Passphrase (suddenly) Not Correct in Offline Armory Wallet

[ozark_traveler]

I have an Armory cold-storage wallet that I have used successfully for years. Passphrase 100% certain, written down. Last year, the wallet was emptied and someone sent bitcoins to this wallet. Balance displays correctly in the watching-only wallet. Today, when I attempted to move the coins to a hardware wallet, Armory says "That passphrase is not correct" when I try to sign the transaction. I tested my paper backup and Armory confirmed the backup is valid. I'm not sure which of the four options to choose to restore the wallet and also not sure how restoring is affected by the watching-only wallet (assuming I'm restoring the offline wallet.) Armory 0.96.4 watching-only, 0.96.1 offline. Windows 10.

The only possible difference I'm aware of with this transaction is that the bitcoins were sent from a multi-sig wallet. Could that have some effect? Thanks for any help.

[bitmover]

If you are 100% sure the seed is correct it is just a bug in your wallet software.
just import your seed  into any other wallet, such as Electrum, Coinomi, or even your ledger.

You can also use some tool such as iancoleman.io/bip39. Just download the webpage, run it offline and write your seed there. The page will generate your private keys for each of your addresses and you can just paste those private keys in any other wallet or just scan the QR codes.

[ozark_traveler]

Thank you so much! I’ll post how I do.

[PhoenixFire]

If you are 100% sure the seed is correct it is just a bug in your wallet software.
just import your seed  into any other wallet, such as Electrum, Coinomi, or even your ledger.

You can also use some tool such as iancoleman.io/bip39. Just download the webpage, run it offline and write your seed there. The page will generate your private keys for each of your addresses and you can just paste those private keys in any other wallet or just scan the QR codes.

Armory does not use a BIP32/39/44 seed like many common wallets do. This will not work.

I tested my paper backup and Armory confirmed the backup is valid. I'm not sure which of the four options to choose to restore the wallet and also not sure how restoring is affected by the watching-only wallet (assuming I'm restoring the offline wallet.)

Great to hear that the paper backup is valid! Restoring your backup on the offline machine will not adversely affect your watch-only wallet on the online machine.
Which four options are you unsure of, specifically?
The options regarding paper backup version? 1.35, 1.35a, 1.35c? If so, your wallet version should be on your printed backup near the top.

[ozark_traveler]

The choices are:  
Single-sheet backup (printed) .                                  (this is, I guess, the logical choice...)
Fragmented Backup                                                  (this, clearly, does not apply...)
Import digital backup or watching-only wallet .            (confused by this. I don't think digital backup applies to me, but not sure about the watching-only wallet part...)
Import watching-only wallet data .                              (Not clear when this would be used...)

The fifth (separate) line says: "This is a test recovery to make sure my backup works." I ran this and the backup is valid.

I've restored Armory wallets many times, but there are a substantial number of coins involved, here. It would be a disaster to lose them. Also nervous because this wallet has served me well for so long and for it to suddenly stop working is concerning. Also, the coins in the wallet came from a multi-sig wallet and my understanding is that the person who extracted them had to go to some extraordinary lengths to get them out. Like I said, the balance shows correctly in the Armory online dashboard, so...what could go wrong?

Added text: I just remembered that when the tech sent me the coins, he observed that my receiving address, generated by Armory, began with a 1 and not a 3. Could this be a clue?

[PhoenixFire]

The choices are:  
Single-sheet backup (printed) .                                  (this is, I guess, the logical choice...)

Definitely this one and this time uncheck "This is a test recovery to make sure my backup works."

I've restored Armory wallets many times, but there are a substantial number of coins involved, here. It would be a disaster to lose them. Also nervous because this wallet has served me well for so long and for it to suddenly stop working is concerning. Also, the coins in the wallet came from a multi-sig wallet and my understanding is that the person who extracted them had to go to some extraordinary lengths to get them out. Like I said, the balance shows correctly in the Armory online dashboard, so...what could go wrong?

I understand your worry. If it helps, whatever lengths that the tech had to go through to send you your coins cease to apply once the coins are in your wallet/at your new address. From your info about the address starting with a 1, I can tell you that your coins are in a normal P2PKH Address, which is the easiest to recover to any other wallet if it comes to that (but you've not mentioned any problems with your online PC/watching-only wallet).

I'll lay out the process before you commit to it - nice to not go in blind:
After you click "Continue" on the first "Restore wallet from Backup" step, you input your paper backup as you did before to test.
When you hit "Restore" on this step you'll get three options: Cancel, Merge and Overwrite.
I would say that "Merge" is the option you want. My understanding is that it'll retain existing information and fix whatever is wrong with your wallet (if anything) and will allow you to choose a new password.
After that it'll take a short while to recreate the wallet. Since you're doing this on your offline PC you won't have the long step of rescanning the blocks for transactions.

Armory made a backup of the actual wallet file for me as part of this process when I tried it out on my test wallet.
Make a note of the ID that is listed next to the wallet in the main Armory view.
The backup appeared in a timestamped subfolder in this directory:

Code:

%appdata%\Armory\walletIDhere\

I haven't actually tested that this file worked, but it seems logical.

If you're still worried you can choose to manually create a copy of the existing wallet files beforehand like so:
Close Armory entirely.
Go to

Code:

%appdata%\Armory\

And copy every file that has the walletID in the name to another location on your offline PC.

[HCP]

Just wanted to add that you might also run into issues using different versions for watching-only (0.96.4) and offline (0.96.1) wallets... Not sure if that is the root cause of the "passphrase not correct issue", but users have definitely had issues in the past using different versions.

Having said that, as long as you have the paper backup (as mentioned, the fact it shows as valid is a very good sign!), you should be able to restore your wallet and simply create a new passphrase.

[PhoenixFire]

Just wanted to add that you might also run into issues using different versions for watching-only (0.96.4) and offline (0.96.1) wallets... Not sure if that is the root cause of the "passphrase not correct issue", but users have definitely had issues in the past using different versions.

True, thanks for pointing it out. I remember some of those issues, but I'd have thought that would appear as some sort of signing error rather than a password problem? Signing to send from a P2PKH address too, which you'd think would be pretty stable? I'm guessing here.

[ozark_traveler]

Success! I simply restored the wallet with a new password and it signed the transaction, no problem. THANKS, THANKS, THANKS for all the comments and hand-holding.

[PhoenixFire]

Success! I simply restored the wallet with a new password and it signed the transaction, no problem. THANKS, THANKS, THANKS for all the comments and hand-holding.

Pleased to see a happy ending - pat yourself on the back for making the paper backup and keeping it safe!