HOW CAN I RECOVER THE BTC FROM WALLET ELECTRUM 2.8, NOT ABLE TO CONNECT?

[stefano111]

Hi everyone, I need help.
I have a problem with an electrum wallet, from which I can no longer send BTC, it is the old version 2.8, no longer supported, so no longer able to connect; The problem is that this wallet is installed on a PC with an old operating system that cannot update itself to newer versions.
I would like to understand if there is a way to transfer, or recreate the wallet on another PC that can support newer versions, or bring the code manually to another wallet.
Thanks in advance.

[TryNinja]

You can. Just go into another computer, install Electrum (the latest version), and import your wallet with its backup seed.

If you didn't write down your backup seed (for some reason), you can see it by going to Wallet -> Seed. ALWAYS have this seed written down. Without it, you can't recover your coins if something like this happens or if you break your PC.

P.S: Be careful with the phishing websites! Always double check the URL: ELECTRUM.ORG is the only real website Electrum has.

[ABCbits]

You can. Just go into another computer, install Electrum (the latest version), and import your wallet with its backup seed.

Or copy electrum wallet files to the another computer rather than restore with backup/recovery/mnemonic seed.

[djhomeschool]

You can. Just go into another computer, install Electrum (the latest version), and import your wallet with its backup seed.

Or copy electrum wallet files to the another computer rather than restore with backup/recovery/mnemonic seed.

I think 2.8 is to old and the latest Electrum version will not be able to read and/or upgrade the wallet file

[djhomeschool]

I think 2.8 is to old and the latest Electrum version will not be able to read and/or upgrade the wallet file

You may be right, but as far as i remember, Electrum maintains forward & backward compatibility for both wallet files and seed/mnemonic.

Both Electrum docs and GitHub commit shows/mention forward & backward compatibility, but i don't know far the compatibility support.

If i am correct that only works if you upgrade from version 2.8 and download EVERY version and upgrade step by step but it does not work from 2.8 directly to 3.3.6

[Abdussamad]

I think 2.8 is to old and the latest Electrum version will not be able to read and/or upgrade the wallet file

You may be right, but as far as i remember, Electrum maintains forward & backward compatibility for both wallet files and seed/mnemonic.

Both Electrum docs and GitHub commit shows/mention forward & backward compatibility, but i don't know far the compatibility support.

If i am correct that only works if you upgrade from version 2.8 and download EVERY version and upgrade step by step but it does not work from 2.8 directly to 3.3.6

That's not true. The latest version of Electrum will attempt to upgrade the wallet file and will go through all the steps needed for old wallet files. However it is best to be cautious and have backups of the seed and multiple copies of the old wallet file (In case the upgrade fails you can still extract the secrets from the old wallet files manually)

[pooya87]

You may be right, but as far as i remember, Electrum maintains forward & backward compatibility for both wallet files and seed/mnemonic.

Both Electrum docs and GitHub commit shows/mention forward & backward compatibility, but i don't know far the compatibility support.

you can only have backward compatibility not forward since the wallet type, seed, etc are changing and the necessary code didn't exist in old versions so they are not forward compatible. for example 2.x didn't have any SegWit stuff so your SegWit seed (which has the version encoded in it) is invalid in old versions.

[bob123]

Which operating system are we talking about ?

You should be able to get the latest electrum version working under windows 7 and most probably also on any linux.
I hope you don't have XP or Vista running..

Or are you on OSX < 10.11 ? In this case, your only option would indeed be to use a different computer or a bootable USB with a different OS.


As long as you have your seed (which you really should!), your coins can always be recovered.

[NeuroticFish]

You can. Just go into another computer, install Electrum (the latest version), and import your wallet with its backup seed.

Or copy electrum wallet files to the another computer rather than restore with backup/recovery/mnemonic seed.

And instead of using another computer, OP can just try first with electrum-portable, which will run from any other folder of choice.