Problem with my wallet on electrum ""Cannot read the file"

[thenarog]

Hi,

I tried to open an old wallet on Electrum. I install the last version of the software.

Then i had this :

"Cannot read the file"
UnicodeDecodeError('utf-8', b'\x00\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00b1\x05\x00\t\x00\x00\x00\x00

and to the end  52, 53, 'invalid start byte')

It's a very long error message. I can provide here the long version. Can't access to my wallet anymore.
Can someone help me ?

Thanks,

[NeuroticFish]

Can someone help me ?

Normal people would just re-create the wallet from seed (or, better, use a hardware wallet).
But you seem to love to come every now and then with Electrum issues. BTW, did Electrum refund your 2.5 BTC since 2018?

[hugeblack]

Open the file via Notepad. Do you see random, unintelligible words? (If so, the file is encrypted and we can't help you.)
If you can read the words, it's possible to repair corruption (need to find keys)

Are you sure it's an Electrum wallet? If you have the seed, the task will be easier.

[thenarog]

Can someone help me ?

Normal people would just re-create the wallet from seed (or, better, use a hardware wallet).
But you seem to love to come every now and then with Electrum issues. BTW, did Electrum refund your 2.5 BTC since 2018?

Its the same problem that i had in 2018.
Electrum never refund me. I have the seeds and a list of electrum private adress. Nothing works. The wallet is corupted.

Open the file via Notepad. Do you see random, unintelligible words? (If so, the file is encrypted and we can't help you.)
If you can read the words, it's possible to repair corruption (need to find keys)

Are you sure it's an Electrum wallet? If you have the seed, the task will be easier.

Yes sometimes but the most of it is this : Z\xde3\xf8V\x1fo\x9b\xe8(\xfb\xe9|\x8a\xeb\x83\xf1l\xe2I\x01n\x16\xef\x03\x00\x00\x00\xfb\xbe+\xb5 \x00\x0c\x05c\xf0\xfbc\x01\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xb5\xdf+\x81!\x00\x0c\x05c\xf1\x02\xac\x01\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xbb\x80,\x8

But there is word ! keymeta!, bitcoin adress , testdata, purpose, receive ... I hope it helps. I have the seeds and a list of electrum private adress, but nothing works

[nc50lc]

I tried to open an old wallet on Electrum.

How old was the version that you last used the wallet file?
Better if you can tell the specific Electrum version.

Yes sometimes but the most of it is this : Z\xde3\xf8V\x1fo\x9b\xe8(\xfb\xe9|\x8a\xeb\x83\xf1l\xe2I\x01n\x16\xef\x03\x00\x00\x00\xfb\xbe+\xb5 \x00\x0c\x05c\xf0\xfbc\x01\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xb5\xdf+\x81!\x00\x0c\x05c\xf1\x02\xac\x01\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xbb\x80,\x8

But there is word ! keymeta!, bitcoin adress , testdata, purpose, receive ... I hope it helps. I have the seeds and a list of electrum private adress, but nothing works

It looks like corrupted although some of the readable texts aren't familiar.
Even if the old wallet is encrypted, the data should still be readable text, not garbage text of its hexadecimal representation.

If it's <v2.0 You can try your luck by checking if the numbers after the name: "'seed':" is intact, e.g.: 'long_number_string'
If so, even if it's not a "seed phrase" Electrum will still identify it as "old" seed when you restore it to the latest version. (remove the '' during restore)

Its the same problem that i had in 2018.
Electrum never refund me. I have the seeds and a list of electrum private adress. Nothing works. The wallet is corupted.

The thing is, Electrum isn't a company.
And they don't store your bitcoins for you, you private keys that control your bitcoins are in that wallet file of yours which is saved in your machine's HDD/SSD.
If it has a hardware or software issue that corrupted the file, it's on to the user as per agreement with the "MIT License" in their EULA.

[thenarog]

The version of electrum is old from 2018. I made an upload on the official website, and then i can't access my wallet anymore since this day.

There are some text but no "seed" found. It's not a hardware problem. It's when the upload has made, some of us, had this exact problem.

I try to contact many times Electrum, they never answered. Its the version of electrum in 2018 who was corrupted. I install it and realize it was too late.

I don't have any chances ? Some people contact me, telling me that can do it , with contrat, asking me 20 % if they succeeded.

It's true ?

