Help wanted to retrieve "lost" android wallet - 2BTC reward!

[Missionary]

Hi.

A couple of years ago I tested out this Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitcoinandroid
Github: https://github.com/barmstrong/bitcoin-android

The short story:

After a few crashes etc I had to reinstall the app, relying on the fact that my wallet would be backed up in Googles cloud and downloaded to the phone at first launch of the program. It did not. Conversations with the dev suggested that as long as I did not initiate any new transactions the old wallet should still be intact on Googles servers.

The long story:

Read the full conversation with the dev here: http://pastebin.com/fdXWKmqW

What I have tried:

* Installing the client again on different phones on the same google account.

If anyone has a solution to this there is a 2BTC reward in it for you.

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[bsand]

try looking for the wallet backup on google's server.. like go into gmail, then click onto account and look around at things that get backed up/saved from your phone..

I remember finding all my contacts this way, as well as other things that I was able to back up via my android

[Missionary]

try looking for the wallet backup on google's server.. like go into gmail, then click onto account and look around at things that get backed up/saved from your phone..

I remember finding all my contacts this way, as well as other things that I was able to back up via my android

I just tried to do a full "Google takeout", but looking through the files that I get there is no wallet.dat or any file similar to this or afaict related to bitcoins.

[bsand]

do you still have the phone where you had first installed the app? if so plug it into your comp via usb disk mode and enable all hidden files and search around for the app and see if there is a text file or something similar in the app's system files

[wachtwoord]

I'll try checking out the source and rebuilding. let's see if it works out of the box and if it does I'll add the single line and recompile.

[mical_2]

Try using recovery software like rescue disk pro. If the file is still on the phones memory and hasn't been overwritten you should be able to recover it.

my address if it works: 17shVFRwH4VV47SNjcQm3SuXbFuLNWUJYW

Hope you get your wallet back. Software might be available as a torrent, if u are one who downloads...

[Missionary]

Since I did not think 13 BTC was very much at the time, the phone has gone through several flashing of new ROMs etc. So I doubt it will be easy to recover the file from the phone, and I would guess that the "new" wallet installed with the reinstallation of the Bitcoin software should have overwritten it.

My best guess would be that it is backed up somewhere in the Google-cloud.

[wachtwoord]

Update: I have gotten it to compile

[wachtwoord]

Ok, I'm not quite sure how to build an Android application UI and I don't think it is necessary to find out. Instead I just added a line of code to attempt a restore every time the application starts. Let's see if this works

(I'll PM you the link to the APK)

[Missionary]

Ok, I'm not quite sure how to build an Android application UI and I don't think it is necessary to find out. Instead I just added a line of code to attempt a restore every time the application starts. Let's see if this works

(I'll PM you the link to the APK)

Testing now. For the moment it is stuck at "Connecting to peers..." 0/100.

Will report back later.

[Missionary]

https://github.com/barmstrong/bitcoin-android/issues/36

"Hmm, yep if you uninstall it I believe it deletes your wallet from the cloud. Apologies for the trouble on that! We are working on a better solution going forward that I'll be sure to post more about here."

To me, it sounds like my wallet has been permanently lost.

[wachtwoord]

https://github.com/barmstrong/bitcoin-android/issues/36

"Hmm, yep if you uninstall it I believe it deletes your wallet from the cloud. Apologies for the trouble on that! We are working on a better solution going forward that I'll be sure to post more about here."

To me, it sounds like my wallet has been permanently lost.

Yes it does. I would still let the app I send you run and see whether the wallet is restored anyway because armstrong doesn't seem to be entirely sure.

[mical_2]

It wouldn't hurt to try recovery software too. I used to do data recovery on camera/flash media and unless you used up all of the memory you might recover multiple wallet.dat, and one of them might be the right one. Worth a shot for 13 btc... Unless you used shredding software to securely overwrite you entire internal memory the data is essentially just hidden. Anyway, good luck!

[Missionary]

Update:

Running the modified version of the program has not helped. It seems like the program is just stuck at "connecting to peers".

I have actually found a file called de.schildbach.wallet-2.asec using a data recovery app. However, I cannot figure out how to extract any kind of real data from the file. It's 17.1Mb big.

[Raoul Duke]

Update:

Running the modified version of the program has not helped. It seems like the program is just stuck at "connecting to peers".

I have actually found a file called de.schildbach.wallet-2.asec using a data recovery app. However, I cannot figure out how to extract any kind of real data from the file. It's 17.1Mb big.

http://www.file-extensions.org/asec-file-extension

What is ASEC file extension?

The ASEC file extension is associated with the Google Android operating system. Android from version 2.2 Froyo supports installation of applications to memory card. Applications moved to memory card are encrypted and use ASEC file extension. ASEC files can be found in .android_secure folder saved on memory card.

Applications stored in ASEC encrypted file format cannot be modified by other applications installed in phone, or computer. Applications installed on SD card are paired with Android phone, where they have been installed. It is not possible to put SD card to other Android phone and run applications installed on SD card.

Only Android SDK Emulator that is a part of Android SDK Tools is able to run applications installed on SD card in ASEC encrypted format, if the Android phone with SD card is connected to the computer.

If you move application back from SD card to phone's local storage, Android also decrypted ASEC package file to standard APK application package.

[wachtwoord]

Grab a hex editor and look for the word "key" then cross your fingers

edit:

Nevermind for this file as Psy's explanation above explains it is encrypted....

[Raoul Duke]

Grab a he editor and look for the word "key" then cross your fingers

asec files are encrypted with a random key by the software who created them so any other software can't acces them, so, good luck with that...