Old bitcoin Core Software from 2011

[rschweier]

Hello, i have  a very old Bitcon Core Version from 2011 on my Macbook. If i start the Programm everything is empty, but if i check my bitcoin address there is something ;-) I don´t  want to make a mistake. I read something about a wallet.dat but i can´t find this on my macbook? What should i do and is the best advice -  update this to the newest version or how can i find my private key? Thank you in advance for Feedback. rene

[ranochigo]

Your wallet.dat should be located in your data directory which should be in /Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/ by default.

Find your wallet.dat and back it up to somewhere safe. After that, you can install the latest version of Bitcoin Core and wait for it to synchronize.

[HCP]

Hello, i have  a very old Bitcon Core Version from 2011 on my Macbook. If i start the Programm everything is empty, but if i check my bitcoin address there is something ;-)

Most likely because your old version is not "synced"... so it's data is out of date.

I don´t  want to make a mistake. I read something about a wallet.dat but i can´t find this on my macbook? What should i do and is the best advice -  update this to the newest version or how can i find my private key?

You have several options... but before you start... find your wallet.dat and make a couple of backups!

Then your options are:

- Install latest version of Bitcoin Core. Let it sync... see coins... be happy!
or
- Use dumpprivkey command in version of Bitcoin Core you have installed... then import privkey into another wallet... see coins... be happy!


But the most important thing is to find the wallet.dat on your macbook and make some backups before your try anything else!!!

[BitMaxz]

Your wallet.dat should be located in your data directory which should be in /Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/ by default.

Take note the library folder is hidden on the old version of Mac OS like Lion OS. You can only see it if you enable the hidden folders.

You can enable it by pressing "shift + ⌘" and then "command + G" and paste in this "~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin"

Now you can check that folder to find that the wallet.dat

[bob123]

I cant emphasize this enough: Make a backup of your wallet.dat file before doing anything else.

Afterwards, you have 2 options to access your coins.
The first is to keep bitcoin core and let it sync. This might take some time and needs ~330+ GB of hard drive space.
This option takes more time, but requires less work from your side. After the syncing process is finished, you can access and send your coins.

The second option is to use core to export the private keys and use another wallet (e.g. electrum) to import them (make sure to verify the signature of the downloaded file!). Afterwards you can access and send your coins.
This option takes less than 20 minutes but is more sophisticated and requires more work from you.