[flatfly]

The version of electrum is old from 2018. I made an upload on the official website, and then i can't access my wallet anymore since this day.

There are some text but no "seed" found. It's not a hardware problem. It's when the upload has made, some of us, had this exact problem.

I try to contact many times Electrum, they never answered. Its the version of electrum in 2018 who was corrupted. I install it and realize it was too late.

I don't have any chances ? Some people contact me, telling me that can do it , with contrat, asking me 20 % if they succeeded.

It's true ?

Have you been able to verify (using an blockchain explorer) that the coins are still in your addresses and did not move since 2018?

Attempting to bruteforce the password (using a *strong* multi-GPU rig) might work, assuming the file is an Electrum file and the password is not too long/complex.  Over the years I managed to help other users recover electrum passwords.   See this case where I was able to help another user recover their coins last month:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5228226

Feel free to DM if you would like me to give it a try.  I typically need as much information as possible to get started.

Note: I will be quite busy in the next few days, and might not be able to respond quickly.  
Note: Be very careful not to answer DMs from random users.  

[nc50lc]

The version of electrum is old from 2018. I made an upload on the official website, and then i can't access my wallet anymore since this day.

There are some text but no "seed" found. It's not a hardware problem. It's when the upload has made, some of us, had this exact problem.

I don't get what you mean by "upload".
Electrum doesn't have such feature in the client nor its official website: electrum.org

Are you sure you're using a legit Electrum wallet?
Because the information that you provided so far, don't look like related to Electrum.
Your description of the wallet file's contents doesn't look like an v2.0+ Electrum wallet file as well.

Because you know, there are a lot of fake Electrum wallets in the internet.

I don't have any chances ? Some people contact me, telling me that can do it , with contrat, asking me 20 % if they succeeded.

It's true ?

Well, if you have a legit encrypted Electrum wallet file that you don't know the password.
Some people could try to bruteforce it using their software and hardware.

And electricity to power those GPUs isn't cheap and writing a software isn't easy as well.
However, you're prone to scammers that way so do not entertain PMs from random members specially new accounts, only deal with reputable members with a good track record.

[thenarog]

1 / Upload i mean the last version of electrum on official website. in 2018, i go to download the latest version of electrum and in that time they were issues with some versions of electrum, who was corrupted.

2 : Yes i'm sure for the legit wallet. What do you think is it ? Multibit wallet ? I only use electrum and multibit


Have you been able to verify (using an blockchain explorer) that the coins are still in your addresses and did not move since 2018?

Great idea. I didn't check it. So i try btc adress from the file of the wallet, nothing found. But i had a list of private adress key and some is working on blockchain explorer
When i try to recover the wallet from the file of private adress, it doesn't work.

Can i do something with the list ?

Thanks for your help

[nc50lc]

1 / Upload i mean the last version of electrum on official website. in 2018, i go to download the latest version of electrum and in that time they were issues with some versions of electrum, who was corrupted

Okay so you mean "download" which is the opposite of "upload".

2 : Yes i'm sure for the legit wallet. What do you think is it ? Multibit wallet ? I only use electrum and multibit

Because corrupted or not, the human-readable data inside the wallet that you described doesn't look like an electrum wallet file.

BTW, at that time, there were rogue servers that can send fake Electrum update notification that instructed the connected user to download an update from a fake but mirrored version of electrum website.
May be related.

But i had a list of private adress key and some is working on blockchain explorer
When i try to recover the wallet from the file of private adress, it doesn't work.

Does the list has strings that starts with "K", "L", or "5"?
If you have the first two, click the "Info" button when you try to import them to Electrum menu: "New/Restore->[wallet name]->Import bitcoin addresses or private keys"
If the latter, import it without those script type prefixes.

Lastly, a correction, there's no such thing as "private address key", refer to these examples instead:

• If it's starts with the characters I listed above and consists of 51/52 characters; it's a "Private Key" in WIF (Wallet Import Format), you can use this to import/sweep to most wallet.
• If it starts with '1', '3', 'bc1'; it's just a "Bitcoin Address".
• If it starts with "04" consisting of 130 characters or "03" or "02" consisting of 66 characters; it's a "Public Key", you can't import this to your electrum wallet nor can be used to recover your bitcoins.

[Pmalek]

I try to contact many times Electrum, they never answered.

