Bitcoin Forum

Hello everyone and thanks for taking the time to read this.

Here is the situation:

About 4 days ago I sent a transaction to my wallet. I hadn't updated this wallet for a few months so it needed some time to catch up and synch with the network. I noticed the 5-15 upgrade message after sending my coin to that wallet. I didn't think this would be an issue since at the time I still had a few days until the upgrade deadline. Fast forward to yesterday evening and it was obvious the synch would not be completed by the upgrade deadline. So I upgraded to the newest version of the client and fell asleep while it was verifying the whole block chain and synching. Just now I woke up and client is now "up to date" but my bitcoin I sent is nowhere to be seen. Where did my coin go and how do I get it back? Thanks for any help

What client are you using ?

If it's bitcoin-qt, you could try to stop it and start it again with bitcoin-qt -rescan

Yes, I am using bitcoin-qt. Should I do this with the latest version? When I sent the coins I had an older version installed 0.7.2 I believe. Not sure if that matters. It seems unlikely to me a rescan would help since it just verified the entire block chain a few hours ago. Willing to try anything you think will help though. Let me know. Thanks

Update: I just re-installed the old version that is set to expire tomorrow. It still has 38 days left of block to catch up on, which I dont think I have time to complete before the 5-15 deadline. Interesting because the newest version was caught up. So what can I do to keep my btc safe at this point?

Your coins should show up in the new client.

They didn't show up in the new client even after it said it was up to date with network. So I installed the older version and now it still has over 30 days to catch up. Problem is the new changes that are going to be implemented tomorrow will disable this wallet. I really hope my btc don't just disappear.  Any other suggestions?

Coins are not stored on your computer, or in your wallet.  If the transaction actually happened in the public block chain, it doesn't matter what software you are using to see it.

You just need to make sure that you still have the wallet.dat that contains the key to the address you sent to.

Thanks, but what would cause the newest version to be synched with the network and not show my coins when the old version still is catching up? I'm guessing once the old version catches up enough I will see my coins. I'm just worried the 5-15 deadline might mess things up. Still 20 days of catch up to go on the old version before I should see my coins. I also want to add the new version also had the address I sent the coin too listed under receive coins. Anyone know what could be the issue here? I might be on a very short amount of time to act before I lose my coin due to the deadline.

I'm trying to tell you that the deadline has nothing to do with this.  It has zero effect on transactions.  It won't cause you to lose anything.

What I'd like to know is, how many wallet.dat files do you have, and which one has the key to the address that you sent your coins to?

If the new version showed that address under Received, then it should have that transaction.  Check one of the public blockchain websites (blockexporer.com, blockchain.info, etc).  Just search for that address and see if you can find that transaction.  If the transaction shows up there, but not in your client, then you may need to stop and start again with -rescan.

If you are willing to post the transaction hash or the address involved, someone can try to look it up for you if you aren't familiar with searching those sites.

Thanks, I really appreciate the help. Here is the address I sent the 1btc to: 1HMhavnBSAARMjRq3UfTTxgGi812uXAbA6
it was about 5-6 days ago. I will look into the wallet.dat files now and get back to you asap on that part. Thanks again

I only see 1 wallet.dat file in that folder.

The last activity I see on that address is from April of 2011.  Are you really sure that is the address you sent to?

http://blockexplorer.com/address/1HMhavnBSAARMjRq3UfTTxgGi812uXAbA6

This might be the problem. I had someone else send it to me and they told me it was sent but maybe they made a mistake and didn't finish the process. I will have them confirm but this is what it looks like now. Thanks for your help