hear from everyone who has successfully imported their Merrill data in to TurboTax Desktop (although most who are successful probably won't be reading this post). If you have successfully imported your Merrill data, then do you have any pointers on what I need to do to also successfully import my Merrill data?

Also, does anyone have any advice on how to get support from TurboTax? This appears to be a problem with their software which they should be trying to correct.

Thanks!

TurboTax Home & Biz Windows

baldietax

others with Merrill issues had success after changing their password, for some reason...

trbofax

changing my password did not work for me.

januszb

I have the same problem, unable to import from Merrill Edge. The same error message. Contacted ML , I was told it is TT. Called turbotax was told it is ML. Spent hours on the phone, sharing screen with TT's multiple representative. They suggested to enter 1099 manually, some even tried, to do it with me , just to realize, it is too big job, to enter it manually, and accidentally dropping off connection. My 1099 b has thousands of entries, 140 pages.

Some articles on internet pointed to TT limitation of import to 10,000 transaction , 4MB. I cannot find, if my 1099 is affected by this limitation.

Others suggested turning of firewall. Turned off fire wall, tried to import, no luck, the same problem.

I also wiped out my computer to factory setting , reinstal and updated TT, antivirus and trried again to import, the same error.

MVMacDave

I have been having the same issue with Turbotax Premier on a desktop Mac. Changing the password has not worked; deleting all the caches and cookies for both Turbotax and Merrill has not worked I have checked the sizes of the files, and my 1099 in .pdf is nowhere near the limit (400 kB for 110 p) and the .csv file, which might be the format for Turbotax imports is only about 300kB. Merrill Lynch support was of little help and simply referred me to Turbotax. Turbotax support has been completely useless, only suggesting I enter the summary data manually and mail a paper copy of the complete 1099 (about 120p) to the IRS for processing prior to filing electronically.

baldietax

how many of your transactions have 'adjustments' for wash sales, AMD or non-covered securities. If that's not many you can input those as "one by one" with the details which will generate a form 8949, put in the rest at summary level, it will all get consolidated on Schedule D and you shouldn't need to mail anything. I suspect you're doing a lot of trading which may be generating wash sales so this may not help you but wanted to let you know if not aware.

asteinberg001

I, too, have been having this issue for last week. Using TT Premier Desktop for Mac. Specifically my issue is encountering unsuccessful outcome after entering ML login credentials to TT import screen when attempting to "establish(ing) secure connection". Activity meter goes back and forth for several seconds then nothing - some times a beep / tone. All other institutions (e.g., Schwab, Fidelity, BoA even) connect / download fine. Problem is specific to ML, though I was able to connect and download 1099s earlier in February prior to recent release of 1099s from ML last week.

Spent hours scouring online forums including TT community and it appears many people are encountering similar issue. Also spent A LOT of time on phone with TT "technical" support to no avail. Verbal response to TT investigation yielded no success, pointing to issue residing with ML. I have tasked my ML advisor to find someone within ML technical support familiar with TT secure connection functionality to troubleshoot. So far, no progress.

I have performed many of the troubleshooting actions you and others suggest - including ML password change, clearing cache / cookies (though this functionality is from TT desktop directly to ML, so no browser involved), and updating TT SW and MacOS. No change with issue.

Manually entering 100s or more of 1099B transactions is a non-starter for me. I would rather find another SW product that works OR revert to last year's tax preparer. Very disappointing!!!

MVMacDave

I would need to enter 1000s of 1099-B transactions, which is patently absurd, and when my import fails, I don't even get an error message of any kind.

CatinaT1

For Merrill, I saw another user changed their password for Merrill and then was able to import.

User solution:
The ultimate solution, although I do not understand why, was to change my Merrill password. Once I did this, the import worked fine. My previous password worked in Merrill, but for some unknown reason when I used the same ID/Password in TurboTax, I could not log in.. Simply changing my password in my Merrill account and then attempting the import with the new password worked.

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rfq1937

YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE!!! MAYBE THE CEO OF MERRILL LYNCH FORGOT TO ENGAGE IN EXCHANGES WITH THE TECHNOCRAT, KLAUS SCHWAB, CONCERNING POSSIBLE COMPUTER GLITCHES, I. E. INABILITY TO IMPORT INFORMATION FROM THE MERILL LYNCH SERVER.

irene58

Same problem. Nothing worked. I resorted to entering summaries manually. You are allowed to do this if your 1099B says 'cost basis reported to irs'. The detail goes to Form 8949 which carries to Sched D. These are the IRS instructions from Form 8949. Same for long-term.

