Help my bitcoins are trapped in my phone.....

[Granster]

I have Bitcoin Wallet on my android phone and it keeps crashing and looks like I my lose a bit over one Bitcoin. It worked fine for a while and I started sending and receiving bitcoins then it crashed and it keeps trying the synchronize the blockchain but keeps crashing before I can send any bitcoins. I get messages like out of memory error which make sense because the blockchain is so big now and looks like that app tries to put the whole blockchain on the phone.

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[chriswilmer]

Sorry if this question goes over your head, but do you know your private key? If you do, then you're safe. Doesn't matter if your android phone vaporizes.

[tiberiandusk]

I have Bitcoin Wallet on my android phone and it keeps crashing and looks like I my lose a bit over one Bitcoin. It worked fine for a while and I started sending and receiving bitcoins then it crashed and it keeps trying the synchronize the blockchain but keeps crashing before I can send any bitcoins. I get messages like out of memory error which make sense because the blockchain is so big now and looks like that app tries to put the whole blockchain on the phone.

The android client will hopefully just be using a standard wallet.dat somewhere on the phone. If you can find that (you may have to root your phone) you should be able to get your coin out using a PC.

[Granster]

Sorry if this question goes over your head, but do you know your private key? If you do, then you're safe. Doesn't matter if your android phone vaporizes.

I do know what a private key is........ I learned about it while trying to get my bitcoins out of my phone. It is not where you can get to it on the phone. I may need to jailbreak the phone.

[Granster]

I have Bitcoin Wallet on my android phone and it keeps crashing and looks like I my lose a bit over one Bitcoin. It worked fine for a while and I started sending and receiving bitcoins then it crashed and it keeps trying the synchronize the blockchain but keeps crashing before I can send any bitcoins. I get messages like out of memory error which make sense because the blockchain is so big now and looks like that app tries to put the whole blockchain on the phone.

The android client will hopefully just be using a standard wallet.dat somewhere on the phone. If you can find that (you may have to root your phone) you should be able to get your coin out using a PC.

I hope it is just a standard wallet.dat  it is not on the SD card - I already looked there. I have never rooted a phone but looks like I may have to (or take the loss). I emailed and got a reply from Andreas Schildbach the programmer of Bitcoin Wallet but he did not have any other suggestions.

[chriswilmer]

Sorry if this question goes over your head, but do you know your private key? If you do, then you're safe. Doesn't matter if your android phone vaporizes.

I do know what a private key is........ I learned about it while trying to get my bitcoins out of my phone. It is not where you can get to it on the phone. I may need to jailbreak the phone.

If you can obtain your private key, you're all set. There are no bitcoins on your phone (and there never were).

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

And this is why Bitcoin needs to find an alternative to the blockchain - you can't expect to download huge files.

[Granster]

And this is why Bitcoin needs to find an alternative to the blockchain - you can't expect to download huge files.

Yes this is true. Getting too big for most phones and I helped a friend with an older computer get started with bitcoins and the blockchain took 4 days to load.

[Granster]

Sorry if this question goes over your head, but do you know your private key? If you do, then you're safe. Doesn't matter if your android phone vaporizes.

I do know what a private key is........ I learned about it while trying to get my bitcoins out of my phone. It is not where you can get to it on the phone. I may need to jailbreak the phone.

If you can obtain your private key, you're all set. There are no bitcoins on your phone (and there never were).

Yes I am hoping to obtain the private key that is kept in an area I can not get to yet. I will try to jailbreak the phone (or root as it is known with Android phones) this weekend. I only hope I do not "brick" my phone as I have never tried anything like that before. I am reading a lot about it and watching a lot of videos and am moderately sure I will do it with now problems.

I do know there are no bitcoins in my phone. Are there any bitcoins anywhere? We are really trading just bits and bytes.

[davout]

Next time you should probably use Paytunia for Android instead of insisting on having actual money actually bound to a phone. Phones get lost, stolen, can break ...

[scintill]

/data/data/de.schildbach.wallet/files/wallet-protobuf (MODE_PRIVATE)
   Wallet for prodnet

The wallet file format is not compatible to wallet.dat (Satoshi client). Rather, it uses a custom protobuf format
which should be compatible between clients using BitCoinJ.

/data/data/de.schildbach.wallet/files/key-backup-base58 (MODE_PRIVATE)
   Backups of private keys for prodnet

I'm guessing Andreas told you, but look for those files.  (If I'm understanding the backup file's name, it may be better because it will be easier to import into another client to get your coins back.)  You may be able to get them using adb without rooting, but if you're not familiar it would probably be complicated.  Be careful in rooting that you don't wipe the data.  Good luck!

[FactoredPrimes]

I use the blockchain.info android wallet app. It does not need to download the blockchain and does not trust the server with the keys.

It also allows for backup or web access if you lose the phone. You can either have your encrypted wallet sent out every time it changes or you can just record the url for your account.

I like its security model and that it does not fill up 2gigs of space on my device to hold the block chain.

[Granster]

/data/data/de.schildbach.wallet/files/wallet-protobuf (MODE_PRIVATE)
   Wallet for prodnet

The wallet file format is not compatible to wallet.dat (Satoshi client). Rather, it uses a custom protobuf format
which should be compatible between clients using BitCoinJ.

/data/data/de.schildbach.wallet/files/key-backup-base58 (MODE_PRIVATE)
   Backups of private keys for prodnet

I'm guessing Andreas told you, but look for those files.  (If I'm understanding the backup file's name, it may be better because it will be easier to import into another client to get your coins back.)  You may be able to get them using adb without rooting, but if you're not familiar it would probably be complicated.  Be careful in rooting that you don't wipe the data.  Good luck!

I did not know about abd until your post. Thank you for posting, I will try it first. I already have Android SDK on my computer.

[Granster]

I use the blockchain.info android wallet app. It does not need to download the blockchain and does not trust the server with the keys.

It also allows for backup or web access if you lose the phone. You can either have your encrypted wallet sent out every time it changes or you can just record the url for your account.

I like its security model and that it does not fill up 2gigs of space on my device to hold the block chain.

I have had blockchain.info on my android since the problem with Bitcoin Wallet. I think it is a great product.