Restoring a BTC address

[wanderer888]

Greetings, friends! I came across this situation: previously, I always used an Exodus wallet, in 2022 I found out about Electrum, downloaded and logged into my own wallet using the same "seed phase". I found more btc addresses in Electrum and decided to use a separate address specifically for storing purchased BTC in order to separately track their value on mempool.space.

Next, I transferred bitcoins from my completely different second wallet (not an address, but from another wallet with a different "seed phase") authorized through Exodus to this new btc address, the wallet formats were segwit and outgoing and incoming. That is, I would like to have one wallet with one "seed phase", but with different addresses for different purposes, so as not to store multiple "seed phases". There is an outgoing transaction history on the wallet. After saving the link to mempool.space with this new address, I logged out of my wallet and did not log in for several years, periodically checking the balance on mempool.space.

And now, a few years later, I log in to Electrum using the good old "seed phase" and do not find the same btc address, the balance is zero and there is no transaction history. Then I decided to log in via Exodus, but this address and balance were not there either, there is a transaction history, but only at the first old address, which was originally in Exodus.

I ask you to help me find out the truth in this situation, and at this period of my life I really needed these funds. All the stories, the link with the address to mempool.space and the navigation are there, just need to understand where this address got lost.

[rdluffy]

As far as I know, Exodus uses the BIP 39 standard, which is 12 words for the seed
Does your seed have 12 words?

When you opened Electrum, you restored those 12 words, right?
When you restore them, you have to check BIP39

[wanderer888]

As far as I know, Exodus uses the BIP 39 standard, which is 12 words for the seed
Does your seed have 12 words?

When you opened Electrum, you restored those 12 words, right?
When you restore them, you have to check BIP39

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2025/07/26/UHX6Pf.png
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2025/07/26/UHXPrZ.png

12, that's right. I choose BIP 39, with other options, in any case, the "Next" button is not active.

In general, all transactions related to the old address, as well as in Exodus, are displayed. But there is no second address, and accordingly there is no transaction to it. I took the second address from the "Addresses" tab then, now I see that there are green and yellow addresses, I do not know what the difference is. Could I, in theory, take some kind of "temporary" or non-designated wallet from here?

[Charles-Tim]

I took the second address from the "Addresses" tab then, now I see that there are green and yellow addresses, I do not know what the difference is. Could I, in theory, take some kind of "temporary" or non-designated wallet from here?

The addresses in green are receiving address. You can use it to receive coins.
The addresses in yellow are change address. The address your change will be when you make transaction. If there is a change remaining, it will be sent their after the transaction.

You can use both to receive coins. But for privacy, do not use change addresses which are in yellow but use receiving addresses which are in green for payments.

I hope you have seen the address there?

[wanderer888]

I took the second address from the "Addresses" tab then, now I see that there are green and yellow addresses, I do not know what the difference is. Could I, in theory, take some kind of "temporary" or non-designated wallet from here?

The addresses in green are receiving address. You can use it to receive coins.
The addresses in yellow are change address. The address your change will be when you make transaction. If there is a change remaining, it will be sent their after the transaction.

You can use both to receive coins. But for privacy, do not use change addresses which are in yellow but use receiving addresses which are in green for payments.

I hope you have seen the address there?

Yes, I took the address from the green field. But now, for some reason, this address has disappeared, and the coins along with it. Is it possible to better understand its "nature" or origin from the address itself? If I attach this address here, it won't violate confidentiality, will it? Or will you not be able to understand anything about the address itself?

[Charles-Tim]

Yes, I took the address from the green field. But now, for some reason, this address has disappeared, and the coins along with it. Is it possible to better understand its "nature" or origin from the address itself? If I attach this address here, it won't violate confidentiality, will it? Or will you not be able to understand anything about the address itself?

You do not need to post your addresses, for privacy reasons. If you see it there, that means everything is good.

Hope you downloaded the wallet from the official site: https://electrum.org/

Even if you are offline, it supposed not to disappear.

[rdluffy]

...

12, that's right. I choose BIP 39, with other options, in any case, the "Next" button is not active.

In general, all transactions related to the old address, as well as in Exodus, are displayed. But there is no second address, and accordingly there is no transaction to it. I took the second address from the "Addresses" tab then, now I see that there are green and yellow addresses, I do not know what the difference is. Could I, in theory, take some kind of "temporary" or non-designated wallet from here?