I don't blame them to be honest. If you contacted them asking for money or asked them to return your coins, then I don't see the point of them trying to explain to you how a non-custodial wallet works. You seem to have thought that they can give people refunds in the past. Btw, how did you even "contact" Electrum?

1 / Upload i mean the last version of electrum on official website. in 2018, i go to download the latest version of electrum and in that time they were issues with some versions of electrum, who was corrupted.

How much of what you did do you remember? Did you see a notification in Electrum that you need to update your wallet and then you clicked on that notification and performed the update?

Great idea. I didn't check it. So i try btc adress from the file of the wallet, nothing found. But i had a list of private adress key and some is working on blockchain explorer

According to you, what is a "private adress key"? Can you explain how it looks without revealing the string, of course?

[thenarog]

"Okay so you mean "download" which is the opposite of "upload".

I download a new version of electrum , to upload the software.

"BTW, at that time, there were rogue servers that can send fake Electrum update notification that instructed the connected user to download an update from a fake but mirrored version of electrum website.
May be related."

If it's not an electrum wallet what is it ? Please tell me Multibit wallet ? I only use this two. in 2018 there was exactly this kind of problem with fake mirrored version of electrum website.

"Does the list has strings that starts with "K", "L", or "5"? "

Started with 1 , k , and L. I'm actually triyng every adress , i will let you know.

"Btw, how did you even "contact" Electrum? "

I do at the time they was an contact adress. They never answered. I said that i download the new version of electrum at the time, and the new version corrupted my wallet file. My password did not work anymore, even not my list of seeds.
And i remember it well, that it was a big case, that electrum made a mistake with one version of their wallet. Its was knowed that one version corrupted wallets.

They argue that was not their fault. But the software lastest version at the time was corrupted, and was making errors for some users.
It's was like the thing about livecoins and the monero problems. When some users lost moneros on their accounts , livecoins says "it's not our fault".
At the time, it was hard to get sue this kind of compagny. Time are changing.

It was the time or electrum livecoins and others, was not façing justice. I'm giving my money back, even if i have to sue electrum.

"How much of what you did do you remember? Did you see a notification in Electrum that you need to update your wallet and then you clicked on that notification and performed the update? "

No i heard about fake mirrors sites of electrum and a problem of vulnaribility of the latest versions. I did go to the offical website, downloaded the latest version and then, no more access to my wallet.

"According to you, what is a "private adress key"? Can you explain how it looks without revealing the string, of course?"

1 , then K and L adresses . I have found old transactions too.

Thanks for your help.

[Pmalek]

I download a new version of electrum , to upload the software.

You downloaded a newer version of Electrum to update the software.

If it's not an electrum wallet what is it?

The links provided from some malicious nodes lead to fake Electrum wallets and malicious installations. People were tricked into downloading them from wrong websites, not Electrum's official website. Ultimately, people lost their bitcoin.

Started with 1 , k , and L. I'm actually triyng every adress , i will let you know.

The strings starting with 1 are most probably old legacy addresses. The strings starting with K and L might be private keys. My next question is, how do you have those? Where did you get the keys and addresses from?

At the time, it was hard to get sue this kind of compagny. Time are changing.

Electrum wasn't and is still not a company. You can't sue them. It's a group of developers creating open-source software.

No i heard about fake mirrors sites of electrum and a problem of vulnaribility of the latest versions. I did go to the offical website, downloaded the latest version and then, no more access to my wallet.

If what you are saying is true and you heard of vulnerabilities from someone, why would you then go and install that allegedly vulnerable latest release? It doesn't make sense installing something vulnerable, does it?

1 , then K and L adresses . I have found old transactions too.

Found where and how?
Can you remember approximately how many funded addresses you had in your Electrum wallet? If you know the addresses and the source from where you sent the bitcoin, you could check if the coins are still on those addresses. Did you sent them from another wallet, exchange, casino, etc.?

[thenarog]

Yes you are right it was an update not an upload. Sorry.

"The links provided from some malicious nodes lead to fake Electrum wallets and malicious installations. People were tricked into downloading them from wrong websites, not Electrum's official website. Ultimately, people lost their bitcoin"

Yes i remember this story and i remember that Electrum warned about it. I was careful about that.

