Topic: WALLET GONE AND BACKUP NOT WORK █ earn 2 coins for fixing this4me █ (Read 4810 times)

Thanks for taking this up btchris. One approach to getting Python onto OSX is through Homebrew which does simplify things considerably but still requires command line capability from the end user.

tonyClifton13, you may want to refer to this article before digging in: http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/starting/install/osx/

I've written MultiBit wallet manipulation tools in the past (in Python), so it shouldn't be too difficult to take one of those tools and change it to simply load and decrypt a wallet and print out a bunch of debugging info in the event of a failure. That may help (or maybe not...) in getting to the bottom of this.

Unfortunately, it requires installing some Python libraries, and doing so is very difficult in OS X (although for the specific libraries that are needed, it's usually easy under Windows or Linux).

tonyClifton13, I believe you're on OS X, correct? If you know someone you can trust to manipulate your wallet file and password who is on Windows or Linux, or if you have access to a Windows or Linux box yourself, let me know and I'll write such a tool when time permits. (If not, it doesn't make sense for me to go through the effort if all you've got access to is OS X though...)

Although this has been an inconvenience for me (to say the least), if this does help others in the future or possibly prevent it from happening again, then maybe it was worth it. Luckily I don't have a fortune in that wallet, and if I am unable to recover the coin in there I will still be able to pay rent.
I'm very fortunate to have found the right people to help me with this. I was expecting everyone would just assume I'm just some asshole that can't remember his password and wants to blame it on someone else.
I've sent links for both threads to a friend that may be able to help me unlock the wallet with the information you guys have provided. He's a professional computer wizard and knows his way around OSX. I'll let you know how things work out.
Thanks again.

A lot of people on this forum choose to help out just for the heck of it, or just because they believe that Bitcoin has a future. For me, it's also (in part) because I hope to learn something new. So, for whatever it's worth, you're helping me (and by the way, I'm actually older than 32 by a little...)


Sorry, I really know almost nothing about OS X. I suspect that OpenSSL comes pre-installed on it, so that should actually make your life easier, it's just a matter of navigating the command line interface.

Wow, thanks for the insight, I really do appreciate it. Even if I do find that it isn't a password problem, I am still convinced that I likely did something wrong and I am going to feel like a complete dick for wasting everyones time. I have a curiosity that often drives me into situations where I really have no business being because I know nothing about what I am getting myself into. When I was younger this wasn't a problem because I could learn from my mistakes and be better off because of it. Now I am 32 and my brain decided a while back it will no longer retain any new information. That being said, I absolutely DO NOT expect anyone to try and walk me through this step by step, but I absolutely DO appreciate any input or help because I am very anxious to get this resolved. So if this does get resolved and it ends up being a mistake on my part, I do apologize in advance.
As far as openssl goes, I am willing to give it a shot. If I end up feeling it is too much for me, then I will pass the information on to a friend. But the info that has been given for openssl is for Windows, I am using an iMac OSX version 10.9.5.

That sounds like a good idea


I agree... I'm grasping at straws here.


Thanks for the link, I added a note to that issue a short while ago. It appears that clubshaft was using the correct password, but more than one of his .wallet and .key files were corrupted, and he eventually was able to recover an older .key file he retrieved using a file restoration utility. I'm not sure I agree with his conclusion that the file corruption was the result of a bug in MultiBit, but I've no way to tell. It would be interesting to examine both his corrupted and uncorrupted files to look for differences... that might give some insight as to the source of the corruption (or it might not).

Have you tried following gary-rowe's advice regarding openssl yet? I'll repost it below (slightly modified for a default Windows install):

Now that you have a .key file do the following (I've made the instructions step by step for Windows):

1. Ensure you have OpenSSL installed. Specifically, you should choose "Win32 OpenSSL v1.0.0o Light".
2. Copy your multibit key file into the C:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin folder, and rename it to "multibit.key".
3. Open the command prompt and navigate to C:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin (on Windows type "cd \OpenSSL-Win32\bin" at the command prompt).
4. Enter the following at the command prompt on a single line:
Change "yourpassword" to your password (but leave the "pass:" prefix in there).

OpenSSL will attempt to decrypt the file and will tell you if it is successful. The decrypted keys will be placed in decrypted.txt and should now be considered compromised. You'll need to sweep funds out of them as soon as possible into a safe area. If you have those keys you have your bitcoins.

