Topic: can't access electrum wallet (Read 514 times)

There's a certain chance that it'll be pre-selected.
Since it's in the data directory where the configuration file is included where the previously loaded wallet directories are listed,
chances that it'll be the first wallet that a newly installed Electrum will show during its "Install Wizard" screen,
you wont even have to setup the wallet since its already there, it'll just open. You can add the password in the wallet menu if it's not encrypted. (sounds familiar?)

Plus the data directory isn't deleted if the previous owner deleted/uninstalled Electrum.

Why? Is there a chance that the PC was someone else's?
Because that's a good start since you can ask him if he used Electrum before and the whereabouts of that address.

Yes, the two wallets are only a little over a week old.

I did the selfie, id, etc. thing when I opened the blockchain wallet. They asked for it again when I attempted a transaction noting I may be a "victim".

It is likely I am "misremembering" some things about the initial install of the Electrum wallet. But, as I said before, I don't have the know how to even think about modifying the program and don't recall doing anything to add/change any aspect thereof. As for the wallet already being there when I installed Electrum it makes me wonder what are the odds I would randomly select a wallet that just happened to already be on my computer?

I do admit to making several mistakes (mostly of omission) by venturing into crypto wallets half-cocked. Whatever happened seems to be irreparable. Perhaps I have failed in relaying the information needed by those of you who are quite well versed in this stuff. Perhaps I did do something I can't remember to foul up the install. Perhaps it's just an odd glitch that's never been seen before.  To all of you who've been so generous to  put in the time and brain power to help me I thank you and I envy you. From here on out I'll check the blockchain from time to time to see what might have been. I've already lost half of my investment in bc so losing the other half will be something I'll just have to live with. Maybe one day I'll run across someone who can physically go into this Pc and figure out what went wrong since the coin doesn't seem to be going anywhere. It's time for me to put this down and move along. Again, thank you all for all you've done.

So those wallets are just created recently and not before creating your Electrum wallet?
If so, the address can't be from any of those.
If not and those are before Electrum: it's worth to check those wallet's address list if it belongs there.

For the additional info requested by blockchain.com (not affiliated with Bitcoin), it's mandatory to their Buy/Sell and Exchange services.

Then the wallet is created by someone else or as mentioned above, already there when you installed Electrum.
It's possible since Electrum's data directory is separate from the install directory and wont be deleted during uninstall.

There also inconsistencies that leads to my suspicion that you've totally misremembered what happened.

Is your computer second hand? Is there a chance this wallet file already existed on your device and when you installed Electrum it simply opened the already existing wallet? It's very strange behavior for malware, which would be much better off just letting you generate a wallet normally and stealing your seed phrase.

And did you not say above that you wrote down a seed phrase? But here you say all you did was create a password?

It's highly unlikely. The only thing I can think of would be to try the following:

• Take your list of 30 private keys
• Delete all the addresses and all of the "p2wpkh:" prefixes, so you are just left with a list of 30 raw private keys beginning with K or L
• Create a new Electrum wallet, and select "Import Bitcoin addresses or private keys"
• Paste in your list of 30 private keys

This will generate the corresponding legacy address (starting with "1") for each of your private keys. It's highly unlikely any of these are the 1N8vh... address in question, but it's the only possibility I can think of.

I think it's obvious and well established, to all. I didn't know what I was doing right from the start. I didn't verify the download and, therefore, it's very possible I did download a malicious copy/wallet file. I wouldn't have any way of knowing that unless I verified it which I didn't. (Mistake #4) As I stated in another reply, I did nothing other than enter my password into the field when prompted during set-up. What puzzles me is why is the bc still in the same place and not been moved after almost two years if the objective was to steal it?

