Hi again, I never actually managed to complete the full sync due to internet limitation where I was back then. I have some follow up questions before I attempt any of these restores:

Could someone please clarify this statement from above? "We are planning on moving to BIP 32 which will thus deprecate the currently used stuff. However the legacy wallet systems will likely still be kept for backwards compatibility."

Does this mean that at some point the older paper backups will not be restorable into the newer clients? Has this happened yet?

I also have some questions of compatibility around bitcoin core and Armory.
Currently, I have Bitcoin core 15.1 installed and finishing the sync of the blockchain. My main reason for updating was to take advantage of the big initial sync performance improvements. I'm now not 100% sure which versions of Armory support this.
For example, 96.0 says it supports 14.0+, does this mean 14.x only or does it include 15.x?
I'm running OSX and have Armory 95.1 installed, it seems 96.1 is the latest that has OSX support, is that correct?

Lastly, is there any danger in restoring into a slightly older version of Armory. E.g, if I restore into 95.1, is this ok? To clarify my original post title was slightly off. My paper backup was actually from the start of 2014, so it's now closer to 4 years.

I really appreciate all the help on here, thanks!

Thanks again, I think I understand the process now.

Just a few more questions about the paper backups.

Is there a limit to the compatibility of the paper backups? For example, will my paper backup from 2 years ago successfully restore into the latest Armory version? Is this backup likely to still be valid in another 2 years? Will a paper backup from the official Armory wallet restore into one of the community forked versions?

Thanks.

Just wondering if there's a way around syncing the entire block chain (although this sounds the safest way to restore).

What information is on the Armory paper backup? Is it possible to restore this using a sweep function into a different wallet that may not require the entire blockchain?

Just wondering what the worst case scenario would be if the entire Armory dev team disappeared and I could't get hold of the software for example.

Hey guys,

I've been sitting on some BTC for a few years which I had stored in an offline Armory wallet running on a Debian desktop. I also have a paper backup of the wallet and the passphrase written down somewhere (I hope the ink hasn't faded).

I've neglected the Debian desktop completely and it hasn't been turned on for around 2 years. At the current size I'm guessing the blockchain will take me days or weeks to sync. What's going to happen when I power it back on? I've also been reading about the dev team at Armory changing and some possible forks - will this impact me? Is Armory still a good choice for cold storage for smaller amounts of BTC.

With BTC rising again I suppose there will be a few people in my situation.