Backing up wallets

[d0n4ald]

What s the best way to back up wallets.?

i read backing up wallet.dat isnt necessary. and that you just need to dump private keys into a file and keep it safe somewhere. then you can download any wallet software again and import the keys.  are all wallet programs like that?

[blockchainbastard]

Just coping the wallet.dat is easier than extracting the key in the most cases.
Be careful most of the wallets really name the file wallet.dat so if you have different wallets for different currencies it can happen quick that you overwrite an existing file.
Most of the wallets provide an export function and you can choose a diffrent name.
The important part is the key, doesn t matter if it is in a keyfile, wallet.dat or exported form the wallet.
Choose the way whats easy for you to restore.
Only some coins like iota don t have a secret key, but they are quite rare.

[Welsh]

Just coping the wallet.dat is easier than extracting the key in the most cases.
Be careful most of the wallets really name the file wallet.dat so if you have different wallets for different currencies it can happen quick that you overwrite an existing file.
Most of the wallets provide an export function and you can choose a diffrent name.
The important part is the key, doesn t matter if it is in a keyfile, wallet.dat or exported form the wallet.
Choose the way whats easy for you to restore.
Only some coins like iota don t have a secret key, but they are quite rare.

Although, the wallet.dat requires keeping it electronically. I would recommend making several different types of copies of the private key and would have at least one physical copy which can be stored a safe location from both natural hazards and theft.

Also, wallet.dat is a file and files are known to corrupt especially when newer versions are released.

[pooya87]

depends on your wallet type.
for example to backup a paper wallet you simply make a hard copy of it!

but generally the wallets are two types: they are either Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) or not.
if they are then it means they are using a master key to generate all of your private keys. if you create a backup of that master key then you can always recover ALL of your private keys at any time, whether they are in use right now or are generated in the future. these wallets (like Electrum and blockchain.info) usually use a bunch of words also known as Seed which you need to write down. but wallets like bitcoin core don't use words so you have to make a backup of the wallet file itself.

if they are not HD then you have to make a back up of all your keys or your wallet file containing these keys every time you create a new key pair.