Private keys were mentioned earlier. In the Electrum file I have a list of about 30 private keys that look like this:  "bc1......" : "p2wpkh : [numbers and letters]",  Does the possibility exist the bc can be accessed by using these? I was thinking I could delete everything Electrum I can from this PC and download a verified wallet but that would only create a wallet completely separate with no connection to my bc, correct?

nc501c, I can assure you I did not paste anything from the clipboard into the program. I don't even know how to use a clipboard. I have no idea where this 1N8vh... number came from. When the install process was complete the window opened with the Electrum name, version and 1N8vh... number at the top. The only thing I remember doing is creating a password. At that point I thought I was good to go and at some time shortly thereafter made a bc purchase. I've learned, on here, I made three mistakes. The first was assuming the 1N8vh number was not the address for conducting transactions and the second was not checking the wallet after the purchase to see if the bc made it into the wallet. The third was going to blockchain.com (a link to which was emailed to me after the initial purchase) to follow the first and all subsequent purchases. Since 4/2021 I had lost one half of my investment due to the drop in value of bc. When it recently began to come back I was going to sell it off and get out of crypto altogether. That's when I went to the wallet to find there was a  "0" balance. I can tell you with 100% certainty I did not interfere with the install by adding or deleting anything except a password in the field presented when prompted.

I opened two other wallets at the advice of what turned out to be a couple suspicious characters on another forum. This was about a week ago after discovering the problem with the Electrum wallet. I attempted to buy a small amount of bc for a blockchain.com wallet but the transaction did not go through because they thought I may have been a victim of a scam and wanted further verification (selfie, official ID, dated note, etc.). Perhaps the 1N8vh... "address" instead of a bc1q address triggered an alarm or something, I don't know.  I decided to forego the transaction and return to attempting to resolve the electrum wallet. That's when I found this forum. I also opened a Trust wallet that I have done nothing with.

I didn't know this, but Coinmama Wallet is actually non-custodial so this is a real possibility! OP would still need to find his wallet details though.

The download link on Electrum.org is always up to date, so if you downloaded it from the official site, then this would not have happened. I am assuming you didn't bother to verify your download with the developer's PGP keys prior to installing?

There is no scenario in which Electrum will automatically generate a wallet with an address in the file name. The only two remaining options are that either someone else put it there (meaning you downloaded a malicious copy of Electrum or a malicious wallet file by mistake), or you put it there without realizing what you were doing (meaning that you must have copied it from somewhere else first - it's not a Coinmama deposit address?).

Does this "Install Window" seem familiar?:

Because that's where you've entered that "1N8vh" address that you may have copied from somewhere else.
I'm thinking that you may have it in your clipboard back then, pasted it there, then proceeded to create the wallet.

Have you been using other wallet(s) aside from Electrum before?

I think the download and the first purchase were close together. Certainly not nearly a month apart. Me being the dullard I am, perhaps I clicked on a download link that had not been updated. I don't know. I remember it being a 3. something version. When this problem started I upgraded to the 4.3.4 version hoping that might "fix" something. Your colleague on here, LoyceV, feels I may have changed something at the time of the initial purchase. They may be right. I can't categorically deny that. It seems I've broken/manipulated it beyond repair.

I'm at a loss there, LoyceV. I knew going in I knew nothing about manipulating a wallet so I just loaded and ran the program. How it appeared on the screen and where the number came from was what I got when it opened. This was over two years ago but I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything to this wallet that would generate any changes to the original download. I may have done something that buggered up the delivery of the bc but I don't recall even attempting to do so. That being said, I think it's time to drop it for now. For peace of mind and with great gratitude for your help, I'll admit I broke it somehow and paid the price.

I think I can safely say Electrum didn't create that wallet name on it's own, so (somehow) you must have done it. If you can figure out how that happened, that might give you a clue.

You don't just go from private keys in a new (bc1q) Electrum wallet to a legacy ("1") address without manually doing something.

Yes, I created the wallet on my own. Did a search for how to buy bitcoin and then looked at several wallets. Chose Electrum because it was highly rated. When I opened the download the Electrum 4.3.4 line was at the top along with the 1N8vh... no help from anyone. (I should have done a bit more reading up, it appears.)

