Electrum address beyond the gap limit

HCP

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Quote from: pclaas on February 18, 2023, 12:54:35 PM

do you know such a program? or can you give me a few keywords with which I could find such a program?

I think there are too many characters for brutforce, definitely up to 1000 characters..

As o_e_l_e_o has pointed out, if your wallet file is that badly corrupted then unless you have the seed backup + any extra words or a digital backup of the wallet file, then your chances of recovery are somewhere between zero and none. Undecided

nc50lc

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Quote from: BitMaxz on February 15, 2023, 01:31:54 PM

Quote from: pclaas on February 15, 2023, 07:18:52 AM

when I want to open the wallet, electrum gives the error: can not read file/UnicodeDecodeError

It looks like this error is from opening a newer wallet.dat file to an older version of the electrum wallet -snip-

For reference: doing so will return with a different error which is noted with the supported maximum "storage version" of the used Electrum Client version.
It's the "seed version" that's recorded in the wallet file.

o_e_l_e_o

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Quote from: pclaas on February 18, 2023, 12:54:35 PM

I think there are too many characters for brutforce, definitely up to 1000 characters..

In which case no, there is no point in even trying. The data from this wallet file is lost.

Unless you have some other copy of this wallet file somewhere, or you have some other method of recovering the individual private keys you imported, then I'm afraid your coins are gone.

pclaas

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Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on February 18, 2023, 12:25:08 PM

I assume you are getting that error because Electrum cannot decode the encrypted data because the plaintext contains invalid characters.

The only way to open this file with Electrum will be to replace the plaintext with the original data that it wrote over. If you are unable to recover this data with a data recovery tool, then the only option would be to bruteforcing the missing data. This will be relatively easy if it is just a few characters, but more likely it will be completely impossible if the plaintext is several words of text or more.

You could also try looking for some software which could try to decrypt the partial data you have remaining and see if anything useful can be recovered.

do you know such a program? or can you give me a few keywords with which I could find such a program?

I think there are too many characters for brutforce, definitely up to 1000 characters..

o_e_l_e_o

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I assume you are getting that error because Electrum cannot decode the encrypted data because the plaintext contains invalid characters.

The only way to open this file with Electrum will be to replace the plaintext with the original data that it wrote over. If you are unable to recover this data with a data recovery tool, then the only option would be to bruteforcing the missing data. This will be relatively easy if it is just a few characters, but more likely it will be completely impossible if the plaintext is several words of text or more.

You could also try looking for some software which could try to decrypt the partial data you have remaining and see if anything useful can be recovered.

pclaas

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Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on February 18, 2023, 11:39:24 AM

Quote from: pclaas on February 18, 2023, 11:13:42 AM

yes, I opened the file with windows tex editor. There are many random characters, than some plaintext, than again random characters. The plaintext looks like, that it dont belong there. I didn find none of your keywords. I think it is encrypted, like you said.

In that case yes, it sounds like the wallet file is encrypted and has been partially overwritten by plaintext. If the plaintext is making reference to Apple, then it definitely doesn't belong there.

Do you remember the password you used to password protect the Electrum file? If you know the password, and the corruption is minimal, then you might have a very small chance of recovering something useful. But if a large part of the data is written over, or you don't remember the password, then you are almost certainly not going to be able to recover anything.

Quote from: pclaas on February 18, 2023, 11:13:42 AM

Will pywallet open an electrum wallet file also?

As far as I am aware, pywallet is only for bitcoin core wallet.dat files.

Yes, I remember the password! Can you tell me, how I could open the file? When I try to open it with electrum, I get this error: can not read file/UnicodeDecodeError. I had tried to delete the text, which I think, it doesnt belongs there also, with same result.

o_e_l_e_o

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Quote from: pclaas on February 18, 2023, 11:13:42 AM

yes, I opened the file with windows tex editor. There are many random characters, than some plaintext, than again random characters. The plaintext looks like, that it dont belong there. I didn find none of your keywords. I think it is encrypted, like you said.

In that case yes, it sounds like the wallet file is encrypted and has been partially overwritten by plaintext. If the plaintext is making reference to Apple, then it definitely doesn't belong there.

Do you remember the password you used to password protect the Electrum file? If you know the password, and the corruption is minimal, then you might have a very small chance of recovering something useful. But if a large part of the data is written over, or you don't remember the password, then you are almost certainly not going to be able to recover anything.

Quote from: pclaas on February 18, 2023, 11:13:42 AM

Will pywallet open an electrum wallet file also?

As far as I am aware, pywallet is only for bitcoin core wallet.dat files.

pclaas

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Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on February 18, 2023, 06:06:56 AM

Quote from: pclaas on February 17, 2023, 06:47:34 PM

when i open the wallet file in the editor i can see something from apple inc...

