Connecting Vanguard (US)

A Vanguard connection is less steady than most and can drop every few days. One Vanguard setting helps, and nothing is lost while it is down.

What to expect

A Vanguard connection signs in with your Vanguard login, and it currently works less reliably than most brokers: the first attempt to connect can fail (try again), and a connection tends to last days rather than months.

Making it steadier

In Vanguard's security settings (security-code.web.vanguard.com), turn off Prompt me with security codes every time I log in. Connections last longer with it off.

It is a security setting

With it off, Vanguard no longer asks for a security code every time you log in. Decide whether that suits you; reconnecting when the connection drops is the alternative.

While it is down

Most values stay current. Funds and shares we can match to a market listing are priced every day from market data, not from Vanguard. Your cash, and the estimated line described below, stay at their last synced figure until the connection is back.
Nothing is lost. Click Reconnect on the Vanguard card in Manage Connections; the trades, dividends and cash movements from the time in between come in.

The “estimated” money-market line

We have seen Vanguard leave money-market funds, such as its settlement fund, out of the holdings it shares. When the holdings shared fall clearly short of the account total, we fill the gap: under the fund's own name when we can tell which fund it is, otherwise as a line called Money market / uninvested (estimated). Either way the account's value matches Vanguard; only that line is estimated.

529 accounts can connect, but their holdings cannot be read at the moment, so a 529's value may appear on the estimated line instead.

Something else wrong?

The brokerage sync guide covers mapping and disconnecting. If your figures disagree with Vanguard, tell us.