losing my mind after coins being trapped over a year, please help!

[jake_a99]

I have been trying to access my coins from my armory wallet for over a year (I travel a lot and only work on this problem when home for a week+). I will give the short version and then the long version, and I would appreciate if any feedback is delivered as if to a small child, because I have spent countless hours reading similar topics and I have gotten no where.

Short version: I don't have an updated version of Armory and can't access my coins. I DO have the paper backups for the wallets, but these have been useless to me so far without a working version of Armory. Is there any way to use these without the client?

Long version:

Initially, I ran Armory on two computers: online (PC1) and offline (PC2). Everything worked as it was supposed to, and I made some transactions. Then there was an extended period where I didn't use my coins, and PC1 got off synch with the blockchain. I ran into all kinds of problems when trying to update this - it wouldn't see the bitcoin software, the updates would take a long time, the computer would blue screen, and my actual wallets weren't showing up. This went on for some time as I rarely had too many days in a row to work on the problem. Eventually I was able to get a fully working and synchronized version going, I imported by wallets by backup manually, and everything seemed as if it was functional. But when I tried to send bitcoins to any address, I got the error message that my transaction would not broadcast on the network. (I tired increasing the fee, this did nothing.)

On troubleshooting this problem, I saw people say that they were able to fix it by updating Armory version. So I attempted to upgrade from 92.3 to 93.2, but here it wanted to rebuild the transaction history from scratch. Furthermore, it appeared my computer was lacking the the required space to do this. I'm sure there were mistakes made on my end with PC1 somewhere here, but the computer was at this point functioning so poorly I couldn't even delete files or uninstall programs, nearly any action taken on the device would cause extended freezing and blue screens. So on PC1 I'm left with an inability to make space, for the task of rebuilding the history, on a device that needs to be constantly restarted due to blue screen.

My next attempts were on two different laptops. One simply didn't want to download the program and probably didn't have enough space. The second laptop is still trying to update the blockchain but I'm fairly sure it will run out of space as well. Also the pace it is going will take days, but I'm not going to abort that mission because I am completely desperate at this point and leaving town again on Thursday.

Next I brought out another old desktop - PC3 - a 32-bit Windows 7. I deleted the majority of programs and files on this computer (from which I am typing now), and freed up over 50GB for the install. However, when trying to install armory now, I get an error message: "cannot run on 32-bit." I googled this and it was mentioned that 92.3 works on 32 bit but not the latest. Despite the fact that getting 92.3 to work on PC1 didn't allow me to make any transactions, I attempted this anyway on PC3, but I got the same error message: "cannot run on 32-bit."

I have also tried using the paper backups in different combinations on blockchain to no avail. It's my understanding that the paper backups only work on armory, but the private keys should work on blockchain. I spent an hour or so trying to figure out how to get/enter these private keys, but got no where.

So I am incredible frustrating that is seems like no matter how many hours I devote over months and months on end, on 4 different computers, I cannot access my bitcoins in any way. If anyone could please walk me through a viable option I will be eternally grateful.

Thanks,

Jake

[achow101]

What about PC2? Is that one still working fine? If it does, you can export the private keys from there and then import them into another wallet that isn't as resource intensive.

[jake_a99]

What about PC2? Is that one still working fine? If it does, you can export the private keys from there and then import them into another wallet that isn't as resource intensive.

That's the offline PC, and that's where I got the backup to begin with. It's my understanding the private keys are different... is there a way I can export the keys there and plug them into blockchain successfully?

[jake_a99]

What about PC2? Is that one still working fine? If it does, you can export the private keys from there and then import them into another wallet that isn't as resource intensive.

I'm trying to do something like this now, but here is where I'm at currently:

I have 2 wallets offline on PC2 in Armory. When I clicked 'backup individual keys," one of them gave me a ton of output, many lines each with 3 rows: a ~30 dig number, followed by a Privbase58 code with spaces, followed by a PrivHexBe code with spaces. The other wallet had none of this information, just the paper backup code.

I entered the first Privbase58 code into blockchain and once deleting all the spaces it seemed to recognize it, but read "0.00 btc." So it was empty.

Should I keep trying this fopr the many different Privbase58 codes? Even if one accesses the wallet they came from, I'm left with the issue of wallet 2 now providing me with these private keys for some reason. Any ideas?

[achow101]

What about PC2? Is that one still working fine? If it does, you can export the private keys from there and then import them into another wallet that isn't as resource intensive.

That's the offline PC, and that's where I got the backup to begin with. It's my understanding the private keys are different... is there a way I can export the keys there and plug them into blockchain successfully?

The private keys are stored on the offline PC, and the backup is just a format that armory can read to recover your private keys. The private key format is the same across all wallets.

