# QuickBooks Error 185: Bank Wants More Information - Author: SimpleBankConvert (https://www.simplebankconvert.com) - Published: 2025-11-27 - Updated: 2025-11-27 - Category: Import errors - Canonical: https://www.simplebankconvert.com/blog/quickbooks-error-185 > QuickBooks error 185 means the bank needs another security step: answer it in QuickBooks Online, then update the bank feed and check for missing days. QuickBooks error 185 means your bank accepted your sign-in but wants one more security step, usually an answer to a security question or a one-time passcode. Enter it in QuickBooks Online when asked, then update the bank feed. Afterwards, compare the feed's dates with the bank's website so no days are missing. ## What bank error 185 asks for in QuickBooks Online Bank error 185 is a request, not a failure. Intuit's article on [fixing bank error 185](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/direct-feeds/how-to-fix-banking-error-185/00/186185) says it means the bank requires more information after you enter your credentials. The connection still works. It is waiting for you. Banks add these steps to protect accounts, and they add them on their own schedule. A feed that updated quietly for months can show 185 the day the bank starts asking a new question or turns on passcodes for sign-ins from outside apps. Nothing changed in QuickBooks. The bank simply asked QuickBooks to fetch an answer, and QuickBooks needs you to supply it. ## Answering error 185 security questions in QuickBooks Online Security questions are the easier version of 185, because you answer them once. Intuit's article says QuickBooks Online remembers your answers and gives them to the bank on later updates. Answer carefully, using the exact spelling you gave the bank, since a near miss sends you back to the start. Here are the steps, using a checking account as the example: 1. Go to Bank transactions and find the account showing the error. 2. Select the error message or the Update button for that account. 3. Read the bank's question in the window that opens and type the answer. 4. If a second question follows, answer it too. Some banks ask several in a row. 5. Wait for the update to finish, then look at the date of the newest line in the For review tab. If 185 appears again on the next update, do not assume the first answer failed. A bank with several security questions may ask a different one each time, and QuickBooks only learns each answer when you supply it. ## Why does error 185 come back with every one-time passcode? Error 185 returns with passcodes because a one-time passcode cannot be saved. The bank sends a fresh code by text, phone call or a security app each time, and Intuit's article says to enter it in QuickBooks Online each time you see the error. A recurring 185 on a passcode bank is expected behavior, not a broken feed. Two habits keep it painless. Update the feed at a time when your phone is with you, because codes expire within minutes. And type the code into the QuickBooks window, not into the bank's own site, which would use up the code without passing it to QuickBooks. ## Error 185 prompts that never appear on screen Sometimes QuickBooks reports 185 but no question or code box ever shows up. The window carrying the question has usually been blocked. Intuit's article suggests turning off the browser's pop-up blocker or trying a different browser. If that does not work, it suggests signing in to QuickBooks in an incognito or private window. A private window starts without saved extensions and stored site data, which removes the usual reasons a prompt gets hidden. Sign in there, update the account, answer the prompt, then go back to your normal browser. ## Who clears error 185 when someone else set up the bank feed? Only the person whose bank sign-in powers the connection can answer the bank's question. If a bookkeeper or a business partner connected the account, you may not know the answers or receive the passcodes. Intuit's article says the original user should re-establish the connection, and the error message offers a way to email them a request. This is common in small businesses where an accountant set up the feeds years ago. If that person has left, the cleaner fix is to disconnect the account and reconnect it with a sign-in the business controls. Then check the first update after reconnecting for a gap or an overlap around the reconnection date. ## Finding missing days after error 185 clears A feed that sat on 185 for a while may not bring in every day it missed. How far back a refreshed feed reaches depends on the bank. So after the first good update, compare the newest and oldest dates in the For review tab with the account activity on the bank's website. ### A worked gap check Here is an example. The dates are illustrative. | Check | Example value | | --- | --- | | Last line before the error | March 2 | | Error first seen | March 5 | | Fixed and updated | March 19 | | Oldest new line after the update | March 12 | | Missing range | March 3 to March 11 | To fill March 3 to March 11, download a file for exactly that range from the bank and upload it to the same account. If the bank only gives you a PDF statement, [QuickBooks Online's manual upload](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/import-transactions/manually-upload-transactions-quickbooks-online/L0rE9OXBz_US_en_US) accepts PDF statements too, or you can turn the PDF into a CSV or QBO file you can check first. A QBO file made from a PDF can be refused for a bank ID QuickBooks does not recognize, which the guide to [unable to verify the financial institution information](/blog/unable-to-verify-the-financial-institution-information) explains. Many PDF statements also end with pages of check images. Those pages hold no transaction rows of their own, and the post on [check images in PDF bank statements](/blog/check-images-in-pdf-bank-statements) shows how to handle them in a conversion. If you keep a second set of books in QuickBooks Desktop, a downloaded file can also report nothing to import when the range overlaps what Desktop already has. The post on [no new transactions in a Web Connect file](/blog/no-new-transactions-in-web-connect-file) covers that case. SimpleBankConvert is being built to turn a PDF statement into an upload file for QuickBooks Online, and the [get started page](/get-started) takes your email until accounts open.