Did I make a mistake?

[yuyo123]

So I am fairly new to the cryptocurrency world and I wanted to make a payment with bitcoin. I purchased the bitcoins through the exchange and I then downloaded Armory to send my bitcoins to my wallet. I created the wallet and sent the bitcoins. After a couple of minutes of not seeing my balance change I tried closing and opening Armory and a message would come up saying "failed to spawn the DB". So after reading through forums I found out that I my wallet was offline and I needed to download Bitcoin Core. I downloaded Bitcoin Core and for the last couple of hours it's been synchronizing and that it still needs to synch for another year and 46 weeks. I am afraid that I may have lost my bitcoins or that I fucked up. Could someone explain what is going on and if I lost my bitcoins? Thank you!

[PhoenixFire]

So I am fairly new to the cryptocurrency world and I wanted to make a payment with bitcoin. I purchased the bitcoins through the exchange and I then downloaded Armory to send my bitcoins to my wallet. I created the wallet and sent the bitcoins. After a couple of minutes of not seeing my balance change I tried closing and opening Armory and a message would come up saying "failed to spawn the DB". So after reading through forums I found out that I my wallet was offline and I needed to download Bitcoin Core. I downloaded Bitcoin Core and for the last couple of hours it's been synchronizing and that it still needs to synch for another year and 46 weeks. I am afraid that I may have lost my bitcoins or that I fucked up. Could someone explain what is going on and if I lost my bitcoins? Thank you!

First up, they're not lost - don't worry. Keep your Armory wallet files safe - keep your password for that and the seed words (paper backup) safe too. You can check the wallet address's balance on a blockchain explorer like blockchair.
1 year and 46 weeks to sync? Are you sure Bitcoin Core isn't saying it is a year and 46 weeks behind? Is your internet slow?
Do you have 190GB of free disk space? You'll need it for the full download of the Bitcoin blockchain.
Don't panic if the answers to these questions aren't great, just let us know and we can provide some advice on how you should proceed.

While you're waiting, make sure you have Armory 0.96.4

[yuyo123]

So I am fairly new to the cryptocurrency world and I wanted to make a payment with bitcoin. I purchased the bitcoins through the exchange and I then downloaded Armory to send my bitcoins to my wallet. I created the wallet and sent the bitcoins. After a couple of minutes of not seeing my balance change I tried closing and opening Armory and a message would come up saying "failed to spawn the DB". So after reading through forums I found out that I my wallet was offline and I needed to download Bitcoin Core. I downloaded Bitcoin Core and for the last couple of hours it's been synchronizing and that it still needs to synch for another year and 46 weeks. I am afraid that I may have lost my bitcoins or that I fucked up. Could someone explain what is going on and if I lost my bitcoins? Thank you!

First up, they're not lost - don't worry. Keep your Armory wallet files safe - keep your password for that and the seed words (paper backup) safe too. You can check the wallet address's balance on a blockchain explorer like blockchair.
1 year and 46 weeks to sync? Are you sure Bitcoin Core isn't saying it is a year and 46 weeks behind? Is your internet slow?
Do you have 190GB of free disk space? You'll need it for the full download of the Bitcoin blockchain.
Don't panic if the answers to these questions aren't great, just let us know and we can provide some advice on how you should proceed.

While you're waiting, make sure you have Armory 0.96.4

Thank you! It's such a relief to know that I didn't loose anything. Well right now I still have 416 GB of space left. It says that it is 4 years behind and it should take around 5 days to complete synchronizing. How is it that I check my balance in Blockchair? Do I select bitcoin explorer?

[bob123]

I am afraid that I may have lost my bitcoins or that I fucked up. Could someone explain what is going on and if I lost my bitcoins?

You did not lose your bitcoins.
Armory just doesn't have a connection to bitcoin core (since you don't have it installed yet). Therefore it doesn't show your the balance (it has no database to lookup).
All you ever need to access your bitcoins are the private keys (make sure you have a backup!).

It says that it is 4 years behind and it should take around 5 days to complete synchronizing.

