Move wallet from Multibit to Bitpay

[Stone6000]

Hi

I have not used my wallet in Multibit Classic v0.5.18 Win since 2014, but now I want to move the content of the wallet to Bitpay or Electrum.
But how can I do this? There is no 12 word phrase when exporting from Multibit Classic, there is only one key-file. It opens fine in Multibit and I can see 428US$ in there.

Can anyone help?

I have looked for hours on Google and Youtube but they all say that a 12 word phrase is needed. But Multibit is so old it only exports a .key-file.

I am not sure if it will help to install Multibit HD? I guess it has the "phrase-thing" but I cannot see anywhere how to transfer a wallet from Multibit Classic to Multibit HD.
Any help appreciated.

[ranochigo]

Multibit is insanely old and discontinued. Multibit classic isn't a HD wallet and thus the wallet generates and manages the private key individually. From the key file, if you open it using any text editor, you should be able to see your address and the private key should be beside it.

Keep the key file and your private key safe. Using Electrum, generate a new wallet and take note of your 12 word seed. Click on the wallet tab at the top left and go to Private Keys > Sweep. Key in your private keys and press sweep. The coins should be automatically transfered to your new wallet. Keep your seed somewhere safe.

[OmegaStarScream]

To add to the above, make sure that the exported private keys are not encrypted (don't use a password) otherwise you won't be able to read them using a text editor.

[Velkro]

I have not used my wallet in Multibit Classic v0.5.18 Win since 2014, but now I want to move the content of the wallet to Bitpay or Electrum.

Just send funds to new wallet either Bitpay or Electrum but...
Bitpay is 3rd party online wallet from what i know and Electrum is stand alone wallet that YOU control.
Its like apples and oranges, completly different thing for your financial freedom.
Choose smart

[Lucius]

Just send funds to new wallet either Bitpay or Electrum but...

How OP can send anything from wallet which is dead for years? Only way to move those coins is by exporting private keys from MultiBit and import them in wallet like Electrum.

Stone6000, I advise you to be as careful as possible with downloading of Electrum, use only legit site : https://electrum.org/#home and be sure that you have clean PC, (try to scan it with any AV/antimalware). Then take steps from ranochigo and you will have coins in new wallet.

In addition to OmegaStarScream advice, you should also be careful not to copy anything other than the private key itself (time stamps).

# KEEP YOUR PRIVATE KEYS SAFE !
# Anyone who can read this file can spend your bitcoin.
#
# Format:
#   <Base58 encoded private key>[<whitespace>[<key createdAt>]]
#
#   The Base58 encoded private keys are the same format as
#   produced by the Satoshi client/ sipa dumpprivkey utility.
#
#   Key createdAt is in UTC format as specified by ISO 8601
#   e.g: 2011-12-31T16:42:00Z . The century, 'T' and 'Z' are mandatory
#
Labc123abc123abc123abc123abc123abc123abc123abc123abc 2013-01-01T12:00:00Z
Kdef456def456def456def456def456def456def456def456def 2013-01-01T12:00:00Z
# End of private keys

[Stone6000]

Thanks to you all !

I tried both ways (incl. Velkro's suggestion), and they both work fine.

Funny for me, that I put in 50 US$ in 2014 and now it's 428 US$ without doing anything. I had forgotten all about it but some days ago I stumbled over my backed up Multibit key-file.