When you checked BIP39, and wrote your 12 words, the NEXT button is disabled?

Yes, I took the address from the green field. But now, for some reason, this address has disappeared, and the coins along with it. Is it possible to better understand its "nature" or origin from the address itself? If I attach this address here, it won't violate confidentiality, will it? Or will you not be able to understand anything about the address itself?

If you post your public adress here you'll lose your privacy, but not your coins
With your adress we can put on BTC explorer and see what's the last transaction you made and which wallet was the destiny
It is up to you whether or not to include the address here


When we generate a seed in Electrum, it gives us several addresses, and those addresses will always be from that seed
Now I don't understand why only one address came from Exodus, as you are telling us. All the same addresses were supposed to come

[wanderer888]

When you checked BIP39, and wrote your 12 words, the NEXT button is disabled?

I meant that BIP39 is the only option to choose, only through it the "Next" button is active. I went in through it.

With your adress we can put on BTC explorer and see what's the last transaction you made and which wallet was the destiny

I can see from mempool.space which wallet and when the transaction was made. I also have this story on the wallet from which I made the transfer. Will you see any other details? In any case, other than here, I do not know where else to look for help, so here is a link to this address: https://mempool.space/address/bc1q4vyqj8d80fnaj8dnn8qmr98edln0tg2tpgdu0q
I hope it will be possible to see something from this.

[hosemary]

If you don't see the addresses you are looking for in electrum, either you entered a wrong seed phrase or selected a wrong script type in electrum when importing your wallet.
Go to exodus, export your seed phrase again and see if that's same as the seed phrase you imported into electrum.

[wanderer888]

If you don't see the addresses you are looking for in electrum, either you entered a wrong seed phrase or selected a wrong script type in electrum when importing your wallet.
Go to exodus, export your seed phrase again and see if that's same as the seed phrase you imported into electrum.

It matches. I am currently logged in to both Electrum and Exodus. The entire history of the old transactions matches. But neither of them has the required address and the transaction history associated with it. The first thing I thought was that I might have made a transfer to some other wallet, but I went through all my records, checked everything I could, and everything indicates that there was no mistake. When I took this address, it was next to what I had already used. Having played through the scenario in my head, let's say I went to some other wallet and took the address from there to transfer the main funds at that time, without paying attention, is absurd to me.

[Abdussamad]

There is malware that can change addresses copied to the clipboard with the malware author's . Try copying another address using electrum and then paste in a text editor. Does it match the address you see in electrum?

[hosemary]

The first thing I thought was that I might have made a transfer to some other wallet, but I went through all my records, checked everything I could, and everything indicates that there was no mistake.

Does this mean you checked if you have other electrum wallets and checked their addresses if there were any?
If I were in your situation and had access to the device I used in 2022, I would go to directory of electrum and check all my wallets one by one to see if I can find my addresses.  

[wanderer888]

The first thing I thought was that I might have made a transfer to some other wallet, but I went through all my records, checked everything I could, and everything indicates that there was no mistake.

Does this mean you checked if you have other electrum wallets and checked their addresses if there were any?
If I were in your situation and had access to the device I used in 2022, I would go to directory of electrum and check all my wallets one by one to see if I can find my addresses.  

In this case, the funds would have already been withdrawn from the address, but they have been lying there since 2022, when I sent them there.

The first thing I thought was that I might have made a transfer to some other wallet, but I went through all my records, checked everything I could, and everything indicates that there was no mistake.

Does this mean you checked if you have other electrum wallets and checked their addresses if there were any?
If I were in your situation and had access to the device I used in 2022, I would go to directory of electrum and check all my wallets one by one to see if I can find my addresses.  

Yes, I checked everything that was there, but unfortunately the operating system on the device was changing.

[rdluffy]

...
I hope it will be possible to see something from this.
...

From the address you posted, we can see that the balance is still there, which is a strong indication that you did not send it to a scam address (address change scam)

At the address you posted, only one transaction was received, and then there were no further transactions.
In that same transaction, there were two addresses that received BTC, the one you mentioned here and another one with a balance of 0 right now

In your case, I would try everything in my scope
If you still have access to the same 2022 wallet installation, that would be good, otherwise try Electrum and Exodus in every way possible, trying BIP39 and also the format that Electrum uses

When you are in Electrum, can you see all addresses this way?
Only the first address that is the same as Exodus and no others?