Note: You may aggregate all short-term transactions reported on Form(s) 1099-B showing basis was
reported to the IRS and for which no adjustments or codes are required. Enter the totals directly on
Schedule D, line 1a; you aren’t required to report these transactions on Form 8949 (see instructions) so see the instructions for each section.

Go to the broker page and select the broker but 'Skip import'. You eventually get a choice of 'by line' or 'summary'. Fairly easy if you don't have a lot. I couldn't wait on TT and ML to work together to resolve. I worked in IT for 30 years and we NEVER played volleyball with an issue. This is unacceptable!

MVMacDave

Thanks, I'll go with this approach, and abandon TurboTax; I think their near monopoly status has gone to their heads, and they don't try very hard to solve problems with their software. My research indicates this is not a problem with Merrill, it is a problem with TurboTax software. When I try to import dats, I get no import and no error message in Turbotax, and my Merrill log on account access shows no attempt by Turbotax to log in using my account information.

Mike9241

Some financial institutions take down their servers for maintenance, especially on weekends. Try on Monday.

There have been many threads concerning various institutions where the OP says they can't import from XYZ.

It's puzzling because I was able to import from certain sites while others say they couldn't. I am using Windows 10 and Edge. In some, but not all, cases OPs have said using a different browser worked.

JonK11

I'm having the same problem with TurboTax Home & Business 2024 tax year on a Mac computer. It won't import from Merrill. I confirmed that my login credentials are correct. When I try to import, it says "establishing a secure connections" but nothing happens. Merrill confirmed that my account is OK at their end, and that numerous clients are having similar problems with the the TurboTax DESKTOP software. This is clearly a bug in the TurboTax program that they need to FIX SOON! The main reason I use it is so I don't need to manually enter my investment transactions.

CatinaT1

There was an update last night that MAY have solved your issue. Make sure you have the most updated software and try again.

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MVMacDave

I just installed the update from last night-Mar 20, and it appeared to have solve the problem-I was able to import the data from Merrill successfully. It appears there was a bug in the Turbotax software, and it would have been good if the support staff had acknowledged this and indicated Intuit was working on a fix and to be patient. It also would have been nice if Turbotax had notified all their customers of the problem and said the same thing and notified them when it was fixed. It would have saved me and likely many others a lot of time and aggravation.

frankjrstockton

I have encountered a similar issue connecting to Charles Schwab to import 1099-B data. Charles Schwab pop-up message says "We cannot connect to Charles Schwab & Co., Inc." "Please try again after a few hours." I had so many failed attempts the past 3 days that I am about to give up. Just wondering if anyone had the same issue importing tax data from Charles Schwab who eventually succeeded at the end? I would appreciate your help. I am using Turbotax Home and Business edition.

mglauner

Try disabling your anti-virus programs and retry your import. Here's How to Turn Off Anti-Virus Programs, which should resolve your connectivity issue.

If you're using TurboTax Online, be sure to clear your Cache and Cookies between attempts. For TurboTax Desktop, do a Manual Update, even if the Online link says you're updated.

As a reminder, be sure your broker accounts allow 'third party access'. In some cases, you need to enable that in your broker account settings.

@frankjrstockton

MVMacDave

None of these were the source of my problem importing Merrill files. In early Fehruary, I imported some of my Merrill files, with disabling my Anti-virus software, without updating Turbotax, without deleting cookies and caches, and without checking on 3rd access at Merrill. After this problem appeared, about the first week in February, I tried a whole variety of things without effect, ncluding deleting all cookies and caches, uninstalling and reinstalling Turbotax, and doing an update, to no effect at all. As far as third party access, Merrill does not require anything special unless the 3rd party is logging in under a different username and password. Anyone can log in using the client's username and password from another device without anything being done to enable this. In addition, my Merrill account lets me record log in attempts, and all the times this process failed, Merrill data showed there were no attempts to log in by Turbotax, Intuit or any other party, except myself. Turbotax was not even trying to log in to import files. After this problem was resolved, apparently through an update about 3 weeks ago, I was able to import files from Merrill without doing anything special, and my Merrill log of attempts to log in showed the access by Turbotax.