BitCoin Core - Wallet Loading Failed.

[Zeus_AT_Work]

I am hoping for a little assistance trying to recover my BTC wallet.  I am using BitCoin Core v0.20.1.

I initially installed the entire blockchain, and pruned.  I created a single wallet and funded it via an online exchange, and the funds appeared in my wallet within a short time.  A that time I was done with what I wanted to do.  I shut down BTC Core.  Skip ahead a couple of weeks and my GF wanted a wallet of her own.  So I started up Core, re-synched what it needed and made her wallet.  We repeated the same process I had done, and everything worked ok. 

The problem is now, I cannot go back and open my first wallet.  The exact error is:

"Wallet loading failed:  Prune: last wallet synchronization goes beyond pruned data.  You need to -reindex (download the whole blockchain again in case of pruned node)."

So last night I ran core using the -reindex switch, and let it completely download the blockchain again.  This morning I tried to open my first wallet, and same problem.  Wallet loading failed.

I don't know what to do at this point.  Should I -reindex one more time, and turn pruning off?  I'm open to any and all suggestions.  It's not a million dollars, but it still feels like a loss, and I'm in desperate need of a "win"
 these days.

Here's hoping someone has some further suggestions. 

Thanks everyone.  Stay safe.  Stay warm (it's -30 here)

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[ranochigo]

You cannot swap out the wallet or import any keys if you have pruning enabled. Pruning ensures that Bitcoin Core only keeps what is necessary and pertaining to the wallet that was loaded during synchronization. If you want to use both wallets interchangeably and swap them out without a reindex, you have to disable pruning.

Was your target wallet selected and loaded during the synchronization?

[Zeus_AT_Work]

You cannot swap out the wallet or import any keys if you have pruning enabled. Pruning ensures that Bitcoin Core only keeps what is necessary and pertaining to the wallet that was loaded during synchronization. If you want to use both wallets interchangeably and swap them out without a reindex, you have to disable pruning.

Well you have given me some hope this isn't a catastrophe.....  I am re-synching again, with pruning off.  It takes a while but no big deal.

Thank you for the response.  I am new to this..... so I don't have the in-depth experience to troubleshoot. 

Have a great day!

[BitMaxz]

Take note it will take too long to sync if it was from a pruned mode with 2GB of storage.
You can disable it in settings>options and  you will see this



Uncheck the pruned mode and after you disable the pruned mode let it sync.
The speed of the syncing process depends on your hardware specs but since you mention this below you maybe have a few blocks to download? So it won't take too long to sync.

I initially installed the entire blockchain, and pruned.

Just forgot to tell you that before you start make sure to make a backup of your wallet.dat file check this link below if where you can find this file.

- https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Data_directory

[bob123]

If you just want to recover your BTC and don't care about getting Core up and running, you can skip the blockchain synchronization.

You can use the dumpwallet command to export all private keys. Then use a SPV client (which does not need to download the whole blockchain) to import them (e.g. electrum).

However, if you want to have Core up and running, you won't benefit from exporting/importing them.
In this case, waiting is the better option.

[ranochigo]

Current blockchain size is about 350GB and maximum size of prune block storage is only 99GB, so either 2GB or 99GB will take long time.
But AFAIK Bitcoin Core don't verify all block/transaction again, which safe some time.

I've just done a short test with my Bitcoin Core.

I synchronized the blockchain completely from the start and after it was done, pruned it. Unpruning it requires a reindex which we already know. I'm currently resynchronizing it and it appears that Bitcoin Core wipes the entire chainstate (reasonable since you have to run it with reindex flag) and retains the final X GB of blocks. This means that the validation will happen again and happens just as if you're synchronizing from the start, just that the final X GB is not redownloaded but still has to be built. AFAICT, it will actually take roughly the same time, no matter how much you prune.