If you open the decrypted.txt file in a text editor like Notepad, you should see one or more lines like this, one for each key:

You can see the key file format here: https://multibit.org/en/help/v0.5/help_exportingPrivateKeys.html

Apparently clubshaft's .key file got corrupted (disk problem, not MultiBit's), and he used Recuva to recover an older version of the .key file that wasn't corrupted. So it seems his and your passwords are in fact correct, but a disk error corrupted the .key file.

Thanks again btchris.
I'm not ruling out the possibility that I may have made a mistake when setting the password. Honestly, it seems I may have a better chance of recovering my coin if it is just a typo rather than it being a damaged or corrupted file. My password is not very complicated, so I'm sure there is a good chance of recovering it even with brute force... that is IF a typo is the problem.
I have never switched keyboard layouts, or used an input method editor.
Over the weekend I spent a good amount of time looking over btcrecover. Unfortunately it does require a skill level and understanding far greater than mine, and I'm certain any attempt on my part would do more harm than good. At this point my best bet would probably be trying to bribe a friend to come over and give it a shot. I'll try to do that soon and let you know if I make any progress.
With that being said, I'm still going to remain VERY skeptical that a typo was made until proven otherwise.
I discussed this on another message board with one of the developers and the user "clubshaft", who originally started this thread. I joined in on the discussions clubshaft started because it was the only user with a similar problem I could find and wasn't on a really old thread. His english doesn't translate very well, and this stuff is already over my head so I'm not sure I understand 100%, but it seems he did find a solution.
If you are interested and have time, check out the conversation and let me know what you make of it. Here is a link:
https://github.com/jim618/multibit/issues/620

I hate to say it, but that makes it seem like a mistake in the password you're using (I'm still not 100% sure though). You've already tried a bunch of combinations, but did you follow bitbaby's advice regarding the use of an Input Method Editor (if you've ever used one)? Do you ever switch keyboard layouts (e.g. between English/ASCII and Cyrillic)?

If it is a typo in the password, you'll have to look into a password recovery tool (or a paid service). This one can try different combinations of typos in a starting password, it's free but it's tricky to get working if you're not familiar with using the command line: btcrecover. The Quick Start is here.

Sorry, most of this stuff is pretty far over my head so you may have to be a little patient with me. I opened a backup wallet and tried to import the files to the backup, but obviously it was a backup that is password protected still.

I have now created a new wallet with no password, and tried to import the private .key backup files. Even when doing this a password is required for the import file. I get message "The private keys unlock failed. The error was "Could not decrypt input string". Unlike when I try to change or remove the password, I get that same error message regardless of what password is attempted.

I'm not sure if this is relevant or not, but for the sake of being very specific, I am using Multibit version 0.5.18 on my iMac OSX version 10.9.5

I agree.


Now I'm confused-- did you create a new wallet with no password first? The idea was to try importing the .key file into a brand new wallet with no password, but the error message "The wallet password is incorrect" only occurs for me if I try to import a .key file into a wallet that already has a password.

Thanks btchris,
I was able to locate those files, but I cannot import the private ".key" backup files because it is password protected.
When entering my password for importing or exporting private keys it will come back with the message "The wallet password is incorrect", but if I try to change or remove the password it will come back with the error "Provided AES key is wrong" only when entering my usual password.  Any other password attempt will show the error "Could not decrypt bytes". From what I understand both of these error messages essentially mean "wrong password". I would find it hard to believe, but possible that I entered my password incorrectly twice when setting it. But since I am getting an error message that is different only when I use my password, a typo seems very unlikely.
I set the password on Multibit immediately after installing it. As soon as the password was set, I sent some coin to the wallet, and as soon as the coin was in the wallet I tried sending it to a friend. That is when I found my password was not working. Since I tried using the password within a few minutes after setting it, that makes it much less likely that I forgot what password I used. It is also a password that I use often, and not a very complicated one.

If you haven't already, I would:

1. Try to locate and open your backup wallet, see here: https://multibit.org/en/help/v0.5/help_fileDescriptions.html
2. If that doesn't work, create a new wallet (and give it a description just so you don't confuse it with the original).
3. Hopefully locate one of your private ".key" backup files (see link above).
4. Import the keys into the new wallet (Tools -> Import Private Keys).

