Connecting the bitcoin client to an existing wallet

[deepskydiver]

Can't find this anywhere..

I've moved PCs and now I cant get my former address to show up in the list with the newly installed client. I have set the client to point to a copy of the same wallet. What do I need to do?

[Kais]

What do you mean by "former address"? Do you mean your transactions?

Did you wait for all the blocks to download in your new installation? Right now there are 136636

[deepskydiver]

I mean my receiving address - where the coins I've mined have gone. I'd expected that to show up in my client when I installed it and pointed it to the old wallet. But it hasn't.. or will that address or the coins arrive eventually?

[Polygon]

if you have pointed the client to the correct directory (using the -datadir= flag) then your coins should appear after you have downloaded the entire block chain.

[deepskydiver]

Hours later now with 136664 blocks.
My balance is still zero and it still only shows the 'new' address it created when I installed the client on the new PC. What do I do?

[Smalleyster]

Hours later now with 136664 blocks.
My balance is still zero and it still only shows the 'new' address it created when I installed the client on the new PC. What do I do?

Delete the wallet.dat that has 0 funds (or rename it for safety if your are not sure which one it is pointing to).

Then copy the "good" wallet.dat file into the right folder.

[deepskydiver]

No luck yet..

Uninstalled.
Deleted the wallet it had created.
Reinstalled.
On first run pointed to my old wallet directory with the address that has the coins.
But it still shows the address it first installed with and still doesn't pickup my balance.
It hasn't even created any other wallet folder (that I can find) but it is still not working.

How does everyone else do this?!

[kinlo]

- install bitcoin with no files installed from old computer
- start it and let it download all blocks
- stop the client
- put correct wallet.dat in place
- start bitcoin client with -rescan parameter
- wait untill bitcoin client has reproccessed the entire block chain
- your BTC's should be visible...

[deepskydiver]

No.. Still not even with that.

This is really a common task that should have a simple way of opening a wallet on another machine. In despair I've transferred a small amount from some mining to that new address which has appeared. And thatt hasn't shown up in 2 hours.

So 0 for 2 so far.

[Smalleyster]

No.. Still not even with that.

This is really a common task that should have a simple way of opening a wallet on another machine. In despair I've transferred a small amount from some mining to that new address which has appeared. And thatt hasn't shown up in 2 hours.

So 0 for 2 so far.

Sorry I don't buy it. Quit pointng and *replace* the file.

I'll bet 100btc it would show on any of *my* systems. 8^)

[deepskydiver]

I did replace the file, but I rather suspect the address I had recorded was incorrect, and I have no idea how that happened. In any case it's gone and the new address is showing the small transfer. Maddening, but thankfully just a very small balance as I've just started.

[Smalleyster]

I did replace the file, but I rather suspect the address I had recorded was incorrect, and I have no idea how that happened. In any case it's gone and the new address is showing the small transfer. Maddening, but thankfully just a very small balance as I've just started.

Ah well at least the process is working. Sorry you lost even "just a very small balance", bu that's what teting is for.

Here's to never losing any more. 8^)