Electrum "cant read wallet"s salvaged from linux machine

[angree2]

Hey.
I had Electrum installed on my linux, but it stopped running there. I just copied the Wallet folder, but i get this strange errors with most of the wallets: (just few work, smaller in size - large wallets don't work)
"Cannot read wallet (1):
'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xe1 in position 0:
invalid configuration type'

I previously tried moving wallets to another linux machine but it also could not read the files (and they were working at the same time on the original machine)
Now I am trying to do this under windows 10, but the situation is critical, because electrum stopped working on the original machine.

The version of the original Electrum was 2.8.2

I have backup keys most of wallets
When I try to import to 2.8.2 it works.
When I try to import to 3.2.2 it doesnt let me click next (using master key)

What is wrong with this new electrum, that it does not accept its own backup keys?

[jackg]

I had an issue with 3.2.x when I was trying to get my wallet to work, it worked with 3.2.2 though. Try 3.2.3 and see if that works (downloading from electrum.org/#download or cloning the github repo).

[Abdussamad]

By master key do you mean an xprv or do you have the seed words? The seed words are 12 or more random English words.

[HCP]

What is wrong with this new electrum, that it does not accept its own backup keys?

The restore options changed between v2.x and v3.x

Using v3.x:
- if you are using individual WIF private keys (long string of letters/numbers, starts "5", "L" or "K")... You need to use "File -> New/Restore -> import Bitcoin Addresses or private keys"
- If you have "xprv" (long string, starts with "xprv"), you need to use "File -> New/Restore -> standard wallet -> use master key"


(NOTE: With v2.x, you imported both WIF and xprv using the "standard wallet -> use public or private keys" option)

[pooya87]

this error is most probably happening because there is some sort of corruption in your wallet file that you are trying to import.
if you haven't encrypted the wallet file or partially encrypted it then you can open it with any text editor (like notepad in windows) and see its content including your seed and private keys (in case it is not a multi-sig wallet). in case of partial encryption the private keys/seed will be encrypted.
by looking at the file you may be able to gain more information about what the problem is, it should look like a clear JSON object.

[angree2]

There is no corruption in wallets (95% of them are like that). They work in original client I was able to run. Thanks for the tips, I will try them out today

[jackg]

this error is most probably happening because there is some sort of corruption in your wallet file that you are trying to import.
if you haven't encrypted the wallet file or partially encrypted it then you can open it with any text editor (like notepad in windows) and see its content including your seed and private keys (in case it is not a multi-sig wallet). in case of partial encryption the private keys/seed will be encrypted.
by looking at the file you may be able to gain more information about what the problem is, it should look like a clear JSON object.

Read the OP again? How can a wallet be corrupted and still be openable in an older version of electrum.

There is no corruption in wallets (95% of them are like that). They work in original client I was able to run. Thanks for the tips, I will try them out today

Try upgrading to 2.2.3 first and see if that fixes anything?

If not, you may have to restore all of the wallets by using their master private key or seed.

[pooya87]

Read the OP again? How can a wallet be corrupted and still be openable in an older version of electrum.

last line he is talking about importing his keys in another version that works not the wallet file, that is why i said the wallet file may have been corrupted. there was also some bugs in some versions regarding encoding when reading the wallet file which were fixed later. like this one: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/4078