HELP! ELECTRUM crashed & now I've lost my BTC!!

btcven

hero member

Activity: 715

Merit: 500

Bitcoin Venezuela

Quote from: zonts on December 22, 2013, 12:26:56 PM

I'll tell ya what happened.... See, you got a guy (me) trying to explain his situation to experts, when he never really paid the attention he should have when learning about BTC.

I didn't realize I had 2 "Electrum portable " exe's and the only thing I can think of that caused me to overlook the correct exe but was trying the other wrong file. Of course I was getting nowhere, causing me to be frustrated and give up b4 realizing the other correct portable exe was elsewhere in the system and the search for "wallet" brought it up a brought it up and I tried that 2nd one first, which I thought I had tried numerous times but maybe not considering the fiasco that ensued....

Or at least after pondering the whole thing, that is the most likely reason all this happened. Sorry, and was under the influence of some pretty strong ZONTS and on day 12 so go figure... Mama alwasys said: "Flailer is as flailer does....".

'And I was runnin'...

- "Hurricane" Heat-Rod Zonts
(WWF/WWE/WCW Tag Team title holder 1999)

Why are you using the Portable in the system, and in different directories? That's supposed to be used in USB keys or removable hard disks. If you you it in your system you'll likely lose your wallet files.

zonts

newbie

Activity: 18

Merit: 0

I'll tell ya what happened.... See, you got a guy (me) trying to explain his situation to experts, when he never really paid the attention he should have when learning about BTC.

I didn't realize I had 2 "Electrum portable " exe's and the only thing I can think of that caused me to overlook the correct exe but was trying the other wrong file. Of course I was getting nowhere, causing me to be frustrated and give up b4 realizing the other correct portable exe was elsewhere in the system and the search for "wallet" brought it up a brought it up and I tried that 2nd one first, which I thought I had tried numerous times but maybe not considering the fiasco that ensued....

Or at least after pondering the whole thing, that is the most likely reason all this happened. Sorry, and was under the influence of some pretty strong zonts: http://pl.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=HeatRod%21 and on day 12 so go figure... Mama always said: "Flailer is as flailer does....".

- "Hurricane" Heat-Rod Zonts
(WWF/WWE/WCW/AWA Tag Team title holder 1999)

Abdussamad

legendary

Activity: 3724

Merit: 1586

Quote from: Xiaoxiao on December 22, 2013, 06:44:09 AM

confused about wtf happened?

Everybody is confused. What Zonts says is difficult to understand.

Xiaoxiao

legendary

Activity: 1274

Merit: 1000

The Golden Rule Rules

confused about wtf happened?

zonts

newbie

Activity: 18

Merit: 0

Okay everyone. Thanks for all your input! I tried another idea something that I am surprised worked but it did... I searched my downloads folder for the word "electrum". I tried opening the "1.9.4 Portable".exe at the bottom of page for some reason instead of the first one that I figured was the only one I had seeing as I only was aware of downloading one portable and one regular version. It opened up immediately no problem. I could swear that I had opened every file AT LEAST 10 times, but I guess I was always trying to restore from seed and by some strange reason missed it or the fact that I finally emptied the trash, which id not done due to risk of losing any important files, but I did that yesterday and now it works, so maybe there is an exception?

btcven

hero member

Activity: 715

Merit: 500

Bitcoin Venezuela

Quote from: RedRobin2442 on December 10, 2013, 10:19:31 PM

This may just be me here. But what if he hasnt let the network sync up? I havent used Electrum that much before, but I do remember its just like qt in that it has to pull the blockchain first. Is it possible you just havent synced yet?

Electrum only downloads block headers, so I don't think that is the case.

RedRobin2442

full member

Activity: 168

Merit: 100

This may just be me here. But what if he hasnt let the network sync up? I havent used Electrum that much before, but I do remember its just like qt in that it has to pull the blockchain first. Is it possible you just havent synced yet?

btcven

hero member

Activity: 715

Merit: 500

Bitcoin Venezuela

Quote from: luvbcs on December 09, 2013, 05:30:48 PM

I would swear I saw different behavior generating from seed between the full client and the portable one. If you sent the coins to the addresses generated by the portable, I would try regenerating from seed with the portable version again and see what happens.

I've created a fresh wallet with the 1.9.5 installer, then run the 1.9.5 portable version and restore from that seed. The result is the same in both versions of the software. Still can't reproduce the problem you and others have mentioned.

luvbcs

newbie

Activity: 7

Merit: 0

I would swear I saw different behavior generating from seed between the full client and the portable one. If you sent the coins to the addresses generated by the portable, I would try regenerating from seed with the portable version again and see what happens.

Abdussamad

legendary

Activity: 3724

Merit: 1586

I tried restoring seeds from a 1.8 wallet to a 1.9 install and it worked fine. Also the reverse also works fine. So it looks like the OP copied the seed wrong.

