cannot restore wallet from seed

[stan4electrum]

Hi, I'm trying to restore my Bitcoin wallet that I created 4 years ago with Electrum. I have got a seed with 12 words. I only made one transfer to the wallet from my coinbase account which is recorded here https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/acac52b8482bb75945a93b9c5b939fe5dc701063e9df591bf2bed768ca692f7d

When I restore wallet with my seed I get 0 bitcoins on it. I'm trying to find out what is wrong but I don't understand few things.

1. how can I confirm that restored wallet is the correct one that received transaction on the link above?

2. is the seed case sensitive? my noted seed has got 12 words all lowercase only one word I have written down is with first letter capital. Does it matter? When I'm recovering wallet in electrum it does let me to restore wallet when I change letter to capital or lowercase but if I change the letter to different one it does not allow me to continue. Seems like it is case insensitive?

3. if I get my wallet restored correctly, how do I verify that someone hasn't got hold of my wallet and didn't transfer bitcoin out of my wallet? If the restored wallet is the one I expect would I see the transaction history in electrum with all transfers in and out?

[hosseinimr93]

Is your wallet synced?
The circle located at bottom right corner of the window should be green. Otherwise your wallet is not synced.

1. how can I confirm that restored wallet is the correct one that received transaction on the link above?

Go to "Addresses" tab. Do you see the address you used for receiving bitcoin 4 years ago there?
(If addresses tab isn't available, click on "View" at top of the window and select "Show addresses".

2. is the seed case sensitive?

No.

3. if I get my wallet restored correctly, how do I verify that someone hasn't got hold of my wallet and didn't transfer bitcoin out of my wallet?

In that case, you should see an outgoing transaction in "history" tab.

The transaction you shared includes two outputs.
Which of addresses is yours? 15TRBjwU1T........ or 1P767QD3qz.........?

If your address is 15TRBjwU1T........, there is no outgoing transaction made from that and the fund is still there.
If your address is 1P767QD3qz........, the fund has been spent in another transaction.

[stan4electrum]

Is your wallet synced?
The circle located at bottom right corner of the window should be green. Otherwise your wallet is not synced.

yes it is green.

Go to "Addresses" tab. Do you see the address you used for receiving bitcoin 4 years ago there?
(If addresses tab isn't available, click on "View" at top of the window and select "Show addresses".

I can see multiple receiving addresses there and some "change" adresses... all showing Balance 0 and tx 0

In that case, you should see an outgoing transaction in "history" tab.

My history tab is empty.

The transaction you shared includes two outputs.
Which of addresses is yours? 15TRBjwU1T........ or 1P767QD3qz.........?

I don't know, how do I find out?

[hosseinimr93]

I can see multiple receiving addresses there and some "change" adresses... all showing Balance 0 and tx 0

This means that the seed phrase you imported into electrum isn't for the wallet you sent bitcoin to 4 years ago.

I don't know, how do I find out?

15TRBjwU1T........ received 0.02952818 BTC which was worth around 570 dollars at that time.
1P767QD3qz....... received 0.58188470 BTC which was worth around 11,250 dollars at that time.

Which one is yours?

Edit:
Your address is probably 15TRBjwU1T.......... The other one should belong to Coinbase.

[dkbit98]

When I restore wallet with my seed I get 0 bitcoins on it. I'm trying to find out what is wrong but I don't understand few things.

I can see that address starting with 15TR still has some coins and only one transaction from 2017, so your issue could be one of several things.
Either you didn't wait until wallet is synced or you used different seed words that are not generating same address.

how can I confirm that restored wallet is the correct one that received transaction on the link above?

Anyone, including me, can confirm that with any blockchain explorer from transaction link you posted.
What address you used and how you generated it is totally different question and only you can answer this.

is the seed case sensitive? my noted seed has got 12 words all lowercase only one word I have written down is with first letter capital. Does it matter? When I'm recovering wallet in electrum it does let me to restore wallet when I change letter to capital or lowercase but if I change the letter to different one it does not allow me to continue. Seems like it is case insensitive?

What wallet you exactly used for generating seed words?
Most seed words are lowercase, including most used BIP39, except if people are using some custom words that only complicates thing and I don't recommend doing that.
I don't think this is the problem in your case.

if I get my wallet restored correctly, how do I verify that someone hasn't got hold of my wallet and didn't transfer bitcoin out of my wallet? If the restored wallet is the one I expect would I see the transaction history in electrum with all transfers in and out?

If coins are still on your address (check with blockchair or other explorer) that probably means that nobody stole them from you.
Don't complicate things by asking so many questions, and first answer what was asked from you.