Are you opening it with a text editor? And you see data including some reference to Apple? What else do you see? Is there any plain text which makes reference to "seed", "xprv", "keystore", or "keypairs"? Or is there just a bunch of random looking characters (uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and + and /)?

If it is plaintext, you might be able to extract something useful. If it is random characters, then it is encrypted and so the chances of recovery are almost zero.

yes, I opened the file with windows tex editor. There are many random characters, than some plaintext, than again random characters. The plaintext looks like, that it dont belong there. I didn find none of your keywords. I think it is encrypted, like you said. I will now, try to recover the file with HDDRawcopy, and hope it will recover that file without error. Maybe someone else can recommend me a good recovery program?

I have read in another thread, that someone opened his wallet file with pywallet, but it wasnt an electrum wallet file. Will pywallet open an electrum wallet file also?

o_e_l_e_o

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Quote from: pclaas on February 17, 2023, 06:47:34 PM

when i open the wallet file in the editor i can see something from apple inc...

Are you opening it with a text editor? And you see data including some reference to Apple? What else do you see? Is there any plain text which makes reference to "seed", "xprv", "keystore", or "keypairs"? Or is there just a bunch of random looking characters (uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and + and /)?

If it is plaintext, you might be able to extract something useful. If it is random characters, then it is encrypted and so the chances of recovery are almost zero.

pclaas

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Quote from: BitMaxz on February 15, 2023, 08:54:39 PM

Quote from: pclaas on February 15, 2023, 03:07:23 PM

the wallet file i tried to open in electrum is the same version it was created in, i also tried the latest version. I think the problem is more that windows has started to overwrite the file. Unfortunately, I noticed too late that the seed recovery is not working. Only then I did restore the wallet file. is there someone I could contact to look at the file and possibly repair it?

What do you mean by Windows overwriting the wallet file?
Do you get any errors in Electrum while opening your wallet?
When installing or updating to the latest version it shouldn't overwrite the wallet file maybe when you open the Electrum wallet after updating you generated a new wallet?

Would you mind checking this folder location

Code:

\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Electrum (or %APPDATA%\Electrum)

Maybe there is two or more wallet file under that folder try to find the right wallet file by opening them one by one with latest Electrum and let's hope that you can find the right wallet file don't forget to increase the gap limit to each wallet.

I mean I deleted my Windows user account (where my electron was), after that I installed iTunes and backed up my iPhone. Then, realizing that my seed wasn't working, I tried to recover my user account, when restoring, r studio told me that the file had started to be overwritten. when i open the wallet file in the editor i can see something from apple inc...

when I open the wallet file with electrum, I get this error: can not read file/UnicodeDecodeError

BitMaxz

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Quote from: pclaas on February 15, 2023, 03:07:23 PM

the wallet file i tried to open in electrum is the same version it was created in, i also tried the latest version. I think the problem is more that windows has started to overwrite the file. Unfortunately, I noticed too late that the seed recovery is not working. Only then I did restore the wallet file. is there someone I could contact to look at the file and possibly repair it?

What do you mean by Windows overwriting the wallet file?
Do you get any errors in Electrum while opening your wallet?
When installing or updating to the latest version it shouldn't overwrite the wallet file maybe when you open the Electrum wallet after updating you generated a new wallet?

Would you mind checking this folder location

Code:

\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Electrum (or %APPDATA%\Electrum)

Maybe there is two or more wallet file under that folder try to find the right wallet file by opening them one by one with latest Electrum and let's hope that you can find the right wallet file don't forget to increase the gap limit to each wallet.

pclaas

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Quote from: BitMaxz on February 15, 2023, 01:31:54 PM

Quote from: pclaas on February 15, 2023, 07:18:52 AM

when I want to open the wallet, electrum gives the error: can not read file/UnicodeDecodeError

It looks like this error is from opening a newer wallet.dat file to an older version of the electrum wallet make sure that you imported the right Wallet.dat file and make sure you downloaded and install the latest version of the Electrum wallet.

I just want to ask if your wallet is legacy because you can use a scanner tool like this one https://blockpath.com/wallets/local/101?action=appxpub

It only works to find wallet addresses with balance and to show the right derivation path you can then use it later to recover your addresses with funds.

the wallet file i tried to open in electrum is the same version it was created in, i also tried the latest version. I think the problem is more that windows has started to overwrite the file. Unfortunately, I noticed too late that the seed recovery is not working. Only then I did restore the wallet file. is there someone I could contact to look at the file and possibly repair it?

hosseinimr93

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Quote from: BitMaxz on February 15, 2023, 01:31:54 PM

I just want to ask if your wallet is legacy because you can use a scanner tool like this one https://blockpath.com/wallets/local/101?action=appxpub

pclaas already said that his seed phrase has been generated by electrum.
Since electrum doesn't allow you to change the derivation path when generating a wallet using its own seed phrase, it's not possible that you have an address generated by an electrum's seed phrase on a different derivation path.

