Struggling to recover wallet, are my coins gone?

[askey457]

Hi all,

Apologies if this is posted in the wrong place, it's my first time posting.

I have an Electrum wallet, that was created when Multibit HD got closed down, and is an old version of Electrum (2.9.3). I left crypto alone for a while (the wallet was last used in 2017) but in the last few days got interested again, so tried to access the wallet. I can remember my password fine so got in but then after a bit of googling realised that older versions of Electrum have been disconnected from the servers because of a security issue.

Looked at my options and the best one was to restore the wallet (as I can't send currency from the old wallet). Unfortunately it looks like in the last 18 months I threw away the notebook with my seed in. Turns out that Electrum wallets that were created from Multibit HD wallets don't seem to have the option of showing the seed under 'Wallet' as it's just greyed out.

So it looks like I'm stuck with a bunch of bitcoin in a wallet I can access, but can't send anywhere or restore into a new wallet.

Basically, am I screwed?

[TryNinja]

Basically, am I screwed?

No. I can think of possible 2 solutions here.

1) Backup your wallet file (at %appdata/Electrum/wallets - for preventive measures) and download the latest version of Electrum. It will try to convert your wallet file to the newest formats and you will be able to connect to the servers.

2) If your wallet file doesn't work on the newest version of Electrum (for some reason), you can try creating a watch-only version of your wallet, building a transaction, sending it to the old version Electrum for signining and broadcast it manually. That's an harder solution, so try out the first one and if it doesn't work, we can try this one.

[ABCbits]

2) If your wallet file doesn't work on the newest version of Electrum (for some reason), you can try creating a watch-only version of your wallet, building a transaction, sending it to the old version Electrum for signining and broadcast it manually. That's an harder solution, so try out the first one and if it doesn't work, we can try this one.

Simpler solution would be Export all private keys from old Electrum version and import it to new Electrum version.
Just make sure the computer/notebook is secure and clean from malware/spyware.

[subSTRATA]

2) If your wallet file doesn't work on the newest version of Electrum (for some reason), you can try creating a watch-only version of your wallet, building a transaction, sending it to the old version Electrum for signining and broadcast it manually. That's an harder solution, so try out the first one and if it doesn't work, we can try this one.

Simpler solution would be Export all private keys from old Electrum version and import it to new Electrum version.
Just make sure the computer/notebook is secure and clean from malware/spyware.

this is probably the simplest solution. you can download the old versions of electrum here: https://download.electrum.org/

you should be able to export the private keys into a text file and import them to a more current wallet file. back up everything as you go.

[pooya87]

2) If your wallet file doesn't work on the newest version of Electrum (for some reason), you can try creating a watch-only version of your wallet, building a transaction, sending it to the old version Electrum for signining and broadcast it manually. That's an harder solution, so try out the first one and if it doesn't work, we can try this one.

Simpler solution would be Export all private keys from old Electrum version and import it to new Electrum version.
Just make sure the computer/notebook is secure and clean from malware/spyware.

it should be noted that if you transfer private keys (instead of the seed or master private key) to the new wallet then you will lose the HD capabilities of the wallet so it is best to create a new wallet with a new seed and sweep these keys instead of importing them.

[Stedsm]

2) If your wallet file doesn't work on the newest version of Electrum (for some reason), you can try creating a watch-only version of your wallet, building a transaction, sending it to the old version Electrum for signining and broadcast it manually. That's an harder solution, so try out the first one and if it doesn't work, we can try this one.

Simpler solution would be Export all private keys from old Electrum version and import it to new Electrum version.
Just make sure the computer/notebook is secure and clean from malware/spyware.

Not just the system needs to be free from malware/spyware while importing keys into new Electrum wallet, the wallet itself needs to be downloaded from the main source here:

Code:

https://electrum.org/#home

And you must be aware of this fact mentioned there:

"Warning: Electrum versions older than 3.3 can no longer connect to public servers, and must be upgraded. This is in order to prevent user exposure to phishing messages. Do not download Electrum from any another source than electrum.org."