[Charles-Tim]

My history tab is empty.

Probably not your address. To know if you have the address on your Electrum wallet, on the GUI, click on view -> show console. Click on console and paste your address which you think is yours like this:

Code:

ismine("paste your address")

And click on enter on your key board. If it display true, the address is on your Electrum wallet. If it is false, that means the address is not on your Electrum wallet.

If the address is not on your Electrum wallet, that means you import wrong private key or seed phrase. Check if you have another seed phrase or private key and import it on Electrum wallet, try the above code again and see if it will display 'true' or not.

[Abdussamad]

Hi, I'm trying to restore my Bitcoin wallet that I created 4 years ago with Electrum. I have got a seed with 12 words. I only made one transfer to the wallet from my coinbase account which is recorded here https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/acac52b8482bb75945a93b9c5b939fe5dc701063e9df591bf2bed768ca692f7d

When I restore wallet with my seed I get 0 bitcoins on it. I'm trying to find out what is wrong but I don't understand few things.

1. how can I confirm that restored wallet is the correct one that received transaction on the link above?

Check the addresses tab for the address where the coins were received. You can bring that tab into view via the view menu and then switch to it and press ctrl+f to search the list of addresses.

2. is the seed case sensitive? my noted seed has got 12 words all lowercase only one word I have written down is with first letter capital. Does it matter? When I'm recovering wallet in electrum it does let me to restore wallet when I change letter to capital or lowercase but if I change the letter to different one it does not allow me to continue. Seems like it is case insensitive?

Yes it is case insensitive.

3. if I get my wallet restored correctly, how do I verify that someone hasn't got hold of my wallet and didn't transfer bitcoin out of my wallet? If the restored wallet is the one I expect would I see the transaction history in electrum with all transfers in and out?

You would see it on the history tab.

I suggest you try the things listed here:

https://bitcoinelectrum.com/frequently-asked-questions/#why-does-restoring-my-wallet-from-seed-lead-to-a-different-wallet

[hosseinimr93]

Yes it is case insensitive.

It matters whether you enter the words in capital letters or lower-case letters only if you have checked "BIP39 seed" option.
If a seed phrase has been generated by electrum (which seems to be the case here), it doesn't matter whether you enter the words in capital letters or lower-case letters.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Other things to try:

Restore your seed phrase with both the BIP39 option selected and unselected and check both wallets for your address.
Did you extend the seed phrase with a custom password or passphrase?
Are you certain this is the correct seed phrase, or do you have any other ones backed up?

[stan4electrum]

Thanks everyone for replies. Based on your information it seems to me that wallets I restore are not the one.
But I can't figure out why.
I used electrum app (latest version at the time of transaction) to create my wallet. I only made one wallet ever in my life and only this one transaction. Then I displayed the seed and wrote it down on paper. Since then I never used it until now.
I can't remember me adding any special words to seed. I don't have any note about such words either.
The seed I wrote on the paper is very clearly wrote. And these words match dictionary in electrum wallet.
Hence it still leads to different wallet.

When I enter seed it displays it is of type segwit. I also tried to restore it with BIP39 seed as suggested which says checksum failed but it still allows to proceed. I tried all 3 options Legacy, p2sh-segiwt and native segwit. Left derivation path default.
But all wallets created are showing empty history and 0 balance while wallet is in sync.

I did 22 wallet creation attempts with all possibilities I could think of ;(
I read also this
https://bitcoinelectrum.com/frequently-asked-questions/#why-does-restoring-my-wallet-from-seed-lead-to-a-different-wallet
but there is not much more mentioned to try.

Should I try to install electrum app released around the time I created the original wallet? Can that make any difference?

[hosseinimr93]

When I enter seed it displays it is of type segwit. I also tried to restore it with BIP39 seed as suggested which says checksum failed but it still allows to proceed. I tried all 3 options Legacy, p2sh-segiwt and native segwit. Left derivation path default.

Since you have created the wallet using electrum, your seed phrase can't be BIP39. Electrum use its own algorithm for creating a seed phrase.  
Also, the transaction you shared in OP doesn't include any segwit address. So, the seed phrase you need for accessing the fund can't be segwit-type. (Segwit addresses start with bc1)

Should I try to install electrum app released around the time I created the original wallet? Can that make any difference?

This won't change anything.

