Quote from: superbotolo on February 25, 2025, 11:30:01 PM

Hello,

I have a bunch of old wallet.dat files that are very likely empty. I would love to give a final look to make sure I am not missing any money in those wallets.

I don't currently have a fully synced node and I have done the following to check the balance, let me know if this is correct.

I load the wallet.dat file in the Bitcoin Core app (on Mac). The app tells me that it needs to sync the entire blockchain and I say go for it. While the app is syncing the blockchain, I click on the menu Window and select Receiving Addresses.

I then check the balance of all these addresses on Blockchain.com.

Does this give me the full picture of the balance of those wallets?

I think one of many solutions is to export your addresses from the Bitcoin Core console using the command dumpwallet "path/to/output_file.txt" and then check them on the blockchain, or import them into Electrum to visualize their balance. This way, you avoid synchronizing the full node and prevent any address from being overlooked in the wallet.dat file, whether it's a change address or for any other reason that might cause an address not to be shown in Bitcoin Core.