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Bitcoin => Bitcoin Technical Support => Topic started by: mrx on June 10, 2011, 12:32:02 PM



Title: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: mrx on June 10, 2011, 12:32:02 PM
Now I have a wallet first created on computer A and it has some BTC in it. Then I installed another copy of bitcoin on computer B(both are Windows). I want two of my computers share one wallet, then I don't need to check both computers to get my overall balance.

The problem is when I copied my wallet from computer A to computer B, the client on computer B won't open. It shows the interface then some errors which says "alloc" or something(forget it, can't access computer B now), and then the client exits.

I've tried to copy all files under %appdata%/Bitcoin on computer A to computer B, and the client could start, but after receiving a payment it crashed again with same error.

Are wallets designed to be used on only 1 computer or there is sth wrong with my computers?

my 1st post and I'm not good at English...


Title: Re: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: cypherdoc on June 10, 2011, 07:33:50 PM
Now I have a wallet first created on computer A and it has some BTC in it. Then I installed another copy of bitcoin on computer B(both are Windows). I want two of my computers share one wallet, then I don't need to check both computers to get my overall balance.

The problem is when I copied my wallet from computer A to computer B, the client on computer B won't open. It shows the interface then some errors which says "alloc" or something(forget it, can't access computer B now), and then the client exits.

I've tried to copy all files under %appdata%/Bitcoin on computer A to computer B, and the client could start, but after receiving a payment it crashed again with same error.

Are wallets designed to be used on only 1 computer or there is sth wrong with my computers?

my 1st post and I'm not good at English...

wallet.dat is interchangeable btwn diff computers, even different OS's.   try deleting all files except wallet.dat in Bitcoin folder and restarting client.


Title: Re: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: cypherdoc on June 10, 2011, 07:35:35 PM
Now I have a wallet first created on computer A and it has some BTC in it. Then I installed another copy of bitcoin on computer B(both are Windows). I want two of my computers share one wallet, then I don't need to check both computers to get my overall balance.

The problem is when I copied my wallet from computer A to computer B, the client on computer B won't open. It shows the interface then some errors which says "alloc" or something(forget it, can't access computer B now), and then the client exits.

I've tried to copy all files under %appdata%/Bitcoin on computer A to computer B, and the client could start, but after receiving a payment it crashed again with same error.

Are wallets designed to be used on only 1 computer or there is sth wrong with my computers?

my 1st post and I'm not good at English...

you won't be able to "share" the same wallet.dat btwn 2 computers.  unfortunately ur gonna have to move wallet.dat back and forth btwn them.


Title: Re: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: Stephen Gornick on June 10, 2011, 11:39:19 PM
I want two of my computers share one wallet, then I don't need to check both computers to get my overall balance.

You might want to look into a client that accesses the bitcoin client using RPC:
 
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Spesmilo
 or
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin-js-remote


Title: Re: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: mrx on June 11, 2011, 02:12:43 AM

you won't be able to "share" the same wallet.dat btwn 2 computers.  unfortunately ur gonna have to move wallet.dat back and forth btwn them.

Then I can't use a wallet simultaneously on two computers?


Title: Re: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: Stephen Gornick on June 11, 2011, 07:50:02 AM
Then I can't use a wallet simultaneously on two computers?

 No.
 http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=5324.msg77896#msg77896
 http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet


Title: Re: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: Ivanish on June 11, 2011, 09:02:56 AM
What about the option of using something like dropbox?


Title: Re: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: Stephen Gornick on June 11, 2011, 10:19:51 AM
What about the option of using something like dropbox?

Though it might work if you can ensure that only one computer will ever run the client at a time, the likely even bigger problem is that for that method to work you would have Dropbox backing up your wallet.dat without encrypting it first.

 http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Securing_your_wallet#General_Solutions
 "Your wallet.dat file is not encrypted by BitCoin. Anyone who can access it can easily steal all of your coins"

So again, the answer is no -- do not try to share the same wallet on more than one computer.


Title: Re: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: mrx on June 12, 2011, 11:13:57 AM
What about the option of using something like dropbox?

Though it might work if you can ensure that only one computer will ever run the client at a time, the likely even bigger problem is that for that method to work you would have Dropbox backing up your wallet.dat without encrypting it first.

 http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Securing_your_wallet#General_Solutions
 "Your wallet.dat file is not encrypted by BitCoin. Anyone who can access it can easily steal all of your coins"

So again, the answer is no -- do not try to share the same wallet on more than one computer.

Generally I use flash disk and VPN connection to computer B's intranet through password protected share to get two wallets synced.

Now I meet the error again just after receiving mining income.

error info:

EXCEPTION: St9bad_alloc
std::bad_alloc
C:\Progra....(path to exe)\bitcoin.exe in
CMyApp::OnExecptionInMainLoop()

and I cannot start the client.

I'll consider using RPC to access my wallet. Thanks for the explanations!


Title: Re: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: mrx on June 12, 2011, 03:56:03 PM
..and now, bitcoin won't start and keep giving the error above on computer A. Computer B is all right.

I plan to start rpc server on computer A with existing wallet file.

I tried to clear out whole %appdata%\bitcoin, no luck.

How to achieve my goal now? ???


Title: Re: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: mrx on June 13, 2011, 05:49:55 AM
Shameless bumping.

I really need to get my computer A working with my wallet because computer B is not accessible without VPN and it's less secure because it's public(I'm sure nobody else using com B know what is Bitcoin but it's public. In fact it's in a class).

Still getting St9bad_alloc problem...


Title: Re: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: mollari on June 15, 2011, 05:03:42 AM
Have you tried updating to the latest client version?
https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=16553.0 (https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=16553.0)


Title: Re: Using same wallet in different computers
Post by: RaTTuS on June 15, 2011, 11:32:37 AM
the other way ,
start bitcoin on your secure machine,
get it's payment address,
and issue a payment from the unsecured one to your new address, continue to use the new one for ever