Help with Migrating an Old Bitcoin Wallet

I'm trying to move a wallet from 2012 using bitcoin-qt. I start the process, enter the password, but then I get this error: "Error: Unable to read wallet's best block locator record". Anyone seen this before? Any tips?

Are you sure you have the latest version of bitcoincore?

Sounds like it’s missing the last block record or something like that from when it was last synced. You could try version 29.0 which supports legacy wallets. Use "Restore Wallet," let it sync up, and then back it up with "Backup Wallet" before migrating. If it works, update to the latest Bitcoin Core after.

Hold up! Don't try the migration just yet. If you’re on versions 30.0 or 30.1, there’s this bug that can wipe everything from your wallet folder if the legacy wallet migration fails. First thing you should do is back up your wallet.dat file somewhere safe, like offline.

Totally agree. Even if you didn’t know about that bug, it’s always a smart move to have multiple backups of your wallet file before any recovery attempts. Be careful, man. If your only backup messes up, you could lose your bitcoins for good.

Yeah, this issue is known and should be fixed in the next major update for Bitcoin Core.