Old blockchain.info wallet from 2014 and before -16,17,19 words precovery phrase

[delfastTions]

In your case, the fact that you saved the original Wallet.aes.json (lucky you!) means that you will be able to get to your private key, but only using BTCrecover, and restore access to the wallet using the private key when you extract it from wallet.aes.json in WIF format.

What is WIF?

Wallet Import Format (WIF) is a standardized method for displaying Bitcoin private keys using the Base58Check encoding scheme. WIF format was standardized in order to allow all Bitcoin wallets to import and export private keys.

https://river.com/learn/terms/w/wallet-import-format-wif/

You can use WIF to import your private keys into a new wallet. You can also find more information here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet_import_format

I believe he is referring to Bluewallet's GUI. Bluewallet supports multiple wallet formats. The Legacy Bitcoin wallet is presented with a green card color in the user interface.


https://bluewallet.io/bitcoin-wallet/

Thank you, this is all correct!

About WIF, correct and excellent link.  

About BlueWallet,
I’ll add that if in BlueWallet the card icon is:
Legacy (for one private key) (1.....) - green (as in your picture),
P2PKH (HD Legacy) (1...) - red,
P2SH (3  ....) - dark blue,
P2PKH/P2WSH (bc1q...) - blue.
This is exactly what I meant.

I'll be more than happy to do so. The community is helping me, so of course I want to help the community back. Mind if I clarify a few things?
....

What's going on here? Can you share more information?

This is indeed the tool I used to try and decrypt the wallet file:
https://github.com/blockchain/my-wallet-backup-decryption-tool

The link you gave redirects to here. As I said, the tool failed to decrypt the wallet.

I think this:

 You now actually have two identical wallets in the Blockchain.com system (w2013 and w2021).
 Both have the same email address to confirm login;
 Both have the same ID in Blockchain.com's proprietary format:

 12345678-90ab-cdef-1234-567890abcdef

 w2021 with BIP39 encoding;
 w2013 with its own and outdated encoding from Blockchain.info (BIP58?).

 As a result, Blockchain.com simply cannot connect these 2 wallets.  The w2013 address is not imported into w2021. 

Contacting Blockchain.com support, in my opinion, is completely useless.  This is a waste of both your time and your nerves. You will not be able to log into w2013 as usual with email confirmation. No matter how hard you try, you can always use this email address and wallet ID to log in only to w2021.
 To solve the problem, the only option left is to extract the private key from your wallet.aes.json (2013) using BTCrecover.

 This is probably the only real option to get to the 2013 wallet.

 If anyone knows another option, please write your suggestions in this topic.
But only proposals tested in practice and specifically with the old wallets Blockchain.com/info.

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[Potato Chips]

I can see the public address for the wallet, and all the funds are still there.

I wonder if you remember if your funds sits on your legacy wallet address or HD wallet address? or otherwise, check the transaction/s' timestamps on block explorers.

Because if your funds sits on a legacy wallet address then the 12 word mnemonic seed is useless as it only covers addresses from blockchain.com'd HD wallet. From what I remember from the people whose accounts transitioned from legacy wallet to HD wallet, the legacy address/es ended up on "imported addresses" tab.

[delfastTions]

I can see the public address for the wallet, and all the funds are still there.

I wonder if you remember if your funds sits on your legacy wallet address or HD wallet address? or otherwise, check the transaction/s' timestamps on block explorers.

Because if your funds sits on a legacy wallet address then the 12 word mnemonic seed is useless as it only covers addresses from blockchain.com'd HD wallet. From what I remember from the people whose accounts transitioned from legacy wallet to HD wallet, the legacy address/es ended up on "imported addresses" tab.

According to the logic of working with a wallet, this is exactly what should be done from the devs side, since the wallet has the same ID.  

Visibly some users of the Blockchain.info wallet actually have an old (imported) Legacy address on the “Wallets & Addresses” tab. Even if this is the case, then I think that it did not work for all users.

