Need Help! All keys read correctly, but transaction data or address book entries

[AppleSam]

Hello,

I found an old wallet and after weeks of syncing I get this error message. I do have a backup of this old folder and wondering what I am doing wrong?

I see some of my old transactions but no bitcoin. Would love to know if this old wallet still has anything in it.

Bitcoin Client Software and Version Number: Bitcoin Core 0.21.1
Operating System: MacOS 11.4
System Hardware Specs: Mac mini (M1, 2020) 500GB free space
Description of Problem: wallet.dat! All keys read correctly, but transaction data or address book entries might be missing or incorrect.
.
Any Related Addresses: None
Any Related Transaction IDs: None
Screenshot of the problem: https://imgur.com/JQZp9Vw
Log Files from the Bitcoin Client: https://pastebin.com/R7CSBX4A

Thanks!

[BitMaxz]

Do you need it right away? There is an easy way to transfer them if you have some issues with syncing the bitcoin core wallet. What I mean is you can dump the wallet from Bitcoin core and then import the wallet to another wallet like Electrum there you don't need to wait to be fully synced. Check the method below only if you need it right away but if not update the thread if you want to fix this issue. The logs actually don't show anything except for the image.


Can you still access the console? If you can still access the wallet try to go in window>console then dump the wallet by using this command below

Code:

dumpwallet mywalletname

If it doesn't work try to put this command first before you use the above command

Code:

walletpassphrase "replacethiswithyourpassword" 60

Once it's done go to the folder where the dump wallet generated now you can use it to import in Electrum.

Follow the steps on how to import private keys to Electrum

- Importing your private keys into Electrum

[AppleSam]

Thanks for your help.

The two options did not work for me.

Did a dump of the wallet and followed instructions for Electrum but it errored out on me with - WalletFileException('Cannot read wallet file. (parsing failed)').

Bitcoin-QT did finish syncing and I see some transactions however the previous error message -All Keys read correctly, but transaction data etc.- has me wondering if I still had some Bitcoin in the wallet.

Would love any suggestions.

[joniboini]

Did a dump of the wallet and followed instructions for Electrum but it errored out on me with - WalletFileException('Cannot read wallet file. (parsing failed)').

That is weird. Did you import a wallet file directly to Electrum? Try to start again, but make sure you follow the guide correctly, also check out https://bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-create-a-new-electrum-wallet-file/ first.

If that's not the case, then somehow your new wallet is corrupted right after you created it.

[HCP]

Did a dump of the wallet and followed instructions for Electrum but it errored out on me with - WalletFileException('Cannot read wallet file. (parsing failed)').

You can't just import a wallet dump directly into Electrum. The wallet dump will not be in an Electrum wallet file format... which is the reason why you get the error.

You need to take the private keys from the wallet dump and import them manually into Electrum. Note that this means you are likely to have to import over 1000 keys, as you've no idea exactly which addresses, if any, actually have coins on them.

Bitcoin-QT did finish syncing and I see some transactions however the previous error message -All Keys read correctly, but transaction data etc.- has me wondering if I still had some Bitcoin in the wallet.

Is your Bitcoin Core setup in "pruned" mode? Check the "Settings -> Options -> Main" menu and make sure the "Prune block storage" option is disabled. Once you are sure it is disabled, and your Bitcoin Core is fully synced, then maybe try using rescanblockchain in "Window -> Console"... that should force the wallet to rescan all the block data which should make sure that your transaction history and wallet balances are correct.


You might also want to work with a copy of your wallet.dat.

[BitMaxz]

Thanks for your help.

The two options did not work for me.

Did a dump of the wallet and followed instructions for Electrum but it errored out on me with - WalletFileException('Cannot read wallet file. (parsing failed)').

You did wrong in importing the dump wallet to Electrum you must open the wallet dump file into notepad or any text editor.

It should look like this below


img source: https://forum.ivanontech.com/t/bitcoind-and-bitcoin-cli-assignment/7920/114

The text that starts with K and L are those private keys you need to copy them one by one to import them to Electrum, not the file itself it wouldn't work.

[Chikito]

If you don't know the address with the balance, you must get it first by the following command,

Code:

listaddressgroupings

If you found one, get a private key that addresses by,

Code:

dumpprivkey "address with balance"

then import a private key to Electrum wallet.

