Topic: Old blockchain.info wallet from 2014 and before -16,17,19 words precovery phrase - page 2. (Read 2000 times)

A few clarifications:

The 19-word phrase is not a wallet passphrase. It is a mnemonic phrase, internal to Blockchain.info. Its only function is to provide access to the original password used to create an account on that service.

The 12-word passphrase they issued in 2021 IS a wallet passphrase. It passes the BIP39 checksum in Electrum, so it is a valid address. This was intended to replace the original 19-word mnemonic. Good on them for issuing it.

I have a copy of the original JSON wallet file that I downloaded as a backup in 2013, but I only tried to decrypt it for the first time this year, and the original password (which can be confirmed by using the 19-word mnemonic on their website to make them tell it to me) does not work. That is truly puzzling. In any case, I expect it would only tell me the 12-word passphrase anyhow? Which I already have.

I've used the same email address with their account since 2013, so that should not be an issue.

I think (I could be wrong) that what I need is more technical information on the wallet type and derivation path for wallets created in 2013. I'm hoping that if they share that information with me, I can finally access the wallet, even if they don't fix their website to the state where I can log in.

I'll make a guess:
 You have your “old” address of the “old” Blockchain.info (!) wallet - the one for which you have 19 words “like a seed phrase” and which, if you know the wallet ID in the format 12345678-90ab-cdef-1234-567890abcdef, and  if you know the correct password, these 19 words are useless to you (hereinafter referred to as “wallet 2013”).
 You are unable to import an account from wallet 2013 into your “new” Blockchain.com Wallet - the one for which you have a 12-word seed phrase, (hereinafter referred to as “wallet 2021”).
 Thus, access to wallet 2013 is lost.

My next guess is:
 To confirm login in wallet 2013 and wallet 2021, you are trying to use the same email address.
 Or there is an option when for wallet 2013 there was only an alias and there was no need to log in to it after confirmation by this email (this is typical for the oldest Blockchain.info wallets, - until 2014 - confirmation to enter the wallet by email was not required, it was used  just your nickname and your password).

 Since Blockchain.com, and previously Blockchain.info, publicly state that they make archival backup copies of Wallet.aes.json wallets upon registration and after each use, then, therefore, these copies are available in the database archives of the Blockchain.com service itself  .
 Therefore, it is theoretically possible to request an archived copy of your Wallet.aes.json from Blockchain.com support.
 If you can get the source file for wallet 2013, and if you remember exactly the password for your first wallet, then you can use BTCrecover to get the private key of your account, which you currently do not have access to.
 So it’s probably worth trying to ask Blockchain.com support to find it in the archives and send you a copy of the source file Wallet.aes.json for wallet 2013.
 Now I’m just trying to find out if any of the forum users managed to get an archived copy of Wallet.aes.json from Blockchain.com support.  It seems that there have been such precedents before.  And BTT users wrote that they succeeded.

 But now no one has yet answered or confirmed that he succeeded.
 

Thank you for the suggestion, but that was one of the first things I tried. In fact I've spent hours trying to get Electrum to accept the wallet. It always creates a wallet with 0 BTC and no transactions. And yes, I made it with BIP39, because that is the only thing you *can* do to get Electrum to accept the wallet. I've tried many different derivation paths, including all the usual suspects.

I can see the public address for the wallet, and all the funds are still there.

This is why I am asking Blockchain.com for that information about wallet type and derivation path. Maybe they know something I don't. Blue wallet will try various derivation paths until it thinks it has the right one, but it too creates a wallet with 0 BTC and no transactions.

Incidentally, the wallet was created in 2013. At that time, Blockchain.info only gave me a 19-word mnemonic (I can still use this to access my former password, but it is otherwise useless). They issued me a 12-word phrase in 2021. Implementation methods were highly varied in 2013, but I think HD structures based on the BIP-32 standard were typical. BIP-39 had not been finalized yet. It's possible (even likely?) that the 12-word pass phrase they issued me in 2021 follows the modern BIP-39 standard, but I really don't know. I'm just kind of floundering about here.

Again, thank you very much for trying to help, and if you have any other ideas (even wild ones), I am grateful for them.

If your Blockchain.com wallet was created after 2016 and you know the 12-word seed phrase from your wallet, then it should also be accepted in the Electrum wallet. 
When selecting Electrum wallet settings, you just need to put the icon in the BIP39 column. 
I recommend you try this option.  It is possible that this way you can start managing your wallet.

Here is an update, in case people are interested. I sent the following email to Blockchain.com today:

***
Hello again Asha,

Any progress? I wanted to let you know that I tried the same steps I described above on a never-used installation of Edge, and had the exact same symptom of the never-ending flashing circle log-in attempt.

To eliminate the possibility of a wrong password, I tried entering in a few incorrect ones on purpose, including one that I used in the past. Every time it returned "Wrong password." Only when I enter the correct password does it begin the never-ending flashing circle. Please share this information with your engineers, if you think it will help them troubleshoot the problem.