[khaled0111]

Can you tell us what do you see in the transactions history when you open your wallet?
You said that there are outgoing transactions and old transactions. That’s weird, because if I understood what you said correctly, then there should be only one incoming transaction as you created the wallet, copied one of its addresses then send your coins (from Exodus) to it. Is this what you did?

My guess is that you recovered the old wallet from which you sent the coins not the new one to which the coins were sent.

[nc50lc]

That is, I would like to have one wallet with one "seed phase", but with different addresses for different purposes, so as not to store multiple "seed phases".
-snip-
And now, a few years later, I log in to Electrum using the good old "seed phase" and do not find the same btc address, the balance is zero and there is no transaction history. Then I decided to log in via Exodus, but this address and balance were not there either, there is a transaction history, but only at the first old address, which was originally in Exodus.

Did you perhaps used a "BIP39 Passphrase" a.k.a "Seed Phrase Extension" / "13th word" in that second wallet?
It's different from your wallet's encryption password, it's set during wallet creation/restore in "Extend this seed with custom words option".

Because if you did, you just have to restore the seed phrase with the same BIP39 Passphrase that you used before.

[wanderer888]

When you are in Electrum, can you see all addresses this way?
Only the first address that is the same as Exodus and no others?

I see all the addresses, the first one is the one on Exodus
https://i.postimg.cc/Pxjs9mxk/2.jpg

In your case, I would try everything in my scope
If you still have access to the same 2022 wallet installation, that would be good, otherwise try Electrum and Exodus in every way possible, trying BIP39 and also the format that Electrum uses

Access, as seen above, is available. You can only log in via BIP39. If I select Electrum, the Next button is not active. I also have the most suspicions about the login method, because I don't remember exactly how I logged in in 2022.

Can you tell us what do you see in the transactions history when you open your wallet?
You said that there are outgoing transactions and old transactions. That’s weird, because if I understood what you said correctly, then there should be only one incoming transaction as you created the wallet, copied one of its addresses then send your coins (from Exodus) to it. Is this what you did?

My guess is that you recovered the old wallet from which you sent the coins not the new one to which the coins were sent.

I am logging into the same wallet that should have the "lost" address with the funds. The transaction history is only related to the old BTC address. There is no mention of the new BTC address to which the funds were transferred in either Electrum or Exodus. The screenshot shows the Exodus and Electrum wallets, which show the same transaction history for the old wallet. But there is no history of the necessary transaction here.
https://i.postimg.cc/dVbk7dTw/image.jpg

And this is a screenshot from another wallet from which the transaction was made: https://i.postimg.cc/N08M5nck/3.jpg

PS: I didn't figure out how to attach a picture here, so I made a link to a photo hosting service, I apologize for the inconvenience.

[Cricktor]

Your pictures are fine, but because you're a Newbie they aren't shown as pictures, only as links. That's normal. If I cite your picture, they can be seen.

From the first receiving address and the first two change addresses (yellow) I can perfectly recreate your transaction history that you've shown partly.




As you said, this is another wallet with a different transaction history.

The shown transaction doesn't send 20.77648mBTC (with 0.08761mBTC fee) to any visible receiving or change address of your Exodus/Electrum first wallet, at least none of the visible ones from your first screenshot.

Where or how did you get the target address bc1q4vyqj8d80fnaj8dnn8qmr98edln0tg2tpgdu0q of the transaction bbbc68d08233f587...f773f88b82c439d that you seem to expect should've gone into your Exodus/Electrum wallet?

It seems unlikely to me that it came from requesting a receive address from your first shown Exodus/Electrum wallet or copying an address from it, but I can't say that for certain from the details you provided. We can't see if you generated more than the standard 20 receive addresses and 10 change addresses because before the 1st screenshot you said you recreated your wallet from your mnemonic recovery words. I see no indication that an address gap limit issue could be causing trouble but can't exclude it for sure.

