No, re-downloading the whole blockchain isn't necessary unless it's set to be pruned.
If the "prune" setting is disabled, you don't have to since the error is for the wallet file.

It will only return with that error if the wallet.dat is corrupted to the point that the contents can't be recognized by Bitcoin Core.
I doubt manually switching wallets could corrupt it to that point, are you certain that it's created by Bitcoin Core?

BTW, you don't have to replace an existing wallet to restore another (that will just produce issues).
You just have to create another folder (with the wallet name that you want) in wallets folder, then paste the wallet.dat in there.
(Alternatively, paste the wallet.dat inside wallets folder and rename it like for e.g. wallet1.dat)
Open Bitcoin Core and load that wallet using the menu: "File->Open Wallet"; after that, you can select it in the "Wallet:" drop-down menu at the right.

Whoa, the odds is worse than I imagined, shame I haven't seen your benchmarks before.

Or you could try Dave's wallet recovery service: www.walletrecoveryservices.com
See if the guy has other methods aside from bruteforcing through all of the possible of combinations.

BTW, Electrum only generates 12 words by default, did you manually created the seed phrase using the console/CLI? Or an imported BIP39 seed?
Because it's best clarify it so you wouldn't be selecting the wrong options in BTCRecover.

You can use BTCRecover's seedrecover tool to unscramble it:

• Link: https://github.com/3rdIteration/btcrecover
• Documentation for the token file: https://github.com/3rdIteration/btcrecover/blob/master/docs/tokenlist_file.md
• Documentation for seedrecover: https://github.com/3rdIteration/btcrecover/blob/master/docs/Seedrecover_Quick_Start_Guide.md

Read the documentation... then just follow these once you've installed BTCRecover:
Only do this on an air-gap machine.

• Create a "token file": containing the words with anchors for the first 6 words,
  example for 12 words + 3 known word places (refer to the documentation for the anchors),
  token_file.txt:
  
  Code:

  ^apology
  ^2^myself
  ^3^weapon
  primary
  library
  inch
  budget
  boy
  eternal   
  smart
  ability
  cactus

  
  
• Then use this command to start seedrecover.py (replace the necessary info like the address, number of words, token list file name, etc.):
  
  Code:

  seedrecover.py --tokenlist token_file.txt --mnemonic-length 12 --language en --addrs bc1qsaly7ra0lpdq6gxsxhl3alzc96kxef22tp4t7p --addr-limit 2 --dsw --no-eta

  
  
• When prompted to open a wallet file, select 'cancel', then select "Electrum 2+" when prompted for the wallet type.
  

  ---

  BTW, you can use that example to test if BTCRecover is working. It can be cracked (in my system) within seconds.
  But take note that 18 out of 24 words to scramble may take days or hours (but I haven't done the benchmarks, maybe months?)

There was actually no issue in your last transaction.
It's normal to see "Unconfirmed Parent" if the only coin (UTXO) in your wallet is still unconfirmed.
That's just basically means that it's trying to spend an unconfirmed coin, it's not stuck or anything.

If you don't want to create transactions with unconfirmed parent:
You can enable the setting "Spend only confirmed coins" under "Tools->Preferences->'Transactions' tab".
That way, you'll have to wait for transactions to get at least 1confirmation before you can spend them.

That's your only option.
But I haven't mentioned that it's an easy task, not to mention, if he's willing to send it back.
Bitcoin transactions aren't anonymous but hard to connect to an entity or a real-person.

If you're serious about finding the malware author or the owner of the address,
you can try to use services like "Chainanalysis" (it's a paid service) to conduct an investigation to 'possibly' point you to the person behind it.

Then it's confirmed that you've been infected with a "Clipboard-hijacking" malware/virus.
(both have the same number of characters: 42 | have the same first few characters)

Better clean or format your PC before using it for cryptocurrency next time.

Unfortunately, there's no way to reverse confirmed Bitcoin transactions; there's no central authority in Bitcoin that can intervene with the funds.
Your only option if to find the culprit and "ask" him to send back the funds.

In the receive tab, when you click on the invoice (click on the date),
does the address that's displayed at the right-hand side the same as the address "bc1q5dwnx98y9zhgyvmuc5le6754jgt39vkyt0j7z5"?
(check for every characters, not just the first or last few)

Because there are malwares that can edit the address from your clipboard and replace it with the hacker's address.
Some are even mimicking the address by generating the same first and/or last few characters.

Hmm, same result even after -reindex and rebuild database   :-\

Is Armory perhaps looking for a different directory where there's an incomplete blockchain?
Specifically this:

Can you confirm that "H:\Bitcoin\data" is your Bitcoin Core's custom data directory?
Otherwise, if it's "H:\Bitcoin", then Armory's blkfile dir should be "H:\Bitcoin\blocks".
If no, then look for hardware issues specially the "H" drive before attempting to re-download the whole blockchain.

