Bitcoin Forum

I created an electrum wallet the other day and stored some btc in it, it was working fine. I tried opening it today, and it wont even open, this error pops up:

 cannot read wallet file 'C: /Users/Name/AppData/Roaming/Electrum/wallets/default_wallet'


I tried reinstalling electrum windows installer but the same error pops up. PLEASE help, I have been at this for 3 hours now.

I have the seed words in a safe place, I just need help correcting this problem.

Have you checked whether this directory or file exists? If so, try to delete it and reinstall Electrum. This should work to get it run properly again.

I just uninstalled it and reinstalled it but same error keeps popping up:

cannot read wallet file 'C: /Users/Name/AppData/Roaming/Electrum/wallets/default_wallet'


What do you suggest?

Navigate to this directory:
C:/Users/Name/AppData/Roaming/Electrum/wallets/

And check whether the file "default_wallet" exists. Note that AppData is a hidden folder, so you may have to copy+paste the path in.

If the file exists, rename it to "default_wallet.old" or something similar and then start Electrum and choose restore from seed. This should fix your problem, note that uninstalling Electrum does not delete the "default_wallet" file.

If that fixes your problem then you can go ahead and delete the "default_wallet.old" file.

You uninstalled the software. But have you also removed the folder/file at this location 'C: /Users/Name/AppData/Roaming/Electrum/wallets/default_wallet'? This is the location of the user related data not the software itself.