This may sound stupid, but hey, I'm a newbie

[thegamester]

I bought 22 bitcoins at intersango, I sent them to my bitcoin-qt address, however bitcoin-qt doesn't work on my mac, so the bitcoins are floating about with no place on the net to be delivered, what can I do? I can see them alright at blockchain.info, but I can't access them without a private key.

Help would be appreciated, thanx

[1714906355]

1714906355

[tehace]

Im not sure I understand the question. So you ran bitcoinqt on your mac, bought the coins, sent them to that address but then the client no longer works? If so just save the wallet.dat and bring it to a computer with a working client should do the job. Can anyone confirm?

[thegamester]

I did manage to create a wallet.dat file, but bitcoin-qt never synched with the network.  I downloaded bitcoin-qt 7 to a friends mac which is newer than mine, but i can't figure out how to import the wallet.dat file, this has been going on for a month, I now have an online wallet and I can send and receive coins through that.  I was so enthusiastic when I discovered bitcoins that i just jumped in, instead of researching a bit more and figuring it out.  They can be a bit nerdy.
Thanx for quick reply

[Raoul Duke]

OK. Easy way, or not. First check if you have curl installed.
Open a Terminal and type curl and see if it gives you a positive answer. If you don't have the curl libraries it will be harder

If you have curl, do the following.

Open your bitcoin.conf file and put this inside

Code:

rpcuser=<username>
rpcpassword=<password>
server=1

replace <username> and <password> with a username and password of your choice, ofcourse.

Start Bitcoin-qt in the normal way and it will start as a server.

Open a Terminal and type

Code:

curl --user <username> --data-binary '{"method": "dumpprivkey", "params": ["<address>"] }' http://127.0.0.1:8332/

replace <username> with the username you set on the bitcoin.conf file and <address> with the address for which you want to get the private key

Press enter. It will prompt you for the password you set on the bitcoin.conf file. Write it and press enter.
Voilá, it will answer with the private key for the address.

Repeat the Terminal steps for each address you want to get the private key from.

Now import those private keys into your online wallet if it supports import of privkeys or you can import them to your friends wallet and send them to your online wallet.

You can import the privkeys on your friends Mac by opening the Debug window, pressing the Console tab and typing this:

Code:

importprivkey <private key>

replacing <private key> with the private key for each one you wish to import.

[thegamester]

Thanx psy,
but that really is too nerdy for me, I thought bitcoin would have been a bit like paypal, all I want is to buy stuff with them.
One love...

[Raoul Duke]

Thanx psy,
but that really is too nerdy for me, I thought bitcoin would have been a bit like paypal, all I want is to buy stuff with them.
One love...

If you want you can mail me your wallet.dat and I'll send you the funds.
You'd have to trust me ofcourse.

Or you can try and follow the guide I posted.

[thegamester]

Ok, I'll have to think about that 

[Raoul Duke]

Ok, I'll have to think about that 

Really, try to follow the guide. It's not that difficult. You just need to open your Mac Terminal/Console and copy those commands.

[tehace]

If your Bitcoinqt install just hasnt synched and the problem isnt that the application is crashing or something of that nature you could wait the few hours for it to catch up.

[Raoul Duke]

Another method...

Start Bitcoin-qt on your friends Mac.
Go to Settings --> Options --> Main and mark the checkbox that says "Detach Databases at shutdown"
Save the options and shutdown Bitcoin-qt. It will take a little longer than usual to shutdown. Wait for it to stop completely.

Now navigate to the following folder: /Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/
Rename the wallet.dat you'll find there to wallet.dat.old and copy YOUR wallet.dat copy to that folder.

Now, restart Bitcoin-qt and see if your coins are there. Ofcourse you'll need to have an updated blockchain(not out of sync).
Or you can easily use the RPC Console of Bitcoin-Qt 0.7 to export the private key in case it is out of sync and you don't wish to wait it out.

[thegamester]

The detach databases at shutdown sounds like one I could just about manage, I sent you a pm I'm too old now to be a nerd.

[Raoul Duke]

The detach databases at shutdown sounds like one I could just about manage, I sent you a pm I'm too old now to be a nerd.

You would still need to do a blockchain rescan. It was the exact same procedure I followed now to retrieve your coins.

Thanks for the tip. Keep us posted

[canubis]

I do not know if Eclectrum works on a mac. If it does I think you might have a better time with it than you have had with bitcoin-qt. Electrum is at http://electrum-desktop.org/.

[Gabi]

1)Stay calm
2)

so the bitcoins are floating about with no place on the net to be delivered

This is incorrect
Your bitcoins are already at your private address. But well it seems you already figured that. Yes, to access them you need a bitcoin client

The Bitcoin QT client should work on mac, i mean this one http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.7.0/bitcoin-0.7.0-macosx.dmg/download Dunno why it doesn't work on your mac. Aren't mac super extra mega computers where everything works fine and where there are no problems and with the best operative system around all the universe?  Buy a real computer next time mkay?
Anyway, it should work on mac

Or, you can use a lightweight client wich doesn't require the full blockchain to be downloaded. Like
Electrum http://electrum-desktop.com/

Then you will have of course to import the private key to that client. Dunno if you can just copy-paste the wallet.dat file 

[thegamester]

1)Stay calm
2)

so the bitcoins are floating about with no place on the net to be delivered

This is incorrect
Your bitcoins are already at your private address. But well it seems you already figured that. Yes, to access them you need a bitcoin client

The Bitcoin QT client should work on mac, i mean this one http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.7.0/bitcoin-0.7.0-macosx.dmg/download Dunno why it doesn't work on your mac. Aren't mac super extra mega computers where everything works fine and where there are no problems and with the best operative system around all the universe?  Buy a real computer next time mkay?
Anyway, it should work on mac

Or, you can use a lightweight client wich doesn't require the full blockchain to be downloaded. Like
Electrum http://electrum-desktop.com/

Then you will have of course to import the private key to that client. Dunno if you can just copy-paste the wallet.dat file 

Thanx everyone for the all help, I am too old to become a nerd like my old mac, its over 5 years old and won't run btc-qt 7.0.  Apple refused to fix it because it is so old, firefox doesn't supply updates for my os, but it runs sweet as a nut on the silk road,
one love...

[Raoul Duke]

He said his mac is old, and starting with Bitcoin-Qt 0.7, support for OSX 10.5 and below was dropped.

From the Bitcoin 0.7 release readme file:

We recommend that everybody running prior versions of bitcoind/Bitcoin-Qt upgrade to this release, except for users running Mac OSX 10.5

Anyway, I retrieved his coins. He's good to go now, using a webwallet
I would recommend trying Electrum as someone suggested. Webwallets are =/

[Bia Yao Ma]

Very helpful psy!

If you want to send wallet.dat to me, I have no WoT rating yet and two posts, I promise I will send it all back to you and take no fee. Trust me!

hehehe /sarcasm

[Gabi]

He said his mac is old

Sorry, but i am not used to call a 5 years old system "so old that it doesn't even run today software"
Hell, my motherboard is 7 years old and i can play every game at max settings at fullhd. 

[Raoul Duke]

He said his mac is old

Sorry, but i am not used to call a 5 years old system "so old that it doesn't even run today software"

Go tell that to Gavin. He was the one who decided to stop supporting OSX 10.5 and below.
And old was the word the OP used, not my word.

[Gabi]

I suppose Gavin had his reasons to do that...