I have only backup file but lost password and seed, i lost my btc

[Lavey666]

Hello im new here and i have a electrum wallet but have trouble with hardware and lost all, only have a back up file from my wallet,
i load the wallet on electrum i can see my btc, but i can send it, ask for password, i dont remember password and lost the 12 words
i lost my btc or i can recovery my seed words with the backup file, please can someone help me

[Charles-Tim]

You do not have your seed phrase again, you only have the encrypted file? How are you able to know the wallet balance on Electrum, through a master public key? I mean as a watch-only wallet?

If the password is your concern, are you able to remember some characters? Or hope the characters not long? You should be able to recover few characters with btcrecover

[Lavey666]

i open the backup with electrum wallet and show me the addreses and balance, but ask me for password when i want sned btc

[DireWolfM14]

i open the backup with electrum wallet and show me the addreses and balance, but ask me for password when i want sned btc

That sounds weird to me.  As far as I know, if your wallet is encrypted with a password you won't be able to open it without the password.  If you are able to open the wallet without a password, then it's not encrypted, and you should be able to send without a password.  The only way you would be able to open a wallet without a password and not be able to send funds from that wallet is if an external signer is needed, such as a hardware wallet.  A watch-only wallet will not allow you to send, so it won't ask for a password either.

Sorry if I'm missing something, but again I don't know of a scenario that would lead to the issue you've described.

[BitMaxz]

That sounds weird to me.  As far as I know, if your wallet is encrypted with a password you won't be able to open it without the password.

It depends on how you add the password there is an option if you want to encrypt the wallet file or not while adding or changing the wallet password.

So the OPs wallet file is password protected but not encrypted.

@OP do you remember where you save 12 words seed? If you can't remember where you save it there is a low chance that you can recover this wallet.
You can do brute force but you also have a low chance to recover passwords if you forgot them you can only increase the chances to recover them if you remember the password partially.

[Lavey666]

i think i opened without a password the back up file, then its a watch only wallet because i can see all the transations but still cannot use the btc, i believe this btc is lost, thank u for your help

[o_e_l_e_o]

Sorry if I'm missing something, but again I don't know of a scenario that would lead to the issue you've described.

When you are creating an Electrum wallet (or later adding a password to an already created Electrum wallet without a password) there is a checkbox which says "Encrypt wallet file". This is automatically checked, so in the vast majority of cases adding a password also encrypts the wallet file and therefore prevents you from opening it without the password. You can, however, uncheck this box, which will then only password protect the private keys. So you can open the wallet to view the transactions and addresses, but cannot spend without the password.

i think i opened without a password the back up file, then its a watch only wallet because i can see all the transations but still cannot use the btc, i believe this btc is lost, thank u for your help

If the wallet is truly watch only, then it will say that at the top of the wallet window. Something like "Electrum 4.x.x - WALLET_NAME [watching only]".

If it is not watching only, and you have simply forgotten the password, then you could attempt to bruteforce it using https://btcrecover.readthedocs.io/. This will require either for you to have some idea what the password might be, or to have used a weak password in the first place.

[flatfly]

Your post has very little detail, so can you confirm the following for a start:

1- what version of electrum created the backup file?
2- when is the last time (approximately) you had full access to your wallet?

If the backup file is all you have, I *may* still be able to help with recovery.  
I was successful with another case recently, where the owner also forgot their
password and seed and only had the wallet file to work with.

See this topic and just let me know if you need more detail (DM if needed):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5439379.msg61769223

Also be careful not to share any sensitive information in a public post.

[Abdussamad]

i open the backup with electrum wallet and show me the addreses and balance, but ask me for password when i want sned btc

That sounds weird to me.  As far as I know, if your wallet is encrypted with a password you won't be able to open it without the password.  If you are able to open the wallet without a password, then it's not encrypted, and you should be able to send without a password.  The only way you would be able to open a wallet without a password and not be able to send funds from that wallet is if an external signer is needed, such as a hardware wallet.  A watch-only wallet will not allow you to send, so it won't ask for a password either.

Sorry if I'm missing something, but again I don't know of a scenario that would lead to the issue you've described.

electrum offers secrets only encryption where you can open the wallet file and view transactions and balance without providing the password. you only need to provide the password when sending bitcoin or trying to view the seed.

i think i opened without a password the back up file, then its a watch only wallet because i can see all the transations but still cannot use the btc, i believe this btc is lost, thank u for your help

it's not a watch only wallet. it's just encrypted differently (secrets only encryption).

look up btcrecover which is an open source python script for bruteforcing electrum passwords.

https://btcrecover.readthedocs.io/en/latest/