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I've tried to transfer Bitcoins from one address to another address, both of which I own. I bought a new computer, so I downloaded the Bitcoin client for OS X, and transfered from the old computer to the new computer. This was before I realized I could simply copy over my wallet.dat file.

This was also before I had a good idea of how Bitcoin actually worked. Just a few minutes after I hit send on the transfer, I shut down the old computer and put it away.

I sort of forgot about the whole thing until yesterday evening. I tried to check in on my balance and found it at 0.

However, after about an hour, I see that there are transactions in my Bitcoin client for the Bitcoins sent, and the Bitcoins received.

The received address is mine, there is a credit for the amount of Bitcoins I sent, and there are 20k+ confirmations for that transaction. The weird part is that transaction is dated 6/15/2011. The sent from transaction address is also mine, there is a debit of the correct amount, there are 68 confirmations, and the transaction is dated 8/6/2011.

The problem is that the balance is still 0.00.

Is there something I can do to make sure I still have these Bitcoins? Is it a matter of waiting until there are more confirmations? Have a made a horrible mistake?

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  • Forgot to mention, I'm on OS X Lion, and I'm using the 0.4.0-beta version of the Bitcoin client.
    – Brian
    Commented Oct 31, 2011 at 13:40
  • Those confirmations you see are in the old computer or in the new computer?
    – nmat
    Commented Oct 31, 2011 at 17:49
  • I'm seeing them on the new computer. The field 'Your Bitcoin Address:' and the single transaction I have in the 'Received' section have matching addresses. The address in the 'Received' section is labeled: 'Received with:'.
    – Brian
    Commented Oct 31, 2011 at 18:24
  • And what is the destination address of the sent transaction? Have you ever sent any bitcoins from that computer? It looks like you received bitcoins in your wallet in June and someone transferred them to another address in August. Looking up the addresses in blockexplorer might help.
    – nmat
    Commented Nov 1, 2011 at 3:38
  • 1
    I'm curious if you ever got your coins?
    – user1086
    Commented Feb 20, 2012 at 8:14

1 Answer 1

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It is possible if the client crashed it didn't finish processing the block containing your transaction (due to bad timing) and now that it is past that block doesn't go back to "double check".

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Running_Bitcoin

There is a command line argument -rescan which forces the client to recheck every block for transactions related to the current wallet. In windows it would be done from Command prompt "bitcoin -rescan". I assume OS X has some sort of commandline option.

Alternatively you can stop the client. Make a backup of your wallet.dat. Delete all the files from bitcoin configuration folder other than wallet.dat file. Restart the client. It should show 0 blocks and not have the "bad transaction". The client will download the blockchain. This could take an hour or more. Once block chain is fully downloaded the transaction should appear and balance updated.

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    I gave both of those suggestions a try, but unfortunately neither of them seemed to work. I'm now at 122 confirmations for the send on 8/6, and 20292 confirmations for the receive on 6/15.
    – Brian
    Commented Nov 1, 2011 at 0:06
  • @Brian, Did you manage to get your coins?
    – Pacerier
    Commented May 23, 2014 at 14:37

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