Thanks for the reply, but that is absolutely not the problem. I have checked all of my Intuit user names. I also noticed another reply to @solidrockaccounting  suggesting to call Proseries support. That's what I tried first - two calls with the agents not even understanding what I was talking about and a third with someone who was very keen to help, knew what I was talking about, but ultimately had no solution. Apparently QEF is a black box and if it goes wrong there is no easily accessible solution.

So, no, I still do not have an answer