Recovering wallet with .dat files (no key phrases)

[myacre]

Finished synching but on the drop-down menu I only see the test wallet and not the old wallet.

Here's a step by step on what I did from the beginning, maybe it will help.

1. Run Bitcoin core 2.Uncheck prune storage 3.Create test wallet(which gave me the wallet folder)> Go to bitcoin core data directory>test wallet folder> rename wallet.dat to wallet-test.dat> copy old wallet.dat and paste in test wallet folder 4. Let Bitcoin Core synch 5. Close BTC core and rerun 6. File> Open Wallet which only shows test wallet.

I believe I messed up somewhere along the line but this is the complete breakdown.

Also, will definitely be tipping you lovely humans for all your help. Happy New Years!

[1715371424]

1715371424

[1715371424]

1715371424

[nc50lc]

Here's a step by step on what I did from the beginning, maybe it will help.

1. Run Bitcoin core 2.Uncheck prune storage 3.Create test wallet(which gave me the wallet folder)> Go to bitcoin core data directory>test wallet folder> rename wallet.dat to wallet-test.dat> copy old wallet.dat and paste in test wallet folder 4. Let Bitcoin Core synch 5. Close BTC core and rerun 6. File> Open Wallet which only shows test wallet.

I hope that you've closed Bitcoin Core when you're swapping the wallet.dat files or there will be issues during the scan process of those wallet files.
(you said you've watch video tutorials so they must have mentioned it)

The "wallet-test.dat" is in the "test wallet" folder so it won't be included to the open wallet selection menu, it should be outside that folder, but inside the 'wallets' folder.
The folders inside the 'wallets' folder are considered as 1 wallet (the wallet name is the folder's name) and it will use the wallet.dat file inside it.
If you want to use a renamed wallet.dat file, you should paste it in 'wallets' folder's root, not in the other folders inside it.

Only 1 wallet shows in the "Wallets:" drop-down menu because you've replaced the test wallet's wallet.dat with the old wallet, so the one's recognized by Bitcoin Core is the old wallet.
If there's no balance, it's either the wallet is empty or it there's an issue with the scan process.
Since you've disabled pruned settings (and have enough disk space?), you can use -rescanblockchain command to try to rescan for the wallet's balance but the current wallet may have issue already if you've swapped them while Bitcoin Core is open.

If you properly swapped them, you can enter rescanblockchain into the 'console' (Window->Console) and wait for it to finish (note: it will take a while to finish and may look like it's syncing but it's not actually downloading anything)

If you improperly swapped them, you can just do this instead:

• Close Bitcoin Core.
• Get a copy of the old wallet and rename the copy into "old_wallet.dat"
• Go to 'wallets' folder and copy old_wallet.dat into it (not inside test wallet folder).
• Open Bitcoin Core and it should be in the menu "File->Open wallet", select "old_wallet" and it will be loaded.
• Once it finished scanning, the correct balance should show-up.

[myacre]

Here's a step by step on what I did from the beginning, maybe it will help.

1. Run Bitcoin core 2.Uncheck prune storage 3.Create test wallet(which gave me the wallet folder)> Go to bitcoin core data directory>test wallet folder> rename wallet.dat to wallet-test.dat> copy old wallet.dat and paste in test wallet folder 4. Let Bitcoin Core synch 5. Close BTC core and rerun 6. File> Open Wallet which only shows test wallet.

I hope that you've closed Bitcoin Core when you're swapping the wallet.dat files or there will be issues during the scan process of those wallet files.
(you said you've watch video tutorials so they must have mentioned it)

The "wallet-test.dat" is in the "test wallet" folder so it won't be included to the open wallet selection menu, it should be outside that folder, but inside the 'wallets' folder.
The folders inside the 'wallets' folder are considered as 1 wallet (the wallet name is the folder's name) and it will use the wallet.dat file inside it.
If you want to use a renamed wallet.dat file, you should paste it in 'wallets' folder's root, not in the other folders inside it.

Only 1 wallet shows in the "Wallets:" drop-down menu because you've replaced the test wallet's wallet.dat with the old wallet, so the one's recognized by Bitcoin Core is the old wallet.
If there's no balance, it's either the wallet is empty or it there's an issue with the scan process.
Since you've disabled pruned settings (and have enough disk space?), you can use -rescanblockchain command to try to rescan for the wallet's balance but the current wallet may have issue already if you've swapped them while Bitcoin Core is open.

If you properly swapped them, you can enter rescanblockchain into the 'console' (Window->Console) and wait for it to finish (note: it will take a while to finish and may look like it's syncing but it's not actually downloading anything)

If you improperly swapped them, you can just do this instead:

• Close Bitcoin Core.
• Get a copy of the old wallet and rename the copy into "old_wallet.dat"
• Go to 'wallets' folder and copy old_wallet.dat into it (not inside test wallet folder).
• Open Bitcoin Core and it should be in the menu "File->Open wallet", select "old_wallet" and it will be loaded.
• Once it finished scanning, the correct balance should show-up.

Mind if I pm you?

