Mycelium wallet lost pin

[VeneCzech]

Hello,
sorry to bother with another question on "how to restore a wallet", but Im kind of lost.

I help my friend with mycelium wallet. Actually he set a new wallet on old Android phone, he noticed his 12 keys, he then set a 6-digit pin (which he forgot) and then he received his BTC in this wallet.

We try to figure out how to transfer those BTCs into his new cell phone.
I guess we need to make a backup on the old phone (but this requires a PIN) and install Mycelium on the new phone and reload from backup on the startup.

How to bypass it if we dont have a PIN??
Is rooting the old phone the last option we have?

I would be so grateful for any help.

Thank you

[Steamtyme]

Hey I don't use the wallet but you should actually look on this board - mycelium. To find it in the future you follow Development and Technical Discussion -> Wallet Software -> Mycelium

You can move this thread there following the same path, you just have to select the option at the bottom left of the page.

[BitMaxz]

If you save the 12 words generated from mycelium wallet you can recover your wallet without the pin you set follow my guide below.

- Install mycelium to a new mobile phone
- Touch the "Restore backup"
- 12 words then OK
- Enter the 12 words (Make sure that the backup words are correct)

Now your wallet is back without the pin.

You can add the pin again by going to settings recommended for safety purposes.

[bob123]

The pin is stored in a text file on the mobile. The keys are not encrypted.

With root-access you definitely can access the pin.
Another option would be to try connecting your computer and your android via ADB and then check whether mycelium can be run in debug-mode.

It probably won't allow to be run in debug-mode, but if it does, you can simply extract the pin via the command line.


But the easiest option would probably be to restore it on a new mobile with the backed up seed.


1. Create a new wallet on the new mobile -> Backup seed.
2. Make sure you have a backup of the freshly generated wallet!
3. Copy / note a receiving address.
3. Delete application data of mycelium (in Settings -> Applications -> Mycelium).
4. Open mycelium, restore your old wallet (old backup)
5. Send your funds to the wallet.
6. Delete application data again.
7. Open mycelium and restore your new wallet.
8. Success. You have moved your funds from your old wallet to your new wallet on your new mobile.


If you just want to 'move' your old wallet to your new mobile (without changing addresses / private keys / seeds / etc. ), simply install mycelium on your new mobile and restore a wallet by using your old mnemonic code backup.

[VeneCzech]

If you save the 12 words generated from mycelium wallet you can recover your wallet without the pin you set follow my guide below.

- Install mycelium to a new mobile phone
- Touch the "Restore backup"
- 12 words then OK
- Enter the 12 words (Make sure that the backup words are correct)

Now your wallet is back without the pin.

You can add the pin again by going to settings recommended for safety purposes.

Thank you for your input.
We tried that already, but it didn't work. I assume that as the backup was made before any coins were transfered, then we just restored from the backup with no coins. Just as if you were working on your computer and hadn't saved your progress and then tried to reach it afterwards.
But this is just my noneducated guess.

[HCP]

We tried that already, but it didn't work. I assume that as the backup was made before any coins were transfered, then we just restored from the backup with no coins. Just as if you were working on your computer and hadn't saved your progress and then tried to reach it afterwards.

That is not how it works. It doesn't matter when the backup was made. They will regenerate the same wallet every time you restore from the seed mnemonic. That is the entire point of "HD" wallets and 12/24 word seed mnemonics.

If you attempted to restore the wallet, and it did not show your original wallet, then the 12 word recovery phrase, while valid, is not the "correct" backup phrase. Somehow you have the 12 word seed mnemonic for a different wallet.

[bL4nkcode]

If you attempted to restore the wallet, and it did not show your original wallet, then the 12 word recovery phrase, while valid, is not the "correct" backup phrase. Somehow you have the 12 word seed mnemonic for a different wallet.

Or somehow it's not in the right order so tried your very best to remember the orders of the word seed, else it's lost forever.

[BitMaxz]

If you attempted to restore the wallet, and it did not show your original wallet, then the 12 word recovery phrase, while valid, is not the "correct" backup phrase. Somehow you have the 12 word seed mnemonic for a different wallet.

Or somehow it's not in the right order so tried your very best to remember the orders of the word seed, else it's lost forever.

Or he might be experienced some issue on synchronizing which is a common issue in mycelium wallet.

@VeneCzech make sure that you are connected with internet or wifi and wait to mycelium to sync properly because if it doesn't sync properly your transaction history and balance won't show up.

[bob123]

Or somehow it's not in the right order so tried your very best to remember the orders of the word seed, else it's lost forever.

Since the seed entered is a valid seed, the chances are very slim that he accidentally swapped a few words.

I mean, you could definitely create multiple seeds with these 24 words. But swapping just 1 or 2 pair of words most probably won't generate a valid seed at all.
The last 8 bits are a checksum which prevent random swapping of words resulting in a valid seed. While still possible, the chances are very very slim.

