"Incorrect passphrase" From Wallet Client, Even Though it's Correct.

[Palmer]

"The passphrase entered for the wallet decryption was incorrect."
I get this error in a title after my Bitcoin wallet (Bitcoin-qt client on Linux) asked me to create a passphrase to keep my wallet encrypted. Now when it is fully synchronized I try to create a new address or change something it asks me for a password no matter what I do.

I'm 110% sure it's the correct passphrase since I copy and pasted it straight from a text file which I still have saved and unaltered.

Why did it do this? Am I going to have to clean my .bitcoin folder and re-sync it again? It took me over a day to sync it the first time, I really, really don't want to do that again.

Why ask for a passphrase if it will just permanently lock me out of my own wallet?

[DeathAndTaxes]

There is nothing about syncing that changes your passphrase.  You can be offline with no copy of the blockchain and encrypt or decrypt you wallet.

Depsite being 110% sure what you think is your passphrase and what actually is your passphrase are two different things.  When you copied maybe you copied a trailing or leading space.  " password" or "password " instead of "password".  You could have NOT copied a trailing or leading charecter(s).  "assword" or "passwor" instead of "password".

Does the wallet.dat have any funds (i.e. have your received any coins at any address you control).  If not then:
1) Close the client.
2) Delete (or better move it outside the folder) the wallet.dat file.  Just the wallet.dat file nothing else.  
3) Start the client.  It will create a new empty decrypted wallet.dat
4) Encrypt the wallet.dat then immediately decrypt it to ensure you passphrase is correct.

If the wallet.dat does have funds and you can't determine the passphase then you have lost the funds forever.  You can redownload the blockchain but it has nothing to do with wallet encryption so it won't change anything.

[Palmer]

Well there are no trailing spaces or line breaks in the text file where I copied the password from. I was very sure of that.

There are no funds in my wallet at the moment so I will try what you said and move the wallet.dat file.

Just in case I will try the passphrase a few times with a missing first character, last character and space at the end in case I did somehow make that mistake. I don't know how I would have done that but it was a late night last night.

Thanks for your quick response.

[Palmer]

There is nothing about syncing that changes your passphrase.  You can be offline with no copy of the blockchain and encrypt or decrypt you wallet.

I just meant if I actually needed to delete my /.bitcoin/ contents. It re-syncs when that happens, correct? The time it took to sync just made me never want to do that again. lol

But your suggestion worked. Thank you for the response. I will just have to double-check after encrypting next time.

[DannyHamilton]

. . .I'm 110% sure it's the correct passphrase since I . . .

. . .your suggestion worked. Thank you for the response. I will just have to double-check after encrypting next time.

If I had a bitcoin for everytime someone came into this forum saying they are using the correct passphrase, only to discover later that they are not using the correct passphrase, I'd be rich.

And then someone new comes in saying they are certain that they are using the correct passphrase, and they wonder why I doubt them.

I'm glad to hear you found a solution. If you haven't done so yet, I'd create a backup of that wallet.dat file somewhere as well.  Otherwise you'll be back here in a few weeks (months? years?) saying that your hard-drive crashed and you need to know how to get your bitcoins into your new wallet.  You won't be happy when we tell you that the coins are gone forever if you don't have a good backup.

[dimicruzer]

hi, can anybody tell me how a wallet can be 'unlocked' as ive lost my passphrase ! any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. willing to offer a substantial reward for correct and honest information, thanks.

[DannyHamilton]

You aren't going to be happy with the "correct and honest information".

If you are using Bitcoin-Qt and you encrypted your wallet with a passphrase, it cannot be unlocked without the passphrase.

Now, if you can remember some of the passphrase, and if the parts you don't remember aren't very complicated, it *might* be possible for someone to create a program that tries every possible variation of the parts you don't remember until they stumble on the actual passphrase.  The more you can remember about what your password definitely did (or did not) have, the better the chance that someone can help you crack it.

Example that could be solved:

I know my passphrase was my cat's name followed by a number.  I know that the number was more than 1 digit and less than 4 digits, but I can't remember what the number was.


Example that could probably be solved:

I know my passphrase used only lowercase letters and nothing else.  I know it was less than 6 letters long. I know it was a real English word.


Example that could not be solved:

I mashed my hands randomly on the keyboard until the passphrase was at least 15 characters long.  I'm know it was less than 30 characters.  I remember seeing some numbers, some capital letters, and some punctuation, but I don't remember how much of each.


Some things to try and remember about your password:

• minimum length
• maximum length
• types of characters that were (or were not) in the password
• specific characters that were (or were not) in the password
• any real words?
• any pattern?
• any repetition?
• any other details