Where are the addresses and transactions located?

[Liam W]

I recently reinstalled my OS, and I had an old backup of my wallet.

I am wondering if my newer addresses and transactions will appear when my client has finished downloading the blockchain?

[Meni Rosenfeld]

I recently reinstalled my OS, and I had an old backup of my wallet.

I am wondering if my newer addresses and transactions will appear when my client has finished downloading the blockchain?

The most important thing is the private keys, the wallet file has a buffer of 100 keys so unless you created more than 100 addresses (including change addresses) since the backup you should be good. If you did you could be in a serious problem; wallet backups should be done periodically.

Transaction information can be obtained from the blockchain. It may help to use the -rescan parameter when starting Bitcoin the first time.

Any sending addresses in the address book, and labels you gave to your receiving addresses, which were done after the backup, will be lost.

[Liam W]

I recently reinstalled my OS, and I had an old backup of my wallet.

I am wondering if my newer addresses and transactions will appear when my client has finished downloading the blockchain?

The most important thing is the private keys, the wallet file has a buffer of 100 keys so unless you created more than 100 addresses (including change addresses) since the backup you should be good. If you did you could be in a serious problem; wallet backups should be done periodically.

Transaction information can be obtained from the blockchain. It may help to use the -rescan parameter when starting Bitcoin the first time.

Any sending addresses in the address book, and labels you gave to your receiving addresses, which were done after the backup, will be lost.

I only had about 16 addresses. I have 4 now, in the client. I thought I had made a new update, but it hadn't copied

[Meni Rosenfeld]

I recently reinstalled my OS, and I had an old backup of my wallet.

I am wondering if my newer addresses and transactions will appear when my client has finished downloading the blockchain?

The most important thing is the private keys, the wallet file has a buffer of 100 keys so unless you created more than 100 addresses (including change addresses) since the backup you should be good. If you did you could be in a serious problem; wallet backups should be done periodically.

Transaction information can be obtained from the blockchain. It may help to use the -rescan parameter when starting Bitcoin the first time.

Any sending addresses in the address book, and labels you gave to your receiving addresses, which were done after the backup, will be lost.

I only had about 16 addresses. I have 4 now, in the client. I thought I had made a new update, but it hadn't copied

Then there shouldn't be any lost coins, though I don't really know if the GUI handles this gracefully. Did you run with -rescan? Do you know if the balance currently displayed is the same as before?

[Liam W]

I recently reinstalled my OS, and I had an old backup of my wallet.

I am wondering if my newer addresses and transactions will appear when my client has finished downloading the blockchain?

The most important thing is the private keys, the wallet file has a buffer of 100 keys so unless you created more than 100 addresses (including change addresses) since the backup you should be good. If you did you could be in a serious problem; wallet backups should be done periodically.

Transaction information can be obtained from the blockchain. It may help to use the -rescan parameter when starting Bitcoin the first time.

Any sending addresses in the address book, and labels you gave to your receiving addresses, which were done after the backup, will be lost.

I only had about 16 addresses. I have 4 now, in the client. I thought I had made a new update, but it hadn't copied

Then there shouldn't be any lost coins, though I don't really know if the GUI handles this gracefully. Did you run with -rescan? Do you know if the balance currently displayed is the same as before?

Haven't run with rescan. I opened it and it is syncing still.

[Meni Rosenfeld]

Haven't run with rescan. I opened it and it is syncing still.

Then I think a rescan won't be necessary, it should pick up relevant transactions as it downloads the block chain. Reassess the situation when syncing finishes, the final balance shouldn't be affected.

PS a change address is generated whenever you send coins, so if you sent more than 84 times there could be a problem.

[Pieter Wuille]

-rescan has become almost useless since 0.3.21, since the wallet stores the last block it knows about, and it will do an automatic rescan from that point on at startup.

The only reason when it is still useful is when you're upgrading from a 0.3.20 or older wallet, or when you used external tools like pywallet to add keys to your wallet.