Bitcoin Forum

I purchased some bitcoins back in June of 2011 and transfered them from Mt.Gox to a Bitcoin QT wallet for storage.

Since, sometime in 2012, i stupidly deleted my Bitcoin directory with the blockchain including the wallet.dat file!

I have since been able to recover the original wallet.dat file from August of 2011, which is 90kb and seems to contain the transaction receipt from the Mt.Gox bitcoin withdrawl.

I have now upgraded to the most recent bitcoin-qt client (v.0.85) and updated the entire blockchain with bootstrap.dat. Bitcoin-qt is telling me i am all up to date with the network, but my balance in my wallet shows up as zero. I do have the receipt address of the Mt.Gox transaction, but nothing in my 'transactions' tab.

So, I would like to know if anyone has any advice on recovering these bitcoins and how to proceed, thanks!

You could try launching the bitcoinqt with the "-rescan" argument, assuming that you have restored your wallet.dat in the right place.
-> https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Running_Bitcoin

It will relaunch your bitcoin client and rescan all the blockchain for missing wallet transactions

Hope you manage to get that working again and extract those bitcoins.

I tried running the -rescan as you suggested, but still nothing is showing up afterwards (Zero balance in the wallet).

Is there any other way I can track down the intial cash-out transaction from Mt Gox to my wallet based on the address for it so I can see where the coins went?

When you go into your transactions, do you see the transactions back and forth back in 2011 and then it ends up at 0?

Or, no transactions, and no balance?

Do you still have your gox acct?

No transactions and no balance in my wallet. Only a receiving address with the MtGox Address.

I still have my Gox account.

Where did the Gox output go? What address?

If the wallet you have, has no transactions at all after a rescan, you found an unused wallet backup.

The Gox withdrawl went to an address that shows up in my wallet.dat file in multiple locations.

If for some reason it didn't make it to this wallet ever, is there another way to recover the Bitcoins that were withdrawn from gox if i know the transaction address?

Look at your address on blockchain.info/address/<youraddress>
ex for 1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX -> http://blockchain.info/address/1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX

No addresses are public knowledge.  Anyone can lookup any address from the blockchain.  Anyone could spend anyone's coins if all that is necessary is the address (hash of public key).  The private key is the secret. 

I see my public address on blockchain.info.

Where can i find the associated private key and how do i re-claim them if they were never downloaded to my wallet?

If you have the same address in your wallet, you also have the private key. (which you should NOT share on here)

If you are the owner of that address, and you see that address has a balance on blockchain.info; then you are the owner of those coins.

The private key is there in the output of my wallet.dat json export.

What should i do with it? Shouldn't Bitcoin-qt pick up on the private key and show my balance if it's valid?

Seems like maybe i don't have the version of the wallet.dat that fully received the transaction. In that case, what can i do?

You can share the address but NOT the private key.

In Bitcoin-qt, is that same address in your list of addresses?
I mean; the address you looked up on blockchain.info (which should have that balance you bought on mt.gox) is this address in your list of addresses in your wallet?

why don't you give us the address OP (NOT the private key!) so we can look at the blockchain and see what's up

STOP (and relax, no need to rush).
Make sure you make a backup of your wallet.dat.  Don't work on the only copy you have.
Also don't share the private key with ANYONE.

If you aren't concerned about privacy sharing the PUBLIC ADDRESS in question can help people help you.  There is no security risk by doing so but it does give up some privacy (personally I wouldn't be too worried but you need to judge that for yourself).

IF the private key for the address which has funds is in your wallet.dat then you have funds.  Don't lose it, don't share it.  The client may be "confused" or you may have done something unusual/unexpected (like have a different wallet.dat being loaded but regardless if you have the private key you have the funds*.  Everything else can be fixed.

See DC post above for some next steps ^


*To any noobs following along.  This is often a common misconception.  A wallet files doesn't ever contain ANY Bitcoins.  All the Bitcoins are on all nodes all over the world that make up the Bitcoin network.  Yes "your coins" are on tens of thousands of strangers computers.   The wallet file contains the KEYS which let you and only you spend those coins.  If you have the key you have access to the coins.  If you don't have the key you don't have access to the coins.  All other issues, weirdness, software errors can be fixed other than losing the private key.  That can never be fixed.  No key, no way to ever spend the coins.  They are still there, you can look at them, you can wave but nobody can ever spend them.


This is a non-issue see above.  Lets make sure you actually have the correct wallet.dat installed and that wallet.dat has the private key for the address which has funds.   See DC post above ^.

