Please Help: 2BTC locked because "The password did not unlock the wallet"

[dotch]

Today I migrated from MultiBit Classic to MultiBit HD 0.4.1. I received my 2BTC, so I thought everything was fine ... untill ... I restarted MultiBit HD.

After login in with my password i get "The password did not unlock the wallet".

- I checked the password with "I have forgotten my password" option and my password is 100% correct.
- I also tried to recover my wallet from the last backup with the wallet words. The wallet words are verified but after what seems to be a successful recovery, I get the same message "The password did not unlock the wallet".
- I also tried to recover my wallet from older backups, but this did not work either.
- I tried to download lighthouse, which should be compatible with MultiBit wallets and wallet words, but the site is down.
- I tried to recover my wallet on a 32-bit laptop, using a 32 bit version of Multibit HD (which was difficult to find BTW) but I get the same error: "The password did not unlock the wallet".

Note that my backup folder is on an encrypted TrueCrypt disk. The original wallet is just on my C:\\ drive. I keep the backups on a TrueCrypt disk to keep my files in one place and for easy backup purposes. I never had problems with encrypted disks though. They work just like any other disk. It worked with MultiBit Classic too.

I'm kind of panicking now. It's a lot of money locked in    This issue is described in some older threads, but apparently it is not solved?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1205068.0
https://github.com/keepkey/multibit-hd/issues/765

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[jacobmayes94]

Did you try importing your seed into electrum? I think multibit and electrum use the same type of seed. Good thing you stored the seed safely, do not panic your coins are not lost. Do not share the seed with anyone. Download electrum and try importing your seed in there.

Jacob

[dotch]

Thanks for your reply, but what do you mean with "seed"?

Did you try importing your seed into electrum? I think multibit and electrum use the same type of seed. Good thing you stored the seed safely, do not panic your coins are not lost. Do not share the seed with anyone. Download electrum and try importing your seed in there.

Jacob

[HI-TEC99]

I successfully tried generating a wallet in multibit HD and retrieving its extended private key using an offline copy of the webpage linked below.

https://iancoleman.github.io/bip39/

Once you have the extended private key you can use it to get your Bitcoins back by importing it into a blockchain.info wallet. The page also shows a list of private keys for each address in an HD wallet,  and you can import them into electrum or some other wallet to access your Bitcoins.

To use the webpage right click the link and choose save as , then press enter.

Open it offline in your browser, then click the BIP32 tab below the big Derivation Path heading.

Put the text below in the BIP32 Derivation Path box.

m/0'/0

Type your password seed into the BIP39 Mnemonic box.

The page should automatically generate your extended private key and a list of receiving addresses  for your wallet.

If your Bitcoins are in a change address then repeat the steps above, but type the text below in the BIP32 Derivation Path box.

m/0'/1  

The page should show you all your change addresses with their private keys.

If aren't sure if that webpage is trustworthy it was recommended by a respected member of bitcointalk called dooglus who's a clamcoin dev, and runs a well known dice site. This is the post which he recommended it in.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=623147.msg12270560#msg12270560

You can also scan it at the virus scanner link below to check if it's safe.

https://virustotal.com

The only reason I said to run it offline was to be extra safe. It's possible to use it online. but less secure.

[HI-TEC99]

Thanks for your reply, but what do you mean with "seed"?

Did you try importing your seed into electrum? I think multibit and electrum use the same type of seed. Good thing you stored the seed safely, do not panic your coins are not lost. Do not share the seed with anyone. Download electrum and try importing your seed in there.

Jacob

He means the the wallet words you used when you created your multibit HD wallet. The wallet words are the seed.

I tried importing my multibit HD seed into electrum, but it wouldn't let me import them until I clicked the options button, then checked "BIP39 seed". Although electrum create a wallet using my multibit HD words it didn't show the same addresses as in my multibit HD wallet. Either I did something wrong, or that technique doesn't work.

<edit>

This might be why the technique didn't work

http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/20174/export-wallet-from-multibit-to-electrum

Multibit creates addresses using compressed private key, while Electrum uses uncompressed private keys. You can't decompress key - it will change public address, not allowing you to use your coins.

[dotch]

Thanks for your help!

Put the text below in the BIP32 Derivation Path box.

m/0'/0

Type your password into the BIP39 Mnemonic box.

With password you mean the 12 wallet words?