Also, there are two things you can do to help me take action:

1. Tell me the correct derivation path and wallet type for the 12-word pass phrase you issued me in May of 2021, so that I can try to get another wallet to recognize it correctly. Electrum (Windows) has a checksum that will return "invalid" if the 12-word passphrase is invalid. It recognizes my wallet phrase as valid, but it can't see the wallet, probably because one or both of those two values is incorrect. Blue wallet (Android) has the same issue.

2. Send me a recent copy of my encrypted JSON wallet. If it is recent, I may be able to use my current password to decrypt it. It will probably just give me the same 12-word passphrase I already have, but maybe there will be other info in there that will give me a clue why other wallets are not recognizing the account correctly.

As always, thank you for helping me restore access to my funds on your service.

I hope you're having a good day.

Sincerely,
[my first name]
***

If anyone has any ideas on other information I can share or request, please give me advice. My life's savings are in that account, and I'm at my wit's end.

Ignoring your ticket from Blockchain.com support seems to be becoming their style of communication with clients.
Previously, I also encountered complete disregard for my ticket regarding some issue and the issue regarding my wallet was never resolved.  I lost access to the wallet that I asked support about.  The issue was never resolved.  
Fortunately, there were only a few thousand satoshi in the wallet, which of course is very little and can be considered just “dust”.  

  Of course, we can advise you to contact Peter Smith (CEO and Co-Founder at Blockchain.com) and Mimi Brady (VP of Customer Success Blockchain.com) directly.

  Here, for example, X Peter Smith:
  https://twitter.com/OneMorePeter/

  Or Mimi Brady LinkedIn:
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/mimibrady

  However, the experience of other clients also shows that their assistants or secretaries will not necessarily answer you.
  You can probably try to correspond directly with the executives of Blockchain.com.

  But of course there is no guarantee that your issue will be resolve.    

Here is another option for communication, but this guy has not appeared on our forum for a long time: Perhaps he has something to do with the devs of this service. (for PM?) :
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/blockchainwallet-407333

It is ridiculous how they can boldly write this in a response being centralized as they are. Users will not be getting into thee issues frequently if their wallet was truly non custodian.

It very possibly was and they are aware that the funds there have been long spent. They have terrible customer support service and even worse security protection.

- Jay -

Blockchain are completely ignoring me now.

I've had no response back from their complaints email.

I have no idea what to do now. There doesn't seem to be any external mediator / ombudsman I can go to.

Chances are it was an inside job as I had left the wallet without any intervention since 2014.

It doesn't update. It's the same problem I have with trying to log in. Oh well, I guess it's the same bug, or a related bug.

Still, very weird that it happens to me and doesn't seem to happen to anyone else. I've tried to log in across multiple devices, in multiple browsers, including a fresh installation of Chrome, with no extensions installed, in an incognito window.

Blockchain.com is looking into it, but unfortunately had this to say: "Unfortunately, I am unable to provide an estimate on when this issue will be resolved." So I need to find a fix myself if I want access to my funds anytime soon. :/

Usually, after you confirm your gadget in the Blockchain.com service system by responding to the icon in the message to your email address associated with your account, then on the previous tab of your browser, where there was this inscription about confirming login to your account, you are automatically directed  exactly to your account.  For me it happens this way. 

But you are in correspondence with Blockchain.com support, maybe they will finally answer you more accurately?

Hello. I just made an account to respond to this thread. I too am currently in negotiations with blockchain.com to try to regain access to my account. Their login screen hangs for me, so even after activating my device, I can't get in. Anyone else have this problem? In my case, I have my password and access to the relevant email address, and I STILL can't get in.

I tried your suggestion for downloading the most recent .json wallet, and it gave me a screen of code that included "Authorization Required. Please check your email." So I did, and I authorized the login, but returning to the screen gives me nothing.

Can you teach me how to instruct the blockchain.com website to serve a current version of my .json wallet? What am I doing wrong? It might solve all my problems. (Or not, but I'll take anything at this point.)

Unfortunately, none of the forum members have yet written in any of the topics about interaction with Blockchain.com support and whether he somehow managed to once again receive from the support of this service an archived backup copy of the Wallet.aes.json wallet for that  the same email address to which the wallet was registered.  
Although I asked those who have such experience to write here how difficult it is.  

The situation with this issue is as follows:
you can download the Wallet.aes.json file (current version) from the link (1234...-...-...-...-...bcdef - ID your wallet) :

https://blockchain.info/wallet/12345678-90ab-cdef-1234-567890abcdef?format=json
or:
https://blockchain.info/wallet/<12345678-90ab-cdef-1234-567890abcdef>?format=json

However, you will not be able to get all previous versions of your Wallet.aes.json.  thus, including the version that was sent to your email address upon registration (I think the Blockchain.info service didn't always do this 8 or more years ago ??).  
Apparently, also using publicly available archived archive data of this type:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140322040716/http://blockchain.info:80/wallet/forgot-password
http://web.archive.org/web/20141117184219/http://blockchain.info/wallet/forgot-password
https://web.archive.org/web/20230415162458/https://api.blockchain.info/customer/signup

you will also not be able to get to the specific archive data of your wallet.  

