If you happen to have .dat wallet file

[YellowSwap]

This is for you If you happen to have a Bitcoin.dat wallet

A brother who is into crypto before me have lost a good amount of Bitcoin because he downloaded an editor and try to edit ( he claimed it was a mistake) the .dat wallet file, I am glad he gave up this information after several days of pain have passed.

I can't ask for screenshot of the address that move the fund because he knows I will make a content out of it since he is aware that I am on a crypto forum.

To cut this story short just know that....

You can't open wallet.dat file with an editor
You shouldn't even try to because of your internet connection
Wallet.dat works only with Bitcoin Core.

Trying to open a wallet.dat file using some file editor is giving everyone access to your private key.

[GreatArkansas]

So for sure, basically, he used a text editor for sure, and that editor is connected online, which could easily detect whatever file is open on that editor.
So I assume that the editor is kinda not safe to use because it can easily access all the files you want to open with that editor.

I'm curious why he wants to open the .dat file in an editor?

[melinoe]

it creates risks, not that it gives your keys right away..

but yeah, better not to do it.

[NotATether]

You cannot overwrite your wallet file unless you click "Save" in the text editor.

And you shouldn't be editing a binary sqlite3 database using a text editor in the first place. Wrong tool.

Why was he doing that anyway? And he didn't make a copy?

No, it wasn't the internet connection.

[ABCbits]

A brother who is into crypto before me have lost a good amount of Bitcoin because he downloaded an editor and try to edit ( he claimed it was a mistake) the .dat wallet file, I am glad he gave up this information after several days of pain have passed.

Your brother have chance to recover his Bitcoin. See this short guide.

If your wallet.dat came out corrupted, you can make a copy of it and try to use Bitcoin Core's bitcoin-wallet tool's "salvage" command.
Install Bitcoin Core and find it in "bin" or "daemon" folder inside Bitcoin Core's install directory.
Use your terminal/cmd, cd to that directory and use the salvage command, e.g.: bitcoin-wallet --wallet="Full\path\to\your\wallet.dat" salvage

Make sure he do it only on offline/secure device.

You cannot overwrite your wallet file unless you click "Save" in the text editor.

But i wouldn't be surprised if there are editor that automatically change thing (such as editing metadata or encoding) when you open it, which may cause the corruption.