BitMaxz

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Quote from: pclaas on February 15, 2023, 07:18:52 AM

when I want to open the wallet, electrum gives the error: can not read file/UnicodeDecodeError

It looks like this error is from opening a newer wallet.dat file to an older version of the electrum wallet make sure that you imported the right Wallet.dat file and make sure you downloaded and install the latest version of the Electrum wallet.

I just want to ask if your wallet is legacy because you can use a scanner tool like this one https://blockpath.com/wallets/local/101?action=appxpub

It only works to find wallet addresses with balance and to show the right derivation path you can then use it later to recover your addresses with funds.

BlackHatCoiner

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Quote from: pclaas on February 15, 2023, 10:19:19 AM

Because I didnt know it better, didnt know that adresses by default in electrum, thought I have always generate one, when I create a wallet.

You can verify it, instead of asking and trusting. Generate a new wallet, generate addresses beyond the gap limit in that wallet, later on try to recover it. You can verify that once you increase the gap limit, you'll have your addresses.

Quote from: pclaas on February 15, 2023, 10:19:19 AM

I think, I have generatet 1-3 adresses more (by pushing the button New Address at the receive tab), therefore it have to be listet, when I increased the gap to 150, right?!

Yes. Generating addresses with the "New Address" button does the same thing.

pclaas

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Quote from: khaled0111 on February 15, 2023, 10:07:44 AM

Quote from: pclaas on February 15, 2023, 09:01:15 AM

just to clarify, if i create a wallet and generate, let's say 3 more addresses (to the 20 default) and then do a seed recovery of the wallet and generate, let's say 10 more addresses (to the 20 default), then pop the 3 addresses (from the first creation of the wallet) directly under the 10?

That's correct. Every time you restore your wallet from seed (or wallet file), addresses will be generated and displayed in the same order.
Do you remember why you had to generate and use an address above the gap limit? Remembering the reason why you had to do so may give you an idea on how many addresses (above the gap) you have to generate to find the one you are looking for.

Because I didnt know it better, didnt know that adresses by default in electrum, thought I have always generate one, when I create a wallet.
I think, I have generatet 1-3 adresses more (by pushing the button New Address at the receive tab), therefore it have to be listet, when I increased the gap to 150, right?!

khaled0111

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Quote from: pclaas on February 15, 2023, 09:01:15 AM

just to clarify, if i create a wallet and generate, let's say 3 more addresses (to the 20 default) and then do a seed recovery of the wallet and generate, let's say 10 more addresses (to the 20 default), then pop the 3 addresses (from the first creation of the wallet) directly under the 10?

That's correct. Every time you restore your wallet from seed (or wallet file), addresses will be generated and displayed in the same order.
Do you remember why you had to generate and use an address above the gap limit? Remembering the reason why you had to do so may give you an idea on how many addresses (above the gap) you have to generate to find the one you are looking for.

pclaas

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Quote from: hosseinimr93 on February 15, 2023, 09:13:00 AM

Quote from: pclaas on February 15, 2023, 09:01:15 AM

just to clarify, if i create a wallet and generate, let's say 3 more addresses (to the 20 default) and then do a seed recovery of the wallet and generate, let's say 10 more addresses (to the 20 default), then pop the 3 addresses (from the first creation of the wallet) directly under the 10?

Yes. They would be the same.
Note that all your addresses (not only the first 20 addresses) are derived from your seed phrase through a defined algorithm. Therefore, your seed phrase always generates the same addresses.

Ok, than it will be another wallet:/ or an additional word that I used and dont remember. Is it possible to repair the wallet file that I still have, or to read it out to get the seed or the additional word?

nc50lc

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Quote from: pclaas on February 15, 2023, 05:47:56 AM

-snip- It seems that i added an additional address, but it doesn't show up in the address list anymore.

It's only possible to add a private key to a wallet with seed in the old versions.
IIRC, it's around v2.7 or close (2016), so if your wallet is that old and you did imported a private key to your wallet, then it's not covered by your seed phrase.
You can only restore it by importing its private key or get from the actual wallet file where it's imported.

For reference, old Electrum will show you this warning when you try to import a private key to an HD wallet:

hosseinimr93

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Quote from: pclaas on February 15, 2023, 09:01:15 AM

just to clarify, if i create a wallet and generate, let's say 3 more addresses (to the 20 default) and then do a seed recovery of the wallet and generate, let's say 10 more addresses (to the 20 default), then pop the 3 addresses (from the first creation of the wallet) directly under the 10?

Yes. They would be the same.
Note that all your addresses (not only the first 20 addresses) are derived from your seed phrase through a defined algorithm. Therefore, your seed phrase always generates the same addresses.

Topic: Electrum address beyond the gap limit (Read 416 times)