Cannot restore my BTC wallet with a seed frase.

[nodc3]

Five months ago I created a bitcoin wallet in electrum. I created the seed phrase in electrum (I'm 90% sure) on a macbook. I put a small amount there, deleted the wallet file, deleted electrum. I immediately reinstalled electrum, entered the seed phrase, the wallet was restored, the amount was displayed on the balance. The seed phrase is absolutely correct, I rewrote it many times and remembered it, entered it exactly from a piece of paper. The seed phrase was 12 words without an additional word. I transferred a larger sum there.

After that, I deleted the wallet file. Then restored it. Then deleted it again.

5 months later I am trying to restore it, the balance is 0. I found the address in the blockchain where I transferred the money, btc is there, but this address is not in the list of wallet addresses. I tried to restore the wallet in BlueWallet, it identified the seed phrase as electrum segwit. 0 ballance.

Any ideas what to do now?

[BitGoba]

When restoring a wallet in Electrum using a seed phrase, you must choose the same address type that was used when the wallet was originally created. If you pick the wrong type, Electrum will generate a completely different set of addresses, and your BTC won’t show up, even though the seed is correct.

There are three main types of Bitcoin addresses:

Legacy addresses – start with 1

Segwit (p2sh-segwit) – start with 3

Native Segwit (bech32) – start with bc1

So it’s very important to remember which type of address you used when you created the wallet, so you can restore it correctly and see your funds again.

[nodc3]

My adress starts with bc1q.
I even used wallet.change_gap_limit(200) just in case.
wallet.is_mine gives false. What could I do wrong?

[hd49728]

Five months ago I created a bitcoin wallet in electrum. I created the seed phrase in electrum (I'm 90% sure) on a macbook.

Why 90% sure?

It is very dangerous if you do something and are pretty sure 90% about for instance you created a Bitcoin wallet with Electrum software while 10% is not with Electrum.

I put a small amount there, deleted the wallet file, deleted electrum. I immediately reinstalled electrum, entered the seed phrase, the wallet was restored, the amount was displayed on the balance. The seed phrase is absolutely correct, I rewrote it many times and remembered it, entered it exactly from a piece of paper. The seed phrase was 12 words without an additional word. I transferred a larger sum there.

After that, I deleted the wallet file. Then restored it. Then deleted it again.

You need to create your wallet, backup, test backup for recovery. It's risky if you fund your wallet, did not test backup and recovery before deleting your wallet.

If you already backed up a wallet, tested a wallet backup for recovery, and all worked well, I am too skeptical that why later you failed to recover your wallet from backup.

5 months later I am trying to restore it, the balance is 0. I found the address in the blockchain where I transferred the money, btc is there, but this address is not in the list of wallet addresses. I tried to restore the wallet in BlueWallet, it identified the seed phrase as electrum segwit. 0 ballance.

Any ideas what to do now?

Try to restore your Electrum wallet with three address types: Native Segwit, Nested Segwit and Legacy and see the wallet balance.

Generally How to back up a seed phrase is a helpful guide.
With Electrum.
https://coinguides.org/electrum-seed-restoring-wallet-finding-seed/

Click on Options, and you can type
p2pkh for Legacy address
p2wpkh-p2sh for Nested Segwit address
p2wpkh for Native Segwit address.

Making sure you know what is  your address type on blockchain explorer (you already checked the address balance with it).

[Bitcoin Smith]

Can you remember you used the default 12 word seed or used the extended seed option?



Missing out the extended seed can also result into different set of wallet even if you enter the same 12 words seed so try to remember it and you might be thinking it as password but it's different here.

[promise444c5]

If ismine("<your address> with that balance ")  returns false then you probably have the wrong wallet with a different seed , you see the problem might be you had one /few out  many backups to be different from the main wallet ( probably  you might have backed up a different  wallet..who knows)
The only reasonable answer is that you have a wrong seed , and you  must check your backups to see if you have any different seed among all you have written down..
Another option could be you had a extended  seed with a memorized passphrase(custom word/words) which you might have forgotten you did that, importing the same seed  without the passphrase will give you a different wallet so you gotta think about what  you did exactly..

[Potato Chips]

During the wallet restoration, have you tried the "Detect Existing Accounts" function? maybe it's on another account from the same seed? and this function would usually detect such instance.

BTW, how sure are you about the address that you found, and searched in the block explorer? 100% sure it is yours?