If you do then GREAT NEWS there are a lot of ways to recover your funds.  Make sure you keep a backup (hint: the copy you are actively working with isn't a backup) and don't share the private key.

The two easiest ways is to try to either resync your client or export the private key into another wallet (blockchain.info would be simplest) but do what DC suggested first.

I have tried both resyncing my bitcoin client and uploading what i think is the private key to a blockchain.info wallet i created. Neither of which show any record of the bitcoins.

I think it's safe to assume now, that the wallet.dat backup i'm using doesn't actually contain the correct private key, nor do i recall it ever showing up in my initial Bitcoin-qt wallet when i set it up 2 years ago.

Where can I look to retreive the actual transaction private key? Are they lost forever?

you been writing to this hard drive in the mean time?

Yes, the harddrive is an ssd and has been my main machine being used on a daily basis.

bread45: DeathAndTaxes is saying all you need to know and what we others were too lazy or too ignorant to explain. Listen to him and follow his advice.

It appears that the transaction was never fully downloaded to the wallet.

Where would the private key for these bitcoins that were transfered exist if not in the wallet?

Will be very hard

you aren't listening

if blockchain.info shows the coins associated with that address they are associated with that address

either you posses the key to that address or you do not

go back and read the thread

This.  You don't "download" Bitcoins.   The Bitcoins were sent to an address.  You either have the private key for that address or you don't.  If you have that address in your wallet, you have that private key in your wallet as well.  If you don't have that address and private key in your wallet then your coins are lost or were never yours (potentially you sent them to an address you have NEVER had control of).

Another post shows how you can check if the address and private key are in your wallet.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=340948.msg3656457#msg3656457

If you post that address we can help you a little more by providing specific instructions but the concept is still the same.
To spend from Address X requires private key Y.  If Address X is yours and is part of this wallet.dat then private key Y should be also.

Thanks everyone for your help on this.

Ok, one last try here.

So I was able to find the following info on blockchain.info about the cashout transaction from Mt.Gox back in June, 2011

Original Mt.Gox transaction (cashout for 15 BTC)
https://blockchain.info/address/12Yim3HLs3vtpNonkSNN8WP6SiRL5svDeg

Unspent amount (14.9)
https://blockchain.info/unspent?active=12Yim3HLs3vtpNonkSNN8WP6SiRL5svDeg&format=html

So, If the bitcoins never made it to my wallet, is there any way I can re-capture them, or are they lost forever?

It may seem like a techincal distinction but it matters.  Bitcoins don't "go to your wallet" Bitcoins are on the blockchain.  So the only thing that matters is do you have that address and private key in your wallet.dat file.  Simple version is if the answer is yes you have the coins, and if the answer is no you don't.

Longer version:
The 14.9 BTC was sent to address 12Yim3HLs3vtpNonkSNN8WP6SiRL5svDeg, they haven't been spent so the person who has the private key for 12Yim3HLs3vtpNonkSNN8WP6SiRL5svDeg is the only person who can spend them.
So lets start at the beginning.  Is 12Yim3HLs3vtpNonkSNN8WP6SiRL5svDegin your wallet?


DC provided a good way for you to determine if that is the case

If it provides you the private key then you are good.  If it provides an error then this wallet.dat file doesn't contain that address and thus doesn't have the private key necessary to spend those coins.

So if you get the error some long shots:
Are you sure you copied the backup wallet.dat to proper folder (is the client looking at the correct wallet.dat)?
Is it possible you created this address after you made a backup (100 future keys are stored but if the backup is very old relative to the date of the transaction it may not contain this private key) and maybe you made another backup after this transaction?  
Do you have any other wallet.dat files anywhere on any drive (hdd, usb, etc)?  If you have more than one wallet.dat files I would check them all.
Is it possible this address wasn't part of your wallet?  Maybe it was for an online account like another exchange or eWallet?

If you don't have this address in any wallet.dat file anywhere and it isn't the deposit address for an online service then there is no there is nothing to recover.  No private key = no coins.  I hope that isn't the case.

that wallet indeed has 14.9BTC associated with it

now to find the key to that address

you really need to figure out how wallets work

Help with recovering wallet as I'm having no luck. Created a backup wallet and stored it on flash drive and one on my server. Days later my HD went out, saw the disk 11 errors coming, so fresh Win8.1 with fresh bitcoin-qt install on SSD. Deleted the on startup wallet.dat from C:\Users\D\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin and copied my backup from server. Ran bitcoin-qt -rescan as instructions indicate but no joy. I closed bitcoin-qt.exe and deleted the new wallet and copied the second backup that I'd made days later. Started with rescan again and no joy.