I am totally in the dark about private keys. I've seen where they're listed in the pull-down menu but have no idea what to do with them. It just says sweep or export. Is there some kind of connection between them and the 1N8v... label that might give me access to the coin?

All of this is normal, except for that "1N8vh..." is at the place where your wallet's name is. That means it is actually the name of your wallet, and that should not be a Bitcoin address.
Did you create this wallet by yourself? Or did someone "help" you do this? Did you get a phone call, or email, telling you what to do?

It sounds like it's unrelated.

Like all Bitcoins, it can only be moved by someone with access to the private key.

No. Miners don't look for lost coins, but scammers prey on Newbies (and on experienced members too).

I'd say dig a bit deeper. Try to remember what exactly you did when you created the wallet. How did it get it's name ("1N8vh...")?

This is the top line of my wallet:  Electrum 4.3.4 - 1N8vh... [standard]

I don't know if it matters but I did open an electrum wallet on my phone. It seems somewhat different than the PC version. I don't see the 1Nvh... number on there anywhere. I just recently opened this wallet when I discovered the problem I have. Haven't done anything with it except look at it. I don't think the two are connected in any way.

Regardless, is it your expert opinion the bc showing on the blockchain under 1N8vh... is "locked" there having no way to be moved to my wallet or anywhere else for that matter? (Is this the kind of thing "miners"  look for?) It's really not that much money to go further down this rabbit hole any deeper.

Unlikely. The default wallet is named default_wallet, and that's not something you accidentally change into a Bitcoin address.

One possibility is clipboard malware, although I haven't read about malware that replaces a bc1q-address with a legacy ("1") address. And if that's the case, I would have expected the funds to be moved by now.

It's unlikely you create an address by just typing it (I think there's about a 1 in 4 billion chance to type a correct checksum), so it's much more likely the address was created from a private key.
Your "fatal error" is not checking your wallet after the first withdrawal. Checking block explorers isn't enough if the address doesn't belong to your wallet.

I think I've figured out what happened through this line of questioning. Could it be the address (1N8vh...) I copied is not, in fact, the address but the name of the wallet? By not knowing, I should have gone into the wallet and selected a "receive" address from the list and an amount so the bc could be routed correctly? If this is what happened I suppose this is a fatal error on my part and, given the security protocols, the bc can not be moved out of 1N8vh... since there is no such address owner.

What is the timeline here? How soon before your first withdrawal from Coinmama did you set up the Electrum wallet?

I ask because the first transaction to that address was on April 20th, 2021. However, approximately one month earlier, Electrum released version 4.1.0 which stopped generating legacy seed phrases and legacy addresses (without going through the console) and started generating segwit seed phrases and segwit addresses instead. Such addresses would start with "bc1", and not look like the legacy address which you have shared.

That sounds legit.

What do you mean with "from the top of the wallet"? The top-address on the Addresses list is fine. If you would have created one on the Receive tab, that's fine too. I don't have an address "on the top", so I'm not sure what you mean.

The site is Coinmama.

I got it from the top of the wallet.

I went to the Electrum.org site for the download. When I purchased the bc I was asked to enter the wallet address. I put in the 1N8vh.... address on the top of the wallet. Should I have chosen an address from the list of addresses? If so, I was unaware of that.

It sounds like you've been sending money to someone else's address for the last 2 years. You've been using a legacy address (starting with 1).

Where did you get this address?

If the address is part of your wallet, then yes, it should show up in the Addresses list.

"The blockchain" doesn't know who owns the address. If you somehow copied someone else's address, someone else may be able to recover the funds. But since nothing was spent in the past 2 years, we can't know for sure.

Try to remember what exactly you did to get that wallet. Clearly, it didn't come from your Electrum wallet with bc1q-addresses.

