Importing private key back-up into Bitcoin-QT

[clochard]

Well I only copied the wallet.dat file which was a small file.

It is supposed to be much bigger though? There had only been one transaction, when I imported a bunch of bitcoins I still had online on MtGox last October to my Bitcoin client. Afterwards I immediately made back-ups on multiple usb's copying the wallet.dat file.

So this file cannot be correct?

[Foxpup]

A single transaction won't make much difference to the file size, but in either case if Bitcoin-Qt is 15 weeks behind and the transaction was made more than 15 weeks ago, it definitely should be displayed. So I'm guessing something's gone horribly wrong somewhere... Don't panic, wait for it to finish synchronising, then close and restart with -rescan (wallet backups are supposed to work without a rescan, but in this case it doesn't seem to be doing what it's supposed to), and if it still doesn't work, resume panicking, I guess.

[turvarya]

The file itself is 72kb of size.

So, it didn't actually contain any transactions at the time you made the backup? That explains a few things... Nothing to do but wait until it finishes synchronising and (hopefully) your transactions will start appearing one by one. If not... didn't you say you have multiple backups? You really ought to be trying the most recent (or largest) file first.

The wallet.dat doesn't include transactions. Just the address. (transactions are in the blockchain)

[clochard]

Guys I fixed it! Apperently with windows 8 it saved the peers.dat and wallet.dat files in another place than with 7 and vista, so I copied the wallet.dat in the wrong folder and that is why I could not see them in the Bitcoin client. Now I am still lagging behind 7 weeks, but the transactions are there at least.

Quite a relief I should say.

I was already thinking, what on earth could have gone wrong...

Thanks for all the help! Really appreciated

Best,

Clochard

[Foxpup]

The wallet.dat doesn't include transactions. Just the address. (transactions are in the blockchain)

Of course it does. The blockchain's currently about 16GB. You think Bitcoin-Qt reads the entire blockchain every time it needs to display a transaction? Try this: close Bitcoin-Qt, remove everything from the data directory except wallet.dat, then restart. All your transactions are still there (albeit unconfirmed), even though the blockchain is gone. So how does it know?

Guys I fixed it! Apperently with windows 8 it saved the peers.dat and wallet.dat files in another place than with 7 and vista, so I copied the wallet.dat in the wrong folder and that is why I could not see them in the Bitcoin client.

Wait a minute. You said you removed the empty wallet.dat that was created by the new Bitcoin-Qt installation? So how could you have been using the wrong folder the whole time? That doesn't... ah, never mind. Glad you fixed it in the end.

[turvarya]

The wallet.dat doesn't include transactions. Just the address. (transactions are in the blockchain)

Of course it does. The blockchain's currently about 16GB. You think Bitcoin-Qt reads the entire blockchain every time it needs to display a transaction? Try this: close Bitcoin-Qt, remove everything from the data directory except wallet.dat, then restart. All your transactions are still there (albeit unconfirmed), even though the blockchain is gone. So how does it know?

That is just not true. I downloaded the blockchain 3 times. The Transaction are not shown in Bitcoin-QT until it has downloaded the blockchain to the Point, where the Transaction was made.
Have you tried what you suggest your self? I don't think so.

[Foxpup]

That is just not true. I downloaded the blockchain 3 times. The Transaction are not shown in Bitcoin-QT until it has downloaded the blockchain to the Point, where the Transaction was made.
Have you tried what you suggest your self? I don't think so.

I have. Several times, in fact. I've no idea why it's not working for you. Irregardless, transactions are stored in the wallet. What do you suppose the -rescan and -zapwallettxes options are for?

[clochard]

Okay guys, new problem, new question

I tried to send my Bitcoins today from my Bitcoin client to electrum, but it requested a password. On the old Bitcoin wallet I had a password that I wrote down and I have used and it worked.

When I installed the new Bitcoin client, I felt a bit insecure and put a new password on it. I typed it twice and wrote it down and I am pretty sure that it is correct.

Today when I was going to transfer the coins, I was confused which password I had to use. So I have tried them both multiple times, but the Bitcoin client keeps repeating that it is the wrong password.

What is happening here? Both passwords I am more than 100% certain about.

Many thanks!