"The strings starting with 1 are most probably old legacy addresses. The strings starting with K and L might be private keys. My next question is, how do you have those? Where did you get the keys and addresses from? "

From the wallet. I made copy of the password, seeds, list of private adresses, transactions to be sure if something go wrong, that i have some backup. It was not enough. It's a long list, i'm trying every adress.

"Electrum wasn't and is still not a company. You can't sue them. It's a group of developers creating open-source software"

I don't give a fuck, company or group. For me there are responsible. One of their update, corrupted my wallet.

"If what you are saying is true and you heard of vulnerabilities from someone, why would you then go and install that allegedly vulnerable latest release? It doesn't make sense installing something vulnerable, does it?"

Not from someone, from Electrum and from here. Because at the time, they say that people needed to make the update, it was important. It doesn't make sens to make an update of an official website ? I don't understand.

Found where and how?
Can you remember approximately how many funded addresses you had in your Electrum wallet? If you know the addresses and the source from where you sent the bitcoin, you could check if the coins are still on those addresses. Did you sent them from another wallet, exchange, casino, etc.?


That was the copy of my wallet when i made backup, like i told you before. The wallet was juste for stocking btc. I had maybe 4 funded adresses. 3 , 4 transactions maybe. I put my money in the wallet, and it was just to wait for btc to rise up and then cash out. I did use it maybe 3 4 times max.

Can you tell me how can i check if the bitcoin are still on it ? How can you do it ? The 3 4 transactions , was from another wallet, multibit. First my money was on multibit, then i transfer it on electum.
I check if it works, it did. Then, i juste made update when they had one, and didn't touch the wallet.

[nc50lc]

"Does the list has strings that starts with "K", "L", or "5"? "

Started with 1 , k , and L. I'm actually triyng every adress , i will let you know.

Have you tried this yet?
FYI, only those with "K" or "L" are the ones that you should import, not mixed with the ones starting with "1".
If you mix them together during import, the "next" button wont be clickable.

And I'd recommend you to verify your latest Electrum download before using it.
Here's how to: bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-verify-your-electrum-download

[thenarog]

"Does the list has strings that starts with "K", "L", or "5"? "

Started with 1 , k , and L. I'm actually triyng every adress , i will let you know.

Have you tried this yet?
FYI, only those with "K" or "L" are the ones that you should import, not mixed with the ones starting with "1".
If you mix them together during import, the "next" button wont be clickable.

And I'd recommend you to verify your latest Electrum download before using it.
Here's how to: bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-verify-your-electrum-download

I try some. First , i had the error message : not a key master. Then i try another way.
I had a new wallet, with "local" and "local" with a number with an computer icon and with 2 transactions. I don't know  what does it means ? "Local", and no bitcoins on it.

Can you give me the steps to check if there are bitcoins on wallet ? You said that is possible with blockchain explorer ? 

[BitMaxz]

I tried several tools like CyberChef to decode and make the error human-readable, but I failed to find a tool to make the error readable.
I tried some AI tools to look for me to decode it but the resuly is pointing to a Bitcoin fork because it said it is a Long-Fork-ID of Bitcoin SV.

So maybe the wallet you are trying to recover with Electrum is maybe the file of Electrum SV?
Have you ever tried to import it into ElectrumSv?
If not, try to import it to Electrum SV, and let's see if it's compatible, or try Electron Cash. Just make sure you made a backup copy of your wallet file.

If it reads it means that it is not a BTC electrum wallet.

[nc50lc]

Have you tried this yet?

I try some. First , i had the error message : not a key master. Then i try another way.  

This is when you selected "Standard->Use a master key" option but imported a WIF private key instead.
That option only accepts (master) extended private/public keys like xprv/xpub.

The option that you should select to import those "L" and "K" private key is: "Import bitcoin addresses or private keys".

I had a new wallet, with "local" and "local" with a number with an computer icon and with 2 transactions. I don't know  what does it means ? "Local", and no bitcoins on it.

If you're pertaining to the history tab, this means that the currently open wallet has transactions that aren't in its (auto)selected server's mempool or blockchain.
You can try selecting a different server in the network options (click the circle-connection icon) and see if it'll change after a few tries.
If not, those transactions aren't in the Bitcoin blockchain, but not necessarily means that it's invalid.
If it's an inbound (receiving) transaction and the wallet isn't "watch-only", you can try to open and broadcast it to try to actually send it.
If it returns with an error, tell what it says (but that already means that there's something wrong with the local transaction)

Can you give me the steps to check if there are bitcoins on wallet ? You said that is possible with blockchain explorer?

