Can't open electrum after installing Monterey OS

[allrollsin21]

Hello,

I'm a beginner with all this and I foolishly upgraded my MAC OS to Monterey without considering what might happen with my electrum wallet.  I now cannot open my wallet and am scared to do anything for fear I will lose it and its contents.  Can someone recommend the next step I should take to try and recover it.  Not sure where I wrote down my seed phrase but hopefully have it somewhere.  I'm hoping I don't need it at this point. 
Please help, I'm losing it!

allrollsin21

[BlackHatCoiner]

Take it easy. What does it return when you try to open the wallet software? We can't know what change did the recent upgrade brought to your machine, the only thing we can do is give answers to possible errors.

Have you checked if the wallet file is in your datadir?

On Mac:

Open Finder
Go to folder (shift+cmd+G) and type ~/.electrum

If it is, then back it up. Also, if you have the seed phrase you should feel secure enough. You can recover the wallet anytime.

[allrollsin21]

Take it easy is right..  This go me all wound up.  When I click on electrum to open it, the color wheel just spins and spins.  
Is the seed phrase 12 words?  I just found what I think is the seed phrase but not sure as it has no mention of electrum when I wrote it down.
I followed you direction and found the file.  When you say back it up, do you mean onto an external hard drive?  Sorry for the basic questions, I'm not tech savvy at all.  


Ok I confirmed it is in fact the seed phrase that I found.  So that's a relief.  Can you confirm I can recover my wallet with the seed phrase even if I can't get electrum to work on the computer that the wallet was sitting on?

[hosseinimr93]

Is the seed phrase 12 words?

Yes. The seed phrase includes 12 words. If you have it, there's nothing to worry about. It's enough for recovering your wallet.
In the case the new OS doesn't support electrum, you can import the seed phrase on another device and access your fund.

When you say back it up, do you mean onto an external hard drive?  Sorry for the basic questions, I'm not tech savvy at all.  

Keep the wallet file.
It can be on an external hard drive or any other place.

Can you confirm I can recover my wallet with the seed phrase even if I can't get electrum to work on the computer that the wallet was sitting on?

If you have the seed phrase, you can recover your wallet using electrum on any device.
If your wallet has been funded, you can use bluewallet too.

[vv181]

~When I click on electrum to open it, the color wheel just spins and spins. ~

It looks like the application is keep loading up, I don't know if it is on the Electrum side or on your OS. So, if you already backed up your wallet files--preferably on offline storage, a few simple things before debugging it you can try to force close Electrum using cmd+option+esc or try to restart your device. If there is no luck after doing it, try to open up your terminal and open the Electrum using:

Code:

/Applications/Electrum.app/Contents/MacOS/run_electrum -v

And then try to post the output on the terminal here, so maybe some of us can see why it won't open up.

[allrollsin21]

I downloaded an updated version of electrum and poof it's now working again.  Thanks for the replies, ya'll really walked me off the ledge today.  Scary stuff.  I need a better method of storing crypto, this all seems so transitive.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I downloaded an updated version of electrum and poof it's now working again.  Thanks for the replies, ya'll really walked me off the ledge today.  Scary stuff.  I need a better method of storing crypto, this all seems so transitive.

Yep, they are if you aren't familiar. If I were you I'd just buy a hardware wallet and sleep easy.

[Upgrade00]

I need a better method of storing crypto, this all seems so transitive.

Your method of storage was not bad, you just need to take better care and pay more attention. You were always safe in the knowledge that you own the seed phrase and could always recover your wallet, this also means you should take extra care of safe guarding that, cause anyone who accesses it can import your address(es) and transfer the funds out.

The hardware wallet suggestion is quite good, you can also use a mobile device or pc, but it should not be one you are actively using to visit the internet.

[Lucius]

Yep, they are if you aren't familiar. If I were you I'd just buy a hardware wallet and sleep easy.

If everything was that simple, then anyone with a hardware wallet would be completely safe from any possible danger - and that false security cost many who lost everything they had. The average cryptocurrency user who does not understand the importance of backup (more than one&multiple locations) and storing it properly is still at high risk. Even the common claim that HW can be used on infected devices can be counterproductive if the user is not aware of the existence of crypto clipboard malware and how to protect themselves from it.

The fact is that anyone who uses HW is still just a click away from making a donation to a scammer.

[allrollsin21]

Good info here.  Lucius can you point me towards a tutorial on further explaining the risks and backup/storage techniques you mention?

[hd49728]

[GUIDE] How to Safely Download and Verify Electrum [Guide]

It is must step to back up your seed immediately when you create a wallet. You must do it before you actually make any deposit to that address.

Before this step, you must verify a wallet you downloaded. Some times, you might download a phishing wallet so the verify step is very important. It protects you and your Bitcoin.

Don' trust, verify. You can see this on Electrum website too: https://electrum.org/#download

Warning: Electrum versions older than 3.3.4 are susceptible to phishing. Do not download Electrum from another source than electrum.org, and learn to verify GPG signatures.

[BlackHatCoiner]

The average cryptocurrency user who does not understand the importance of backup (more than one&multiple locations) and storing it properly is still at high risk.

And a person who doesn't know how to swim is in great danger if they're dropped in a pool. However, if they wear a life jacket the chances of getting drown are definitely less.

Same goes for the newcomers who have no idea with the subject. They'll have much less chances of having their wallet compromised, but it'll be much safer in contrast with an installation of something they've no idea somewhere they're not familiar with. Furthermore, they can educate themselves from the hardware wallet's guides. (e.g., about seed phrases etc.)

[Lucius]

Good info here.  Lucius can you point me towards a tutorial on further explaining the risks and backup/storage techniques you mention?

In general, the matter is quite simple, you just need to follow a few basic recommendations :

• Never save your backup (seed words) online (e-mail, cloud, plain text document).
• One backup is not enough, you need at least two - preferably not saved in the same location.
• The computer you are using should have adequate antivirus and anti-malware protection, and always keep the latest update for the OS you are using.
• Every action on the hardware wallet should be carefully checked and only then approved by pressing the HW buttons - so you protect yourself from a possible attack by clipboard malware.
• Last but not least, you can protect your seed by adding a passphrase (extra password) that will serve as an additional safeguard in case someone comes into possession of your seed.
• An additional warning - it is not wise to tell others that you own cryptocurrencies, then you open the possibility of becoming a victim of what we call $5 wrench attack.

Source

And a person who doesn't know how to swim is in great danger if they're dropped in a pool. However, if they wear a life jacket the chances of getting drown are definitely less.

It makes sense, I just wanted to emphasize that a large number of HW users do some things wrong because they believe that it is important to protect only the device, while everything else is less important.