Recover wallet electrum. Help needed. [SOLVED]

[EloyEV]

Dear readers,

I just remembered that i bought a bit of coin a few years ago. So i whent trough my cloud and found the picture of my seed. Its a 12 word sentence. I've always used electrum back then and installed the wallet to recover. But now here starts the trouble. When i enter my 12 words it wont let me click the ''Next" button. me thinking i did something wrong so i whent over te 12 words alot but nothing has helped. I've noticed there are some old electrum files on my pc from back in 2017 when i bought the coins but i cant find something usefull. i have also installed the older version of electrum wallet but that dind't help either. Can any of you find the answer to this question.

PS: i also have a receive adres but dont know if thats any help.

Thanks!

[nc50lc]

Try clicking the option under the box where you input the seed phrase, then tick "BIP39 seed".
After pressing 'ok', if it says "BIP39 (checksum: ok)", your seed is a valid BIP39 mnemonic phrase and you may continue.

If "BIP39 (checksum: failed)", there's something wrong with the seed phrase and you'll likely need to provide some info like the Electrum version when it was created and other non-private stuffs.

[EloyEV]

i did try that and the seed gives ''ok''  but it brings up an empty wallet.

[nc50lc]

Good, it says "ok", then the BIP39 seed is valid.
Next is to match the derivation path to your addresses, do they start with '3' or 'bc1'? After inputting the seed phrase, there'll be a "Script type and Derivation path" window.
On that screen, select "native segwit (p2wpkh)" if your addresses start with 'bc1', select 'p2sh-segwit (p2wpkh-p2sh)" if they start with '3'.

If it's legacy (starts with '1') and Electrum is connected (green connection icon), then the seed phrase is just from an empty wallet, could be from a wallet with unique derivation path or other issues.

[NeuroticFish]

Another idea:
If the old receive address you still have starts with 3 and now the wallet contains addresses starting with 1, there's a chance your wallet was created with 2FA support.
This posts (and the thread) may give you extra clues what to try: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5304688.msg55967150#msg55967150

[sheenshane]

i did try that and the seed gives ''ok''  but it brings up an empty wallet.

In addition,

If you tried the suggested above about the "Script type and Derivation path" then it brings up an empty wallet, try to change the last HD account numbers that could be found below on the same window.  It seems like this "m/44’/0’/0", repeat the restoration process and change the HD number like this "m/44’/0’/1" and if not works change on this, "m/44’/0’/2" until your fund will reflect on the window.

Make sure that you always use the latest version of Electrum even though you created your wallet in the oldest version because it will surely fix all known bugs in Electrum.  And also the correct order and spelling of seed is should be a must.

[EloyEV]

The adres starts with a 1, im trying all of the above

[bob123]

The adres starts with a 1, im trying all of the above

In this case, using P2PKH is the correct type to choose.

If you go to "Addresses" within electrum, do you see the address you still have? Do you see anything in the transaction history?
If not, you might need to increase the gap limit by opening the console ('View' -> 'Console') and typing:

Code:

for i in range(1, 100): wallet.create_new_address(False)

If this didn't help: Do you remember using an "additional word" a.k.a BIP39 passphrase ?

[EloyEV]

i see alot of adresses, dont know why non of them seem to have any information or date. I also noticed a website blockstream.info where i typed in the old receive adress i had and found that the funds are still there, now i just have to get them in my wallet I dont know what ''additional word BIP39 passphrase'' means so i dont think i did that. also i entered the code i now see more adresses.

[bob123]

Can you confirm whether electrum is connected to a server (green circle in the bottom right) ?

Unfortunately it is not as easy as getting the address into your wallet.
The address is publicly visible by anyone. You need the private piece of information (the private key which is derived from the seed) to spend the funds on that address.

You have a wallet which is connected to the internet and shows addresses starting with the same character as your old receiving address (1..), correct ?
But the address does not appear in the "Addresses" Tab in electrum?

Do you remember doing anything unusual when setting up the wallet? Do you remember how exactly you did that?

[EloyEV]

i see a green circle in the corner left, and i dont think i did anything unusual but its a long time ago. the adresses i see start with a ''1''

i have about 100 adresses in the adress tab but not one of them matches the old receive adress

[Pffrt]

i see a green circle in the corner left, and i dont think i did anything unusual but its a long time ago. the adresses i see start with a ''1''

i have about 100 adresses in the adress tab but not one of them matches the old receive adress

Then your seed is not the one you are looking for. May be you have used different seed to store your bitcoin than this one. Earlier you said you have some files from electrum, can you say which kind of files are they? Like, file name, extension etc? That would help to identify if the files are any of benefit.

[EloyEV]

its alot of files can i screenshot that and sent it or is that dangerous?

i am almost certain its the seed because thats why i took a foto but maybe.. cuz its a long time ago i might have made a mistake

[bob123]

its alot of files can i screenshot that and sent it or is that dangerous?

Do not share screenshots of any private information including mnemonic codes.
Feel free to send me screenshots of your electrum wallet or whatever you think might be useful (without private keys / the mnemonic code).

I don't think this will help, but might be worth a shot.

[EloyEV]

IM IN!!!! i used the wrong seed, so sorry about that!!!!! thanks for the help anyways.