Earlier last night I was actually able to select the wallet for the first time and after clicking on it I saw a prompt along the lines of "loading wallet" and for a few minutes the wallet was actually loading. Then the "loading wallet" prompt was still on the screen but there was no indication that it was actually loading. Looked like it froze or something. I let it "load" over night and I guess it crashed bitcoin core. When I re-opened bitcoin core this morning I was no longer able to select the wallet.

[nc50lc]

Earlier last night I was actually able to select the wallet for the first time and after clicking on it I saw a prompt along the lines of "loading wallet" and for a few minutes the wallet was actually loading. Then the "loading wallet" prompt was still on the screen but there was no indication that it was actually loading. Looked like it froze or something. I let it "load" over night and I guess it crashed bitcoin core. When I re-opened bitcoin core this morning I was no longer able to select the wallet.

It will be grayed-out in that 'Open Wallet' list if it's loaded
and the wallet should be selectable in the "Wallet:" drop-down menu at the right-hand side of Bitcoin Core:

If the PM is about sending the wallet.dat, please don't send it to anyone including me.

[myacre]

Hello,

I renamed the old Bitcoin data directory in "E" so it won't be used by Bitcoin Core.

In "C:\Users\BTC!\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin". I created a txt file and renamed it bitcoin.conf and opened it with a text editor(sublime text) and on the config file I wrote:

datadir=E:\Bitcoin
prune=0
dbcache=2048
assumevalid=0000000000000000000838f7c65a28f84af44d2120a7dfb334cc7d11063de2a1

I then created a new folder in the root of Drive "E" and renamed it "Bitcoin".

After starting Bitcoin Core (without any start parameters) for it to create the data directory's contents, instead of the data directory's contents going to "E:\Bitcoin" they are going straight to the root of Drive "E". Am I messing something up here?

Should the bitcoin.conf file be in the root of "C:\Users\BTC!\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin" or should I be putting it into "daemon" or "doc"? In "doc" there is a file called "bitcoin-conf.md" however.

Thanks in advance!

[nc50lc]

After starting Bitcoin Core (without any start parameters) for it to create the data directory's contents, instead of the data directory's contents going to "E:\Bitcoin" they are going straight to the root of Drive "E". Am I messing something up here?

Should the bitcoin.conf file be in the root of "C:\Users\BTC!\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin" or should I be putting it into "daemon" or "doc"? In "doc" there is a file called "bitcoin-conf.md" however.

The config file should be in the default data directory which is the former.
The latter is the installation directory which wont be used as the datadir by Bitcoin Core, unless told to do so.

The line "datadir" in the config should tell Bitcoin Core to create the files into that folder so there may be something that's causing it to use "E:\" instead of "E:\Bitcoin".
It can be overridden by the -datadir start parameter so check if you're still using an old shortcut.

Or the config file may actually be "bitcoin.conf.txt" which is caused by Windows explorer not showing the extension (enabling "File name extensions" will do the trick).
In which case, it will use what's set in the GUI.


You can also try to use the old directory if you don't want to restart from scratch,
rename it into the folder name that you want and put the path into the datadir= line in the config file.


Do not forget to close Bitcoin Core to apply the new config.

[krav79]

whats the recovery process if i have my btc adress, wallet  ID
I also have some  pass word and i think i know a username  but i either dont have the correct email adress or incorrect password  for my wallet at bitcoinwallet.com

[nc50lc]

-snip-

I'm sorry but you're in the wrong board to ask online wallet-related questions.

You can go to web wallets board, then create a new thread (click "new topic" at the right),
link to the Web-wallets: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=222.0

[myacre]

Any way to check when a wallet was created?

On one of my previous attempts I copied the address of the wallet I loaded to core and wrote it down to compare and see if the wallet is the one I am trying to access or the "test wallet". Checked it out on blockchain.com and saw that it was an empty wallet with 0 transaction so assumed it was the test wallet address. Earlier, I opened the old wallet.dat folder and did a search for "name" and the address I saw was the same one I had written down (empty wallet).

I don't think it is possible to find the creation date of a wallet I'm assuming, but it would be helpful to aid my theories on what happened here. The old wallet was modified in 2017 which is around the time my uncle asked one of his colleague if he knew how to access the wallet. Perhaps the wallets were swapped or perhaps there was nothing in there to begin with but I am really curious on why the file says it was modified in 2017.

Anyway, just wanted to thank each and every one of you guys for helping me out with this. Learned a great deal and am looking forward to contributing to this forum!

[nc50lc]

-snip-
I don't think it is possible to find the creation date of a wallet I'm assuming, but it would be helpful to aid my theories on what happened here. The old wallet was modified in 2017 which is around the time my uncle asked one of his colleague if he knew how to access the wallet. Perhaps the wallets were swapped or perhaps there was nothing in there to begin with but I am really curious on why the file says it was modified in 2017.

Unfortunately yes, aside from the file's timestamp itself, the only indication of a possible date is the block height in the dump file (dumpwallet) when it's last used
and since you've loaded it in 2017, it will show you a block height of 2017.

But since it's created on 2011~2013, one loose indicator that it's that old is if the wallet isn't "HD" (has a slash at the HD logo at the lower-right hand side of Bitcoin Core UI)
It will stay that way unless the wallet has been upgraded into HD by setting an 'HD Seed' through sethdseed command.
In comparison, wallets created by 2017 Bitcoin Core versions are HD.