If either of these work, could you compare (just out of curiosity) all of the addresses in the non-working wallet and the working one to see if there are any differences? (except for the one new address that's automatically created for you in a new wallet, that is)

I think I may be having a similar problem. Recently I installed Multibit on my iMac, and immediately set the password on it. I then tried to send some coin from the wallet and when I enter my password I get the error "Provided AES key is wrong". Although I am usually very careful when setting passwords, I assumed that I may have entered the password incorrectly when I set it. So now I have been entering variations of my password, old passwords, variations of old passwords, and random combinations of numbers and letters. I have manually entered thousands of combinations at this point. What seems suspicious is when I enter anything other than what I believe is the password I set, I get the error "Could not decrypt bytes".  The only thing that prompts the error "Provided AES key is wrong" is my usual password.
I brought this problem to the attention of one of the developers of Multibit, and he assured me that this is just a coincidence and the problem must be  a typo in my password. I am very ignorant when it comes to anything beyond the basics of using a computer. I would just like to know the opinion of others.
Could it really just be a coincidence that the only thing that prompts the "AES" error is my usual password, out of all the endless combinations of numbers and letters my password is the one thing that brings up this error.
Or could there be a problem other than a typo when I set the password?

I hadn't replied yet because I don't know an answer to your problem, and was hoping that someone else did.

I think that this should be very unlikely to ever happen. I think it means that a 48-byte encrypted private key was decrypted and had the correct 16 bytes of padding, but then the derived public key didn't match the public key stored in the wallet. This all seems very unlikely to happen unless the public key alone in the wallet file was corrupted. But if that were the case, I wouldn't expect your wallet balance to be correct, so I must be missing something here...

How many addresses are in your wallet?
Are you certain that all of the addresses displayed are correct?
Are any of the addresses in your wallet completely unused?

hello btchris thx you for your reply

it is insain howmanny files I have now . wallet and key files I mean . this is sick and everytime I open one than it writes to that file and make new files I think .
annyway ,

finaly I recover the wallet but still can do nothing with it .
the problem is the wallet password . Iam 300% shure I have the right password realy do
but when I enter it I get this strange error

provided AES key is wrong

now if I use an other password then I get the normal ansfer could not decrypt . . . . . .

now I have a question  way back I created that wallet . so the wallet whas there and then 10 min  later I created an password .
so first there whas no password becouse it did not exist .

also when I import the wallet file I must not enter an pass
the wallet opens and begin to sync . but the wallet have the lock pic

how is this posible that the original pass not work ??  is this a bug in there software ? I see it is right becouse off the AES key message .

who can help me out ? still 2 coins to earn . .  . . .

I'm not sure what to suggest.

All of the key and wallet files you have found so far are either

• for the older wallet, or
• are corrupted

is that correct?

If you've never made any external backups, than you are at risk for losing a wallet file (that's the same for any wallet software you use), for example, if the HD starts to fail, if the OS has a bug, if malware deletes or encrypts them, or if MultiBit has a bug (I doubt that last one, I'm just listing it for completeness).

I think the only thing left to consider is getting some form of professional help.

For example, wrt that corrupted wallet file: It's barely possible that someone with protobuf experience might be able to manually resconstruct one or more private keys from it.

Another possibility: a professional HD recovery expert might be able to recover additional wallets or key backup files from your HD which your file recovery software missed. If you're interested in this possibility, you should really stop using this HD for anything ASAP; any continued use reduces the chances of finding existing file fragments (especially if it's an SSD).

I know this isn't what you wanted to hear... but if a file is gone, and there's no external backup of it... then it's gone.

no matter what I tried every time the first wallet comes a life

I tried 3 different keys  . everytime I created a new wallet and then import private key and everytime the first wallet comes alive . now 3 the same wallets I have

when I will open the wallet file that I think is the right one I get this error

Opening wallet "J:\multibitrecovery\Miscellaneous\wallet\bv-20140910160425.wallet"...
Unable to load wallet "J:\multibitrecovery\Miscellaneous\wallet\bv-20140910160425.wallet" or backups. See help on "Wallet Backups" for more details.
The error was "com.google.bitcoin.store.UnreadableWalletException Could not parse input stream to protobuf".
Could not load the wallet file "J:\multibitrecovery\Miscellaneous\wallet\bv-20140910160425.wallet".
The error message was "null"

pfffff insain

Iam gonna try that out I keep you updated  
Your help is appreciated my friend

Iam gonna start from the beginning aggain I instal multibit now