I lost my password to an electrum wallet

[irukandji]

Is there any tools to try to find it?
I am pretty sure I know the words I would have used but can't remember the combination of those words.  There are probably not too many possible combinations.

[AB de Royse777]

I am not good at maths but perhaps this post may help : https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/71692/how-many-combinations-are-there-from-the-bip32-mnemonic-list

There are probably not too many possible combinations.

It seems the numbers are too high which is probably is bad news.

[Stalker22]

Is there any tools to try to find it?

Let's clarify something first. Did you just forget the electrum password or did you lose the mnemonic seed for your wallet?  If you have a seed, you can restore your wallet from its seed phrase and choose a new password.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Is there any tools to try to find it?
I am pretty sure I know the words I would have used but can't remember the combination of those words.  There are probably not too many possible combinations.

You have to remember what are the first 3-4 words. Otherwise, you need a really strong machine to print you all those different combinations.

Here I wrote you a javascript code which takes N words and prints all the combinations:

Code:

<script>
var seedArr = [],
  usedChars = [];

function getAllDifferentCombinations(input) {
  var i, ch;
  for (i = 0; i < input.length; i++) {
    ch = input.splice(i, 1)[0];
    usedChars.push(ch);
    if (input.length == 0) {
      seedArr.push(usedChars.slice());
	  seedArr.push("</br>")
    }
    getAllDifferentCombinations(input);
    input.splice(i, 0, ch);
    usedChars.pop();
  }
  return seedArr
};

var comb = getAllDifferentCombinations(["word1", "word2", "word3", "word4", "word5", "word6", "word7", "word8", "word9", "word10", "word11", "word12"]).toString();
comb = comb.replaceAll(",", " ");
document.write(comb);
</script>

if you want to run it, create a new test.html file anywhere on your computer and open it with chrome

You can remove words. For example, I ran it with 8 different words. Not more than that, my computer lags. Although, with the above code, you cannot find your lost wallet unless you try all this mess: https://i.imgur.com/yH7xgUq.gif

I need a bitcoin developer to confirm me if there's a way to convert the array of strings, which are the seeds, to private keys and then start checking if there funds on each address.

[irukandji]

Is there any tools to try to find it?

Let's clarify something first. Did you just forget the electrum password or did you lose the mnemonic seed for your wallet?  If you have a seed, you can restore your wallet from its seed phrase and choose a new password.

I just forgot the password for my wallet.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I just forgot the password for my wallet. I did not lose the seed

You mean the encrypted password? What's the problem with that if you do have the seed? You haven't lost your funds. The way you describe your problem in the first post is like you've lost the seed.

[irukandji]

I just forgot the password for my wallet. I did not lose the seed

You mean the encrypted password? What's the problem with that if you do have the seed? You haven't lost your funds.

Ok.. I don't have the seed but may be able to find it.

[Stalker22]

Ok.. I don't have the seed but may be able to find it.

I hope you find it. This is your best option for wallet recovery and that is why it is recommended to write it down and keep it in a safe place.

[AB de Royse777]

I just forgot the password for my wallet. I did not lose the seed

You mean the encrypted password? What's the problem with that if you do have the seed? You haven't lost your funds.

Ok.. I don't have the seed but may be able to find it.

Now you are confusing everyone.
You do not have 12 word seed or encrypted password. Not having 12 word seed means you are in trouble but not having encrypted password is not a problem at all. Using the 12 word seed, you can restore the wallet very easily.

if you want to run it, create a new test.html file anywhere on your computer and open it with chrome

I tried it using my browser but it was freezing the entire browser then I had to force close it.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I tried it using my browser but it was freezing the entire browser then I had to force close it.

Reduce the number of words, save and then try again.

[AB de Royse777]

I tried it using my browser but it was freezing the entire browser then I had to force close it.

Reduce the number of words, save and then try again.

Yeah, it worked. I tried with 4 words. But it seems this script will not help much unless there can be any automated tool out there. Let's say you have successfully executed the script (after giving it much time and after using a lot of resources) but manually trying each combination is nearly impossible for human.

[JeromeTash]

You have to remember what are the first 3-4 words. Otherwise, you need a really strong machine to print you all those different combinations.

I am a little confused, did you mean first 3-4 letters instead of words?
Because OP says he probably knows the words he used for the password but does not remember how he ordered them. So he was not talking about the seed phrase but rather the password.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Yeah, it worked. I tried with 4 words. But it seems this script will not help much unless there can be any automated tool out there. Let's say you have successfully executed the script (after giving it much time and after using a lot of resources) but manually trying each combination is nearly impossible for human.

I'll take it into consideration of developing such application.

I am a little confused, did you mean first 3-4 letters instead of words?

No, I meant words, because I though that seed was what he wanted.

[Stalker22]

You have to remember what are the first 3-4 words. Otherwise, you need a really strong machine to print you all those different combinations.

I am a little confused, did you mean first 3-4 letters instead of words?

BlackHatCoiner has posted a script to generate word combinations for a seed phrase. It is not intended for brute force hacking of electrum password.

Speaking of recovering a forgotten password, I found a tool that might be useful to someone in a similar situation.
https://github.com/gurnec/btcrecover

btcrecover is an open source Bitcoin wallet password and seed recovery tool. It is designed for the case where you already know most of your password or seed, but need assistance in trying different possible combinations.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Speaking of recovering a forgotten password, I found a tool that might be useful to someone in a similar situation.
https://github.com/gurnec/btcrecover

This is the best answer, but the original version of btcrecover hasn't been updated in 3 years. There is a fork with ongoing active development, wider wallet support, new features, and better optimization, available here: https://github.com/3rdIteration/btcrecover

For recovering a password to wallet file, follow the instructions here: https://github.com/3rdIteration/btcrecover/blob/master/TUTORIAL.md#btcrecover-tutorial

These instructions will talk you through building a tokens.txt file with the words in the password you do remember, any numbers, punctuation, substitutions, typos, etc., which the program will then take, generate all possible combinations, and try them automatically on your wallet file.

[khaled0111]

The number of possible combinations depends on the number of words you used to create your password.
If n is the number of words then the number of possible combinations in this case is n! (permutation).

If we are talking about a small number of words, then you can try all possible combinations manually. For 5 words, you would have only 120 possible combination.
For any greater number, you should try the tool suggested above but it needs your wallet file. I hope you still have it.

[bitbollo]

@OP electrum wallet requires that you write down/ save your wallet seed before any operation.
before trying to guess the password it could be more easy just find the initial seed and restore again the wallet.
if you count also capslock text find your password will be close to impossible ...

[irukandji]

Thank you for all the replies. I found quite few old seeds, but have not tested them all yet.
Does anyone know if there is another bitcoin wallet that uses the same derivation path as electrum?

[khaled0111]

Does anyone know if there is another bitcoin wallet that uses the same derivation path as electrum?

Most wallets use the bip39 standard to generate seeds while Electrum uses its own standard. The only wallet that I am aware of which supports importing Electrum's seeds is bluewallet.
However, you will not be able to import your wallet if it's empty and doesn't have any history.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Does anyone know if there is another bitcoin wallet that uses the same derivation path as electrum?

Why not just recover the seeds in Electrum itself? If you generated them in Electrum, then the easiest way to restore is going to be in Electrum.

Electrum saves different wallets as different files. One installation of Electrum can support thousands or even millions of different wallets, limited only by free space on your hard disk. When you open Electrum, either hit the button "Create New Wallet", or just enter any unused name in the top field to create a new wallet. Select "Standard Wallet", then "I already have a seed", and try the various seeds you have found.