And if this were so, then gibbousmoon would have discovered this tab in his wallet a long time ago and, accordingly, this address with a certain amount.  And he would not have written a request for help either to support or here in this topic.  
Therefore, it is obvious that he does not have this address in his w2021 wallet on the tab with “Used Address”, (“Legacy”).  And it should have been on the list because it was used.  And some other  “imported addresses” tab is also missing in his wallet.

As I understand it, many Blockchain.info users have lost their old addresses.

[gibbousmoon]

So, here's the thing. I already tried to decrypt my 2013 wallet using my old password (which I could even confirm with blockchain.info's 19-word mnemonic) and My Wallet Backup Decryption Tool.exe, downloaded from https://github.com/blockchain/my-wallet-backup-decryption-tool .

Let me also clarify that the 2013 wallet file is one that I downloaded in 2013. I downloaded it a second time in 2014, and I have both of those JSON files. I have not downloaded the wallet since that time; does that matter? I've tried decrypting both files using the above tool and my old password (and a few other variations for good measure), and every time it returns the error "Error decrypting wallet, please check that your password is correct" in red.

So what exactly will BTCRecover do for me? Which of its functions am I to use?

EDIT: I DID IT!

I tried to use my 2014 wallet file at https://login.blockchain.com/wallet/import-wallet , and this time it changed it successfully! AND allowed me to log in to that new account (which is not attached to my email), which kinda proves that my entire account was somehow borked by blockchain.com; that's why I couldn't log in and yet others can.

So, now that I am in, I can't figure out how to access my new pass phrase so I can write it down and back it up. Can it not be done from the website interface?

(Thank you so much to everyone who has been helping me!!! I'm almost there!)

EDIT 2: OK, I've successfully transferred all of the BTC from blockchain.com into a new Electrum wallet with a new passphrase.

[nc50lc]

EDIT: I DID IT!
-snip-
So, now that I am in, I can't figure out how to access my new pass phrase so I can write it down and back it up. Can it not be done from the website interface?

The backup phrase is in the User Menu icon (upper-right, "person" icon), then go to "Security".
Find 'Secret Private Key Recovery Phrase' and click "Backup", or if it was backed-up before, click "Backup Again".

EDIT 2: OK, I've successfully transferred all of the BTC from blockchain.com into a new Electrum wallet with a new passphrase. :) :) :)

A fine choice, that's better than keeping it in a web wallet.
Just make sure to apply all necessary safety precautions and your funds should be safe in Electrum.

Take note that Electrum's Seed phrase isn't BIP39 compatible so it can't be imported to other wallets that don't support Electrum seed.
(you meant "seed phrase" not "passphrase" right?)

[delfastTions]

(Thank you so much to everyone who has been helping me!!! I'm almost there!)

EDIT 2: OK, I've successfully transferred all of the BTC from blockchain.com into a new Electrum wallet with a new passphrase.

Gibbousmoon
You can now be congratulated on the fact that you finally gained access to the wallet and withdrew your BTC to a normal Electrum wallet.
 It's probably best to just forget Blockchain.com Wallet like a bad dream and never use it again.

Fortunately, you did without correspondence with Blockchain.com support and did not worry yourself and would not waste your time on this idiotic activity, which is unlikely to help you.  Other users of the Blockchain.info wallet have much more complex situations.  This is what experience shows.

 If I understand you correctly, then through the Blockchain.com devs tool (https://login.blockchain.com/wallet/import-wallet) your access was normally restored using Wallet.aes.json-2014.
 And earlier, nothing worked with another tool Blockchain.com devs (https://github.com/blockchain/my-wallet-backup-decryption-tool).  Neither with the file wallet.aes.json-2013 nor with wallet.aes.json-2014 you have nothing succeeded ?  Probably their code is just buggy.
 This is right?

 If this did not help, then of course it would be worth using BTCrecover.  It would allow you to find out the privatekey of your wallet on the Bitcoin mainnet.  And any non-custodial wallet would be able to process your account.

[gibbousmoon]

@nc50lc
Yes, I meant "seed phrase." Sorry, I'm not great at some of this terminology.

@delfastTions
Yes, your summary is correct. Except for the part where you said I didn't waste time with Blockchain.com support. I wasted many hours.

