Oleg Andreev



Software designer from St. Petersburg living in Paris.

Author of Gitbox version control app.

Lead developer of FunGolf, golfer's personal assistant on iOS.

If you want to learn about Bitcoin, start with my Bitcoin FAQ

Bitcoin tips are welcome: 1TipsuQ7CSqfQsjA9KU5jarSB1AnrVLLo
October 2

How to backup bitcoins on Mac OS X

Bitcoin-qt app stores private keys in ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/wallet.dat

  1. Make sure you encrypt your wallet (Settings -> Encrypt Wallet). Write down the password on a secret piece of paper ;-)

  2. Make sure you back it up properly. By default, Time Machine should backup entire Application Support, but this would exhaust your backup disk quickly because it will continuously back up 3 GB blockchain. I recommend excluding every Bitcoin/* file except wallet.dat (see the screenshot).

Remember: if you lose wallet.dat, your money is gone forever.