Trying to restore Electrum balance

[CigsSpot]

Just reinstalled windows with all the app.  Installed new Electrum and tried to insert my seed to get to my balance (i had a segwit wallet in Electrum).

But no luck - my balance is 0, but i can see by my new BTC adress that he is not restoring it properly:
 my old adres started on 3 (which is Segwit) and now its bc.

How can i restore my old wallet?

[1715422068]

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[jackg]

Like etf said. Although it's strange the seed got accepted in the first place given its a different format.

Are you also on the latest version of electrum and did the download link belong to electrum.org?

[HCP]

Just reinstalled windows with all the app.  Installed new Electrum and tried to insert my seed to get to my balance (i had a segwit wallet in Electrum).

my old adres started on 3 (which is Segwit) and now its bc.

Electrum never generated "3-type" (aka P2SH Nested SegWit) addresses by default... To my knowledge, Electrum has only ever used "bc1" (native SegWit) addresses when generating SegWit wallets using the standard wallet generation. The only way to generate "3-type" SegWit wallets in Electrum is from using a hardware wallet like Ledger... OR by forcing it when restoring a BIP39 seed, and then selecting the "p2sh-segwit" option (derivation path m/49'/0'/0').

OP, try going: File -> New/Restore -> name the wallet -> "Standard wallet"  -> "I already have a seed" -> Click "Options" -> Select "BIP39 Seed" -> Enter your seed -> "Next" -> select "ps2h-segwit"

That should generate a p2sh-segwit ("3-type") address wallet from your seed mnemonic... which will hopefully match your old wallet.

[DireWolfM14]

Electrum never generated "3-type" (aka P2SH Nested SegWit) addresses by default... T

Electrum will generate P2SH addresses that start with 3 if you create a multi-sig legacy wallet. 

[HCP]

Electrum will generate P2SH addresses that start with 3 if you create a multi-sig legacy wallet.  

This is true... but OP claimed he had a "segwit" wallet with 3-type addresses that he was attempting to restore... so, I guess the options are:

1. Original wallet was actually a multisig wallet, NOT segwit
2. Original wallet was a 2FA legacy wallet, NOT segwit
3. Wallet was P2SH-Nested SegWit generated from BIP39 (or Electrum SegWit) seed
4. Wallet was P2SH-Nested SegWit generated from Hardware Wallet

If the OP is 100% sure they had a SegWit wallet, then the only real option would be #3... if OP is just thinking "3-type address = SegWit, I had 3-type address, so I must have had SegWit"... then several of those options become a lot more viable!

Were there any older versions of Electrum that allowed you to specify the derivation path when creating a new seed? (not restoring). If so, would that have allowed a user to specify/set m/49'/0'/0' and generate P2SH-segwit addresses? I honestly don't recall if that was ever a feature... I don't remember seeing it.

[DireWolfM14]

Electrum will generate P2SH addresses that start with 3 if you create a multi-sig legacy wallet.  

This is true... but OP claimed he had a "segwit" wallet with 3-type addresses that he was attempting to restore... so, I guess the options are:

1. Original wallet was actually a multisig wallet, NOT segwit
2. Original wallet was a 2FA legacy wallet, NOT segwit
3. Wallet was P2SH-Nested SegWit generated from BIP39 (or Electrum SegWit) seed
4. Wallet was P2SH-Nested SegWit generated from Hardware Wallet

If the OP is 100% sure they had a SegWit wallet, then the only real option would be #3... if OP is just thinking "3-type address = SegWit, I had 3-type address, so I must have had SegWit"... then several of those options become a lot more viable!

Were there any older versions of Electrum that allowed you to specify the derivation path when creating a new seed? (not restoring). If so, would that have allowed a user to specify/set m/49'/0'/0' and generate P2SH-segwit addresses? I honestly don't recall if that was ever a feature... I don't remember seeing it.

I see, thanks for the explanation.

So, if the OP's wallet is "3. Wallet was P2SH-Nested SegWit generated from BIP39 (or Electrum SegWit) seed," can the wallet be restored if the OP sets the seed option to Bip39?

[HCP]

Theoretically, that should work... if you select the BIP39 option and input the seed, you should get the "type of addresses" dialog... and be given the opportunity to select:

- Legacy
- p2sh-segwit (p2wpkh-p2sh)
- native segwit (p2wpkh)

[nc50lc]

Theoretically, that should work... -snip-

I will work  
Even if his seed was generated by electrum and displayed as "checksum:failed" when BIP39 was selected,
the next button will still be clickable and the wallet type dialogue will be displayed.