Abdussamad

legendary

Activity: 3724

Merit: 1586

Quote from: btcven on December 05, 2013, 06:58:16 AM

Quote from: zonts on December 05, 2013, 01:47:44 AM

1. The seed, the only one I have ever gotten. I used it to restore the wallet I retrieved addresses from in order to do the transaction from localbtc.com to electrum so I know that I am restoring it right.

Try what flatfly've said. Try restoring with that seed in an older version of Electrum.

Your thinking about the change in address generation algos, aren't you?

Zonts when you put the transaction id in blockchain.info's search bar do you see a transaction page with confirmations?

btcven

hero member

Activity: 715

Merit: 500

Bitcoin Venezuela

Quote from: zonts on December 05, 2013, 01:47:44 AM

1. The seed, the only one I have ever gotten. I used it to restore the wallet I retrieved addresses from in order to do the transaction from localbtc.com to electrum so I know that I am restoring it right.

Try what flatfly've said. Try restoring with that seed in an older version of Electrum. You could also share the MPK with ThomasV to see if he can manage to figure out why you can't restore the real set of addresses you used in the first place.

Quote from: zonts on December 05, 2013, 01:47:44 AM

What other options do I have, seeing as restoring the wallet from seed doesn't bring up the right wallet for some reason? Either that or the two addresses with BTC on them are for some reason absent.

Why don't you use the default_wallet file you have? Does it have the set of addresses you are trying to generate? Don't you remember the password or something?

Does the restoring process gives a different set of addresses each time, or only one unknown set of addresses, that repeats? Were the two addresses you sent bitcoins to one of the first 5 receiving addresses or the 3 first change addresses? Or did you used a new one, for example the 6th or 7th in the list created with a different gap limit?

flatfly

legendary

Activity: 1120

Merit: 1016

090930

Try a restore again, typing your seed manually (no copy paste) separated by spaces, on a single line.

If that still fails, please post (or PM me) a screenshot of the result (not the seed).

zonts

newbie

Activity: 18

Merit: 0

Quote

Oh my gox, are you still in this trouble.
ed a
Have you tried in a different computer yet?

Yes and here's where I am at, Firstly the coins are worth more now so I have no problem sending a little something to anyone who can help me get these back.

I have checked with LocalBTC.com and still no word from support or whatever but I have a hard time believing that something like that can happen so quickly and without any way to avoid it or prevent it from happening. If that were the case then BTC would not be popular at all. So here's what I have:

1. The seed, the only one I have ever gotten. I used it to restore the wallet I retrieved addresses from in order to do the transaction from localbtc.com to electrum so I know that I am restoring it right.

2. I have every file that has ever been placed on my computer in relation to Electrum, including a default_wallet etc...

3. I have the complete history of the transaction as shown in the wallet page on user accounts in "Wallet History" like the TxId , Contact #'s as well as the actual address the transaction went to.

What other options do I have, seeing as restoring the wallet from seed doesn't bring up the right wallet for some reason? Either that or the two addresses with BTC on them are for some reason absent.

btcven

hero member

Activity: 715

Merit: 500

Bitcoin Venezuela

Oh my gox, are you still in this trouble?

Have you tried in a different computer yet?

zonts

newbie

Activity: 18

Merit: 0

No... I don't see familiar addresses, & I get the same result no matter which "default_wallet" file I open, so im thinkin they're gone because I've restored the wallet with the only seed I have so if that's not it then I don't have it.

Abdussamad

legendary

Activity: 3724

Merit: 1586

Quote from: zonts on November 28, 2013, 08:55:29 AM

unless you can restore a wallet some other way than:

1. start up electrum

2. When it asks if you are creating a new wallet or restoring, you pick "Restore wallet from seed" option.

3. type wallet seed words in correctly.

4. wait to connect wallet

or what am I missing?

Yes that is how it is done. So again what makes you feel your latest attempt was a proper restore while your previous attempts were not? Do you see familiar addresses in your wallet?

zonts

newbie

Activity: 18

Merit: 0

unless you can restore a wallet some other way than:

1. start up electrum

2. When it asks if you are creating a new wallet or restoring, you pick "Restore wallet from seed" option.

3. type wallet seed words in correctly.

4. wait to connect wallet

or what am I missing?

Abdussamad

legendary

Activity: 3724

Merit: 1586

Quote from: zonts on November 26, 2013, 03:53:58 AM

I have properly restored my wallet and it's running right now, but there are NO transactions in history and no BTC on balance.

Previously you said you had restored the wallet 10 times from seed. So what makes it a "proper restore" this time?

ThomasV

legendary

Activity: 1896

Merit: 1353

Quote from: zonts on November 25, 2013, 01:31:12 PM

Yes I have the words and everytime I restore it brings up a different wallet.

that's probably the issue.
can you reproduce this?

Topic: HELP! ELECTRUM crashed & now I've lost my BTC!! (Read 6034 times)