The page should automatically generate your extended private key and a list of receiving addresses  for your wallet.

How can I use my extended private key and a list of receiving addresses for my wallet to open my locked wallet? Can you explain this step-by-step? This is complicated stuff for me.... Do you have any idea why MultiBit can't open my wallet?

[HI-TEC99]

Do you have any idea why MultiBit can't open my wallet?

Sorry I don't know why, it sounds like a bug.

With password you mean the 12 wallet words?

Yes

How can I use my extended private key and a list of receiving addresses for my wallet to open my locked wallet? Can you explain this step-by-step?

Use the webpage I linked to in my earlier post. After you have entered your 12 wallet words into it and put m/0'/0  in the BIP32 Derivation Path box the page should automatically display the addresses in your multibit HD wallet together with their private keys.

You should be able to see them about half way down the page below the big heading that says "Derived Addresses".

If you know which address contains your Bitcoins you need to copy the private key shown next to that address.

If you don't know which address contains your Bitcoins then open the blockchain.info link below and starting at the top of the list search blockchain.info for each Bitcoin address in your list until you find the one containing your coins.

Don't let blockchain.info or anyone else know any of your private keys

https://blockchain.info/

After you find which of your Bitcoin addresses contains your Bitcoins copy its private key, then follow these steps.

Download electrum 2.6.4 portable from here (because the latest 2.7 versions are buggy).

https://download.electrum.org/2.6.4/electrum-2.6.4-portable.exe

Create a new folder and copy electrum-2.6.4-portable.exe into it, then double click it to start the wallet.

An install wizard window should open. At the top of it select the "Restore a wallet or import keys" option, then click the "next" button.

Another window will open with a box in it that you can type your private key into.

After that click the "next" button and another series of windows should open. Leave each window's settings as they are and click the "next" button in each one until the wallet opens.

You can leave the password boxes blank, the electrum wallet can work without a password, and its password is not the same as your multibit wallet's password.

When the wallet opens it should sync within minutes and show your Bitcoins. You can use it to send them wherever you like.

[dotch]

Pfff... Thanks man! It worked. I've sent them back to MultiBit Classic. It has been stable for at least the 2.5 years I've been using it. The transaction has not been confirmed yet, but I think the confirmation will follow soon.

My conclusion is that as long as we do not know the cause of the password problem, MultiBit HD is not a serious application for any amounts of Bitcoin above $50. Let's face it:

MultBit encourages me to upgrade from MultiBit Classic to MultiBit HD because it's supposed to be safer.

- I follow all the migration instructions
- I've got 2BTC
- I've got my wallet words
- I've got my password 100% for sure
- My PC is well maintained, protected and free of viruses

Yet:

- MultiBit HD refuses to open my wallet
- MultiBit refuses to restore my wallet from backups. Not even on an other device
- This problem has been described over a year ago, yet it still seems to be a bug (?)

It felt like a back-stab to me. Not hackers, but MultiBit HD has "stolen" my Bitcoin (I think). My computer knowledge is above average. I've been using password protection since the nineties, using several applications, without a problem. I usually manage to solve computer problems, sometimes with some help from the Internet Community. But this even scared me. For many people solving this problem will be too complicated. As long as end-users have to use crypto-technology to get their Bitcoins back, Bitcoin will never become a main stream currency.

Also, a 32-Bit version of MultiBit HD is very difficult to find, while many people use cheap laptops with 32-bit Windows versions these days. No more MultiBit HD for me!

Anyhow, thanks again. You saved 2016 for me. Happy new year!  

[HI-TEC99]

Thanks man! It worked.

Happy New Year

[brandona1]

awesome, thank you so much it worked! You're a hero!
 

[Wendigo]

Thank you very much this guide just helped me take my Bitcoins out of this broken piece of shit software called the Multibit wallet. The wrong password bug happened to me as well. Thanks a bunch for providing such a helpful workaround!

[MarkyBoy72]

It worked! - But it's revealed an even BIGGER PROBLEM  
(Not sure if I should start a new thread but anyway...)

I was able to enter more than one private key into Electrum (I found about 15 after going through the first 50 and no more up to 150 so stopped searching). Happy days - I thought.

Electrum displayed what appears to be my full history of transactions going back about 2 years. However the balance is much lower than what MultibitHD had been displaying.

Looking through the list of transactions I can see many times (over the whole 2 year period) where large payments into my wallet are then taken out within hours or days. Often it is the exact same amount. BUT these were never shown in Multibithd!

