need help restoring old wallet

[bolan]

I am trying to assist a friend who has an old armory wallet but has little understanding of how to access it. Being unfamiliar with the Armory software I'd appreciate some advice.

He has the root key for the wallet, which I inputted into the offline armory software. The result was Armory acknowledged the validity of the wallet but could not give me any info on the private key as it was offline.

My question is, how do I get full access to the wallet and its private keys? Do I have to download the entire blockchain on the online version of Armory on a different computer and sync it with the offline one, or is there a more simple way? (if so, can this be done on a single computer rather than using two?)

He doesn't want to keep any of the bitcoin on the armory wallet anymore, so sweeping it into a different wallet and making the bitcoin easily accessible without using Armory anymore is what we're looking for.

Thanks for any help.

[HCP]

Even if it is offline, you should be able to export the private keys...

Wallet Properties -> Backup this Wallet -> See Other Backup options -> Export Keys List -> click "Export keys list"

Then make sure the following are ticked:
- Address String
- Private Key (plain Base58)
- Include Unused (Address Pool)
- Omit spaces in key data

Addresses+Private keys will be displayed in the text box, copy/paste and/or save to a text file... you'll be able to then copy the private keys and import/sweep them into the wallet of your choice.

[bolan]

That's what I tried to do, but it seems that the active private keys are not available unless armory is online. I did manage to get a huge list of "unused" private keys, but I think all of these will be empty right? I tried a few of them (there had to be something like 1000) and all were empty.
Is there any way to use the root key on an online instance of Armory?

[HCP]

They only show as "unused" because your restored Armory is not online, so can't see any transactions for your addresses. How can it tell if the address was used or not if it cannot see the blockchain data?

Did any of the addresses that it generated show any transaction history if you look for the address on a blockexplorer? Chances are that you need to just look further down the list, and/or you need to find the "change" addresses that are holding your coins from any transactions that you have previously made.

Without knowing the full details of your transaction history... ie. how many send/receives you did, it's difficult to know in which address the coins are likely to be in now. However, if you can see transaction history for these addresses, at least you know you're on the right track.

Personally, I would just use a text editor to get a list of the "addresses", then bulk import the addresses into an Electrum "watching only" wallet... find the addresses that have the coins, and then import/sweep those private keys. (or maybe just bulk import all the private keys?)

[bolan]

They only show as "unused" because your restored Armory is not online, so can't see any transactions for your addresses. How can it tell if the address was used or not if it cannot see the blockchain data?

Did any of the addresses that it generated show any transaction history if you look for the address on a blockexplorer? Chances are that you need to just look further down the list, and/or you need to find the "change" addresses that are holding your coins from any transactions that you have previously made.

Without knowing the full details of your transaction history... ie. how many send/receives you did, it's difficult to know in which address the coins are likely to be in now. However, if you can see transaction history for these addresses, at least you know you're on the right track.

Personally, I would just use a text editor to get a list of the "addresses", then bulk import the addresses into an Electrum "watching only" wallet... find the addresses that have the coins, and then import/sweep those private keys. (or maybe just bulk import all the private keys?)

OK, something like this did cross my mind. The list of unused private keys was huge, and I only tried to import a few of them. None of those had anything on them. So, if what you're saying is correct then at least one on this list will have the bitcoin on? As far as I know, the bitcoin was loaded onto the wallet a few years ago and hasn't been touched since.

I don't think the exported data showed any wallet addresses, only private keys.

Edit: Oh no I see there's an option to get the wallet addresses. I think probably the best option is to bulk sweep private keys.