[stan4electrum]

Since you have created the wallet using electrum, your seed phrase can't be BIP39. Electrum use its own algorithm for creating a seed phrase.  
Also, the transaction you shared in OP doesn't include any segwit address. So, the seed phrase you need for accessing the fund can't be segwit-type. (Segwit addresses start with bc1)

So what you are saying is that this address does not belong to electrum wallet at all?
I double checked the transaction on my coinbase account. it is showing this receiving address 15TRBjwU1T2fde81g6mNRcKcUu2baDHzom
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1cvrjabsasjn19g/CleanShot%202022-03-07%20at%2022.15.46.jpg?dl=0

When I checked address with adress checker it says it is valid address and it is type of BASE58 (P2PKH)

I'm confused. I have 12 words seed which electrum identifies as segwit. But the address I sent btc is not same type, therefore it cannot belong to this wallet?

[hosseinimr93]

So what you are saying is that this address does not belong to electrum wallet at all?

The seed phrase you have can't generate the address starting with 1.
Either the address in question doesn't belong to your wallet or the seed phrase you are using is for a different wallet.

When I checked address with adress checker it says it is valid address and it is type of BASE58 (P2PKH)

Yes, the address is valid. But as said, it can't be generated by your seed phrase if it's segwit-type.


Do you still have access to the device you created the wallet on? The wallet file may be still there.

[stan4electrum]

Yes, the address is valid. But as said, it can't be generated by your seed phrase if it's segwit-type.

So it looks like I messed up... I have no idea where I got this address where I sent btc to.
Also why would I write down seed of empty wallet ;( this all makes no sense to me...

Do you still have access to the device you created the wallet on? The wallet file may be still there.

Nope, unfortunately I changed my MacBook twice since then. And old ones are gone.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Also why would I write down seed of empty wallet ;( this all makes no sense to me...

When you sent the coins to your Electrum wallet, do you remember ever seeing them in your Electrum wallet, or did you just copy the address, hit send, and never check?

hosseinimr93 is correct; the seed phrase you have, which Electrum identifies as segwit, could not have been used to generate the legacy address you sent coins to (short of some critical bug in Electrum which I don't think has ever been seen before). The options are that you have backed up the wrong seed phrase, or that you didn't send the coins to Electrum at all.

[BitMaxz]

~snip~

That wallet is a legacy wallet so you should choose P2PKH when you are restoring your seed phrase.

To make sure that you own that address check the addresses tab you already guided above how to show up the addresses tab.

If you confirm that the address where you sent BTC to is in the addresses tab there are might be connection issues from your Electrum even it is a green circle it doesn't mean it's syncing properly that is why you can't see any transaction history in your wallet.
I heard that you can solve that case if you change your DNS to Google DNS or Cloudflare DNS.

[hosseinimr93]

That wallet is a legacy wallet so you should choose P2PKH when you are restoring your seed phrase.

You can't choose the type of addresses when you enter a seed phrase that has been generated by electrum.
Once you enter a seed phrase that has been generated by electrum, it automatically detects the type of addresses and there is no way to change that. It doesn't ask you the type of addresses at all.

[nc50lc]

So it looks like I messed up... I have no idea where I got this address where I sent btc to.
Also why would I write down seed of empty wallet ;( this all makes no sense to me...

Electrum can create more than one wallet and open separate instances of each; Also, during the install wizard, it will ask you to create your first wallet.
You might have created a legacy wallet before you created the SegWit wallet, then mistakenly used the legacy wallet to receive the funds from Coinbase.

Unfortunately, with the address alone, it's impossible to tell where wallet it belongs to.

At least the output is still unspent so we can rule-out any case of "clipboard hijacking malware".

[Abdussamad]

I'm confused. I have 12 words seed which electrum identifies as segwit. But the address I sent btc is not same type, therefore it cannot belong to this wallet?

Yep. The seed you have is for a different wallet. Look for the seed to your legacy address wallet.

[Charles-Tim]

That wallet is a legacy wallet so you should choose P2PKH when you are restoring your seed phrase.

You can't choose the type of addresses when you enter a seed phrase that has been generated by electrum.
Once you enter a seed phrase that has been generated by electrum, it automatically detects the type of addresses and there is no way to change that. It doesn't ask you the type of addresses at all.

Exactly. Electrum will bring up the derivation part to be selected if it is BIP39 seed phrase, but Electrum generated seed phrase differently and make use of version number to determine the type of seed phrase to be generated. So, if importing a seed phrase generated on Electrum wallet to another Electrum wallet, the version number will determine the type of seed phrase, keys and addresses it will generate without requesting of choosing the derivation part unlike while importing BIP39 seed phrase on Electrum wallet.

Code:

Number	  Type	  Description
0x01	Standard  P2PKH and Multisig P2SH wallets
0x100	Segwit    Segwit: P2WPKH and P2WSH wallets
0x101	 2FA	  Two-factor authenticated

https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/seedphrase.html