Please help. need to trun off 2fa

[sgtwiggles]

Hi. Can someone help me please? Im on 3.3.4. on a mac

I need to send my bitcoins but dont have access to my 2fa any longer.

I followed instructions here: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/2fa.html#restoring-from-seed

I go to file > restore / new and it says wallet 1 - this file does not exist so I choose my default wallet with my btc in. 

It then says "file already open in memory click next to create/focus window."

What does this mean?

Now I dont know what to do.  Am I doing it right so far?

I have my seed.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Your "default_wallet" file is the wallet you already have, with 2FA enabled which you cannot withdraw your coins from. If you want to restore from seed, then you need to create a new wallet file to recover to. Electrum will suggest "wallet_1" as the name for this new wallet, but you can change this to any name that isn't already used by another wallet file.

Try the following:
File -> New/Restore
Click on Next to accept the name "wallet_1"
Click on "Wallet with two-factor authentication" and then Next
Click on Next on the Disclaimer
Click on "I already have a seed", and then Next
Enter your seed in to the box (the "Seed Type" field below the box should show up with either "2fa_legacy" or "2fa_segwit"), and click Next
Select "Disable" and click Next
Choose a password, and click Next

That should be you all done.

[sgtwiggles]

Ok. many thnaks for your help. Much appreciated. Will give it a go. Just to be clear, if i do this, I will no longer have or require 2fa to send coins right?

[TryNinja]

Ok. many thnaks for your help. Much appreciated. Will give it a go. Just to be clear, if i do this, I will no longer have or require 2fa to send coins right?

If you restore your wallet with the backup seed Electrum gave you when you created the wallet, and choose to disable 2FA, then you won’t need it. You will still be able to use the original wallet (not restored from the seed) with the 2FA, but it won’t be necessary for the new one.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Just to be clear, if i do this, I will no longer have or require 2fa to send coins right?

That's correct.

Assuming you follow the steps above correctly, and there have been no major changes between 3.3.4 (which you are using) and 3.3.8 (which I tested the above steps on), then when you get to the step to select "Disable", you should see this screen:



As it says, you will have two master private keys in your wallet. Given that Electrum 2FA wallets are 2-of-3 (meaning there are a total of 3 private keys, and you need 2 of them to make a transaction), then your 2FA provider TrustedCoin, who hold your third key, are unnecessary.

[sgtwiggles]

Thank you so much guys.  I will try this tomorrow when I am more awake as its late where I am.  You are all so helpful. Thank you again. Will report back tomorrow.

[HCP]

As one last piece of advice... once you have disabled the 2fa and restored your wallet, I would recommend that you DO NOT continue to use that wallet going forward. Instead, create a completely new "standard" wallet and then forward all the funds from the "disabled" 2fa wallet to the new "standard" wallet.

You'll want to do that, because your "disabled" 2fa wallet is still technically a "MultiSig" wallet... you will just have access to 2 of the 3 sets of private keys that give you the ability to sign transactions. However, being a multisig wallet, it will create larger transactions == more fees. Additionally, it will complicate matters should you ever need to sign a message from one of your addresses and/or need access to a "private key" (claiming forks etc).

By creating a new standard wallet, and moving your funds to it, you'll avoid some of those issues.

[sgtwiggles]

done. seems to have worked. thanks for the advice guys. you are all great!