Keeping your data current

The one honest fact that resolves most confusion on this page comes first:your banks update on their own, a few times a day. When your bank reports new activity, we are told and your register updates without you doing anything. Your dashboard still tells you when a connection has gone quiet rather than showing you old numbers.

Pressing Sync does not make your bank check right now. Worth knowing, because it is the opposite of what most people assume. Your bank shares data on its own schedule — commonly one to four times a day, and for some banks only once. Both the automatic updates and the Sync button collect whatever your bank has released since last time; neither can make it release anything sooner. So if a charge from an hour ago is missing, pressing Sync will not conjure it, and nothing is broken — the bank simply has not published it yet.

Three different problems that look the same

“My data is wrong” almost always turns out to be one of these three, and each needs a different fix:

• You have not synced lately. Press Sync. If the numbers move, that was it — nothing was ever broken.
• The bank wants you to sign in again. Banks expire access periodically, and some do it every 90 days by policy — that is their rule, not something you did wrong. Settings → Bank Connections will show the connection needing attention — reconnect it there and nothing is lost.
• The connection never finished its first sync. Rarer, and it looks like a bank that connected but never brought anything. Disconnect it and connect again.

Balances and transactions can disagree briefly

A balance is what your bank says right now; transactions are what it has finished processing. Between a charge being authorized and settling, the two legitimately differ — neither number is lying to you. That gap closes on its own — see Your first sync.

Disconnecting deletes that bank’s data

Worth knowing before you reach for it as a fix. Disconnecting an institution removes the connection at Plaid and permanently deletes that bank’s accounts, their transaction history, and any debts imported from it — including rates and names you edited by hand. The app asks you to confirm. If the problem is just staleness, sync or reconnect instead — the record you have been keeping is worth protecting.