I didn't, I rarely suggest using a blockexplorer unless it's necessary for the OP.

Letting the wallet sync is all you need to check for transactions and balance.

You may try to use a multi-coin blockexplorer instead to make sure that your wallet file(s) aren't from Electrum forks.
To get the addresses, just enable your addresses tab (View->Show Addresses), then a tab named "Addresses" will show.

[Pmalek]

From the wallet. I made copy of the password, seeds, list of private adresses, transactions to be sure if something go wrong, that i have some backup. It was not enough. It's a long list, i'm trying every adress.

So what you have is essentially a type of text file that you created yourself by adding addresses, keys, and seeds into it, right? You said seeds. Plural? Are there multiple seeds? One seed should consist of 12 English words, plus the possible addition of a passphrase if you added it. Does that record of yours show a seed consisting of 12 words?

How many addresses are in that file? The strings that start with "1"? 

Can you tell me how can i check if the bitcoin are still on it ? How can you do it ? The 3 4 transactions , was from another wallet, multibit. First my money was on multibit, then i transfer it on electum.

As nc50lc said, when the software syncs it will show you the correct balance and transaction history. Alternatively, you can check each address on a blockchain explorer like https://mempool.space/. I wouldn't advice you to do that just yet because you might copy/paste a private key instead. You are still confused on the difference between addresses and keys (be it public or private). It's for your own good.

What you could also do is create a new watch-only wallet and import only addresses into it. The short strings starting with "1". That won't create a wallet that you can spend from because the private keys are still missing, but Electrum would show you if there are any bitcoin left in those addresses.

Try to setup and sync the wallet naturally first as nc50lc explained. If that doesn't work, we can try alternative ways.

[thenarog]

I tried several tools like CyberChef to decode and make the error human-readable, but I failed to find a tool to make the error readable.
I tried some AI tools to look for me to decode it but the resuly is pointing to a Bitcoin fork because it said it is a Long-Fork-ID of Bitcoin SV.

So maybe the wallet you are trying to recover with Electrum is maybe the file of Electrum SV?
Have you ever tried to import it into ElectrumSv?
If not, try to import it to Electrum SV, and let's see if it's compatible, or try Electron Cash. Just make sure you made a backup copy of your wallet file.

If it reads it means that it is not a BTC electrum wallet.

Im' pretty sure it's a wallet. I can make the difference between an electrum wallet and a electrum SV.

What do you mean into electrum sv ? Open the wallet as a file recovering "list of private keys or key master ?" Done, but doesnt work, can't click on next.

Electron cash ? If it's not it's a multibit wallet. I only used multibit and electrum.

The transactions are correct, it took just sometimes to connect. 0 transactions and 0 bitcoins. I tried all the number of the adress list and nothing

"Letting the wallet sync is all you need to check for transactions and balance."

Bro i can't access the wallet. How can i do it ?

So what you have is essentially a type of text file that you created yourself by adding addresses, keys, and seeds into it, right? You said seeds. Plural? Are there multiple seeds? One seed should consist of 12 English words, plus the possible addition of a passphrase if you added it. Does that record of yours show a seed consisting of 12 words?

Yes i created my self , to have a backup. Yes i had seeds but it doesnt work. Yes 12 words. Nothing works.

How many addresses are in that file? The strings that start with "1"? 

52

As nc50lc said, when the software syncs it will show you the correct balance and transaction history. Alternatively, you can check each address on a blockchain explorer like https://mempool.space/. I wouldn't advice you to do that just yet because you might copy/paste a private key instead. You are still confused on the difference between addresses and keys (be it public or private). It's for your own good.

I think i understand that 1 is for public adresses and L and K is for private keys.

Try to setup and sync the wallet naturally first as nc50lc explained. If that doesn't work, we can try alternative ways.

I will try it today.

Just a quick question is it possible that my wallet was corrupted enough to change juste one word of my password ? It's still the same but maybe one word had changed and that's why i can't access it ?

I have find another copy of the wallet (i think so) when i open it in a txt files, it's completely different than the other file. I dont have the same text. No "b'\x00\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00b1\x05\x00\t\x00\x00\x00\x00 " just à lot o f series of letters, who look likes btc adresses.
Does it helps ?

thanks for your help