Thanks ranochigo, yes on both. 

Hello.  I had an older version of QT I believe from 2017 that stopped being functional due to Windows Defender issue.  This wallet did have a balance and I have the wallet backed up. 
I upgraded to Core v. 22 and my wallet now has a zero balance.  Does anybody have any advice for me? 

(Bitcoin QT, technically)  I’m actually thinking now that this is the way to go for me.
I checked out https://electrum.org/#home .  They mention “Electrum is fast, because it uses servers that index the Bitcoin blockchain.”  So, am I correct that I would not need to resync?  I probably should have done this in the first place. 

Where do I find my private keys?  Are they somewhere in the “wallet.dat” file?

No I don’t want to blame him for the terminology.  His proposal was to set up a Linux component on my PC and install the Linux version of Core then copy over the blockchain and the rest of the wallet info and run it that way.  I have decided that this solution is too elaborate to be appealing.  Also, I don’t really have 500GB of free space to play with, so would need to address that.  Also not sure if I could have just copied the blockchain or would have had to resync?  I am not interested in doing that again.   
HCP wrote
In weighing my options I feel that installing and importing my keys to Electrum is less out there than the above. 
My helper recommended not installing an unsigned .exe which is not something I was thinking about originally but I definitely see his point.  I’m assuming the Electrum .exe is signed?

This is over my head but have sent this to the person helping me for comments.

We’re nearing the end of this if the whole Electrum thing goes smoothly.  Does anybody have any other Electrum info that I need to know? 

Thanks again, everyone. 

I’m actually paying someone reliable now to help me with this.  He is proposing we set up a virtual Linux Core wallet.  I am okay with this but I can’t just make a transaction by sending payment from one wallet to the next.  Payment could and has disappeared in the QT wallet and not been recovered, so it will probably be needed to import or copy my wallet info and blockchain to the new wallet. 
One other question before I do this, though.  Is a signed Windows version of Core forthcoming?  I am willing to wait a little while, but if not then I will go with the Linux.   


My QT btw is a very old V 0.8.6.0-g03a7d67-beta designed apparently to just be experimental. 

An associate of mine pointed out that the Core installation file is unsigned.  (bitcoin-0.21.1-win64-setup-unsigned)  Apparently this is very easy to do.  I’m wondering if there is a reason for this?   

I made two backups of my wallet.  
Then I downloaded "bitcoin-0.21.0-win64-setup" from https://bitcoin.org/en/download
I have never had this happen before, but my PC will not let me run it.
I get the error message "An administrator has blocked you from running this app.  For more information contact the administrator."
I am the only one who uses this PC and am the administrator.  I tried running it as administrator but get the same message.  
I found a Windows security setting called Developer Mode to install apps from any source that I enabled then restarted but get the same message.  
Any ideas how to get around this?
I am running Windows 10 Home 64-bit.    

Okay, I see.  Is it typically a large file size?

Okay I am going to do all of this on Friday.
I will make two backups of my wallet.
Is there anything I need to know about when backing up a wallet?
And does it mater where I save it?   I’m thinking I should just use wherever the default location is. 
I will let everyone know how all of this works out.   

Hi everyone.
Sorry I stayed away for so long.  I needed a break.

In the meantime my QT blockchain did finish syncing.
I tried making a transaction on March 11 and it went through so I figured my problems were over. 
But then I made another transaction while fully synced on March 26 and it did not go through.
As of now those funds still did not come back into my wallet.     

The receiver sent me this: 


I’m guessing the advice on this forum will be the same – I should upgrade my wallet.
I have decided to go with Core but just have a couple of questions. 
I will firstly back up my QT wallet, but I am wondering – in Core somewhere will there be a simple option to load a wallet or is the process more elaborate?
Also, I’m doubting that I will need to recync since on my hard drive I have blockchain data (AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin) so I can point the Core data directory to that folder if it isn’t in the first place?  Is there anything else I need to know about this?     
 
Here are the details of my unsuccessful transaction that did not come back:


And of course I continue to be very appreciative for the excellent help that I have been getting from the community. 

So, it seems like the safest course of action is to back up my wallet, upgrade to Core, then increase database cache.  I will want to do the Core upgrade obviously in a safe manner.

QT does not have an option to increase database cache.  I will look at doing this when I have Core.     

My version of QT is 4.8.5

I’m using an i5 3.20GHz processor and have 12GB of RAM.  And just a regular HDD. 