[PrivacyG]

If the original wallet seed words are 100 percent those you also wrote on the paper and into your new electrum wallet, you must have the same balance and history.  If what Bitcoin Smith says still does not solve the issue, then I am thinking you either messed with the derivation path of your original wallet or you have a mistype.  Look at the words closely and find close matches.  For example, if one of the words on your paper is 'stair' then maybe it was in fact 'stairs' instead.  While chances are little the wrong word would pass a checksum, it is still possible.

It may also be possible that you accidentally inverted the order of two words.

Next time you create a seed, here is what to do.  After backing it up on a piece of paper, write down the first and last 5 characters of your generated receiving address.  Then delete the wallet and start over as if you were restoring it.  Insert the seed and check two things.  Does it work?  If so, does it generate the same address again?  If the two answers are 'yes', it means you backed up the correct seed phrase.  Even if it generates a different address after the test restore, at least you know that is the address you backed up on the paper.

[alegotardo]

The problem with Electrum is that it uses its own derivation-path, different from the standard BIP39 wallets we have. In other words, the same 12-word seed used in Electrum isnt a standard BIP39 used in wallets like Ledger, Trezor, BlueWallet, etc.

Electrum can automatically detect the seed type used, but if you select an different wallet type when restoring, it will unfortunately generate different addresses than the one originally used.

During these reinstallations you may have already sent funds to a different address and now it's even "split" between two or more derivations.

The options for how to choose the correct one have already been given by other users, but if you still can't get the balance to appear, go to Wallet then Addresses and then enable the option to see all possible addresses, then compare the blockchain address and try to locate where the BTC are, if it still doesn't appear, then you may need to change the gap limit or check the subaccounts.

[nodc3]

I only got one seed frase, I'm sure its right. It was printed on a paper, then carefully rewritten on metal plates. And I remember it.
I'm sure I was able to restore the wallet.
I doubt I'm that dumb to add an extended seed and fully rely on my memory with nothing on my metal plates. Anyway I tried most of my passwords as a 13th word.
I remember I was trying to create a seed that could be restored in other wallets than electrum. I remember I was clicking (*)Native segwit or smth in Electrum. There is a chance it was generated outside electrum. But I think I settled for electrum seed frase. I even could modify derivation path (very low probability). But I somehow restored it easily.
BTC are still there, I'm 100% sure the adress is mine. I still got a transaction from Trust to that adress in history. Also my keyboard layout could be LatinAmerican at that moment (I tried it, no difference). Detect Existing Accounts gave nothing in every derivation path variation I could think of.

[hd49728]

Can you remember you used the default 12 word seed or used the extended seed option?



Missing out the extended seed can also result into different set of wallet even if you enter the same 12 words seed so try to remember it and you might be thinking it as password but it's different here.

He said that he did not use the extended words and he already tried to recover his wallet with a small fund before deleting it a second time.

If his memory is right, he did make usable wallet backup, and knew how to recover a wallet from the wallet seed phrase backup and actually recovered it successfully. So with a same wallet backup written down, it seems to be unlikely that later he failed to recover it from a same wallet backup information.

Five months ago I created a bitcoin wallet in electrum.

With that wallet was created 5 months ago, it's Native Segwit wallet, as Legacy wallet was disabled a long time ago by Electrum. If he did not customize wallet types when create a wallet with Console, I believe that there is no issue with wallet address type in creation and recovery.

[nodc3]

Since I know 2 adresses from that wallet, and both start with bc1q, it should be Native Segwit? Should I start bruteforcing different derivatiion paths for that seed frase? What derivation paths generate bc1q adresses? And how do I do it?

[PrivacyG]

There is a chance it was generated outside electrum.

Since you deny any other variant as impossible or very low probability, settle for this thing you said yourself.  If there is a possibility you generated it outside electrum, think which wallets you used.  If I remember properly, wallets like Wasabi Wallet use for example different derivation paths when compared to Electrum.  This does not mean YOU have done something but the wallet may have.

Maybe it is wise to look through lists of wallets and see whether you recognize any of them as one you have used in the past.  Give it a try, at least.  If you recognize one, try the seed in it again.  See if it shows your balance.  But make sure you install the legitimate wallet, verify the files before installing them.  This is so that you do not get scammed out of your wallet by installing malware.

If you have ever used hardware wallets, it is the same situation.  For example, Ledger and Trezor use different derivation paths and I believe you get a different set of addresses if you import the seed phrase of a Trezor in to Electrum with out setting the right derivation path.

Also.  If the two wallet addresses start with bc1q, they are definitely not Legacy.

[nodc3]

There is a chance it was generated outside electrum.

