Hey everyone, I'm having trouble restoring my Bitcoin Core wallet from another machine. When I try using my.dat file, I get this error: "Wallet loading failed. Prune: last wallet synchronisation goes beyond pruned data. You need to -reindex." What does that even mean? I'm not very techy. How do I get my old wallet on my new Mac?
Sounds like you're running a pruned node. Basically, it means you don't have the full blockchain downloaded. A pruned node only keeps the latest blocks and deletes older ones over time. If you want to import that wallet, you’ll need to redownload the whole blockchain.
This error pops up when you're importing a wallet with old data that the current blockchain can't find. Here's what worked for me, but no promises it’ll work for you. Disable the pruning mode, close Bitcoin Core, delete all blockchain data, then fire it back up and enable pruning again. Let it sync and see what happens.
I doubt OP wants to start that whole sync from scratch... but honestly, they might not have a choice. Re-indexing is gonna restart the sync process anyway. That’s a bummer about using a pruned node any corruption can force you to do it all over again.
Just delete everything except the wallets folder with your wallet.dat. But before you do that, make sure you back up your wallet.dat! In Bitcoin Core, you can find your data directory under Windows, then Info.
Is that other device the one you mentioned earlier? Even if it looks stuck, it might still be working in the background. The reindexing message should actually go faster than the initial blockchain download. Check your debug.log to see if it’s updating.
BitMaxz's method just switches off pruning, then back on after deleting blockchain data, right? So OP won’t have to redownload the whole chain, just the latest blocks as per their pruned setup. If their hardware is decent, syncing shouldn’t take ages.
Where did you get the idea OP is trying to dodge a new sync? They clearly mentioned they’re not tech-savvy and struggling with the error message. They honestly might not even know why their node is pruned. Could just be the default setting, or maybe they don't have the space for a full blockchain.
That’s why I wouldn’t bother with a pruned node. If your transactions go back further than what’s saved, guess what? You’re downloading the blockchain and reindexing all over again. My advice? Keep a full node if you can. An SSD with at least 1TB should do for a couple of years.