If you don't want to completely download and sync bitcoin core, you can always download a lightweight client (e.g. electrum).
Such a SPV client does not need to download/process the whole blockchain. It is relying on a server to get the necessary information about your wallet (balance/transactions/..).

How is it that I check my balance in Blockchair? Do I select bitcoin explorer?

A blockchain explorer is simply a website which has the whole blockchain stored and indexed.
You can just visit the site (e.g. blockchair.com or blockchain.info) and enter your address or transaction id.
If it shows 'confirmed', everything is fine and you have received your coins properly.

[PhoenixFire]

Thank you! It's such a relief to know that I didn't loose anything. Well right now I still have 416 GB of space left. It says that it is 4 years behind and it should take around 5 days to complete synchronizing. How is it that I check my balance in Blockchair? Do I select bitcoin explorer?

Great - that'll be enough space at least.
As bob123 has mentioned above, you really just need to copy the address (that you sent the bitcoins to) into the search box on the explorer.
Once Bitcoin Core is up to date Armory will then need to process the data, which will take some time - not as long, but not fast either.

Again, as bob123 mentioned there are other, lightweight, wallets that don't require the entire bitcoin blockchain to be downloaded - there are pros and cons to either option but while Armory is excellent it is perhaps not the best choice for newbies and it can be finicky to get working for those unfamiliar with it.
Unless you chose a P2SH-P2PK address we can get your coins into another wallet reasonably easily. Up to you to decide, really.

[yuyo123]

Thank you! It's such a relief to know that I didn't loose anything. Well right now I still have 416 GB of space left. It says that it is 4 years behind and it should take around 5 days to complete synchronizing. How is it that I check my balance in Blockchair? Do I select bitcoin explorer?

Great - that'll be enough space at least.
As bob123 has mentioned above, you really just need to copy the address (that you sent the bitcoins to) into the search box on the explorer.
Once Bitcoin Core is up to date Armory will then need to process the data, which will take some time - not as long, but not fast either.

Again, as bob123 mentioned there are other, lightweight, wallets that don't require the entire bitcoin blockchain to be downloaded - there are pros and cons to either option but while Armory is excellent it is perhaps not the best choice for newbies and it can be finicky to get working for those unfamiliar with it.
Unless you chose a P2SH-P2PK address we can get your coins into another wallet reasonably easily. Up to you to decide, really.

Oh man It would be great if I can just send the bitcoin to another wallet! It's been synching for about 20 hours. I'm trying to download Electrum but it says that my computer needs "api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll". What other wallet could I use?

[PhoenixFire]

Oh man It would be great if I can just send the bitcoin to another wallet! It's been synching for about 20 hours. I'm trying to download Electrum but it says that my computer needs "api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll". What other wallet could I use?

Going on that error, I think you need KB2999226 installed for Electrum to run.
If we're going down the export/import route, can you tell me whether the address you sent the bitcoins to starts with a 1 or whether it starts with a 3?

[yuyo123]

Oh man It would be great if I can just send the bitcoin to another wallet! It's been synching for about 20 hours. I'm trying to download Electrum but it says that my computer needs "api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll". What other wallet could I use?

Going on that error, I think you need KB2999226 installed for Electrum to run.
If we're going down the export/import route, can you tell me whether the address you sent the bitcoins to starts with a 1 or whether it starts with a 3?

It starts with a 1

[yuyo123]

Oh man It would be great if I can just send the bitcoin to another wallet! It's been synching for about 20 hours. I'm trying to download Electrum but it says that my computer needs "api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll". What other wallet could I use?

Going on that error, I think you need KB2999226 installed for Electrum to run.
If we're going down the export/import route, can you tell me whether the address you sent the bitcoins to starts with a 1 or whether it starts with a 3?

It starts with a 1

I was able to get Electrum going.

[bob123]

I was able to get Electrum going.

Were you already able to import the private keys into electrum?

You will have to export them from armory (Wallet Properties > Backup This Wallet > Export Key Lists).
Then open electrum and create a wallet by importing the private key (of the address which holds your funds).

Afterwards you will be able to easily access/send your funds.