So the question arises:
Will it be possible, as a result of correspondence with the support service, to actually get the first archived copies of your Wallet.aes.  json for which you know the password. ?
And how can you then get their private key in WIF format using BTCrecover or other tools  ?  

So, does anyone have experience with requests like this ?  
Please share your experience.

Just an update.

I received no response from the helpline despite two reminders.

I have therefore filled out a form on the complaints line.

Hoping for a response!

You shouldn't be surprised at all here.  
Out of curiosity, I looked at my correspondence with Blockchain.com support, which ended for me with no solution to the issue regarding one of the old wallets and received the following data:
 1st answer - 1 day,
 2nd answer - 13 days,
 3rd answer - 2 days (answered by another specialist)
 4th answer - 1 day,
 5th answer - 13 days,
 6th answer - 1 day (the third support specialist answered)
 7th answer - 6 days,
 8th answer - 7 days,
 9th answer - 1 day (again, replacement of the performer(!)).
10th answer - 17 days...

 At the same time, on my part, I sent requests directly on the day I received a response from Blockchain.com support.

 So they work differently.  And in general, of course, they are not very user friendly towards clients.  There are many empty and formal answers that are not relevant to the question or request asked.

Well I'm still waiting for a response from Blockchain so it seems like they are ignoring me know. I sent another message to chase them up yesterday but still nothing.

Excellent!
It will be very interesting what they will answer.?
 In general, many early adopters of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are interested in the question of how problematic it is to receive archived copies of Wallet.aes.json from Blockchain.com, which were registered back in the days when the service was Blockchain.info.  Having looked at some posts in the topics on our forum on this topic, I still don’t understand how difficult it is to get archived files from support at Blockchain.com.  

---

Having also looked at discussions on interaction with Blockchain.com support, I discovered that, for example, this user Vodka131 writes that he received his Wallet.aes.json from Blockchain.com.  
But it is not clear how realistic it is to get from them exactly the first source files Wallet.aes.json from their archived data.

Thanks very much for your continued support.

I have sent a message to Blockchain using your text and including dates etc.

I will let you know their response.

I would simply write them something like this:

   
    Hello there, 

    I have an email address that I used in 2014 (15,16?) when I first registered my wallet in Blockchain.info. (__@__. ___) (If you remember the exact date of registration, you need to write it down).
   I also have the ID of this wallet ___-_-_-___
   I know the password I used when registering this wallet.
   The source file of this wallet Wallet.aes.json of this wallet was not copied and saved by me in a timely manner.
   However, I believe that an archived backup copy of my wallet's Wallet.aes.json file was saved by your service, since according to your public document (https://www.blockchain.com/en/learning-portal/how-it-works/):
 "We've Got Your Back(up)
 “Your encrypted wallet is automatically backed up to our servers.  To safely store your wallet, we add another layer of security by encrypting your wallet a second time.  Securely storing your wallet on our servers ensures that you can access your wallet from any (and all) of your different devices.”

    Based on the information presented above, I ask you to send to my above email an archived backup copy of the file Wallet.aes.json of my wallet ID __-_-_-___ (dated 00.00.2014(15)(16?)

Best,


And very interested to see what they answer.

So I replied to them in a more stern manner this time and once again asked for the email to be changed back to the set-up email. This is their response:


Thank you for your message.
 
I am afraid that no manager can resolve this, as we have been telling you, our wallets are non-custodial, we are unable to make the change you are asking us to do. We cannot change its email address as your wallet is non-custodial only.
 
Additionally, if there is an email change that you may not have done, it means that this account has been compromised, a third party may gained access to it and in turn changed its email address and even likely its login password that we cannot know of. What we have been telling you is that there is noting else we can do to assist you when it comes to regaining access into that account which account has not been accessed for multiple years now.
 
We cannot also know if there are any funds held within that account either.

As a non-custodial wallet provider, we do not have access to or knowledge of the addresses within users' DeFi Wallets, nor do we have access to users' funds within those wallets in any way. This helps protect our users' security and funds from malicious parties; however, it also means that we have limited information about them.

You can learn more about how our wallet functions with the information below. Sorry that we could not be of more help.
https://www.blockchain.com/learning-portal/how-it-works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOzqspulYf0
 
Mike | Blockchain.com Support



So now I have no idea what to do, I guess I try their complaints line?

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, if they could send me the file then that would work as I have the set up password.

Earlier in the correspondence i sent them the wallet ID. This is when they responded by saying the email address attached to it was a different one. So I guess if they have found the wallet then the Wallet.aes.json is there also?

If they could just revert the email back to the set up one, this would solve it. I guess the only thing is that if someone else has entered the file then they may have changed the password?

Yes it's frustrating as I have literally all of the security info. It's just the email that has changed. I'm thinking that something happened during that period around 2016, and it could easily be an error by Blockchain.

I'll send them another email and let you know what happens.