[HCP]

Normally that would work... but given that the application is advising that transaction data may be incorrect, listaddressgroupings output may also be inaccurate (as it is effectively showing what the wallet "believes" based on transaction data it holds).

To be 100% sure of the wallet balance... it seems the OP will need to scan every address/private key


Another option... might be to try the "bitcoin-wallet" binary and the salvage option (as always, work with a copy of the wallet.dat) and see if that helps remove the error.

Note that it may be necessary to use rescanblockchain command with Bitcoin Core, after trying the salvage option, to ensure that Bitcoin Core has properly rescanned the blockchain data for appropriate transactions.


Another thought is that it's possible that the wallet.dat is actually for an altcoin... and not Bitcoin. OP should check some of the listed transactions shown in the wallet to confirm that they are viewable on a Block Explorer.

Right click a transaction on the "transactions" tab, and copy the Transaction ID... then paste it into the search on a blockchair.com. If it's not shown on the Bitcoin blockchain it might show up on an altcoin chain like Litecoin or Dogecoin.

[AppleSam]

Thanks for all the help everyone. Still working through some suggestions.

I need to ask how/what is "bitcoin-wallet" binary and the salvage option?

Also I am 100 sure it's bitcoin not any Alt coin.

[HCP]

The latest versions of Bitcoin Core come with a binary executable called "bitcoin-wallet" (or bitcoin-wallet.exe on Windows). It should be in the same package as bitcoin-qt, bitcoind and bitcoin-cli etc.

This now contains some "wallet" functionality that was removed from the bitcoin-qt executable... one of those being the "salvage" functionality.

Code:

Bitcoin Core bitcoin-wallet version v0.21.0

bitcoin-wallet is an offline tool for creating and interacting with Bitcoin Core wallet files.
By default bitcoin-wallet will act on wallets in the default mainnet wallet directory in the datadir.
To change the target wallet, use the -datadir, -wallet and -testnet/-regtest arguments.

Usage:
  bitcoin-wallet [options] <command>

Options:

  -?
       Print this help message and exit

  -datadir=<dir>
       Specify data directory

  -wallet=<wallet-name>
       Specify wallet name

Debugging/Testing options:

  -debug=<category>
       Output debugging information (default: 0).

  -printtoconsole
       Send trace/debug info to console (default: 1 when no -debug is true, 0
       otherwise).

Chain selection options:

  -chain=<chain>
       Use the chain <chain> (default: main). Allowed values: main, test,
       signet, regtest

  -signet
       Use the signet chain. Equivalent to -chain=signet. Note that the network
       is defined by the -signetchallenge parameter

  -signetchallenge
       Blocks must satisfy the given script to be considered valid (only for
       signet networks; defaults to the global default signet test
       network challenge)

  -signetseednode
       Specify a seed node for the signet network, in the hostname[:port]
       format, e.g. sig.net:1234 (may be used multiple times to specify
       multiple seed nodes; defaults to the global default signet test
       network seed node(s))

  -testnet
       Use the test chain. Equivalent to -chain=test.

Commands:

  create
       Create new wallet file

  info
       Get wallet info

  salvage
       Attempt to recover private keys from a corrupt wallet. Warning:
       'salvage' is experimental.

As always, work on copies of the wallet.dat and not the original file.

[nc50lc]

I need to ask how/what is "bitcoin-wallet" binary and the salvage option?

If you can't find it, you may have installed the ".dmg" file.
To get it, you need to use the ".tar.gz" file instead which contains the other binaries including bitcoin-wallet.

[NotATether]

This warning means that all of your private keys have been read successfully, but either some of the transaction records are corrupted, in which case Core automatically does a rescan, address label records are corrupted, some preference settings are corrupted or some of the keys in your keypool (an object with hundreds of pre-generated privkeys, unused, and placed in reserve when more receiving addresses are requested) are corrupted and haven't been read. Every record that can't be read cannot be returned by the client, so you're never going to get a corrupted private key when you request a new address, because it hasn't even been read in the first place.

After you do a rescan (pass -rescan to bitcoin-qt command line options), if you see transactions that clear out the addresses then you can be sure there's no bitcoin left in that wallet.

Also:

if you use bitcoin-wallet tool to salvage your wallet, DO NOT WORK ON THE ORIGINAL FILE! Always make a copy in case the salvage operation fails and accidentally destroys the wallet.