Also, hilariously, the response to the email I sent (I pasted it above), in which I concretely requested two things from them, was as follows:

"Hi Gibbousmoon,

Thank you for your patience!
 
I wanted to check in to see if you're still experiencing difficulties with logging in and getting stuck on the loading page. I noticed from your previous conversation that you've already tried various troubleshooting steps, such as downloading the mobile app and using a different browser. If you're still facing the same issue, please do let us know.
 
Warm regards,
Zee"

After I described exactly how each of the mentioned troubleshooting steps had failed. SO TYPICAL of blockchain.com support. It's like communicating with a primitive AI that cannot remember the previous content of a conversation, or conversations with ChatGPT where it periodically forgets certain details or instructions earlier in the conversation.

Anyhow, I've just created an Electron Cash wallet and transferred out the little bit of Bitcoin Cash that was still sitting in the blockchain.com wallet. I will leave that disaster of a company behind, and thank goodness there are better options in 2024 than there were in 2013. Also thank goodness I was paranoid enough to also save that JSON file.

Thank you all again for all your ideas and encouragement!

[delfastTions]

EDIT: I DID IT!
-snip-
So, now that I am in, I can't figure out how to access my new pass phrase so I can write it down and back it up. Can it not be done from the website interface?

The backup phrase is in the User Menu icon (upper-right, "person" icon), then go to "Security".
Find 'Secret Private Key Recovery Phrase' and click "Backup", or if it was backed-up before, click "Backup Again".

EDIT 2: OK, I've successfully transferred all of the BTC from blockchain.com into a new Electrum wallet with a new passphrase.

A fine choice, that's better than keeping it in a web wallet.
Just make sure to apply all necessary safety precautions and your funds should be safe in Electrum.

Take note that Electrum's Seed phrase isn't BIP39 compatible so it can't be imported to other wallets that don't support Electrum seed.
(you meant "seed phrase" not "passphrase" right?)

nc50lc
Thank you for periodically writing posts in topics about using Blockchain.com Wallet that are very valuable for other users of our forum.

 In this regard, I have several questions for you, since it is clear that you are an experienced specialist,
 Question 1:
 If the user has the file Wallet.aes.json received from Blockchain.info/com in email or downloaded the file using https://../.../<ID>?  format=json,
 Is it always possible to extract the privkey from these files? For example, using BTCrecover or other tools. Is this true for all Wallet.aes.json files starting from 2011, or is it still not true for all files?
 Question 2:
 Do you know of cases where, at the user’s request, Blockchain.com support would resend to the client of this service a backup archive copy of the Wallet.aes.json file (as of the date the wallet was created) to the same email address that was used when registering the wallet.  Or have you not heard of such precedents?
 This is important for those who have lost these files, their wallets or access to old letters in their mail.

 I'm only talking about cases where users definitely remember or know the passwords for their wallets.
 And when users are the real legal owners of the wallets.

[nc50lc]

Question 1:
 If the user has the file Wallet.aes.json received from Blockchain.info/com in email or downloaded the file using https://../.../<ID>?  format=json,
 Is it always possible to extract the privkey from these files? For example, using BTCrecover or other tools. Is this true for all Wallet.aes.json files starting from 2011, or is it still not true for all files?

Depends on the tool, their official "my wallet backup decryption tool" can export privKeys in bare Base58 format so it has to be converted to WIF to be compatible with wallets.
But AFAIK, it wont work in v0.0 old wallet.aes.json files, the GitHub repository of that tool is archived so issues like this may not be solved.

As for other tool, I haven't tested all versions but their old v0.0 and v2.0 or newer wallets can be dumped using BTCRecover.
However, it seem to be having problem decrypting the private keys if it has a second password even if it's provided in the command.
With that, --dump-privkey will not output any private keys and --dump-wallet will output encrypted private keys if the wallet has second password.

Question 2:
 Do you know of cases where, at the user’s request, Blockchain.com support would resend to the client of this service a backup archive copy of the Wallet.aes.json file (as of the date the wallet was created) to the same email address that was used when registering the wallet.  Or have you not heard of such precedents?