To export your private keys, open up the wallet, then select "Backup This Wallet" Choose the option for "Export Key Lists". The window that opens up will have all of your addresses and their corresponding private keys. The keys that you want is the "PrivBase58" for each address. The string should start with a "5". Then you can just copy those (check "Omit spaces in key data" to making copying easier) private keys to another wallet program and import your private keys there.

Since it appears that you have a disk space issue, I recommend that you use an SPV wallet. I recommend that you use Electrum. You can also use it in a 2 computer configuration just like with armory, but it doesn't require the full blockchain. You should also sweep the private keys instead of importing them. Sweeping them moves the Bitcoin to a new address in the wallet instead of using the original private key. This helps with security and with backups.

[jake_a99]

The private keys are stored on the offline PC, and the backup is just a format that armory can read to recover your private keys. The private key format is the same across all wallets.

To export your private keys, open up the wallet, then select "Backup This Wallet" Choose the option for "Export Key Lists". The window that opens up will have all of your addresses and their corresponding private keys. The keys that you want is the "PrivBase58" for each address. The string should start with a "5". Then you can just copy those (check "Omit spaces in key data" to making copying easier) private keys to another wallet program and import your private keys there.

Since it appears that you have a disk space issue, I recommend that you use an SPV wallet. I recommend that you use Electrum. You can also use it in a 2 computer configuration just like with armory, but it doesn't require the full blockchain. You should also sweep the private keys instead of importing them. Sweeping them moves the Bitcoin to a new address in the wallet instead of using the original private key. This helps with security and with backups.
[/quote]

Ok so this is close to what I was able to do right away with wallet 1 of 2. With this wallet I got a ton of addresses, and so far I've been able to sweep 6 of them, but 3 were empty and the other 3 had smallish amounts.

However, I didn't see the *exact* option "back up this wallet," instead I was able to choose from "make paper backup" or "backup individual keys" - assuming this is due to it being an older version of armory on an offline computer. But now the main issue is that my 2nd wallet on there isn't providing me any individual keys when I select this option.

At the moment working hard at manually deleting spaces and checking the various addresses for coins, but only from wallet 1.

[Dorrittulx]

Well, how much Bitcoin is trapped?

[achow101]

Ok so this is close to what I was able to do right away with wallet 1 of 2. With this wallet I got a ton of addresses, and so far I've been able to sweep 6 of them, but 3 were empty and the other 3 had smallish amounts.

However, I didn't see the *exact* option "back up this wallet," instead I was able to choose from "make paper backup" or "backup individual keys" - assuming this is due to it being an older version of armory on an offline computer.

That is probably the case. I am basing these instructions off of the latest armory, 0.93.3

But now the main issue is that my 2nd wallet on there isn't providing me any individual keys when I select this option.

Strange. Screenshot?

At the moment working hard at manually deleting spaces and checking the various addresses for coins, but only from wallet 1.

In my version of armory, there was a checkbox to omit the spaces. Check to see if you have that in yours. It will make copying much easier.

[jake_a99]

But now the main issue is that my 2nd wallet on there isn't providing me any individual keys when I select this option.

Strange. Screenshot?

At the moment working hard at manually deleting spaces and checking the various addresses for coins, but only from wallet 1.

In my version of armory, there was a checkbox to omit the spaces. Check to see if you have that in yours. It will make copying much easier.
[/quote]


it's on the offline computer so screen shot annoying to do, but also unnecessary because if I deselect 'paper backup root' (looking for only the private keys), the only information provided looks like this:

Created: YYYY-MM 05:45pm
Wallet ID: XXXX
Wallet Name: XXXX

If paper backup root is included the only difference is now I get the root key and chain code which represents the backup of the entire wallet.

 

[achow101]

it's on the offline computer so screen shot annoying to do, but also unnecessary because if I deselect 'paper backup root' (looking for only the private keys), the only information provided looks like this:

Created: YYYY-MM 05:45pm
Wallet ID: XXXX
Wallet Name: XXXX

If paper backup root is included the only difference is now I get the root key and chain code which represents the backup of the entire wallet.

Are you sure that you used that wallet? Does the option for "Include Unused (address pool)" exist? If it does, try checking that.

[jake_a99]

it's on the offline computer so screen shot annoying to do, but also unnecessary because if I deselect 'paper backup root' (looking for only the private keys), the only information provided looks like this:

Created: YYYY-MM 05:45pm
Wallet ID: XXXX
Wallet Name: XXXX

If paper backup root is included the only difference is now I get the root key and chain code which represents the backup of the entire wallet.

Are you sure that you used that wallet? Does the option for "Include Unused (address pool)" exist? If it does, try checking that.

ok great, checking that box worked, now I have a load more addresses to work with. Going to just have to work on this data entry for a couple hours or whatever, hopefully it will all add up to what I know to be in the wallets.