Title: Got access to my bitcoins. Thanks! Post by: KailyKail on April 16, 2021, 05:55:03 AM Later on I bought a new computer, and copied the wallet files over, thinking if/when I got back into Bitcoin, I could just restore the wallet and carry on. Boy was I wrong. Everything is asking for a password now, and nothing will load without one. This is what I have: FILES: wallet.dat multibit-xxxxxxxxxxxxx.wallet multibit-xxxxxxxxxxxxx.info multibit.wallet multibit.key multibit.info Plus all the install files. About the only thing I don't have from 2014 are the blocks, which I'm downloading from the servers now. I have tried following the steps to move the wallet into Electrum, but nothing seems to work. I've tried installing Bitcoin Core again, but there's no option to open a wallet file from inside the GUI. I went into the directory and replaced the wallet.dat file with mine and restarted Bitcoin Core, but nothing changed. There are no .wallet or .key files to replace. I'm suuuuper confused as to what I should do? Can anyone explain to me how to fix this? Preferably like I'm five? Finally got access to my bitcoin wallet. Thanks everyone for the help! Here's the accompanying thread where the bulk of my discoveries were made, for any future Google searchers. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5330885.0 Title: Re: Meganoob needs help recovering wallet Post by: ranochigo on April 16, 2021, 06:00:39 AM Bitcoin Core does not use .wallet or key files. Those are from MultiBit and preferably, you'll want to download MultiBit to restore it. Since MultiBit is not encrypted, just open it with any text editor and you should see the private keys in it. You can import it into Bitcoin Core after synchronizing. Check if there is a lock at the bottom right corner to check if it is encrypted.
Replacing the wallet.dat should do the job all right. Since you said you used it till around 2014, you should start seeing transactions once you synchronize to that point. Title: Re: Meganoob needs help recovering wallet Post by: KailyKail on April 16, 2021, 06:18:56 AM Bitcoin Core does not use .wallet or key files. Those are from MultiBit and preferably, you'll want to download MultiBit to restore it. Since MultiBit is not encrypted, just open it with any text editor and you should see the private keys in it. You can import it into Bitcoin Core after synchronizing. Check if there is a lock at the bottom right corner to check if it is encrypted. Replacing the wallet.dat should do the job all right. Since you said you used it till around 2014, you should start seeing transactions once you synchronize to that point. I opened it with a text editor and I found a bunch of keys when searching "name," but only one (my public wallet address) worked when searching Blockchain.com. Are these other keys my private keys? Title: Re: Meganoob needs help recovering wallet Post by: KailyKail on April 16, 2021, 07:20:35 AM Which file should contain the private keys? The wallet.dat file, or the wallet.key file? I tried taking the addresses found in the wallet.dat file, and they didn't seem to work. There's two lines of code in the wallet.key file that looks like "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx+xxxxxxxxxxxxxx+xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" I'm not sure if any of that is my private key. Title: Re: Meganoob needs help recovering wallet Post by: HCP on April 16, 2021, 08:37:25 AM Which file should contain the private keys? The wallet.dat file, or the wallet.key file? I tried taking the addresses found in the wallet.dat file, and they didn't seem to work. There's two lines of code in the wallet.key file that looks like "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx+xxxxxxxxxxxxxx+xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx If your wallet.key file looks like that, with the +'s and /'s etc and starts with the text "U2F"... then it is an encrypted .key file. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" Encrypted .key files are either generated by the user when they explicitly export their private keys from Multibit using the "Tools -> Export Private keys" option and set a password on the export file in the last section of the export window: https://talkimg.com/images/2023/11/15/zEp0P.png or they are created automatically by Multitbit when you set/change the wallet password (it creates an automatic .key backup encrypted with the wallet password). My advice would be to install MultiBit and try and open the .wallet file... hopefully there is no password set on the .wallet file and you'll be able to create a new "key export" but using the "Do not password protect export file" option... you'll likely have to wait for MultiBit to finish syncing, which could take quite a while (upwards of an hour)... but once you do that, you should end up with a "plaintext" .key file that you can open in a text editor and it will look something like this: Code: # KEEP YOUR PRIVATE KEYS SAFE ! |