Testing- Restoring Wallet on laptop shows less than wallet on desktop

[joe101]

I'm practicing restoring my wallet. Trying to understand how it works.

I have 3 questions:



This is what i have done so far.  

1. I bought different amount of bitcoins online for a total of 1 bitcoin.

2. I sent them to my desktop wallet. Balance: 1 bitcoin

3. Made a passphrase.

4. Made a wallet.dat backup on a usb stick.

5. I installed a fresh bitcoin client on my laptop.

6. Turned both the bitcoin core client from my desktop and laptop off

7. I replaced the wallet.dat that was in my laptop with the one from my desktop.

8. Turned on the bitcoin client on my laptop.

The wallet on my laptop is showing a balance of total of 0.85860587

Question#1 Why isn't it showing 1 bitcoin?  What happened to the rest.    Do i have to wait until it finishes synchronizing than it will show 1 bitcoin?  Why isn't it showing right away.


Question#2 After loading the wallet.dat and turning on bitcoin client on my laptop, why didn't it ask me for the passphrase.  I thought it would ask me for the password.  So then it would load my balance.  

Since it didn't. If someone broke into my room and stole my usb stick with the wallet.dat,  couldn't they spend it all?   What's the point of the passphrase


Question#3  Why does synchronizing take so long,  is there any way to skip it?  It will take around 3 days on my computer.

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[joe101]

Here is some more info.


On my laptop it shows the same transactions,  except for the first transaction. There is an x on it and when i hover or right click view transaction it says "Conflicted"

Here is a screen shot of both transactions, desktop and laptop
http://postimg.org/image/7wwlckih7/

[shorena]

This can happen if you have the same wallet file on multiple instances of bitcoin core.

To fix it you need to close bitcoin core on the machine that has the conflicted TX and restart it with -zapwallettxes, e.g. on windows you hit win + r for the run menu, enter (modify path as needed):

Code:

c:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe -zapwallettxes

and confirm with ok. Bitcoin will rescan for all your transactions and resolve the conflict. Afterwards the balance should match the one on the other machine.

Also keep in mind that you need some way to keep the wallets in sync as new addresses might differ after a grace period of 100 addresses - including those used for change - by default.

[joe101]

I followed your instructions.  

I closed the bitcoin client on my desktop and I closed the bitcoin client on my laptop.


Then i hit win+r for the run menu, I entered my path

c:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe -zapwallettxes

and pressed ok.  After i did that bitcoin started on its own.

But it shows the balance as 0


Do i have to wait until it finishes synchronizing with the network? Then it should show my balance correctly?

[shorena]

I followed your instructions.  

I closed the bitcoin client on my desktop and I closed the bitcoin client on my laptop.


Then i hit win+r for the run menu, I entered my path

c:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe -zapwallettxes

and pressed ok.  After i did that bitcoin started on its own.

But it shows the balance as 0


Do i have to wait until it finishes synchronizing with the network? Then it should show my balance correctly?

No, you can close it. Do you normally have a different data directory? What is your regular shortcut for starting bitcoin core on that machine?

[joe101]

I closed the client, and restarted it but the balance is still showing 0


I made a shortcut on the desktop, that is how i normally access it.



The shortcut on the desktop shows:

"C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe"

[shorena]

I closed the client, and restarted it but the balance is still showing 0


I made a shortcut on the desktop, that is how i normally access it.

Did you modify the shortcut in any way?

Was the wallet in sync before?

Can you show the last ~100 lines from the debug.log please. You can open it with notepad and find it with win + r

Code:

%APPDATA%\Bitcoin\debug.log

I just noticed I did not answer your question #2 and #3.

#2 you only need the password for spending the coins, not for looking at the balance

#3 No, its >50GB of data that needs to be verified, it takes a while.

[joe101]

I didn't modify the shortcut.


The wallet on my desktop is in sync. (now closed)

The wallet on my laptop has never been in sync. It is a fresh new copy.


I was just testing how to restore my wallet on a new computer.


Is there anything i need to block out from the debug.log file before posting it here?

[achow101]

I didn't modify the shortcut.


The wallet on my desktop is in sync. (now closed)

The wallet on my laptop has never been in sync. It is a fresh new copy.

It needs to be in sync in order to show the proper balance. Since it is not fully synced, it will not know of the correct balances. And no there is no good way to make it any faster. It may be possible to simply just copy over the data from the desktop, but that could be difficult to do. If you don't do that, just let the laptop be on and it will eventually get in sync.

Is there anything i need to block out from the debug.log file before posting it here?

No, but I don't think it will be needed unless the problem occurs when you are fully synced.

[unholycactus]

To answer Q2 and Q3:

-It will ask you for your passphrase when you try to use one of your private keys i.e. make an outgoing transaction.
-No way to skip it, unless you copy over the block data from your other computer or use a light wallet. The reason why it takes so long is because it has to download over 50GB of data.

[joe101]

Ok.  I will wait until it is fully synced. And report back here if the problem still persists.


If would be better if it downloaded the transactions first then the rest.


At least i know how to restore my wallet now! let's hope the full balance is there when it finises syncing,

thanks!

[shorena]

Ok.  I will wait until it is fully synced. And report back here if the problem still persists.

Good idea.

If would be better if it downloaded the transactions first then the rest.

It does not know which transaction is yours though, so it has to start at the beginning and look at them block by block until it finds yours.

At least i know how to restore my wallet now! let's hope the full balance is there when it finises syncing,

thanks!

If its not, Im certain we can fix that.

[joe101]

Well i got so tried of waiting for it to sync!   takes way too long!!


Anyways i was successful in restoring the same data from my desktop to my laptop.


All i did was:

1. Install fresh copy on bitcoin client.

2. Delete the entire Roaming/Bitcoin folder of the fresh copy

3. Copy the entire Roaming/Bitcoin folder of your other computer, and move it to the new computer.

4. Start bitcoin and voila!  i'm only 16 hours behind.  And it shows 1 bitcoin



*Notes*

I tried copying the "Blocks" folder only, and moved it to the new computer. but that didn't work for me.  It stayed on activating best chain for 7 hours,  no success



Next to try.

Unfortunately, i don't have time this month to wait until the sync is finished. It takes too long.


But next month i will:

1. Install a fresh copy of bitcoin client

2. Copy only the wallet.dat file

3. Wait until it finishes syncing, to see if my balance becomes correct.



This is the only last thing i need to try, but since i don't have time this month, i am unable to,

But i will do this last thing and report back here the results next month.


i'm ready to start buying more bitcoin to invest and some more so i can buy things online.


i feel more confident on using bitcoin client!  


goodbye banks full of hassle and fees! who are a bunch of crooks and theifs!   i hate banks so much
goodbye paypal!
goodbye payoneer
goodbye paxum!
goodbye skrill!



thanks everyone for your help