Bitcoin Forum

Apologies for spamming the board again with my noob problems, I appreciate all the comments from everyone in the community.

I still am having major issues syncing my blockchain with the rest of the network :-/ Not sure what else to try...?

I have my bitcoin-qt running with the blockchain fully downloaded. I have my bitcoind running also. I feel I should be good at this point, but when I use bitcoin-cli and run "bitcoin-cli listreceivedbyaddress 1 true" or getbalance, listunspent. They all display a balance of 0.000. However, when I put my address into Blockchain Explorer, I can see the transactions I sent to this address and correct balance.

For some reason, I just cannot seem to sync my bitcoin core so that my bitcoin-cli reflects this and I can see the transactions? It's very frustrating because I know I must be close, I just cannot seem to make it work. I can only think it must be something wrong with my bitcoin.conf file. I'm not sure if I should have added in some of these "server" or "daemon" flags or included rpc user and password somewhere?

Here is a copy of my file if anyone can make any suggestions?

Thanks again.


# Generated by https://jlopp.github.io/bitcoin-core-config-generator/

# This config should be placed in following path:
# %UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin\bitcoin.conf

# [core]
# Specify a non-default location to store blockchain data.
blocksdir=D:\\blocks
# Specify a non-default location to store blockchain and other data.
datadir=D:\\blocks

# [wallet]
# Specify wallet database path. Can be specified multiple times to load multiple wallets. Path is interpreted relative to <walletdir> if it is not absolute and will be created if it does not exist.
wallet=D:\\blocks


# [Sections]
# Most options automatically apply to mainnet, testnet, and regtest networks.
# If you want to confine an option to just one network, you should add it in the relevant section.
# EXCEPTIONS: The options addnode, connect, port, bind, rpcport, rpcbind and wallet
# only apply to mainnet unless they appear in the appropriate section below.

# Options only for mainnet
[main]

# Options only for testnet
[test]

# Options only for regtest
[regtest]

Did you use that wallet file while the node was synchronizing with the network? If not then you need to relaunch Bitcoin Core with -rescan parameter. Don't forget to remove it once the rescan is complete. If your node is synced properly then there is nothing wrong with your config.

You don't need to have RPC information entered, that is for connecting to bitcoind on other platforms (like servers, for example). You can try -rescan as Bitcryptex mentioned, if that doesn't work, try -reindex too. Reindex doesn't re-download the blockchain but it still has to check chainstate and block data, so it will take a while.

Thanks for the reply.

One thing I just noticed, which may or may not mean anything. I noticed my bitcoind running, and each line seems to show a hex with a large number of preceding zeros. I am wondering if these are blocks in the blockchain? I also notice that the 'Height' is increasing sequentially and is up to 457642. When I look here: https://live.blockcypher.com/btc/ I notice the 'Height' of the recent block is 604222. Does that mean I only actually have about 2/3 of the blockchain? So I won't see my transactions until I reach the block in the chain in which those transactions were entered?

Sorry for my noobness, I am just guessing here :-/

Yes, your node hasn't been fully synced, yet. You will see your current balance once the sync finishes. There is no need to use -rescan in this case.

I'm curious what made you think this given that you later said this:


Clearly the blockchain isn't yet fully downloaded, and you seem to realize that now as well. I'm just wondering what made you think it was fully downloaded before?

To be honest I am a bit confused by this too. I had bitcoin-qt open for several days while it downloaded the blockchain. Whenever I load it up bitcoin-qt it always takes a few mins to resync.

However when I run bitcoind, it appears to suggest that I still have a significant way to go to finish downloading the blockchain...? At this point I don't even care, I just want it to sync so I can see my $5 worth of bitcoin transactions. I can only think that perhaps I wasn't downloading the blockchain to the same directory everytime. Although I thought I have been downloading to D:\blocks the whole time, so I'm not sure how that might have happened?

that's where you're going wrong

if you think you can do this without learning some really 1st principles basics, you're more likely to make mistakes and become frustrated.

If that is indeed the case, then it is possible that your bitcoin-qt and bitcoind are syncing to 2 different locations...

In Bitcoin-qt... goto "Windows -> Information" and look for the "Datadir" and "Blocksdir" values:
https://talkimg.com/images/2023/11/15/z5m4w.png


When you run "bitcoin-cli"... what value are you using for the -datadir argument? Is it the same or different to the "Datadir" value displayed in bitcoin-qt?