How to import my wallet?

Question

I used to run bitcoin on Ubuntu and I have a wallet with 1 coin in it.

I took a backup of my ~/.bitcoin directory which includes a wallet.dat file.

Now I'm running on a mac, using the bitcoint-qt client.

How do I get back the money from that wallet?

Can I just copy it over the existing wallet that the mac client generated?

Is there a way to run a command line client and point to my wallet then transfer coins from it to the new wallet?

I'm wondering why you can't just send the coins from your original wallet to your new one? — T9b, Commented Jun 9, 2013 at 9:32
@T9b yea that's a good point. I have no idea why I didn't do that back then! I can't remember if there was some specific reason or if I simply did not think of it — hasen, Commented Jun 15, 2013 at 6:32

hasen · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-24 20:42:38Z

11

I got it to work by simply copying the file over.

An important point to notice if you intend to follow this suggestion:

My mac wallet had 0 coins

If your mac wallet has coins, then don't follow this solution.

First I shut down the bitcoin-qt client. Not sure if this step is necessary but I think it's safer.

Then I copied the wallet.dat file over to

~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/wallet.dat

Then start the bitcoint-qt client again. It might take a bit longer to startup than usual. Don't panic and let it take its time.

Then you will see your coins in the client!

answered Aug 24, 2012 at 20:42

hasen

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That is correct. You overwrite your wallet on the Mac, but like you mentioned, it had 0 coins. Never hurts to make a backup copy first before overwriting if you've ever used the walet.
– Stephen Gornick
Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 0:08
As far as shutting down the client before copying the wallet, that is correct. You never want to copy data while an application that accesses it is open.
– Stephen Gornick
Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 0:09
I'm on Linux, I exported the encrypted wallet.dat from Windows but I can't just overwrite it with the one Windows generated. it simply crashes with "Runaway exception, can't open wallet.dat, error 22"
– usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
Commented Apr 11, 2013 at 8:35
so if anyone somehow got hold of my "wallet.dat", he/she can just copy the file over to his system and, now he/she has all my coins ?
– Ali
Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 9:26

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