Topic: recover keys from wallet.dat without using pywallet - page 3. (Read 1651 times)
While the answers have already been given above, I just want to make a point that you cannot open wallet.dat files in a text editor because they are binary files (Berkeley DB 4.8 files to be specific), which is why specialized tools like pywallet or bitcoin-wallet are required for reading the file contents.
I just want to add this from ETFbitcoin post above.
If you are going to test it with a different Electrum version I suggest you make a copy of the wallet.dat before you import it to any version of Electrum.
I think Electrum doesn't generate a wallet.dat file it usually generates a wallet file with no extension.
So it should be work on BitcoinQT just make sure to make an original copy of wallet.dat before you use any tool to decrypt and extract the private key.
Why not try to install Bitcoin core instead and replace the new wallet.dat with your old wallet.dat file and maybe your old addresses might show up on the addresses tab.
Or if you know the exact address of your wallet you can go to the console tab to dump the private key of a single address.
Here's the sample command
Remove double quote after you replace it with your BTC address and if the wallet.dat file is encrypted with a passphrase do this command first.
60 is the time limit in seconds. After that apply the code above with the exact address the result should be your private key in WIF format. You can import it to any wallet like Electrum.
If you are going to test it with a different Electrum version I suggest you make a copy of the wallet.dat before you import it to any version of Electrum.
I think Electrum doesn't generate a wallet.dat file it usually generates a wallet file with no extension.
So it should be work on BitcoinQT just make sure to make an original copy of wallet.dat before you use any tool to decrypt and extract the private key.
Why not try to install Bitcoin core instead and replace the new wallet.dat with your old wallet.dat file and maybe your old addresses might show up on the addresses tab.
Or if you know the exact address of your wallet you can go to the console tab to dump the private key of a single address.
Here's the sample command
Code:
dumpprivkey "yourbitcoinaddress"
Remove double quote after you replace it with your BTC address and if the wallet.dat file is encrypted with a passphrase do this command first.
Code:
walletpassphrase mypassword 60
60 is the time limit in seconds. After that apply the code above with the exact address the result should be your private key in WIF format. You can import it to any wallet like Electrum.
I've been trying to install the right version of python and packages etc to run pywallet all morning, it's just error after error. even tried an "installer" and it just tries to grab packages and times out. all I want to do is get private keys from an old wallet.dat. can someone just make a simple gui or something? why cannot i just extract them using notepad? I just need to know which numbers are the private keys. someone let me know what to do. thanks
edit: i think this was actually made with an early version of electrum... somehow i have to convert it or find an old version of electrum that can read it
edit: i think this was actually made with an early version of electrum... somehow i have to convert it or find an old version of electrum that can read it
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