I presume I have somehow been hacked and someone has my private keys? Or maybe the transactions have somehow been reversed using the address I used to pay into? (I always generate a new address. All of the compromised payments are to different addresses).

But what I don't understand is why/how Multibit was still showing my expected balance during the two year period. During this time I've upgraded several times, I've re-synced the blockchain, I've made many payments in and out - but now looking in Electrum and on blockchain.info it seems the transactions had been reversed/stolen

I've now transferred the remaining balance showing in Electrum into a new wallet. But I still want to know if the rest of the money has really gone. I'm trying to get Multibit to restore from a backup and see if it shows the higher balance and let's me transfer money out. But still having same issue where it hangs after verifying my seed.  

Anyone have any ideas? Its seems I've lost a lot of money.

[HCP]

Did you also import all the "change" addresses that belong to the MultibitHD wallet? I suspect what you are seeing is an HD wallet with change addresses in action.

It goes something like this:

- You make a large payment for 2.0 BTC into AddressA... your wallet now has 2.0 BTC...
- You then send a small transaction for 0.01 BTC to a friend. The wallet has to use the WHOLE 2.0 BTC input and spend it (that is just how bitcoin works)... break off 0.01 BTC and send it to your friend and then deposits the remainder 1.99 BTC into a "change" address (AddressChange1) that your wallet controls. Your wallet now has 1.99 BTC in it... but it is not in AddressA now, it is in AddressChange1.

You'll probably find that the difference in the total that MultibitHD was showing, and what Electrum is now showing, is all the change that is stored in change addresses which you have not imported.

Did you also check addresses/keys that use the the BIP32 Derivation Path: m/0'/1  as was mentioned by HI-TEC99? These are the change addresses that MultiBit will have created, and where the leftovers from breaking up larger inputs will have been put.

[MarkyBoy72]

No I didn't. Thanks for explaining, I'll give that a try.

[MarkyBoy72]

It worked! I've got the full balance back Thanks HCP! And thanks HI_TEC99 for the walkthrough.

Now I need to decide on a new wallet to replace MultibitHD. What do you guys suggest? Am I safe to just keep using Electrum?

[HCP]

It worked! I've got the full balance back Thanks HCP! And thanks HI_TEC99 for the walkthrough.

Now I need to decide on a new wallet to replace MultibitHD. What do you guys suggest? Am I safe to just keep using Electrum?

Yay! #greatSuccess! Glad we managed to help...

Honestly, just use Electrum. Sure, it doesn't have the flashy "modern" GUI of MultibitHD, but it works, is actively developed, widely used... and has a lot of really useful features like Replace-By-Fee and Dynamic Fees that should help prevent (in most cases) transactions from getting "stuck".

The one thing I will mention, is that if you didn't "sweep" your private keys into an Electrum HD wallet and you just imported them into a 'normal' Bitcoin wallet, then those coins are NOT backed up by a 12 word seed. You will need to retain all those private keys until such time as the coins are spent or you send them into an address in a HD wallet.

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

Sounds like Multibit HD should really be removed from the list of recommended wallets at bitcoin.org considering all the bugs and complaints.

[oniscoid]

Same problem here. My solution was to download the previous version (0.4.1) from https://multibit.org/releases/multibit-hd/multibit-hd-0.4.1/ and install it into a different directory, start it up, input my old password, and wait 5 minutes for it to synchronise. (And move coins to an Electrum wallet.)

[eXpl0sive]

I'm glad I found this thread!

I am on Multibit Classic right now and was planning to move to Multibit HD. Now I think I'll give it a pass and just migrate to Electrum.

[MarkyBoy72]

Honestly, just use Electrum. Sure, it doesn't have the flashy "modern" GUI of MultibitHD, but it works, is actively developed, widely used... and has a lot of really useful features like Replace-By-Fee and Dynamic Fees that should help prevent (in most cases) transactions from getting "stuck".

The one thing I will mention, is that if you didn't "sweep" your private keys into an Electrum HD wallet and you just imported them into a 'normal' Bitcoin wallet, then those coins are NOT backed up by a 12 word seed. You will need to retain all those private keys until such time as the coins are spent or you send them into an address in a HD wallet.

Thanks for the advice. I'll stick to Electrum and also look into sweeping and/or retaining the private keys somewhere.