1N8vh3M4Kbj4aF5nBSnP44vLRzdbAxBprx

this is the address I copy and pasted onto the vendor's site. I did nothing else expecting the coin to show up in the wallet. (I understand no physical coin is moved, just data.) I was asked earlier if any coin ever showed up in the wallet and I honestly don't remember.  According to blockchain.com all my purchases are listed correctly and, apparently, never migrated to the wallet. Is the above given address supposed to show up in the list of addresses shown under the "addresses" tab in the wallet? It doesn't. Was my wallet corrupt right from the start? Since the blockchain shows the coin residing in the above address and they never came to the wallet does that mean they are, essentially, unrecoverable? Multiple attempts to new/restore the wallet keep generating copies of the original just with a new name like wallet_1. I've tried to delete everything Electrum from this PC and tried a new download only to get the same thing when I enter the 12 seed words. It looks like I am locked out from ever accessing the bitcoin I bought with this wallet address.

Read my previous reply in the first page, here: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.61949989

Using that command in Electrum is the same as checking the addresses in the 'Addresses' tab.
You haven't found it in your list of addresses so it's expected to return a "false" result.

If your in the uk hit me a pm.

^^
This means the address you have been sending coins to doesn't belong to your wallet. Am saying this because I don't think you have generated more than 20 addresses. Usually, anyone will just click the receive button and copy the first generated wallet.
You either recovered the wrong wallet, you copied the receiving address from somewhere else or your device is infected with the clipboard malware (although unlikely since the coins didn't move).
Can you share the address you used to receive the coins with us?

Hey folks, yes, I'm still goofing with this wallet. I just went back and tried the "ismine" thing again and finally got a response: "false". Is it possible this opens the door to finally getting somewhere with this wallet?

Since I opened the wallet I did nothing to change anything. I simply made purchases and had them sent to the wallet address. The blockchain and Coinmama both verified the purchases. I didn't do anything with the seedphrase and know nothing about passphrases and have always had the same password to open the wallet. I opened the wallet a few days ago with the thought of selling my bitcoin. The balance was "0". That's when all this started. I really do appreciate all your efforts, and all the others on here, to help me with recovering this wallet but I'm afraid I don't have the savvy to follow the instructions. I'm sure if I were sitting right beside you with this computer we could get it done. At this point I think I'll see if I can find a reputable computer shop to see if they can recover this wallet. If I can't do that I think I'm just going to have to live with knowing I have a wallet out there I can't get to and take the loss. Thanks a million o_e-l_e_o and all for your patience and kindness.

It sounds very much like both the wallet file and the seed phrase you have are in no way connected to the addresses you have been withdrawing bitcoin to.

In addition to the advice above regarding searching for other wallet files on your computer, do you have any other seed phrases or back ups you could try? And are you certain you never used a passphrase? You might have added one while mistakenly believing you were simply adding a password to your wallet file.

Where did you even copy the addresses to withdraw to in the first place, because it doesn't seem like they came from this wallet.

The "recently_open" paths in the config file is the same as the list in the GUI's menu: "File->Recently open".
Both lists has a limit of 5 paths to a wallet file.

In my opinion, using the menu will be much more simpler.

Get the extended pubkey from "wallet" --> "information"

Make sure it starts with xpub/ypub/zpub

go to https://btc1.trezor.io/

enter the extended pubkey and it should show your transaction history there, if there are any.


Also click on "file", and then "open" and see if there are more than 1 files in the folder, if so, go up one directory and select all the files and make a archive of it and keep it safe.


In the folder where "wallets" folder is located, there should be a file named "config"

it will have something like this in it:




Does the "recently_open" have more than one path?

the recently open in the above example config is:

so if your one has more than one path look at these paths.


Also, this might help, if you are using windows download recuva (or another file recovery software, on linux i had good success with photorec)

Scan for text files under 100kb (or however large your wallet file would possibly be), and recover from the whole disk, search the text files for "xpub" "xprv" "stored_height" or any other keywords you can find, it might be harder to locate encrypted wallets But you can still do so, This method found older versions of my wallet files, like at different states.

