My encrypted Bitcoin QT wallet crashed years ago but I have backup copies. It was an earlyish version of Bitcoin QT wallet, first transaction on it is 09/2012. I have loaded the backup into Bitcoin Core v0.14.1 (64-bit) Full transaction history is there, wallet has synced. The password is rejected. I wrote out the password exactly for safe keeping so I know it is correct and never changed it. There are a number of send transactions so it seems I must have used the passphrase a few times. Have entered in every imaginable variation. Could it be because of the upgrade from QT to Core?
1 Answer
As far as I know the versions should be backward compatible but I don't know how far back, 5 years is quite a long time, Bitcoin Core have had 30 releases since then.
I found two changes that might impact wallet compatibility in my opinion:
Version 0.9.0 (19 March 2014):
Also, the first time you run a 0.8.x release on a 0.9 wallet it will rescan the blockchain for missing spent coins, which will take a long time (tens of minutes on a typical machine).
Version 0.13.0 (23 August 2016):
HD wallets are incompatible with older versions of Bitcoin Core.
Anyways, I would suggest to make a backup copy of your wallet, download an older version of Bitcoin Core, copy the wallet to the data directory of that client (you might need to specify it using -datadir C:\bitcoin_old\data), start the client (no need to synchronize the blockchain), export the private keys, exit, move away the wallet.dat from the data dir of your new Bitcoin Core client, then start it and import the private keys to your newly created wallet.
-
I will try and load the backup into the earliest possible release after my back up date. Thank you!– SwennyJun 29, 2017 at 14:07
-
1I think you should try the latest release on the day of your backup. Jun 29, 2017 at 14:13
-
2Bitcoin Core right now should be compatible with all wallet files created since v0.2.10. Jun 29, 2017 at 16:30
-
From the Bitcoin Core version history page I downloaded and unzipped the folder. To be honest I dont really know what to do with these contained files. What I'm looking for is a .DMG file for Mac to install a legacy version of the Bitcoin QT wallet from around 2012/09. Is there a simple way to download such a file? Thanks!– SwennyJul 1, 2017 at 10:30
-
I believe that's the source code. You need to compile it to make it work. I searched for binary/dmg release of Bitcoin Core 0.6.3 (latest at September 2012), although could not find on official sites, I found it at bitcointrading, the SHA256 checksum of the image matches the one in a bitcointalk post. I am not saying this makes certain the .dmg is legit but it is likely, please do your own research and only install it on your own risk. Jul 2, 2017 at 11:14