Payment request file cannot be read! please Help!

[Fares92]

Hello,

Recently my laptop crashed and I had no more access to my Bitcoin Core wallet. I luckly managed to make a back up of my wallet on time to an external hard drive.

Now that I downloaded the wallet again on my new laptop let it be up to date, I tried to open my back-up .dat file but it seems I can't retrieve my bitcoins.

I get the following message; Bitcoin - Payment request file handling. Payment request file cannot be read! This can be caused by an invalid payment request file.


I would be very grateful if somebody could help me and tell me what I should do so I can recover my BTC!!


Thanks in advance

[FrilledShark]

Go to: %APPDATA%\Bitcoin and paste your old wallet.dat file there instead of the new file.

Your wallet now contains the old wallet.dat file, you just need to make sure the client knows it. To do this, you need to run the wallet with the -rescan option.

If you don't know how do it, it is pretty simple.

Go to your local bitcoin core directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Bitcoin
Shift & right click inside the folder. Select "Open command window here" Picture
Type: "bitcoin-qt.exe -rescan" into the command windows.


Source: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/10974/import-wallet-dat-into-a-new-bitcoin-qt-client#10975

[Fares92]

I did everything like told. Bitcoin qt opened but still with no history and 0 BTC in my wallet. I don't know what I'm doing wrong here? 
Is it an issue if I have the Bitcoin program stored in the normal program files instead of the (x86)? Or maybe is it because I already tried to open the backup file straight with the program.

[FrilledShark]

I did everything like told. Bitcoin qt opened but still with no history and 0 BTC in my wallet. I don't know what I'm doing wrong here?  
Is it an issue if I have the Bitcoin program stored in the normal program files instead of the (x86)? Or maybe is it because I already tried to open the backup file straight with the program.

Can you make sure Bitcoin-QT is updated and the blockchain is fully synced with the network?

Another solution would be using blockchain.info and importing your wallet.dat file into their wallet. I do not recommend keeping your bitcoin there for more then a few minutes; have an another wallet ready and transfer the bitcoins as soon as possible.

If that doesn't work, I'm out of ideas.

[Fares92]

It was already synced with the network but I found the problem and now it worked! I have my bitcoins and history back!!

The issue was that I first needed to delete the original wallet.dat file in the appdata folder where I needed to paste the backup file. I renamed the backup file to wallet as well just to make sure. I didn't need to rescan either.

Here's the explanation I found on;

1. ShutDown BitCoin Client
2. Find your wallet location  (%APPDATA%\Bitcoin)   OR for example :  C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin
3. Delete that wallet.dat file
4. Paste your other wallet.dat file into the folder.
5. Open BitCoin Client  , blocks get checked and updated, and you should see your amount.
6. I'm not sure that you need to do command prompt with the -rescan...   I didn't have to..


Thanks a lot anyway for the help! Much appreciated!!