I haven't really used Exodus except for maybe short testing, because it's only partly open-source crap. Another reason not to use it, is the default receive address re-use which is bad for privacy. There are likely more reasons to avoid Exodus, but that's not the topic here.

What I understand so far is: there are two wallets, one you first created in Exodus and later restored also in Electrum (I hope your Electrum was/is genuine). The origin of the second wallet is cloudy, but with some importance maybe, because you sent a transaction shown in your 3rd screenshot which target address still holds the 20.77648mBTC but doesn't seem to be part of both wallets (certainly not part of your second wallet from which the transaction has been sent).

Do you document and backup any wallet you create properly and write down basic details, like a) created when and by which software/hardware, b) what purpose has the wallet, c) mnemonic recovery words, d) address format or derivation path, e) any other meaningful details to keep track of and which help to have a good order of your wallets?

[nc50lc]

-snip-

I see that you ignored the reply about the possibility of a "passphrase", I guess you didn't used it.

Another thing that can cause an address change while using the same seed is the account_index of the derivation path.
In Exodus, it utilizes that in its "Portfolio" feature and there's an in-app button that allows you to send from one portfolio to another.
You might have used it to send to your second (or third+) portfolio which is equivalent to your second account derivation path in Electrum.

In that case, you could try to restore the BIP39 seed phrase to Electrum but during script type selection screen,
use "Detect Existing Accounts" button to check if you used to have another Portfolio in Exodus.
Take note that it will stop searching for subsequent account_index if the previous one has no transaction history for its first 20 addresses.
If you somehow used a third portfolio in Exodus, skipping the second, you'll have to manually edit the derivation path accordingly (m/purpose'/coin'/account') to restore the third.

[wanderer888]

Where or how did you get the target address bc1q4vyqj8d80fnaj8dnn8qmr98edln0tg2tpgdu0q of the transaction bbbc68d08233f587...f773f88b82c439d that you seem to expect should've gone into your Exodus/Electrum wallet?

I took the address from the list of addresses in Electrum, which was next to the old one. I didn't generate any additional addresses at that time, I just went to the "Addresses" tab and took the first or second available one from there.

What I understand so far is: there are two wallets, one you first created in Exodus and later restored also in Electrum (I hope your Electrum was/is genuine). The origin of the second wallet is cloudy, but with some importance maybe, because you sent a transaction shown in your 3rd screenshot which target address still holds the 20.77648mBTC but doesn't seem to be part of both wallets (certainly not part of your second wallet from which the transaction has been sent).

The second wallet was also created on Exodus, and the transfer was made from it.

Do you document and backup any wallet you create properly and write down basic details, like a) created when and by which software/hardware, b) what purpose has the wallet, c) mnemonic recovery words, d) address format or derivation path, e) any other meaningful details to keep track of and which help to have a good order of your wallets?

I documented points a-c, but I never took into account the formats and the derivation path, because I did not understand anything about it and did not attach importance to it. It seemed important to me only to write down 12 words and the method through which the wallet was created.

I see that you ignored the reply about the possibility of a "passphrase", I guess you didn't used it.

Yes, indeed, I do not remember doing such a thing, most likely it did not happen.

Another thing that can cause an address change while using the same seed is the account_index of the derivation path.
In Exodus, it utilizes that in its "Portfolio" feature and there's an in-app button that allows you to send from one portfolio to another.
You might have used it to send to your second (or third+) portfolio which is equivalent to your second account derivation path in Electrum.

In that case, you could try to restore the BIP39 seed phrase to Electrum but during script type selection screen,
use "Detect Existing Accounts" button to check if you used to have another Portfolio in Exodus.
Take note that it will stop searching for subsequent account_index if the previous one has no transaction history for its first 20 addresses.

By the way, it's true that when I tried to log in to my wallet for the first time in 12 words the other day, the wallet was empty. Then I decided to re-visit again, and when I saw the "Detect Existing Accounts" button, I clicked it and already then the wallet began to reflect the transaction history, balance, etc. It seemed strange to me.

If you somehow used a third portfolio in Exodus, skipping the second, you'll have to manually edit the derivation path accordingly (m/purpose'/coin'/account') to restore the third.

Will this method be relevant if the operating system has already been reinstalled on the computer?
And, to be honest, I didn't quite understand what needs to be done. Where to edit this path?