Bitcoin Forum

So I forced a shutdown on my mac running 10.10.4 Yosemite, and when I restarted Bitcoin-Qt v0.8.4 I get:

"System Error: Database Corrupted". I then click OK, and the program "quits unexpectedly"

After googling a bit, I find what seems to be a simple fix.  I goto /library/application support/bitcoin/blocks
renamed the "index" folder to "index1", and restarted bitcoin-qt.

This seems to help.  The program opens without the error message and begins reindexing.  It shows a balance of 0 BTC, but an unconfirmed balance equal to my original balance.

However, now I see the message "Warning displayed transactions may not be correct, you may need to upgrade or other nodes may need to upgrade".  I let it sit for 5 days straight and nothing changes.  It still reads "synchronizing with network" across the bottom, but the status bar hasn't moved.

Now I'm getting worried.

I quit the program, copy my wallet.dat file to the desktop and run this code in terminal:

open /Applications/Bitcoin-Qt.app --args -salvagewallet

Now everything is the same, but even my UNCONFIRMED balance shows as zero!

Any help would be appreciated.  I never thought bitcoin was this fragile.

It isn't that fragile... I would suggest to save your wallet.dat, and start all over again...
Install the wallet from scratch, import your old wallet.dat, make sure you have peers (getpeerinfo). If not, wait or add some nodes (addnode).
Wait untill everything syncs (can take several days), and you should be allright...

The wallet.dat is the only really important file. It holds your keys... The only thing you can lose by starting over (BUT WITH YOUR OLD WALLET.DAT) are the comments, labels or the addresses in your adress book you made

Can you expand on your instructions a bit?  I don't know how to import a wallet and I'm not familiar with getpeerinfo or addnode?  Thanks so much.  I'm missing a significant number of coins at this point.

Whatever you will try, backup your wallet.dat first!

Your client is pretty old, upgrading the client to a current version is strongly recommended (consider it mandatory). That should fix the "you may need to upgrade or other nodes may need to upgrade" warning and allow the client to catch up with the blockchain relatively quickly.
After upgrading the client and syncing it your balance should be visible again. If it does not, you should stop the client, copy the wallet.dat from your backup to the right place, and restart the client.

Onkel Paul

I just upgraded the client to the current version, but I'm stuck with "No block source available..." for about the last hour.

Firewall issues maybe?
I don't use Macs, so I don't know how likely it is that there are default rules that might prevent proper blockchain sync.
Have you had a look at the debug console of Bitcoin-QT? Does it provide any sort of meaningful info?

Onkel Paul

I don't see how it could be a firewall issue.  I've been running Bitcoin-Qt for years with no problem from this same iMac.

How do I navigate to the "debug console"?  I don't see it.

The firewall could be blocking connections to and from the program.

To get to the debug console, go to Help > Debug Console. It should tell you how many connections you have. If it has some connections, click on the Peers tab and see if the peers are actually connected. If they are connected the ping time should NOT be N/A. If it is N/A, then something is wrong.

There are multiple nodes showing with ping times all between 101 and 135 ms

Did you COPY the wallet.dat to the desktop, or did you MOVE it?

If you moved it, then QT created a brand new empty wallet for you in the /library/application support/bitcoin folder and is now using that new empty wallet instead of your original wallet.  As long as you don't delete or overwrite the wallet on your desktop, you should still be able to recover the bitcoins.

 @ op  how many coins are in question?


I ask because  it matters quite a bit for backups.


Mac allows  a 'perfect' clone of your  os disk on an external drive.

The mac mini I am typing from has 2 clones of its os drive thus giving real backups to everything on the mac.

would you consider doing this in the future to prevent a coin loss?


I think I will do a thread on how to do this.

There's a similar situation and quite a bit of potentially helpful answers here http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/12952/how-to-resolve-no-block-source-available-and
I don't use mac, but personally, when i had the same problem, it was resolved by restarting both router and core client (on win tho)

cheers

Your coins are fine if you have a backup or your wallet file. Bitcoin isn't fragile unless you don't know what you're doing.

This is about the most solid answer in the whole thread; As long as there is  copy of the original wallet.dat, you'll be fine.

I believe what you guys are saying, and I'm maintaining my cautiously optimistic outlook, but the reality is that I've done everything suggested and I still show "no block source available" and show a zero balance.  It's been a week since the problem first occurred.

I'm thinking I'd like to reinstall.  What's the best way to uninstall before a reinstall?

It doesn't really matter how you uninstall... AS LONG AS YOU SAVED YOUR WALLET.DAT (sorry for the caps, but this is really important)...

First, backup your wallet.dat file.  You can place it on your desktop.

Second, make sure you really did make a copy of your wallet.dat file and that it's in a location you can retrieve it later.  This is very important.  You lose this, and your coins truly are lost.

If your user name is MstrMynd, you'll find your wallet (and all other related files) here:

Open a terminal window and type this:

That copies your existing wallet to your desktop.

Now, to completely uninstall the application, drag it into the trash.  Then, delete the contents of the folder above.  You DID save your wallet.dat file, right?  If you didn't now you've truly lost your coins.  In the same terminal window, type this:

Now, download the latest Bitcoin Core client (v 0.11.0).  Drag it into your Applications folder as usual.  Start up the application.  It should connect and start downloading the blockchain again.  Yeah, it's going to take a while.  Once you actually have some connections, stop the client.  Copy your old wallet.dat file back into the folder:

Launch the Bitcoin application again.  It'll continue downloading blocks, and when everything is caught back up, you'll have your coins.