I hope this helps.


edit: Also don't ever load electrum seeds on other wallets, your going to lead to all sorts of issues, the other wallets have different derivation paths usually and you will have change outputs moving to paths that electrum probably or might not notice if you use the wallet to spend coins on another client.

Electrum will never show "Electrum" after pasting an electrum seed.
It's either "segwit", "standard", "2fa-segwit", "2fa" or "old" if BIP39 checkbox isn't ticked, otherwise, it'll be "BIP39: (checksum: failed)".

It's hard to call that it's caused by a malware/hacker since you've mentioned that the funds are still there and it's more than a year.
There's a possibility that you've been unintentionally using a different wallet file during those times.

You can try to search your drive for any "wallets" or "electrum_data" folder
and see if there are files inside without any extension but with the wallet name that you've used or "default_wallet" / "wallet_1" if you didn't named it.
Since there are only 8 transactions, the size should be only around 20KB±, and will show base64 characters if your open it with a text editor or readable text if it's not encrypted.

1. Both wallets, original and restored, showing all the same addresses. I have a Trust wallet and a Blockchain wallet I opened at the advice of others on another forum. I have done no transactions on either wallet. I did not modify in any way the seed provided in the electrum wallet. There is no transaction history. The page is blank.

2. Since I opened the electrum wallet I have not conducted any transactions other than purchase coin. I don't know where these addresses came from. They appear when I click the "addresses" tab on the wallet. Honestly, it's been so long since I was in this wallet I don't remember if I ever saw a balance of more than "0". I think, early on, a balance did show but I'm not absolutely sure. I found it easier to check the blockchain site. All the addresses begin with bc1q.

3. When I did the restore the box said the seed type was "Electrum". I did not change it.

I just looked at my account history on the site where I bought all my coin. I've made 8 total transactions. The last was on 3/18/23 and the site had a note on this transaction saying the wallet needed verifying but the coins were delivered to my electrum address even though I did not verify the wallet. (This transaction is reflected on the blockchain site and Bitref as delivered to my Electrum address.) I will check with them to see if anything more needs to be done. Before that all my transactions were done between 4/21 and 8/21 and are checked off as completed.

The options are you have the right wallet but you need to extend the gap limit as per nc50lc's instructions, you have the right seed phrase but are recovering the wrong wallet either via the wrong derivation path or a missing passphrase, you have the wrong seed phrase altogether, or your coins have been moved/stolen. Can you try to answer each of the following questions to help us narrow this down:

So am I correct in saying that your original wallet file, and the wallet file you recovered from your seed phrase, are identical, containing the same addresses? Do you have any other wallet files or seed phrases? Do you remember ever setting an additional passphrase or extending your seed phrase with custom words? Does your wallet show any transaction history - i.e. coins have come in and gone out, or is it just completely blank?

And what about the addresses which currently hold your coins? You are absolutely certain that your coins haven't been moved? You say these addresses which hold your coins came from an Electrum wallet - are you sure it was this wallet? And you are sure you saw them show up in your Electrum wallet whenever you initially received them? What character to these addresses start with?

When you restored your wallet from the seed phrase, on the screen where you type in you seed phrase but before you click next it should have said something like "Seed Type: XXX" or "BIP39". What does yours say?

ismine() command isn't necessary if you've checked the addresses tab thoroughly.
Because it'll only check the current keypool which is as much as the addresses listed in your addresses tab.

If you want, you can generate more to check it you somehow used an address at a higher index. (it's highly-unlikely though)
To generate more, enter the command: Then use ismine() command.
Note: You can replace "500" with the amount of address that you want to generate; re-enter the command but with "True" to generate change addresses.

Have you extended your seed phrase by ticking "Extend this seed with custom words" when you created the wallet?
Because if so, you'll have to enter the exact same seed phrase extension (a.k.a Passphrase) to restore the correct wallet.

Make sure you did not remove the single quote (' ').


Change only the xx to the address you have checked on Bitref or blockchain.com.



