Reinstalled Electrum to update it now wallet file is gone and I lost the seed

[franktyler01]

Hi,
I really need help : I know my passwort but forgot my seed ! Because Electrum demandet an update I reinstalled it -> this deleted or override my old "default_wallet"
Is there anyway to recover the wallet file so I can accsess it with my passwort.
If I cant accsess my wallet I'm really fked. Sorry if the answer is obvious but I'm really a noob with Bitcoin.
Thank u in advance !!

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[calandra78]

i know my passwort but forgot my seed

then, you lost your bitcoin, seed is very important than pasword or private key you have. before delete anything you must write your seed before and dont put on you pc. when you have only private key you can impor it but not when you only have pasword.

Because Electrum demandet an update I reinstalled it

what update?, you have to screenshoot here,
be carefull. you must check it before update anything, only https://electrum.org to update anything and check signed before

[BitMaxz]

What version of Electrum did you installed? Beware on fake Electrum 4.0 wallet.

Are you using windows OS? if yes try this method below this is mostly work if the file is overwritten.

- First, go to the Electrum folder it mostly located to C:\Users\admin\AppData\Roaming\Electrum
- Now open wallet folder then look for default_wallet.dat
- Right the default_wallet.dat and click restore the previous version
- Now the file properties will pop up then choose the old Default_wallet.dat.

I got this method from here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PED-F3_7hOc
So credit to him if this method work.

If not try to do a system restore this is working sometimes to me if I accidentally update some software in my PC. So I think it might also work on restoring your old wallet and files.

[nc50lc]

Reinstalling Electrum wont overwrite any existing wallet(s) nor "demand" an update.
There's an update notification but it doesn't sound mandatory for version higher than v3.3.3, the only mandatory update messages are from "good servers" to users with vulnerable Electrum versions.

You might have just selected a new directory for the newly created wallet file or downloaded a different version (Installer/Stand-alone or Portable) with different default directories, thus, changed the default wallet selection directory upon start.
If this is the case, follow Bitmarxz's "First" step with a small correction:
Browse to: C:\Users\admin\AppData\Roaming\Electrum\wallets and look for "default_wallet" without an extension (.dat).
Use search function to the whole computer if you're not sure where you've stored the wallet file.

[pooya87]

the only way that a corruption in your wallet file may occur is if you have upgraded from a very old version (like 1.9) to the latest version and in that case it still is highly unlikely because the new versions are all compatible with the old versions and they are designed in a way that they simply upgrade the file without losing anything.
the chances are you did something else, a hardware problem maybe(?) that corrupted the file.

if it is something else (encountering a rare bug) please give us more information so that the bug can be fixed. for example the version you updated from and the version you upgraded to. do you have other Electrum forks such as BCH-electron? they mess around in your wallet directory too.

[Artemis3]

Hi,
I really need help : I know my passwort but forgot my seed ! Because Electrum demandet an update I reinstalled it -> this deleted or override my old "default_wallet"
Is there anyway to recover the wallet file so I can accsess it with my passwort.
If I cant accsess my wallet I'm really fked. Sorry if the answer is obvious but I'm really a noob with Bitcoin.
Thank u in advance !!

And never forget, the seed words are more important than the password. Keep those seed words in a piece of paper written by hand in a secure place next time. Yes you can forget the password, it doesn't matter, but not the seed words.

Good luck trying to recover that wallet, its not impossible if you had it backed up. If you do, move the coins to a new wallet and this time keep those seed words safe.

[RapTarX]

And never forget, the seed words are more important than the password. Keep those seed words in a piece of paper written by hand in a secure place next time. Yes you can forget the password, it doesn't matter, but not the seed words.

Storing private key for addresses can be the best idea. Seed is related to the wallet.dat while private key can be used in any other wallet. I'm fairly new though.

[pooya87]

And never forget, the seed words are more important than the password. Keep those seed words in a piece of paper written by hand in a secure place next time. Yes you can forget the password, it doesn't matter, but not the seed words.

Storing private key for addresses can be the best idea. Seed is related to the wallet.dat while private key can be used in any other wallet. I'm fairly new though.

that can only work if you are only using a handful of addresses (like less than 5) but that is not the recommended way of using bitcoin, you should avoid reusing addresses so when you constantly change your address you also have to constantly take a backup from each new private key which is impossible!
seed words used by different wallets may not be always compatible with others but most wallets (the decent ones) are open source so you can always figure out what is going on under the hood and get your private keys out even if the wallet no longer worked.

[RapTarX]

And never forget, the seed words are more important than the password. Keep those seed words in a piece of paper written by hand in a secure place next time. Yes you can forget the password, it doesn't matter, but not the seed words.

Storing private key for addresses can be the best idea. Seed is related to the wallet.dat while private key can be used in any other wallet. I'm fairly new though.

that can only work if you are only using a handful of addresses (like less than 5) but that is not the recommended way of using bitcoin, you should avoid reusing addresses so when you constantly change your address you also have to constantly take a backup from each new private key which is impossible!
seed words used by different wallets may not be always compatible with others but most wallets (the decent ones) are open source so you can always figure out what is going on under the hood and get your private keys out even if the wallet no longer worked.

Thank you for pointing it out. I was not concerned at all about the risk of reusing addresses. For the last year, I have been using the same address for receiving bitcoins. It makes sense now to avoid this.

[Pmalek]

Thank you for pointing it out. I was not concerned at all about the risk of reusing addresses. For the last year, I have been using the same address for receiving bitcoins. It makes sense now to avoid this.

No, don't use the same address but instead create a new one for every new transaction you receive. It is advised to do so for your own safety and anonymity. Every time you use the same address you are creating a new entry or input that can be tracked back to you. Imagine that the bitcoin address is your fingerprint. First time you use it you leave a partial fingerprint. If you reuse it another 10 times you are basically leaving your fingerprints all over the place which could be used to identify you. 

[Lucius]

~snip~

By using new address for every transaction you get a certain level of privacy, but how time goes by it becomes a very tough mission, or almost impossible. Tools for monitoring and analyzing of blockchain are progressing more and more, and it is not secret that NSA is working on many such tools from 2013, and by Snowden it was or it is still one of the priorities for them.

Even with use of coin mixing service privacy is not guaranteed which is demonstrated in this thread, so if you are not doing something illegal or trying to avoid taxes, concealment of identity makes little sense.