Bitcoin Core wallet recovery

Two things decide your route back in: whether you still have the wallet.dat file, and whether you remember the passphrase. Start with the file.

Start with the wallet.dat file

Bitcoin Core keeps your keys in a file called wallet.dat. It's usually in:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Bitcoin\
• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/
• Linux: ~/.bitcoin/

Newer installs keep wallets in a wallets subfolder. Check old computers, external drives and backups as well, and copy the file before you open it in anything.

Can't find a file at all? Our guide to finding an old Bitcoin wallet walks through your email, drives and backups.

Forgot the passphrase?

Bitcoin Core has no password reset and no recovery phrase to fall back on. If you encrypted the wallet, the passphrase is the only way to unlock it. You send us the encrypted wallet.dat and everything you remember about the passphrase, and we test your guesses and their variations on offline, air-gapped machines. Our Bitcoin Core password guide covers what to try on your own first.

Opening an old wallet in a new version

Current versions of Bitcoin Core don't load old legacy wallets directly. They migrate them to the newer descriptor format first, and the migration asks for the passphrase, so it won't get you around a forgotten one. Keep the original file untouched and work on a copy. If a wallet opens but shows less than you expect, the node may still be syncing or need a rescan.

Start your recovery →