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The problem is that on my balance it says "Synchronizing..." and i found out that this may be because i havent updated. And to update i need to download over again, which means i would need my seeds to recover my account, in my understanding. I cant remember writing down this seed anywhere when i created my wallet, and its greyed out in "Wallet" section. So how would this work when updating Electrum? How can i make sure i wont lose my account and $$? Can i use something else than seed to do this?

I heard something about Private Keys, which i have the option to Export. Will this be my alternative to seed? Can i use this to get to my wallet when i download latest Electrum?

You shouldn't need your seed to simply update the application... when you update Electrum, it will not overwrite your old wallet file. I'd still recommend that you make a backup copy of your wallet file ("File -> Save Copy" within Electrum), just in case... then simply install the update. You should find that your wallet opens normally and you can continue.

Also, given that you have lost the seed, you should make a completely new wallet and move those coins ASAP. Without the seed, recovery of a 2FA wallet in case of total wallet file loss is impossible.


You can't use that method with a 2FA wallet... an Electrum 2FA wallet is a 2-of-3 multisig... you only have one key stored in the wallet, TrustedCoin have another... the 3rd is "stored" in your backup seed (which you don't have).

Electrum explicitly tells you to write the seed down. And you even have to enter it afterwards to make sure you have wrote it down correctly.

Did you create the wallet yourself ?

Digital files can get corrupted. Hard drives can get corrupted.
The most important piece of information (and the only real way) to regain access to your BTC in case of something happening (e.g. Hard Drive broken, Files corrupted, Broken update, etc.. ), is to have access to the seed.


I'd suggest doing what HCP mentioned.. create a new wallet ASAP, write down the seed and send all of your coins to that new wallet.
This is mandatory to be safe against any sort of software-/hardware failure.

[Also, given that you have lost the seed, you should make a completely new wallet and move those coins ASAP. Without the seed, recovery of a 2FA wallet in case of total wallet file loss is impossible.


You can't use that method with a 2FA wallet... an Electrum 2FA wallet is a 2-of-3 multisig... you only have one key stored in the wallet, TrustedCoin have another... the 3rd is "stored" in your backup seed (which you don't have).
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I'm in the same situation.  Want to move my coins from Electrum to Exodus on my computer.  Was going to just "send/receive" but can't connect to server because of 2.9.0 version of Electrum.  I remember creating a seed, just can't find it and it's grey'd out so I must have done a 2fa install originally.  I was hoping I could just Export my private key to Exodus, but according to this reply I it won't work.  If not, how does it work by creating a new Electrum wallet and "moving" the coins to it?  Thanks.

Download the latest version from the official website (https://electrum.org/#home) and verify it (https://bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-verify-your-electrum-download/). The wallet file won't be deleted and you will be able to spend the coins.


Moving coins means that you send them from the existing wallet to a new one. It will be possible if you update your wallet; the seed is not needed as long as you can access the wallet file. Make sure to back up your seed properly this time.

So I updated my Electrum and tried to send coins to Exodus but it wants the 2fa which I don't seem to have.  Am I SOL?

Wait, so you also don't have access to the 2FA codes?

You obviously will need them to send the coins. But why would you use a 2FA wallet without actually having the 2FA? If you have access to it, just download the latest version. Like the others said, updating your Electrum override your wallets.

In such a case, you would be able to spend the funds if you had your seed. Unless you somehow regain access to your Google Auth codes, you won't be able to spend your coins.

Are there any avenues to go down to regain access to my authentication code?  I have my previous phone which has an authentication for trustedcoin.com (it's the only one I don't know what it's for) but it didn't work.
Also, how can someone access my coins if they have my private key, but I can't?

I don't think if there are any. Even Google does not back up the data from the Auth app.



They can't. TrustedCoin only co-signs transactions. 2 out of 3 keys are needed to spend the coins. You can regain access to two of these keys using your recovery seed. Only one key is stored in the wallet file and only one belongs solely to TrustedCoin.

If you have access to the email which you used to setup TrustedCoin, contact them (with it) and they may send you a new QR code so you can scan and get your 2FA codes.

https://trustedcoin.com/#/contact-us

They can't. TrustedCoin only co-signs transactions. 2 out of 3 keys are needed to spend the coins. You can regain access to two of these keys using your recovery seed. Only one key is stored in the wallet file and only one belongs solely to TrustedCoin.
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Are you saying that Trustedcoin is the 2fa that I need?  If so, I am getting the code from my old phone.  It's just not working.

TrustedCoin is the native 2FA provider for Electrum. You must have used it at some point since their codes show up in your Google Auth app. Try contacting TrustedCoin as TryNinja suggested.

I have asked them for assistance.  Thanks for the feedback. 

just make sure the time is correct on your old phone and try again.

be sure to move your coins to a new wallet like hcp said (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5127850.msg50447559#msg50447559). without the seed your coins are at risk should you ever lose your phone.

That is right.
The 2FA code changes every 30 seconds and the time on your phone is maybe not correct. Especially older models of smartphones can go out of sync. I have had a phone in the past that would be 2-3 mins out of sync. Obviously the 2FA codes would not work in that case.

Check here and make sure that your time is synced correctly to the clock shown on the site both on your computer and phone.
https://www.timeanddate.com/time/internettime.html

like using electrum without 2FA Some time I have seen google authentic app trouble them seme website showing double code generated. just hesitated what I enter code That is to say there is a one-step forward for security.

I don't think that's the case here. In Electrum, user is prompted to provide a code generated by Google Auth during the setup in case something like this happened (example (https://youtu.be/GKK3IHuT6L0?t=386)).

I have done same thing before, but I didn't used 2FA. However, you don't need seed to update your wallet. I were faced same Synchronizing issue. Then I download electrum from original website. It's just replace the old version with new one. Update software will never effect your original wallet file. I am still using my old wallet by updating. So, if you have 2FA and you don't have seed, then move your fund to another wallet after update. Keep safe your seed it's very important to recover your fund if in case list your wallet file.

Is this for real?  Brand new member with no posts?  The Electrum website says to come here for support.

Update on my issue.  Trusted coin was able to issue me with a new QR code but I'm still getting an error when trying to send to a my Exodus wallet.  "The server returned an error when broadcasting the transaction. Consider trying to connect to a different server, or updating Electrum"  Unknown error. 

I'm updated to 3.3.8

try changing servers:

https://bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-switch-to-a-different-electrum-server/

Got it!  Thanks for all the help!!

No... it isn't real. As you rightly suspected this is a total scam. DO NOT trust anything that isn't explicitly mentioned on the Electrum website: https://electrum.org/#community

Kudos to you for being naturally suspicious and asking questions.

Sadly, Electrum is suffering from a form of "Tall Poppy Syndrome (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome)"... being one of the most popular wallets with a large userbase makes them a high profile target for scammers and hackers :-\