"An error was encountered: gcm: tag doesn't match" (which may be the password but I haven't changed my password).
The "forgot password" tool within the recovery tool wont send the alternative 'decryption key' to my email either (waited for hours).

I'm not looking for support though, solving it is pointless since it's a 'for test' wallet only, nothing's in it.

Possible but not feasible without at least knowing parts of the password, how many characters, etc.
Basically, to reduce the search-space by a lot.

Is the wallet fully encrypted?
Electrum has two types of encryption; one is "the whole wallet file" (will immediately ask for the password if you want to open the wallet)
and other one is "just the keys" (can be opened but will ask for a password when the keys are needed).
If it's the former, then there's no way to check if the wallet file has any balance because the addresses are encrypted as well.

He can't but if he has the backup (seed phrase or private key) or a copy of the wallet file, then he can still spend it whenever he want.

BTW, payment through a flash drive with a pre-created wallet is a red flag.

Note: Bitcoins aren't stored in the wallet, handling you a wallet doesn't mean you received the bitcoins.
It's stored in the blockchain which every non-pruned Bitcoin Node has.
The wallet only contains the necessary keys that can spend the coins that it can prove the ownership.

The correct way to receive your payment through Electrum is to create your own wallet (instructions).
Use the receive tab to get an address, then send it to the employer so he can send the payment to that address.
Finish the deal after getting at least 1 confirmation (more for high-risk transactions).

I hope people will take it seriously. Because look at the date  :P
Specially on April 1st when they will announce "Our wallet service has officially shut down".

BTW, I have a PDF backup file of my test wallet and I can't restore it using their wallet recovery tool (with the correct password),
I guess bitcointalk will be getting lots of BTC.com-related threads later.

ETFbitcoin had successfully installed v0.30 on a Debian10 OS based from this reply: /index.php?topic=5379817.msg58942538#msg58942538
Version is not that far from 0.34, it might work.

Instead of starting from scratch,
try -reindex instead, it's slower than -reindex-chainstate but a lot faster than a full resync (plus it wont cost you any bandwidth).

You mentioned that you've used -reindex-chainstate a few times but that won't find if there's any corrupted block in your blockchain
because it'll only rebuild the UTXO set from the already built block index.

I only needs 3 confirmations to show up to your lightning wallet, have you tried to refresh the wallet by "pulling-it-down" the screen?

Also, have you replaced the bitcoin address that showed up in the Send window during refill?
It should be the same address that'll show up in "Refill with External Wallet", go check it out and see if the refill transaction's output is the same.

If it is, then it's an issue with Blue's system since their Lightning Wallet is actually custodial.
In that case, try to contact their support (link) regarding the refill issue.

AFAIK, that's my reply to the other thread (with different author and issue).

Unfortunately I don't think that it's related to your issue since it only affects the keys that the wallet derive from the seed.
In other words, those versions' seed when restored to an earlier versions will still create a standard wallet (not watching only)
but with different set of addresses and private keys.

If you're telling the truth... I'm stumped.
Honestly, I don't have any idea on what's happening in your case. Sorry.

I'm not using ElectrumX but I've followed one of the solutions to install plyvel in the linked issue and one of the wheel from the unofficial repository worked.
Specifically this post: https://github.com/wbolster/plyvel/issues/60#issuecomment-737195891 (he dropped a "use at your own risk" warning though)


Windows10 1903
Python 3.8.0

I got a feeling that you mean "when sending from your Electrum wallet", because otherwise, this is impossible to happen.

If that's the case, it must be your "change address" (with yellow highlight) which are the address reserved to receive the excess amount from your transactions.
Bitcoin Wiki - Change: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Change

If not, you may be talking about the 'Receive' tab which shows you a different address in every invoice that you make.
You can actually see those addresses right away from the 'Addresses' tab (Menu: "View->Show Addresses").
Those are all derived from your seed phrase, you can refer to that tab if you want to test if your seed phrase can restore them all.

Are you perhaps using an old version of Bitcoin Core, versions before v0.21.0?
If so, you can follow BitMaxz's instructions instead.

If you have the master key (private master key or hdseed?), then yes.
But based from your earlier reply, it seems like it's in encrypted format so you'll need to decrypt it with the password first.

-Edit-If 'salvage' comes before the wallet path in Windows, it will take it as an additional parameter and will return with error:
Error: Additional arguments provided (--wallet=............)
My example should work without issues if he's using the correct version.

You'll only get that result in Bitcoin Core so you must have missed/misunderstood my reply to BitMaxz's post.
Use "bitcoin-wallet" tool which I've pointed-out in my post.