"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.

I think the issue is he's missing the 'Wallet ID' because he said "nothing else" after the password and backup phrase.
So he can't try to login even if he wanted to.

---

@Lord Sir Bitcoin Since this thread is bumped, I'll just mention this: Blockchain.com now accepts the user's email address to login.
You can now go straight to login page without using the backup phrase.

The -savagewallet command line option was removed from Bitcoin-qt/cli v0.21.0
it's moved to 'bitcoin-wallet' tool as "salvage".

Here's how to use the command using that tool:

Have you closed Electrum then renamed the wallet file that causing the issue before opening the newly created imported wallet?
That is to make sure that it wont open when you run Electrum .
Because it it's just thousands of transactions, it should work; it wouldn't if the original wallet is running in another instance or in the background since both will query the same server.

Otherwise, I'd second the suggested 'Bitcoin Core' and disable "pruning".

That's "cool" but insecure.
The number of fingerprint variations aren't even close to the total number of valid private keys.

Plus depending on the method; for example, if it's just based from basic details of the fingerprint (like our smartphone use), collisions may occur.
You'll get unique results if the method is based from the 'minute details', however, a slight scratch could produce a different result.

...I think the technology is already available but no one wants to implement such idea.

A possible workaround is to create an imported wallet using the private keys of all the other addresses excluding the one with thousands of deposits.
That's if the excluded address doesn't have a relatively large balance, otherwise, try to create another imported wallet with that address' PrvKey, it may work if not included with the rest.

To export the keys from your wallet: Go to 'Addresses' tab ("View->Show Addresses" to enable the tab), right-click on an address and select "private key".
Copy the private key including the script type (eg. p2pkh:Kjs539fa9A.......).

To create an imported wallet: Create a new wallet (File->Restore->Type a wallet name), select "Import Bitcoin addresses or private keys";
Then paste the keys including the script type, one line per key.

After that just make sure not to open the wallet that's failing to connect; renaming the wallet file from your drive should do the trick.

Based on the OP, it looks like it's your Private keys that are missing some characters.

Anyways, for the address, try using www.walletexplorer.com.
It has an auto-complete feature for the partial address that you will paste on their search box,
the catch is: the address should at least been used once (and not recent) for it to be registered to their database.

Example: if you search for "1BitcoinEaterAddre", it will automatically redirect you to "1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE".
More characters means more accurate search.

First thing is, your Electrum wallet wasn't an account like a bank, there's no central server that hodls the wallet/funds.
That said, no one can restore a wallet aside from the owner (yourself) by using its backup like the "Seed Phrase", wallet file or private keys.

If you think the amount of Bitcoin ($12?) is worth recovering, you can ask the "repairer" if they can recover the files from the disk. Doing the recovery yourself is risky.
The sole file that you need is the wallet file that has the same name as your wallet (default name: default_wallet, wallet_1, wallet_2, ...)

Same here like I've mentioned, that confirmed that I'm not the only one having trouble establishing a channel between two Electrum. :)

Try to post a new issue on Electrum's Github Repository: github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues
Maybe the Devs have a workaround. But first, use 'search' to look for similar issues .