Bitcoin Forum

I have an old multibit wallet (V 0.5.14) with IBTC from 2013. Have tried importing key into Electrum wallet, using instructions in another post on this forum. Once synchronised the balance in electrum is Zero.  Any suggestions?

Also tried seed, with same result.

For the seed, you have to tick that it's a BIP39 seed and set the derivation path to m/0'/0' (I think - if that doesn't work try m/44'/0'/0').

For the private key importing, if you go to view the address, is it the same address. Is there any errors with importing the key? It is a compressed from of the key (I.E what character does it begin with)?

The version of multibit he is using does not have HD wallets. It is MultiBit classic.

There seems to be some confusion here:

If it's classic, which it probably is if it's an old version, what is meant by seed?

OK I might be mixing the wrong terminology here - not exactly a techie.  What i meant was that I had tried both the backup of the key (from a .key file) and the 12 words that I understand are exclusive to my wallet, (although when I tried to import using these to bitpay, I received a message that the wallet already exists! I did try both m/0' and m/44'/0'/0' which were the two versions I found referred to on the various topics here and a youtube video, which did refer to multibit HD.  Getting a bit frantic!  My old computer on which the multibit wallet is stored keeps going to blue screen and am trying to rescue my bitcoin before it dies completely.

Key starts with U

I'm not sure what format a private key starting with a U is, maybe it's encrypted.
But the 12 word phrase is the seed. I'll try to find a site I have saved that allows you to input your seed and derivation path and you can get the public key from it just to be sure that there is coins in it.
Could you try m/0'/0' just to eliminate that - although for multibit m/0' is the default.

Edit: this is the site - https://iancoleman.github.io/bip39/ - use an offline copy to be safe and use the derivation path that is the default to start with and see if there's anything on the public key. If you click the public key (beginning xpub then you can get a QR code, scan that using a phone and in a web browser type "blockchain.info/xpub/"+yourpublic key and see if there's anything in it.

OP seems to be very confused...

MultiBit Classic (v0.5.14) generates .key files... They are generally encrypted with wallet password and result in the random text starting with a 'U2' and ending with '='

Refer here: https://multibit.org/help/v0.5/help_exportingPrivateKeys.html

There is NO SEED for MultiBit Classic.

However, there is a seed for MultiBit HD, but that will generate a completely different wallet than the one containing the keys from MultiBit Classic.

OP, you need to establish if your coins were in MultiBit Classic or MultiBit HD. They are two different programs with different wallet formats.

If it was MultiBit Classic, do you know the wallet password for your MultiBit Classic wallet? If so, recovering the actual private keys from should be a relatively simple task.

OK thanks for that. Unfortunately can't find my password, though am still trying everything that I might have used back then.  Have an unencrypted backup file but don't know if that is of any help to me? If no seed for multibit classic, which it definitely is, what is the string of 12 words that I have??

Found password and exported private keys to a file. What now??????

You can import them into Bitcoin Core. Or "sweep" them with Electrum. I think in this case I'd use Electrum.

You can also import them into electrum. On startup:
1. Press "standard wallet"
2. Then, use public or private keys
3. Paste the keys from the file into the electrum wallet. (Max is 40 at a time).

OK tried sweeping into electrum. Entered private key from file but not allowing me to continue. Cancel button is available but not sweep button. Obviously doing something wrong but don't know what. Do I include # at start and end? Also tried JackG method, with same result.  Private key starts with L, is this expected?

Yes. In that format they either start with an L or a K.
Do not include the hash symbol. It should have only letters or numbers as far as I understand.

L means it is a compressed key (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/List_of_address_prefixes).  Electrum can't import compressed keys (e.g. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=129661.msg1385022#msg1385022 & https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=129652.0).  So, I suspect that is your problem.

You should be able to use the steps here to convert it and then import it:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1970345.msg19609200#msg19609200

I haven't tried it, but others have.  Make sure you do it off-line, and (as always) make sure your computer is not infected.

OK, that seemed to work, but no bitcoins imported with private key. Original wallet shows positive balance.  Where is my bitcoin???

Electrum works perfectly fine with compressed keys?? What are you talking about? ??? Quoting stuff from 2012 isn't that useful ::) ;)

OP, you DO NOT want (or need) to convert it from compressed to uncompressed... you'll end up generating a different address within Electrum and, as you have discovered, won't be able to see your coins...

Just make sure you are using the most recent version of Electrum and import the "L" key... using "File -> New\Restore -> Standard Wallet -> Use Public or Private keys"... then paste in the L key one per line.

You are my hero!!!! ;D