Did I lose my bitcoins? 0.15 Bitcoins to who can help retrieve!

[Bitcoinquestions]

Hello,
This is my final attempt at trying to "retrieve" my coins. I'm sorry but I checked every FAQ and forum on the internet and couldn't find anything that helped. I downloaded Bitcoin Core and I had a few addresses stored on the wallet. I bought bitcoins and sent them to the address while the wallet was still syncing. The next day, my wallet reboots and generates new addresses! The problem is that it did so before I did the dumpprivkey to generate a private key. Anyway, I checked my wallet.dat folder and the address I sent the money to is still there but whenever I try to generate the private key, my wallet would not respond/recognize the address. Is there something I can do to fix it? I have 2 wallet.dat folders now and I know I should have only one but I dont know what to do with the other one. My wallet is now fully synced but says I still have 0 coins. The wallet.dat folders are using textedit (on a mac, if it makes any difference) and the wallet is taking too much space on my computer (I have zero KB left). I just want to please know if my coins are retrievable or if I should give up and consider them lost. Thank you!

[Bitcoinquestions]

Edit: Transaction shows on blockchain.

[Decoded]

It's fine. Your coins are still under your control. Bitcoin core generates a new receiving address after you receive a transaction.

So you have 2 the wallet.dats, you say? If your Bitcoin Core client is not recognising that address, even though you did generate it, then try swapping out your wallet.dats and reopening Bitcoin core.

Please clarify, am I getting everything right?

You received your Bitcoin to one of your addresses, but soon after the wallet generated a totally new set of addresses (Is this when the second wallet.dat was made?) Now your wallet is not dumping the private key, thus your private key is no longer in that wallet.

Where did that second wallet.dat come into play?

[Decoded]

One thing that is concerning me is that your hard drive has 0kb left. That means it has no more space to write to. Were you syncing very recently? Maybe this is why.

You could try moving your wallet.dat files (both of them) onto a hard drive, and installing Bitcoin core on the hard drive and get it to read from your wallet files, then dump the private key. You don't need to sync.

[Bitcoinquestions]

I deleted some files and I have 2GB left now. I guess my question is, how can I let my wallet recognize that the previous address is mine? The wallet is fully synced and yes I believe you understood what I was trying to say. The second wallet.dat folder was generated after the new addresses were created. How can I swap them/get the wallet to read the old folder? Thank you!!

[Decoded]

Ok. Thanks for the clarification.

Bitcoin Core does not need special instructions to read a wallet.dat file, because it is a simple encrypted data file. You just need to put in your password if you set one.

Previously you said that one of your wallet.dat folders held the address you want to get the private key from. What did you see? Was it the Bitcoin address, then the private key?

What I'm guessing is that Bitcoin core is reading from the wrong wallet file. One wallet.dat file should be in the directory ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/, and the second one should be somewhere else. Try swapping the files (renaming the wallet.dat and then putting the other one in the folder)

[Bitcoinquestions]

I have no clue what the wallet.dat folder is saying. I searched for the address and I found the two transactions I made to that address. However, I'm using a macbook and wallet.dat is using textedit and most of it contains letters like "tÏBéKAĆ8" I'm sure the private key contains no such letters. Should I be using a different application to access the wallet? I also transferred money from xcoins and I can see "xcoins" before the address I sent it to which is making me believe that the transaction is still stored in the wallet.dat file. Unfortunately, both aren't stored in any folder and I don't even have a bitcoin core folder .. Just the application. Is the private key supposed to be stored in the file after the address? Also, is it fine if I delete the new wallet.dat folder with the new addresses? I haven't made transactions to any of the new addresses.

[Bitcoinquestions]

Edit: I have two folders under the titles "blocks" and "chainstate." Should I relocate it to any of these two?

[Decoded]

No. It's best to keep both wallet.dat files until this is figured out. You don't want to accidentally deleted the wrong file.

Your wallet.dat is not readable with any text editor. The only application that will read it properly is Bitcoin core.

Your wallet.dat file should be where the two folders, chainstate and blocks reside. If I'm getting you right, there should already be a wallet.dat folder there. Swap the existing one with the other wallet.dat then try to do a dumpprivkey.