If you did not found the Console window, you can open it up with, on Electrum application, click View on the toolbar, then click "Show Console"

I opened 2 subsequent wallets from the original after all this started  (electrum wallet 1 and electrum wallet 2 from the main wallet) but haven't been able to do anything with them either. I've done all the suggestions on those wallets and get the same results. They show all the same info as the main wallet.

If you don't see that address, it means that it doesn't belong to this wallet.
Are you sure that's the only wallet you generated on electrum? Didn't you generate multiple wallets?
Click on "File" at top of the window and check if you have any other wallet.

I do not see my wallet address in the addresses list. (that's what I'm looking for, right?) There are 20 of them labeled "receiving" and 10 labeled "change".  I have gone through the 10 server nodes listed, all circles come up green and nothing changes.

Do not do this! There is absolutely no need to send your coins to somewhere else. And how would they expect you to make that transfer if you cannot access your coins in the first place?

So in that case your coins are perfectly safe and you haven't been hacked, there is just some local problem with your Electrum software which we need to fix.

When you open the original wallet or the wallet file you restored from your seed phrase, click on the "Addresses" tab. (Click View -> Show Addresses in the toolbar if you don't see the addresses tab). Do you see the addresses you expect to see, the ones you were looking up on blockchain.com? You've already said that the circle is green - try clicking on the green circle and then right clicking on a new server and selecting "Use as server" to rule out a problem with the server you are connecting to.

Just don’t panic.

1. Secure your seed offline and in a safe place : with the seed backed up, nothing can happen to your BTC even if you delete Electrum from your computer.
If you don’t know how to do it, click on the lock at the bottom right in your Electrum (see screenshot under my message). Write your 12 words and hide the paper as much as possible. This seed, as you probably already know, is the key of your BTC wallet.



2. Download Electrum from their official website (if you want you can verify the signature of the file to be sure it is an original one, but if you don’t know how do it, you could skip this step)

3. Open your new Electrum freshly downloaded

4. Create a new wallet > Standard wallet > I already own a seed and you write your seed previously backed up there (this step must be done offline preferably)

Sorry, list of receiving addresses and change addresses

---

Sorry Omega, I'm not versed in this stuff. I thought I entered the command correctly but I didn't get the response expected. I think I'm wasting everyone's time here since I don't understand the instructions I'm being given. I don't know what I'm looking at and don't know what's supposed to happen. I'm worried I'll do something that will make the wallet permanently inaccessible.

---

Mod note: consecutive posts merged

You probably didn't enter the command correctly. With using the command mentioned by OmegaStarScream above, you should get either True or False. True means that the address is yours and False means that it's not yours.
To check if an address belongs to your wallet, you can also go to "Addresses" tab and see if the address is there. (If you don't see "Addresses" tab, click on "View" at top of the window and select and "Show addresses".)

Nothing in addresses. Command returned "Traceback"

In this case, are you sure that the address you're checking on blockchain.com belongs to the wallet you're currently using? See the "addresses" tab or run the following command in the console:


The command must return true.

I updated to the newest version. The circle is green.

I would update the wallet.

Download the new version here

https://electrum.org/#download

Did you generate the address for this transaction just before sending it? Are you sure you are in the correct wallet? Derivation path and seed?

Which version are you using? also, is the circled button red or green? If it's red, then it means your wallet is not connected to electrum servers, so it's normal that you can't see the funds.

Had not been in my electrum wallet for over a year. When I went in balance showed "0". Made a small purchase to see if it would show up. No luck. Did wallet new/restore using seed phrase. No luck. Went to BITREF to find all transactions I made were listed with the correct amounts and dates including the most recent on 3/18/23. No other activity. Was advised on another forum I need to open a different wallet in order to "bridge" the two wallets and transfer funds from electrum to new wallet. Is this a legitimate procedure or are they trying to set me up to steal the coins? The BITREF site and Blockchain.com shows the coins are still in the wallet address I own. Is there any possible way to access them since the electrum wallet doesn't seem to be functioning?