Electrum Assistance Needed

[ctv214]

I needed to transfer bitcoin from Coinbase since they limit where you can send your coin. I found Electrum and want to use it as a viable temporary wallet to send my coin to and then resend it onto my original intended destination. I downloaded the program onto my desktop using the Windows link on their website. I was able to open my wallet and transferred my coin without any problems, but when I went to send to my other wallet, it asked me for my password. After I downloaded the program, the wallet opened up and I never had to sign up or log in so I never received or made a password, user ID, or any other security or identifying information. Can someone tell me where I can find out what my password is, how to generate one,to find out what my Seed is, or offer insight as to how I can transfer my balance? any and all assistance would be greatly appreciated by this beginner.

[dothebeats]

The password is the one you have created after installing Electrum on your machine. It is the passphrase needed to allow every transaction to pass through. Are you sure you haven't encountered creating one since that would be odd. And also, would you be able to share what website have you downloaded the client? You need to enter your password every time you want to create a transaction.

[p3rplexamous]

To look up your seed, you can click on the little seed with small plant icon at the bottom right of the screen next to the Green Synch circle.  This will prompt you to enter your password if the wallet is encrypted and then will show you the seed.  As for the password you mentioned you did not set, this is odd.  Have you ever downloaded Electrum before?  Can you confirm you downloaded it from https://electrum.org/ ?  If you have installed the wallet previously, it could have just loaded your previous wallets settings, even if the app was deleted and then reinstalled.  A back up option could be to File > New/Restore > Enter a name and then type in your passphrase for your current wallet.  I think this should override the password you mentioned you do not remember making, and should allow you to send funds.

[ctv214]

Thanks for the replies. I downloaded the program from electrum.org/#download by clicking the link for Windows Installer. After the download completed I opened it and it went through the typical windows install procedure, but what was strange is that when it finished it did not prompt me to open the program or anything else. The installer ended and the Electrum short cut was on my desktop. When I opened it it gave me the default wallet window and I was able to send my coin from coinbase to the Electrum wallet just by pasting the wallet address into coinbase and it went through no problem. Then, of course, when I tried to send it from Electrum, it asked for a password that I never received.

I do not ever remember installing Electrum before, so I am sure that it is not using an old password. Can anyone tell me at what point would I typically be asked to create a password? The first time I opened the wallet? Right after it finished installing?  This has me baffled also, but more concerned that I am not going to be able to access my coin.

[ctv214]

Does anyone know if there is any access to developers or support specifically for Electrum? Any support personnel in place at all? the one link that seemed most promising, other than this forum, seems to have been last used regularly in 2014.

I see where it states that if I lose my password that I can recover my wallet using the seed. But I need my password to access my seed. Kinda leaves me stumped.

[Velkro]

I needed to transfer bitcoin from Coinbase since they limit where you can send your coin. I found Electrum and want to use it as a viable temporary wallet to send my coin to and then resend it onto my original intended destination. I downloaded the program onto my desktop using the Windows link on their website. I was able to open my wallet and transferred my coin without any problems, but when I went to send to my other wallet, it asked me for my password. After I downloaded the program, the wallet opened up and I never had to sign up or log in so I never received or made a password, user ID, or any other security or identifying information. Can someone tell me where I can find out what my password is, how to generate one,to find out what my Seed is, or offer insight as to how I can transfer my balance? any and all assistance would be greatly appreciated by this beginner.

Just ditch this wallet you don't know password for and create new one from private key or by seed doesnt really matter.
Then you will setup password for it while creating it. Problem solved.

[ctv214]

A back up option could be to File > New/Restore > Enter a name and then type in your passphrase for your current wallet.  I think this should override the password you mentioned you do not remember making, and should allow you to send funds.

I am not sure what you mean by type in my passphrase for my current wallet. Isn't this the password that I do not have? What other passphrase would I have?

Thanks for your help.

[HabBear]

Have you tried seeking answers to your questions from the Electrum Community page?

Bitcointalk is listed on it as one resource, but so is Twitter, Reddit, and a few other sites. Have you tried those other sites?

Good luck.

[ctv214]

Just ditch this wallet you don't know password for and create new one from private key or by seed doesnt really matter.
Then you will setup password for it while creating it. Problem solved.
[/quote]

I have Bitcoin in the wallet that I transferred over from Coinbase. That is the whole reason I am trying to figure the password situation out. Otherwise I would just make another one. I wish it was that simple.

[ctv214]

Have you tried seeking answers to your questions from the Electrum Community page?

Bitcointalk is listed on it as one resource, but so is Twitter, Reddit, and a few other sites. Have you tried those other sites?

