Unusual mnemonic seed and alternative recovery options

[benben2002]

I'm trying to recover a wallet from around 2015 or 2016 for an elderly relative who has some details but can't remember which platform or which wallet she used to create it.

She has the following written down :

- the seed which has only four words (I'm guessing she lost the other ones)
- the email address she used to create it (she says she cleans up her inbox though so there's probably nothing useful in there)
- the email and password she used to register on the platform or wallet
- the account ID with lowercase letters and numbers separated by a hyphen

I tried recovering using the four-word seed in Electrum just in case (the address is a Base58 P2PKH legacy address) but it didn't show up.

Is there any way to recover using the account ID? Is that type of lowercase hyphenated ID a feature of a blockchain.info account? Is my only option to contact blockchain.com here? Or literally just trying Forgot Password on every platform that was around in 2016?

Many thanks in advance !

[1714229026]

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[1714229026]

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[1714229026]

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[BitMaxz]

It seems the details match to blockchain wallet the only problem is the seed backup has 8 missing words. The chances of finding the remaining words is very slim and it would take years or decades to bruteforce this wallet.

Blockchain.info is their old domain have you tried to recover the wallet on blockchain.com?

If not yet check this link below it only requires email.
- https://login.blockchain.com/en/#/recover

[nc50lc]

- the account ID with lowercase letters and numbers separated by a hyphen

Does the "account ID" looks something like this?: 25679c5b-ecbb-4b49-94e3-4b4b572005ce
If so, it's the "wallet ID" and if the separation and number of characters are the same, it's certainly from Blockchain(dot)info.

- the email and password she used to register on the platform or wallet

The context of this part could either be:

• the email and that email's password
• the email and the password used to register to the platform

So which one is it?

With the email and Blockchain account password, she basically has everything she need to login to their website: https://login.blockchain.com/en/#/login?product=wallet
If it's only the email's login credentials, she'll have to go through their 'forgot password' procedure.

- the seed which has only four words (I'm guessing she lost the other ones)

The old version of Blockchain's recovery mnemonic can be recovered here: login.blockchain.com/wallet/forgot-password
If it accepted the old mnemonic, you'll be presented with your wallet ID and password.
But I highly doubt that the 4-words mnemonic will be valid, but it's still worth the try.

[benben2002]

The context of this part could either be:

• the email and that email's password
• the email and the password used to register to the platform

So which one is it?

With the email and Blockchain account password, she basically has everything she need to login to their website: https://login.blockchain.com/en/#/login?product=wallet
If it's only the email's login credentials, she'll have to go through their 'forgot password' procedure.

The second one. Only problem is that when she entered the email address in the login page, she didn't get any verification email, so she probably changed the linked email account in her blockchain.info settings but doesn't remember.

She tried to login with the wallet ID instead of email, which asked for her password, which then gave a "Authorization required, check your email" message. So I'm assuming she also had two factor authentication.

The old version of Blockchain's recovery mnemonic can be recovered here: login.blockchain.com/wallet/forgot-password
If it accepted the old mnemonic, you'll be presented with your wallet ID and password.
But I highly doubt that the 4-words mnemonic will be valid, but it's still worth the try.

Tried but gave checksum invalid. I am not sure if possible to create a wallet.aes.json file with her info and then import here: https://login.blockchain.com/wallet/import-wallet

Or could the two factor authentication be the issue ? I'm guessing asking Blockchain to turn it off is the only solution or ?

[Findingnemo]

The second one. Only problem is that when she entered the email address in the login page, she didn't get any verification email, so she probably changed the linked email account in her blockchain.info settings but doesn't remember.

She tried to login with the wallet ID instead of email, which asked for her password, which then gave a "Authorization required, check your email" message. So I'm assuming she also had two factor authentication.

It's not 2FA authentication, it's authorization required when you log in from a new device.

So in both scenarios, you didn't get the authorization email which means you are using the wrong email for logging in.

or something like this Problem with blockchain.com (I not receive anymore authorization email).

[Drawesome]

The 4-word seed looks strange. Why did she write just four? Did you think of a brain wallet address type? No checksum there, just whatever phrase you put. You can try, but it may be being attacked for brute force mining

[nc50lc]

The old version of Blockchain's recovery mnemonic can be recovered here: login.blockchain.com/wallet/forgot-password
If it accepted the old mnemonic, you'll be presented with your wallet ID and password.
But I highly doubt that the 4-words mnemonic will be valid, but it's still worth the try.

Tried but gave checksum invalid. I am not sure if possible to create a wallet.aes.json file with her info and then import here: https://login.blockchain.com/wallet/import-wallet

That means that the 4-word mnemonic backup is invalid, as expected.

For the "wallet.aes.json" file, you'll have to download it from their server using "download-blockchain-wallet.py" script from btcrecover but it also requires email authorization since they wont just provide something sensitive without verification.
AFAIK, they provide that file to users in the old version after creating a wallet, try to search if she still has a backup/email of it.
You'll also see the contents of the 'wallet.aes.json' file if you put your wallet ID in this URL: https://blockchain.info/wallet/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000?format=json (replace 0's with your Wallet ID)
But then again, it will only work with accounts without a linked email address or it will show something else if the session (IP & browser) isn't verified yet with your email.

Anyways, they have issues with authorization email most of the time.
Try their support if they can verify that you have the correct email address and it's just their system that cannot send the email.

-snip-
So which one is it?

The second one. Only problem is that when she entered the email address in the login page, she didn't get any verification email, so she probably changed the linked email account in her blockchain.info settings but doesn't remember.

That's still good news, since you have the password.
The '2FA code' only comes after that 'email authorization' if she enabled it.

[Yamane_Keto]

She tried to login with the wallet ID instead of email, which asked for her password, which then gave a "Authorization required, check your email" message. So I'm assuming she also had two factor authentication.

Let her try to create a new account using that email or recover the wallet-ID using it. If a new account is created, this means that it is not the email associated with your account, and if you get a notification with the wallet-ID, then the problem is on their part in sending authorization mails.

There is a suggestion: If she is using a device from 2016 or from a device that she has connected to before, then try to connect through it. People rarely delete cookies, and if cookies are present, they may bypass authorization, although I think the probability of this option being successful is slim.

[crypto-recovery]

>Only problem is that when she entered the email address in the login page, she didn't get any verification email
This is a real problem, and one that we have seen repeatedly with our clients.

One of the potential issues (that Blockchain.com mentions here: https://support.blockchain.com/hc/en-us/articles/4417092364180-I-am-not-receiving-email-notifications-What-do-I-do-) is that email addresses are stored in a case-sensitive format in Blockchain.com's database. So, if you try to login to your Blockchain defi wallet with the email address "abc@example.com" and you initially configured your email address as "Abc@example.com" then you will not receive an authorization email.

It doesn't sound like this is the OP's problem as they also tried to log in with their Wallet ID.

The last ditch solution is to change the email address associated with your wallet. This article covers troubleshooting the problem, as well as how to change your email: https://cryptoassetrecovery.com/posts/not-receiving-blockchain-authorization-emails

[whanau]

> email addresses are stored in a case-sensitive format in Blockchain.com's database. So, if you try to login to your Blockchain defi wallet with the email address "abc@example.com" and you initially configured your email address as "Abc@example.com" then you will not receive an authorization email.

Try entering the email address with caps lock on.
Also try with caps lock on after any a,q,z, in the email address.

I often hit   caps lock+a   at the same time.