Never heard of any since it's pretty simple in the past with (Gurnec's) old BTCRecover's wallet extraction script which for some reason, not working now.
Maybe because people just used that or the url method instead of going through their customer support.

[gibbousmoon]

Question 2:
 Do you know of cases where, at the user’s request, Blockchain.com support would resend to the client of this service a backup archive copy of the Wallet.aes.json file (as of the date the wallet was created) to the same email address that was used when registering the wallet.  Or have you not heard of such precedents?
 This is important for those who have lost these files, their wallets or access to old letters in their mail.

 I'm only talking about cases where users definitely remember or know the passwords for their wallets.
 And when users are the real legal owners of the wallets.

They might have sent me mine if I kept pressing the issue, but you saw from the hilariously non-sequitur response they gave me to that exact request how difficult it is. I suspect I would have continued to get the runaround for many weeks or months to come, if not years.

[delfastTions]

Question 2:
 Do you know of cases where, at the user’s request, Blockchain.com support would resend to the client of this service a backup archive copy of the Wallet.aes.json file (as of the date the wallet was created) to the same email address that was used when registering the wallet.  Or have you not heard of such precedents?
 This is important for those who have lost these files, their wallets or access to old letters in their mail.

 I'm only talking about cases where users definitely remember or know the passwords for their wallets.
 And when users are the real legal owners of the wallets.

They might have sent me mine if I kept pressing the issue, but you saw from the hilariously non-sequitur response they gave me to that exact request how difficult it is. I suspect I would have continued to get the runaround for many weeks or months to come, if not years.

This is just an unclear question.

I suspect that based on your request for the archive file itself Wallet.aes.json-2013 or Wallet.aes.json-2014, for which theoretically you could get the privkey using their tool (and which helped you restore access), or using  BTCrecover, Blockchain support.  com would not send a copy of this file, which is stored in their archived data.  

I think that, firstly, it is difficult for them because they need to transfer a ticket to the technical service from all sorts of simple support employees such as Zee, Molly, Rey and so on..., and the technical service is too busy without such a ticket transfer.  And she will obviously be dissatisfied.
Secondly, they have a formal reason not to resend Wallet.aes.json for security reasons.  This is related to the issue of email addresses being hacked by hackers.  However, hackers still don't know your wallet password, which is required.  But, nevertheless, such a reason can also be used by ordinary support employees, such as Molly, Zee, .....
So:
so far no one has reliably confirmed the repeated receipt from Blockchain.com support of an archived copy of your Wallet.aes.json to the original one  email address.  
I’m just trying to understand whether there are any such precedents over the past 5 years or so.

[Osiris100]

I have finally received a response from Blockchain:

 
I appreciate your patience while waiting for a response.
 
I apologize for any inconvenience caused by the delay in resolving your issue. In order to assist you further, could you please provide additional information?
 
Could you kindly share the following details with us:
 
SMS Number
2FA type used (SMS, Email, None)
Last Date Accessed
Creation IP address
 
Upon receiving this information, we will be able to investigate the matter in our system. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
 
Warm regards,
 
Zee | Blockchain.com Support


So it seems I have a fresh attempt of trying to deal with them.

[delfastTions]

I have finally received a response from Blockchain:

.........

So it seems I have a fresh attempt of trying to deal with them.

This is at least some kind of forward movement! 

When I corresponded with support, I did not provide them with such extended personal data.
 
In the correspondence, I referred to the fact that their service is not an organization to which the authorized government authorities of the jurisdiction in which they are registered have delegated and obliged to collect extended personal data of clients. 
My second argument was that I considered it unacceptable for myself to send my extended personal data to such an unauthorized organization. 
Further, I indicated that the support was provided with my personal data in the form of my email address, which I consider to be limited by KYC and quite sufficient to solve the problem. 
I also indicated that I was afraid of personal data being leaked and used for marketing purposes. 
In my case, this worked positively and they no longer wrote to me about the need to provide them with such personal data in the form of extended KYC. 

They solved my problem after about 10-12 letters.

But, probably, you will decide for yourself what you should do with the issue of providing support with verification data for the KYC procedure.   Or maybe try to maintain confidentiality.