50MB/S

In about three weeks I went from 223 weeks behind to the current 30.  I was leaving my PC on all day and at first I was synching about 15 weeks per day then progressively slower to the point that I am now synching about three weeks per day.  Also, I was closing all of my other programs for most of the synch in the belief this would speed it up.

Yes I’m pretty sure the transaction did not go through.  I’m not too worried and will do the transaction over when the time comes. 

Hey there BitMaxz / community. 
Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner.
My original plan was to just be patient and let the QT network synch, but this had gotten progressively slower to the point that now it is so slow it has become intolerable, and getting more so. 
Now I am thinking that I should take your advice and copy my private keys to Electrum or add a "dbcache"?
This is not something that I currently know how to do. 
I guess that somewhere in QT there is a private key, then I download and install Electrum and somewhere in there will be a place to copy my private key?   
Unless adding "dbcache" is less risky?  I am willing to wait awhile for the synch, I’m not in a huge rush to use my funds, just like I said the current speed has become incredibly slow.  If so, I am running a PC with Windows 10.  Is there anything else you need to know for this?   
Wondering what the community thinks about this?  Is one of these methods less risky than the other?  Any advice or tips that I can get to help me do this would be appreciated

I would very much appreciate some help with a transaction. 

I made a btc transaction on QT that did not go through and is frozen.  This was to a company I have successfully used before, but it has been a few years. 
The receiver sent me a link that supposedly confirms that the payment was not made (https://blockstream.info/address/37ua6XDW8wyAMnM8rBgsKRTEECQayhmGC2).

Here are my transaction details:

Status: 0/unconfirmed
Date: 2021-01-08 11:44
To: 37ua6XDW8wyAMnM8rBgsKRTEECQayhmGC2
Debit: -0.01000946 BTC
To: Network Fee Donation 19yFRV1tSgJE2p3gQmeufntAsufatUvCs4
Debit: -0.0001 BTC
Transaction fee: -0.0001 BTC
Net amount: -0.01020946 BTC
Transaction ID: 020d601b2908df3af33a288f37965a6dceb3542173a11528b6906b1643c0d642

I'm using the older QT wallet which I am learning is upgradable to Core, I believe?  If I were to upgrade would this help my situation, and if I did the upgrade would I still be able to recover the unconfirmed transaction in the new wallet as well as my balance? 

Could the problem be that my QT network is unsynchronized?
The last time I used it it was out of synch as well, but the transaction still went through.

I'm 223 weeks behind so it looks like a QT synch would take forever.  Is there another way?

I’m also reading that a low transaction fee can cause this?     

What exactly is a miner, what would one cost, and is this a better way to go for me?   

Any help that I can get with this would be very much appreciated.

Sorry to be off topic.  I'm using QT which I am just learning is upgradable to core.  I will post a new question myself re. my issues and specs, but I now know I need to back up my wallet and upgrade to core and take it from there.

Okay, well I'm 223 weeks behind so it looks like this will take forever. 
Is there any way to speed this up?
The last time I used it it was out of synch as well, but the transaction still went through.     

Could the problem be that my network is unsynchronized?   

Thanks o_e_l_e_o
Here are my transaction details:

Status: 0/unconfirmed
Date: 2021-01-08 11:44
To: 37ua6XDW8wyAMnM8rBgsKRTEECQayhmGC2
Debit: -0.01000946 BTC
To: Network Fee Donation 19yFRV1tSgJE2p3gQmeufntAsufatUvCs4
Debit: -0.0001 BTC
Transaction fee: -0.0001 BTC
Net amount: -0.01020946 BTC
Transaction ID: 020d601b2908df3af33a288f37965a6dceb3542173a11528b6906b1643c0d642

Same problem I think.  
I made a payment using bitcoin-qt that seems stuck.  The receiver sent me a link that supposedly confirms that the payment was not made (https://blockstream.info/address/37ua6XDW8wyAMnM8rBgsKRTEECQayhmGC2).
I am very new to bitcoin and have not transferred anything since 2017, but that was to the same recipient and it worked.
Is this because of my transaction fee?  My transaction fee is set to 0.00010000 - is this too low?  And if so, what should it be?  
Also, is there a way I could top off this fee?  
I would like to get the transaction completed or refunded, so if anybody could help me with this I would very much appreciate it.