[VeneCzech]

Thank you all again four your valuable input.
We tried it once again.
While having the old phone on hand, we installed mycelium on a new phone, after the startup we chose to reload from a backup by using 12 words/seeds (we didnt check something about password in the bottom).
After typing all 12 words, there was no notice saying that the backup was uploaded succesful like some of you metioned above and wallet shown on the new phone is different than on the old one.
It is unlikely we typed those words wrong, but I start to worry that rooting the phone will be only option.

[BitMaxz]

Thank you all again four your valuable input.
We tried it once again.
While having the old phone on hand, we installed mycelium on a new phone, after the startup we chose to reload from a backup by using 12 words/seeds (we didnt check something about password in the bottom).
After typing all 12 words, there was no notice saying that the backup was uploaded succesful like some of you metioned above and wallet shown on the new phone is different than on the old one.
It is unlikely we typed those words wrong, but I start to worry that rooting the phone will be only option.

I don't think rooting the phone will solve your issue.

Do you remember your bitcoin address from your wallet?

The final solution that I know is to use the Bitcoin recovery tool that you can find here https://github.com/gurnec/btcrecover

So you must have a bitcoin address and I'm sure it will help you to correct your 12-word phrase in proper order.

[bob123]

I don't think rooting the phone will solve your issue.

If OP can root his mobile without erasing all data, it will help.

The pin is stored in plaintext in a text file on the mobile.
He could simply read it out, then start mycelium and access his wallet by entering the pin.


@OP: Does the possibility exist that you are using the wrong mnemonic code? Or that you have miss-typed a word?
You might also need to create multiple "accounts" within mycelium if you have done so in your old wallet.

[VeneCzech]

@OP: Does the possibility exist that you are using the wrong mnemonic code? Or that you have miss-typed a word?
You might also need to create multiple "accounts" within mycelium if you have done so in your old wallet.

I defintely did not miss-typed a word and the mnemonic code should be correct, nonetheless I will try to enter it tomorrow with different order (as it was typed on a piece of paper in two columns, but I hardly doubt this will be the issue and words should be in different order).
We created only one HD account on the old phone, so this again should not be the problem.
I never rooted the phone and I dont think Im that experienced...this might be the solution, but I dont want to accidentaly wipe the data including not a small amount of BTC.

Thank you for your help 

I don't think rooting the phone will solve your issue.

Do you remember your bitcoin address from your wallet?

The final solution that I know is to use the Bitcoin recovery tool that you can find here https://github.com/gurnec/btcrecover

So you must have a bitcoin address and I'm sure it will help you to correct your 12-word phrase in proper order.

I dont remember it, but I can normally open Mycelium on the old phone and read it 

I will look it up, thank you.

[bob123]

Since you still have full access to the device, you can enable USB-debugging in the settings, then connect to your mobile with your PC (via adb shell) and backup any necessary data (in this case: all data from mycelium).

Afterwards you should even be able to extract the mycelium pin from the backup on your computer.
The pin can be found in:

Code:

/data/data/com.mycelium.wallet/shared_prefs/settings.xml

You also should be able to extact the master key itself, which is stored in a sqlite database.


That's a bit more complex than simply rooting the phone and reading it out, but you can try this first without rooting your phone.
And you will have a backup of all necessary files in case you do something wrong when rooting your mobile.



P.s. You can find the USB-debugging setting under the 'developer options' (which will get visible if you click on 'system- / version info' (or similar) 7 times in a row).

[djhomeschool]

Why not just extract all private keys with the bip39 tool and import them?

[bob123]

Why not just extract all private keys with the bip39 tool and import them?

Because it seems like the mnemonic code is somehow wrong.

OP can use this seed to create a wallet, but there are no funds in there. The 'bip39 tool' will therefore also just give you private keys to public keys which do not have any balance.

Currently, it seems that OP has to extract the seed / private keys from the mycelium wallet which is currently installed on his old mobile.

[akaLaur]

Hello,
sorry to bother with another question on "how to restore a wallet", but Im kind of lost.

I help my friend with mycelium wallet. Actually he set a new wallet on old Android phone, he noticed his 12 keys, he then set a 6-digit pin (which he forgot) and then he received his BTC in this wallet.

We try to figure out how to transfer those BTCs into his new cell phone.
I guess we need to make a backup on the old phone (but this requires a PIN) and install Mycelium on the new phone and reload from backup on the startup.

How to bypass it if we dont have a PIN??
Is rooting the old phone the last option we have?

I would be so grateful for any help.

Thank you

Hi, VeneCzech Im having the same problem as you, made this tread here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5336813.new#new.

Did you manage to find a solution, if so please share it?

Thank you.