electrum wallet recovery with 12 words

[nc50lc]

Can you recall the original addresses? Do they start with "1", "3" or "bc1"?

Also, you said you've tried to enable the "BIP39" option, right?
If it happened to be a BIP39 SEED, was the message on the left side of the option said "BIP39 (checksum: failed)" or "BIP39 (checksum: ok)"?
Because any of the two will enable you to press "next" button to create the wallet but real BIP39 SEED will display as "ok".
If not, you might have miss-clicked one or changed the order (now or during the 1st wallet creation backup).

It just has the application file.

It's useless then, Electrum complies with backward compatibility with the SEED (not BIP39 SEEDs) and it's pretty much the same with the newer versions.
That's only an option if you still have the original wallet file.

[Abdussamad]

Can you recall the original addresses? Do they start with "1", "3" or "bc1"?

Also, you said you've tried to enable the "BIP39" option, right?
If it happened to be a BIP39 SEED, was the message on the left side of the option said "BIP39 (checksum: failed)" or "BIP39 (checksum: ok)"?
Because any of the two will enable you to press "next" button to create the wallet but real BIP39 SEED will display as "ok".
If not, you might have miss-clicked one or changed the order (now or during the 1st wallet creation backup).

It's not bip39 because he says above that there are words that are not a part of the bip39 wordlist.

[cb327]

Wow, I have solved this. I somewhere along the line had messed up.

You guys are honestly saints, i can only imagine how frustrating it must be for pros like you to constantly help pendejos like me out, but man youre doing the lord's work, fellas.


Thanks so much for your time and patience.

[cb327]

One last thing. Now i have established access, what should i make sure to back up to avoid this again.

I have written and rewritten the 12 word seed that allowed me access. It isnt stored online or anything like that.

Someone else had asked whether i have any of the addresses saved. I guess i can do that now i have access. Should i do this? If so could you kindly direct me on how to do so?

Thanks a million

[BitMaxz]

One last thing. Now i have established access, what should i make sure to back up to avoid this again.

I have written and rewritten the 12 word seed that allowed me access. It isnt stored online or anything like that.

Someone else had asked whether i have any of the addresses saved. I guess i can do that now i have access. Should i do this? If so could you kindly direct me on how to do so?

Thanks a million

To make sure that you have the correct seed backup(Don't forget some address just for the future reference) you need to restore the seed as a new wallet in Electrum then check your addresses if it's correct.

If it's correct you can now save your seed somewhere safe or write it down on the piece of paper. Always make a copy 2 or 3 copies on the piece of paper is good.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I have written and rewritten the 12 word seed that allowed me access. It isnt stored online or anything like that.

This is the correct course of action. Write your 12 word seed phrase written on a piece of paper and store it somewhere private and secure. Best to do this more than once and store copies in at least two different locations to protect against things like fire or flooding destroying your back up. Obviously, however, the more places you store it in the more chances of it being discovered by someone else. Never store your seed phrase on an electronic device.

Someone else had asked whether i have any of the addresses saved. I guess i can do that now i have access. Should i do this? If so could you kindly direct me on how to do so?

This isn't strictly necessary, but knowing one of the first addresses generated from the seed, or even better knowing the Master Public Key, can sometimes help in recovering the seed if you know most of it but are missing a word or two. Proper back ups as above negate the need for this step. If you want to do it anyway, open your wallet in Electrum, go to Wallet -> Information, and save the Master Public Key to a file on your computer or write it down, the choice is yours. The Master Public Key allows you to generate all the public addresses for your wallet - if someone else gained access to it they could see every address in your wallet, but they wouldn't be able to access your coins.

[Abdussamad]

One last thing. Now i have established access, what should i make sure to back up to avoid this again.

I have written and rewritten the 12 word seed that allowed me access. It isnt stored online or anything like that.

Someone else had asked whether i have any of the addresses saved. I guess i can do that now i have access. Should i do this? If so could you kindly direct me on how to do so?

Thanks a million

First of all you should give back to the community by telling us exactly what the problem was. That way we can learn and anyone else who has this problem can also learn from your experience.

Second there is no reason to save the addresses. As long as you have the 12 words you are fine. The reason you were told whether you knew any of the addresses is because it would serve as a check for whether the correct wallet was restored. A check that could be useful if you needed to run brute force recovery tools. However non of that is necessary if you have the seed written down correctly.

What you can do is save the wallet file as well if you care about labels for transactions and addresses. You can do this via file > save copy.

[cb327]

Thank you all again.

Youre right the least i can do is admit my stupidity. I was using a 12 word seed that was simply not for Electrum. I still have no idea what it was for, but luckily i had a second back up with someone else who was away and unable to give me the seed until today.

[nc50lc]

Youre right the least i can do is admit my stupidity. I was using a 12 word seed that was simply not for Electrum. I still have no idea what it was for, but luckily i had a second back up with someone else who was away and unable to give me the seed until today.

This is kinda bad for your security.
What is the main reason for you to entrust the SEED to someone else? On top of that, you never had your own backup of the SEED until yesterday.

He still got your SEED and he can spend your coin whenever he wants.

[cb327]

I have a back up too, i wasnt with it. But youre right, lesson learned, i will keep one accessible.

I travel a lot and wanted one in a permanent location. He provides that for me, though he wouldnt know what to do with the information even if he had you lot on speed dial.

[pooya87]

Someone else had asked whether i have any of the addresses saved. I guess i can do that now i have access. Should i do this? If so could you kindly direct me on how to do so?

This isn't strictly necessary, but knowing one of the first addresses generated from the seed, or even better knowing the Master Public Key, can sometimes help in recovering the seed if you know most of it but are missing a word or two. Proper back ups as above negate the need for this step. If you want to do it anyway, open your wallet in Electrum, go to Wallet -> Information, and save the Master Public Key to a file on your computer or write it down, the choice is yours. The Master Public Key allows you to generate all the public addresses for your wallet - if someone else gained access to it they could see every address in your wallet, but they wouldn't be able to access your coins.

the problem with seeds is that there are many different clients and many of them are different from one another usually in the BIP32 path they use. so even if you have your seed you may not be able to recover your keys due to this difference. having one address can give you a result to compare with inside a loop and find the correct path specially when you don't remember the client you used to create the seed.
(that is why i asked him if he had his address in his topic which he was saying he had sync problem not showing his balance)

[Pmalek]

...but luckily i had a second back up with someone else who was away and unable to give me the seed until today.

I see two issues in storing your seed in this way.

1. The other party can always access your wallet and empty it of any coins.
2. A third party can steal the seed from the person you gave it to and do the same. 

Although you might trust that person never to steal your money he might lose your seed, misplace it or simply have it stolen from him.
It is not a good idea to give another person THE ONLY copy of your seed words.