Best,

Clochard

[escrow.ms]

Okay guys, new problem, new question

I tried to send my Bitcoins today from my Bitcoin client to electrum, but it requested a password. On the old Bitcoin wallet I had a password that I wrote down and I have used and it worked.

When I installed the new Bitcoin client, I felt a bit insecure and put a new password on it. I typed it twice and wrote it down and I am pretty sure that it is correct.

Today when I was going to transfer the coins, I was confused which password I had to use. So I have tried them both multiple times, but the Bitcoin client keeps repeating that it is the wrong password.

What is happening here? Both passwords I am more than 100% certain about.

Many thanks!

Best,

Clochard

If you are sure it's same, try with caps,without caps or if you used special characters that are on numerical keypad, try numbers, sometimes due to bad keyboard people enter 2 instead of @

Oh btw, if you have old wallet backup, you can use that one.

[DeathAndTaxes]

there is normally absolutely no need for a rescan when restoring a wallet backup.

Really?

Odd.  I thought a rescan was often necessary after restoring a backup.  I'll have to search through threads and see if I can find evidence of that.

It was needed at one time.  It hasn't for some time now.  The wallet file maintains a copy of all txs it knows and it also maintains the block height (and best chain hash) of the last block it saw.  With those two pieces of info the wallet can update itself by just checking all "new" blocks. I can confirm this works as expected.  I use it on an almost daily basis.  Now the older the backup the more blocks it will need to parse but this will always be less than a full rescan and often it will be significantly less. If the backup was from yesterday it only needs to scan one day's worth of blocks instead of four years.

As for why do people keep recommending -rescan? I don't know.  Urban legends never die?   The only time a rescan should be needed is if something "breaks".   Now that you know you can join the fight against superstition and false solutions.

[DannyHamilton]

As for why do people keep recommending -rescan? I don't know.  Urban legends never die?   The only time a rescan should be needed is if something "breaks".   Now that you know you can join the fight against superstition and false solutions.

Thanks, will do.

[clochard]

If you are sure it's same, try with caps,without caps or if you used special characters that are on numerical keypad, try numbers, sometimes due to bad keyboard people enter 2 instead of @

Oh btw, if you have old wallet backup, you can use that one.

I tried already capslock and stuff, but nothing is working. Should I now be using my old password btw, or the new one that I put yesterday?

And I do still have the old back up. Does this mean that if I remove this Bitcoin client from my pc and I install a new one it will use my old password that I used to have? Because in that case, that would be the solution

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Clochard

[escrow.ms]

If you are sure it's same, try with caps,without caps or if you used special characters that are on numerical keypad, try numbers, sometimes due to bad keyboard people enter 2 instead of @

Oh btw, if you have old wallet backup, you can use that one.

I tried already capslock and stuff, but nothing is working. Should I now be using my old password btw, or the new one that I put yesterday?

And I do still have the old back up. Does this mean that if I remove this Bitcoin client from my pc and I install a new one it will use my old password that I used to have? Because in that case, that would be the solution

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Clochard

You don't need to reinstall anything,

Open this folder C:\Users\*UserName*\Appdata\Roaming\Bitcoin
Rename your current wallet.dat to wallet1.dat and then copy paste your old wallet.dat in same directory.

Once you have done that, your old password will work and you need to rescan it one by using -rescan option.

[DannyHamilton]

you need to rescan it one by using -rescan option.

Apparently not.  (See the discussion from this thread)

[escrow.ms]

you need to rescan it one by using -rescan option.

Apparently not.  (See the discussion from this thread)

Yeah just checked, he already did that I guess.

[clochard]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I changed the name of the wallet.dat to wallet1.dat and I imported the old back-up wallet.dat to the folder and restarted the Bitcoin client.

I typed my old password to do a transaction, but it is still not working...

And I have used that password before, I have it here on a paper in front of me, and now it does not work anymore...

What the heck!?

Anyone has any idea?

Thanks!

Clochard

[turvarya]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I changed the name of the wallet.dat to wallet1.dat and I imported the old back-up wallet.dat to the folder and restarted the Bitcoin client.

I typed my old password to do a transaction, but it is still not working...

And I have used that password before, I have it here on a paper in front of me, and now it does not work anymore...

What the heck!?

Anyone has any idea?

Thanks!

Clochard

You could write it in an Editor(Notepad) where you see it and not just *'s and copy it to be sure, you typed it right.