Bitcoin Core upgrade

[v1.0]

I am currently using Bitcoin Core version v0.18.0 (64-bit) on Windows. Noticed there is a Bitcoin Core 22.0 available now. Couple questions:

1) How did Core go from a .18 version all the way to 22 versions?
2) Can I upgrade my current .18 to 22 and still keep my current chain or do I have to download the whole thing all over again?

Thanks!

**edit- whoops, this thread should have probably have been put into Bitcoin Technical Support section.

[v1.0]

And also, noticed on this site links to a version "23" which goes to bitcoincore.org download, whereas version 22 is at bitcoin.org.

Which is which?? Any guidance appreciated, thanks.

[Cricktor]

https://bitcoincore.org ist the proper website for Bitcoin Core and genuine downloads for it. It looks like bitcoin.org isn't kept very up-to-date with respect to downloads anymore.

These are versions you missed out (see at https://bitcoincore.org/en/releases/):
Bitcoin Core 23.0
Bitcoin Core 22.0
Bitcoin Core 0.21.2
Bitcoin Core 0.21.1
Bitcoin Core 0.21.0
Bitcoin Core 0.20.2
Bitcoin Core 0.20.1
Bitcoin Core 0.20.0
Bitcoin Core 0.19.1
Bitcoin Core 0.19.0.1
Bitcoin Core 0.18.1

You can update step-by-step, but it should work if you immediately update with Bitcoin Core 23.0. It won't need to re-download your blockchain data, it will be preserved. Always verify your downloads of Bitcoin Core properly!

To be sure, an immediate update with the most recent version of Bitcoin Core is OK, I'd recommend to read the release notes of all intermediate releases. If there are some changes to the database structures or so pointed out, you may want to update with such intermediate releases first.

Seriously, v0.18.0 and v0.18.1 were released in 2019, we're now in 2022. It might be better to check for new versions in shorter time frames.

[v1.0]

https://bitcoincore.org ist the proper website for Bitcoin Core and genuine downloads for it. It looks like bitcoin.org isn't kept very up-to-date with respect to downloads anymore.

These are versions you missed out (see at https://bitcoincore.org/en/releases/):
Bitcoin Core 23.0
Bitcoin Core 22.0
Bitcoin Core 0.21.2
Bitcoin Core 0.21.1
Bitcoin Core 0.21.0
Bitcoin Core 0.20.2
Bitcoin Core 0.20.1
Bitcoin Core 0.20.0
Bitcoin Core 0.19.1
Bitcoin Core 0.19.0.1
Bitcoin Core 0.18.1

You can update step-by-step, but it should work if you immediately update with Bitcoin Core 23.0. It won't need to re-download your blockchain data, it will be preserved. Always verify your downloads of Bitcoin Core properly!

To be sure, an immediate update with the most recent version of Bitcoin Core is OK, I'd recommend to read the release notes of all intermediate releases. If there are some changes to the database structures or so pointed out, you may want to update with such intermediate releases first.

Seriously, v0.18.0 and v0.18.1 were released in 2019, we're now in 2022. It might be better to check for new versions in shorter time frames.

That's great, thanks for the clarification. It's a bit confusing with the way the versions are numbered, for example they go from a version 0.21.2 (which is less than 1) all the way to a full-numbered 23 now. Just semantics I guess.

[pooya87]

Ever since version {0.}22.0 the developers changed their version convention to no longer include the starting zero and the minor version becomes major, so 0.22.0 becomes 22.0 which is just the convention changing.

Also like other wallets on bitcoin.org, it was decided  bitcoin core to also be released on its own website. For example Electrum is released on electrum.org and bitcoin core is released on bitcoincore.org.

Everything else is the same, you can upgrade like previous versions.

[NotATether]

You can update step-by-step, but it should work if you immediately update with Bitcoin Core 23.0. It won't need to re-download your blockchain data, it will be preserved. Always verify your downloads of Bitcoin Core properly!

To be sure, an immediate update with the most recent version of Bitcoin Core is OK, I'd recommend to read the release notes of all intermediate releases. If there are some changes to the database structures or so pointed out, you may want to update with such intermediate releases first.

No need for intermediate version hopping, since new releases of Bitcoin Core can always upgrade the data of any older version that is widely used on the network, so don't go out using ancient Bitcoin-QT versions and expect Core to migrate all the data successfuly.

[Cricktor]

...

No need for intermediate version hopping, since new releases of Bitcoin Core can always upgrade the data of any older version that is widely used on the network, so don't go out using ancient Bitcoin-QT versions and expect Core to migrate all the data successfuly.

Well, I had wallet.dat update issues in 2021 when I finally was able to recover a Bitcoin Core wallet.dat last used 2014 from a harddisk crash in that year (don't ask why it took me about seven years to scrape as much as possible from the dying harddisk; it was a painful experience and from then on I implemented a very strict and continuous backup scheme of my important personal data; some humans learn best from pain  ). The wallet.dat file itself was not damaged, I could exclude that as reason. While it might have been possible to update immediately with the current version in 2021 for everything except the wallet, this current version of Bitcoin Core in 2021 wouldn't load the 2014 wallet.dat at all!

So I chose to update this old Bitcoin Core wallet.dat step-by-step with each intermediate Bitcoin Core version from 2014 to 2021 and this worked for me in this particular case. There were IIRC about two Bitcoin Core versions which required changes and updates in the wallet.dat "structures", I guess probably those were the versions I shouldn't have skipped over.

Just my personal experience in such kind of an update edge case.

[NotATether]

So I chose to update this old Bitcoin Core wallet.dat step-by-step with each intermediate Bitcoin Core version from 2014 to 2021 and this worked for me in this particular case. There were IIRC about two Bitcoin Core versions which required changes and updates in the wallet.dat "structures", I guess probably those were the versions I shouldn't have skipped over.

Last used in 2014 implies that you were using Bitcoin version 0.8 or 0.9 or something earlier.

I don't think Bitcoin Core has a backup keys feature for this purpose (dumpwallet is probably the closest we will get to a backup/restore medium).