Steps to Upgrade Old Wallet to HD Wallet

Hey there, I’m running Bitcoin Core 26 on Ubuntu 22.04 with Snap and have a question. I’ve got my wallet set up, but I can’t find any option for converting it to an HD wallet. Tried looking on Google but came up empty. Any ideas? Thanks a lot! Michael

If you’re using the QT GUI, just start Bitcoin Core and head to the console via Window->Console. Select your wallet from the drop-down, and if it’s not there, you might have to load it first. Then run the command upgradewallet. But if you meant converting to a descriptor wallet, then pick your old wallet from the overview and do File->Migrate Wallet. Just be patient, it can take a moment.

Thanks for the info, nc50lc! I’ve got a couple more questions, maybe a bit basic: I only have a single wallet.dat file used for long-term storage. I’ve passphrase encrypted it and backup the.dat file whenever I generate a new address. If I convert it to an HD or Descriptor wallet and it messes up, can I just replace the wallet.dat file from my backup? Should I even update it since I rarely generate new addresses?

For sure you can restore the old wallet, but it’s way better to avoid just copying the.dat file back manually. Use this command: bitcoin-cli restorewallet "wallet_name" "path_to_old_wallet.dat_file_backup" instead. And yeah, moving to a descriptor wallet is a good idea. Legacy formats will be phased out soon in Bitcoin Core.

Thanks a ton, I’ll give it a shot and let you know if I encounter any issues!