Good luck.

Yeah, that is how I found this forum and discovered that the other ones listed are either forums or procedure documents that do not specify anything regarding the password issue I am having. There is nothing there that gives me a link or other access to any type of live support from Electrum. The software is open source and I guess the support is also. So I am relying on some friendly, experienced person in this forum to help me rescue my coin. I do not have much in there, but it is more than I would like to lose. That being said, if someone can give me the answer to how I can gain access back which enables me to send my coin from my wallet, I will send a few bucks worth of Bitcoin to their wallet as well. (I have less than $30 worth of coin in there, so don't get too exited!)

[Vittalev]

If you have the seed (the 12 words that you should have noted) you can recover your wallet from it and then set a new password.
If you don't have the seed, then there is no way to recover it.

[ctv214]

If you have the seed (the 12 words that you should have noted) you can recover your wallet from it and then set a new password.
If you don't have the seed, then there is no way to recover it.

I was never given a password at all. I downloaded the program and it placed a shortcut on my desktop. I clicked it and opened up the default wallet. I was never shown anything which required me to sign up or make a username and password or anything like that. I sent coin from Coinbase to the Electrum wallet by just pasting the wallet address in the Coinbase sender application and the amount is now showing as a balance in my Electrum wallet. But, when I try to send it to another bitcoin wallet, it asks me for a password. Which I never had. I can not access my seed without a password. I was asking if someone can tell me at what point of setting up the Electrum program do they ask you to make a password? Because the installer finished, I had a shortcut on my desktop, and I opened up the default wallet window, in that order, never being prompted to do anything with a password.

[HCP]

I was asking if someone can tell me at what point of setting up the Electrum program do they ask you to make a password? Because the installer finished, I had a shortcut on my desktop, and I opened up the default wallet window, in that order, never being prompted to do anything with a password.

It sounds like you had previously installed and setup Electrum at some point in the past... When Electrum is uninstalled, it does NOT delete it's data directory and/or old wallet files... so, upon (re)installing Electrum this time, it has found your old "default_wallet" and used that.

I've seen this before on the forum... people saying they never set up a password or got a seed... sent coins to a wallet address, then tried to send coins out and have been prompted for a password they never set. It is because a new install has found the old data files...

Basically, you will need to try and guess what your "old" password would have been (hopefully you're lazy like most people and use the same password for everything, or you use easy to guess ones for you!)... if you cannot remember what your old password was, then those coins are effectively lost, as you will not be able to get the seed and/or send the coins without the password.

[Abdussamad]

Regarding support for electrum it is open source software so support is by the community. This forum, the #electrum irc channel on freenode and the /r/electrum sub-reddit are the main places where you can get support. The electrum developers do not have access to your wallet seed or private keys so they can't help you recover access to your bitcoins. Those secrets remain on your hard drive encrypted by the wallet password.

Also to add to what HCP said in the past we've heard about malware that creates electrum wallets on people's computers in the hope that they send bitcoin to those wallets. So if you didn't create the wallet in the past it could have been created by some malware program.

[ctv214]

[/quote]
It sounds like you had previously installed and setup Electrum at some point in the past... When Electrum is uninstalled, it does NOT delete it's data directory and/or old wallet files... so, upon (re)installing Electrum this time, it has found your old "default_wallet" and used that.

I've seen this before on the forum... people saying they never set up a password or got a seed... sent coins to a wallet address, then tried to send coins out and have been prompted for a password they never set. It is because a new install has found the old data files...

Basically, you will need to try and guess what your "old" password would have been (hopefully you're lazy like most people and use the same password for everything, or you use easy to guess ones for you!)... if you cannot remember what your old password was, then those coins are effectively lost, as you will not be able to get the seed and/or send the coins without the password.
[/quote]

Well, it turns out that you and the other couple of forum members who said that i must have installed Electrum on this computer before were absolutely right. Apparently I did it back in May of 2016. I, of course, have zero memory of doing this or of what the password was. But, you also mentioned another thing that fits my situation, and that is that I am lazy and, in fact, do use the same or similar passwords for most of the accounts I set up online. (In my defense, any that are particularly important or contain personal data or access to my money, I create unique, random passwords)

This leads me to ask this question: Does Electrum have a cap on the number of times I can guess at the password before it locks me out? I think I would have used one of about 5 or 6 variations of my password theme, but I would be heated if I were to be locked out after three guesses. Also, does Electrum have any specific password content requirements such as 1 capital letter, 1 number, 1 symbol, etc.?

Thanks for your assistance with this fuster cluck I have created.

[Abdussamad]

no there is no limit. you can try until the sun goes supernova