Since you deny any other variant as impossible or very low probability, settle for this thing you said yourself.  If there is a possibility you generated it outside electrum, think which wallets you used.  If I remember properly, wallets like Wasabi Wallet use for example different derivation paths when compared to Electrum.  This does not mean YOU have done something but the wallet may have.

Maybe it is wise to look through lists of wallets and see whether you recognize any of them as one you have used in the past.  Give it a try, at least.  If you recognize one, try the seed in it again.  See if it shows your balance.  But make sure you install the legitimate wallet, verify the files before installing them.  This is so that you do not get scammed out of your wallet by installing malware.

If you have ever used hardware wallets, it is the same situation.  For example, Ledger and Trezor use different derivation paths and I believe you get a different set of addresses if you import the seed phrase of a Trezor in to Electrum with out setting the right derivation path.

Also.  If the two wallet addresses start with bc1q, they are definitely not Legacy.

What I don't get is how I restored the wallet with my electrum.
Now I think I could use a 13th word in a seed frase, but I just cannot understand why would I not save it anywhere.
Also I could use LatinAmerican keyboard layout. But I tried it and there was no difference.

[JiiBs]

What I don't get is how I restored the wallet with my electrum.
Now I think I could use a 13th word in a seed frase, but I just cannot understand why would I not save it anywhere.
Also I could use LatinAmerican keyboard layout. But I tried it and there was no difference.

If you were able to restore wallet using the same seed phrase you had written down originally without any problems, the case shouldn’t be any different even after funding with a good sum.
My best guess is, you have done something to the wallet in your derivation part.

It’s always a garbage in and garbage out for these systems.
How about you don’t try to be any sophisticated and just try to restore a standard wallet, following numeral procedures. You shouldn’t have any problems restoring your wallet address.

[nodc3]

If you were able to restore wallet using the same seed phrase you had written down originally without any problems, the case shouldn’t be any different even after funding with a good sum.
My best guess is, you have done something to the wallet in your derivation part.

It’s always a garbage in and garbage out for these systems.
How about you don’t try to be any sophisticated and just try to restore a standard wallet, following numeral procedures. You shouldn’t have any problems restoring your wallet address.

I think I tried like 500 times with different parameters in the past 20 hours.
Tried my seed frase on iancoleman.io, it shows "invalid mnemonic".
Looks like its a native Etherium seed frase. That means the only option is - I used an extended seed frase? Because you cannot mess with derivation path, when creating a seed in Electrum. Or am I wrong?

[lontivero]

Electrum does not generate bip39 seed phrases. So, you can only recover your electrum seed phrase using electrum.

[nodc3]

Electrum does not generate bip39 seed phrases. So, you can only recover your electrum seed phrase using electrum.

I think I started to remember smth. I could generate an electrum seed fraze. Then when restoring selected Bip39 "to check compatibility", ignoring "bip39 checksum failed". Electrum allowes that. (I didn't know it altered adresses). Then probably changed smth in derivation path.
The question is how do I check all derivation paths, knowing seed fraze and 2 adresses.

[pawanjain]

Electrum does not generate bip39 seed phrases. So, you can only recover your electrum seed phrase using electrum.

I think I started to remember smth. I could generate an electrum seed fraze. Then when restoring selected Bip39 "to check compatibility", ignoring "bip39 checksum failed". Electrum allowes that. (I didn't know it altered adresses). Then probably changed smth in derivation path.
The question is how do I check all derivation paths, knowing seed fraze and 2 adresses.

Firstly make sure that the address in which the bitcoin is present starts with bc1 on the bitcoin block explorer.
Then while entering the seed phrase in the electrum wallet, select native segwit.
Try using detect exisiting accounts option and wait for some time to sync the wallet and then verify the address tab for your addresses.
If that does not work then try manually testing different derivation paths and keep checking the addresses tab.

[promise444c5]

Electrum does not generate bip39 seed phrases. So, you can only recover your electrum seed phrase using electrum.

I think I started to remember smth. I could generate an electrum seed fraze. Then when restoring selected Bip39 "to check compatibility", ignoring "bip39 checksum failed". Electrum allowes that. (I didn't know it altered adresses). Then probably changed smth in derivation path.
The question is how do I check all derivation paths, knowing seed fraze and 2 adresses.

Firstly it’s “seed phrase” and not “seed fraze” , I saw no one was correcting you about that but it’s all good..
If you did that then  it won’t have a valid seed  either and can’t be imported on other BIP39 wallets because it’s an electrum seed.. Also, what do you need the derivation path for, you said the wallet was created with electrum, not complicated because it’s recent and you probably got a native segwit wallet, what’s confusing is you’re stories entirely..