MultiBit Classic problem

[Malooka]

Hi, got a new computer (Windows 10) and tried to import private keys into MultiBit 0.5.18

It worked fine, then I sent all my funds to a new wallet with new addresses since I lost Byteball wallet.

That worked fine and I backed up my private keys.

Now whenever I start MultiBit the wallet does not load.  If I try to load a wallet file I get "null."

I have to import private keys every single time.

What the hell is wrong with this software?  I tried deleting everything and installing MultiBit 0.5.19.  Same thing.  Import private keys, everything looks great.  Close the program, next time I start it there is no wallet and can't load my wallet.

Is there any decent software left that let's you make .key backups and not the stupid seed phrase?

Thank you...

[HI-TEC99]

You could import your private key into the electrum wallet. These instructions explain how to do it.

http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html#can-i-import-private-keys-from-other-bitcoin-clients

By default electrum uses a seed phrase to create new wallets, but you can choose to create a new one by importing private keys instead. The main difference is you need to make backups of your private keys or the wallet file if you choose to import keys. If you use a seed you only need to backup the seed.

You can download electrum here.

https://electrum.org/#download

[Malooka]

Thanks, but it confuses me.

If I import the private keys to Electrum, will my old private key backups still be valid?

After I select "use public or private keys" it says "create keystore from keys." 

So if I import my private keys I don't have to create the seed phrase?

[HI-TEC99]

If I import the private keys to Electrum, will my old private key backups still be valid?

Whatever multibit private keys you import into electrum will still be valid in multibit.

After I select "use public or private keys" it says "create keystore from keys."  

So if I import my private keys I don't have to create the seed phrase?

Yes, if you import keys you don't have a seed phrase, but you have to back up those keys to secure your Bitcoins. If your wallet file gets corrupted the only way to recover your Bitcoins is by using those backed up private keys.

These are the steps to make an electrum wallet that uses imported private keys.










If you leave the password field blank when creating your wallet electrum creates an unencrypted wallet. If you fill out a password electrum encrypts your wallet file with the password.





After you have created a wallet you can click "wallet" in the menu bar then "addresses" in the drop down list to open the addresses tab and view all the addresses your wallet contains.

[Malooka]

Thank you very much.  The problem is my keys are encrypted and apparently Electrum can't handle that.

I could always create an unencrypted backup with MultiBit but that scares me. 

[HCP]

Hi, got a new computer (Windows 10) and tried to import private keys into MultiBit 0.5.18
It worked fine, then I sent all my funds to a new wallet with new addresses since I lost Byteball wallet.
That worked fine and I backed up my private keys.
Now whenever I start MultiBit the wallet does not load.  If I try to load a wallet file I get "null."
I have to import private keys every single time.

What the hell is wrong with this software?  I tried deleting everything and installing MultiBit 0.5.19.  Same thing.  Import private keys, everything looks great.  Close the program, next time I start it there is no wallet and can't load my wallet.

What's wrong with MultiBit? It's very old and outdated and is no longer maintained. In addition the fee system is problematic as it does not allow for fees higher than 0.0005 BTC/kB (around 50 sats/byte) which can prove very problematic when fees are 300+ sats/byte

Even MultiBit HD seems to be no longer maintained. It has some serious problems with the "password did not unlock the wallet" issue which has been waiting for a fix since April!!?! And I suspect this issue can also affect MultiBit classic, and that might be the reason you get the "null" error, but you'd have to post the error logs to be certain. If you do want to post logs, please use pastebin.com

Is there any decent software left that let's you make .key backups and not the stupid seed phrase?

I'm still not sure why you are so adverse to the whole "Seed" concept? It is a far more reliable backup method being able to recreate your entire HD wallet from a seed phrase than trying to manage backups of digital files and/or "random" private keys and remembering to do so whenever you generate a new address. If you receive coins to a new address, forget to backup your keys/wallet... and your system dies... those coins are gone. With and HD Wallet (ie. using the seed)... all you need is the seed and all your addresses can be recovered at any time.

Thank you very much.  The problem is my keys are encrypted and apparently Electrum can't handle that.
I could always create an unencrypted backup with MultiBit but that scares me.  

Well obviously you have to import unencrypted keys. There is no "standard" that is used for encrypting keys, so there is no way for any given wallet to know how a key has been encrypted by some other program and how it should go about unencrypting it.

If you're worried about creating unencrypted key files... then do it in an "offline" environment like a virtual machine using Virtual Box... or turn off all the networking features of your PC while you generate the keys and import them into Electrum... ensuring your set a wallet password and make sure the "Encrypt File" box is checked.

[Lucius]

Hi, got a new computer (Windows 10) and tried to import private keys into MultiBit 0.5.18

It worked fine, then I sent all my funds to a new wallet with new addresses since I lost Byteball wallet.

That worked fine and I backed up my private keys.

Now whenever I start MultiBit the wallet does not load.  If I try to load a wallet file I get "null."

I have to import private keys every single time.

What the hell is wrong with this software?  I tried deleting everything and installing MultiBit 0.5.19.  Same thing.  Import private keys, everything looks great.  Close the program, next time I start it there is no wallet and can't load my wallet.

Is there any decent software left that let's you make .key backups and not the stupid seed phrase?

Thank you...

I have same problem with new copy of MultiBit Classic,everything is working good after I import private keys and wallet sync.But after closing wallet and open again,wallet become empty.

You should move your coins from that wallet as soon as possible using any of possible ways.If you decide to import private keys in Electrum keep in mind that you may have problems in case some of your addresses have many inputs.In that case Electrum will just stop responding/freeze because it has problem to handle such things.

Second option is to sweep private keys in Electrum,but in that case you need to pay transaction fee because all coins from all addresses will be transfer to new one address created by Electrum.I did not try that option so I do not know can you set manual fee in that case.

But in any case you should move your coins to another wallet,we should leave MB to history-It served us well for long time.