I need help with bitcoin wallet!!

[jzsb26]

About a week ago I downloaded the bitcoin wallet (from here) and just today I got my transactions to buy bitcoin to go through. Also today I found out that I was supposed to leave the wallet open to download the entire block chain. It isn't complete. I have two pending transactions and it hasn't moved past 122,294 for hours however the "out of" number has decreased from around 160,00 to around 140,000. I need to download the block chain so that my transactions will go through and I need to do it in a way that will not interfere with my transactions. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated as I am afraid that I will lose the bitcoins and the money that I paid for them. Please send me a pm immediately if you have ANY suggestions.
Thanks a lot,
jzsb26

[John (John K.)]

About a week ago I downloaded the bitcoin wallet (from here) and just today I got my transactions to buy bitcoin to go through. Also today I found out that I was supposed to leave the wallet open to download the entire block chain. It isn't complete. I have two pending transactions and it hasn't moved past 122,294 for hours however the "out of" number has decreased from around 160,00 to around 140,000. I need to download the block chain so that my transactions will go through and I need to do it in a way that will not interfere with my transactions. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated as I am afraid that I will lose the bitcoins and the money that I paid for them. Please send me a pm immediately if you have ANY suggestions.
Thanks a lot,
jzsb26

The transactions shouldn't be affected by your blockchain unless you're sending bitcoins. You can check the amount sent to you even though you haven't downloaded the entire blockchain by checking it at blockchain.info.

[jzsb26]

Ok I checked, I received 8 bitcoins. How do I get them?

[joulesbeef]

just wait.. it can take days sometimes to download the blockchain.

You can open ports on your router to speed it up.

or you can manually download the blockchain and untar it to your bitcoin data dir

[John (John K.)]

Ok I checked, I received 8 bitcoins. How do I get them?

Theoretically you have the 8 bitcoins if you have your wallet.dat with the keys to the 8 bitcoins already although you haven't downloaded the blockchain yet. I would suggest you to wait it out or manually download the blockchain and untar it to your bitcoin data dir like what joulesbeef said to see the coins appear inside your wallet.

[jzsb26]

It say "catching up..." and the number of blocks downloaded hasn't changed all day. is there anything I can do? If i download the whole code manually will it affect my pending transactions?
Thank you for all of your help.

[John (John K.)]

It say "catching up..." and the number of blocks downloaded hasn't changed all day. is there anything I can do? If i download the whole code manually will it affect my pending transactions?
Thank you for all of your help.

Backup your wallet.dat and go download the blockchain manually then. I normally do that if my blockchain is corrupted(I get that quite often, especially when my computer crasheswhile downloading the blockchain)

[John (John K.)]

Note that downloading the blockchain manually (or not downloading it at all) will not affect your transactions.

[jzsb26]

Can someone give me a (relatively) easy way to download the block chain? I see the link above but am not savvy enough to download it that way.

[jzsb26]

Also, is there any way to retrieve my bitcoins without waiting for the block chain to download?

[deepceleron]

This topic is only 10 posts down from yours on the newbie forum, and explains manual blockchain download.

There is no "retrieving" of bitcoins needed. If bitcoins have been sent to your Bitcoin address, they are yours, and the whole network knows they are yours. You can look up your address using search at http://blockexplorer.com and see your balance. However, the Bitcoin client won't let you send money from your balance to someone else until it knows about it, which means it will need to download all blocks up to the one where money was sent to you.

[kirorolol]

It's pretty crazy how large the block chains are now but I believe you need to have the whole thing before you start using your coins.

[jzsb26]

Can someone please tell me how to rescan? I downloaded the entire block chain and my wallet now reads downloaded ~16000, but I need to rescan in order for the wallet to see the transactions. I have read that the command is "-rescan" but I do not usually use any type of code at all and I haven't been able to get it to work.

[deepceleron]

You need to add a command line option at the command line. On windows, open "command prompt" under accessories.

Here is a typical command line session for 32 bit windows (blue is what you type):

C:\Users\user1>cd \

C:\>cd "Program Files"

C:\Program Files>cd Bitcoin

C:\Program Files\Bitcoin>bitcoin-qt -rescan

Then Bitcoin will start with the wallet splash screen displaying "rescanning..." for a minute or two.

The block count shouldn't be ~16000, more like 166,000 blocks.

[jzsb26]

Yes around 160,000 is whay I meat but I m running mac and that command line didn't work.

[jzsb26]

Ok, I need help, badly. I have eight bitcoins in my wallet on block chain.info. However when I attempt to transfer said fund to a website where Id like to use them, I am asked for the "private key." I don't know this, have this or know where to get this. PLEASE HELP. I am afraid I am going to lose my coins!!
Thanks you all so much

[deepceleron]

deepceleron's razor applies to mac...here's the result of two minutes of googling:

Find BitCoin.app. Usually, this will be in /Applications.

Open up Terminal.app (find it via Spotlight, or in /Applications/Utilities), and type:

cd <bitcoin's containing folder>/BitCoin.app/Contents/MacOS
./bitcoin -rescan &

And be sure to include the "&", or you can't use your Terminal window for anything else! Though that's up to you - you can always open another.

Just being around 160000 blocks, isn't enough, Bitcoin must have downloaded past the block number where you were sent money (as shown in blockexplorer for your address).