How to update Bitcoin without loosing bitcoins

[Ilanoh]

Hello!

I still have an old version of bitcoins. I bought some a few years ago totally randomly.

I want to upgrade my wallet withou loosing my coins.

Thanks

[torusJKL]

Hello!

I still have an old version of bitcoins. I bought some a few years ago totally randomly.

I want to upgrade my wallet withou loosing my coins.

Thanks

1. Backup your wallet.dat file.
2. Upgrade Bitcoin-Qt client
3. done

If something breaks you have your wallet.dat file with all the private keys.
And by the way you should backup the wallet.dat file as safe as possible. Best on multiple continents :-) . If you delete it or it get's corrupted you will never be able to access your bitcoins anymore.

[Ilanoh]

thanks but what is wallet.dat? how do I do it?

[hellfrozenow]

thanks but what is wallet.dat? how do I do it?

You can just make backup inside Bitcoin-qt

[Orlant]

thanks but what is wallet.dat? how do I do it?

Are you using bitcoin-qt?
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory#Default_Location

[skyisthelimit]

keep wallet.dat and peers.dat files and delete the other files and now you can update to the new version

[Ilanoh]

Yes it's an old version, my wallet is actually catching up blocks from more than 360 days ago... How long will this last? Does it take a lot of place on my drive?

The only thing I can do with this wallet is Encrypt Wallet with a passphrase, should I do it?

[udet4food]

keep wallet.dat and peers.dat files and delete the other files and now you can update to the new version

Deleting any file is not neccessary!

[udet4food]

Yes it's an old version, my wallet is actually catching up blocks from more than 360 days ago... How long will this last? Does it take a lot of place on my drive?

The only thing I can do with this wallet is Encrypt Wallet with a passphrase, should I do it?

About 15 GB total.
You should Encrypt your Wallet with a passphrase from start, but remember the passphrase
There is backup option in file menu as well.

[Lexomatico]

The wallet.dat is located at C:/users/you/Appdata/Roaming/Bitcoins

The Appdata folder is hidden by default so turn on show hiffen files and folders in windows explorer.

The wallet.dat is where all Bitcoins are stored. If you delete it you delete all your bitcoins and they are gone forever.

Downloading the whole blockchain could take a few days so no time to hurry

If you need any with setting this all up leave me a message.

I wanted to help you earlier but you can do a post only every 2 million years on this sh... board

[Ilanoh]

Ok thank you guys! I will try to handle all this!

Well I'm on a mac F... I don't have appdata, and my bitcoin folder only contain Portfile, so I'm a bit lost I don't know anything about all this

[Eveap92]

Ok thank you guys! I will try to handle all this!

Well I'm on a mac F... I don't have appdata, and my bitcoin folder only contain Portfile, so I'm a bit lost I don't know anything about all this

Dude, someone up there has already given you the wiki link https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory#Default_Location

Mac
By default Bitcoin will put its data here:

Code:

~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/

[torusJKL]

Ok thank you guys! I will try to handle all this!

Well I'm on a mac F... I don't have appdata, and my bitcoin folder only contain Portfile, so I'm a bit lost I don't know anything about all this

If you are not a heavy bitcoin user then I would recommend to you to migrate to a lighter client.
For example Electrum which is also available for OS X.

The advantage is that you don't have to download the blockchain thus usage is almost instantaneously.
And that you can recover all your bitcoins from a seed that you can write down or memorize when you create the wallet.

If you want to migrate I think the easiest way would be to send the bitcoins from your bitcoin-qt wallet to an address in your new Electrum wallet.

[Crypto Currency!]

Backup your .dat file and import to new update.