Your seed phrase is correct, but your BITCOIN is missing

[sunsilk]

This happened to me long time ago when I have accessed my long term holdings and my mistake came from the derivation path.

And OP is right that it's important to check on which one is the correct derivation path that you'll have to choose when you access that wallet of yours. The solution that I've found was only googled at that time.

Security and tracking of funds is for everybody and not just for those with large holdings. Meanwhile the term Large Holdings can be subjective. 12BTC can be a large holding for you and very little for me since our financial capacities are different.

Soon, we're going to have 1 BTC or 0.5 BTC as whales when the price of Bitcoin keeps on climbing.

[ColdLava40]

It is worth knowing that if someone sees zero balance, the person should first check the transaction history to know if the coin has not been sent to another address.

Have you ever restored a wallet with the correct recovery phrase but received different addresses or an empty balance?

Anyone that know about the passphrase and the script type should be able not to make mistake. These are the two common things that can make someone make such a mistake of seeing zero balance if the coins has not been sent to another address.

In the derivation path, most mistake is the script type.

It's very rare for this kind of mistakes to occur. And I agree with your idea of checking first the wallet history just so we can confirm if the coins had actually been moved out. Though it will be obvious to the eyes.

From what I can grab, it means if one adds a passphrase to their seed and forget their passphrase by a character their wallet will generate a different path, that makes a whole lot of sense.

Does it mean we can have more than one passphrase to a single seedphrase and if yes, what would be the limit as to how many wallet will can generate adding passphrases, just curious.

[Cookdata]

The most important thing which we often overlook  is network level leakage and xpub privacy when you querying with Electrum public servers with your master key .Your IP address is linked with your whole transaction history and with your total balance . Which increase the risk of revealing your account balance.

Unfortunately, not everyone has such resources and time to run a server. Not all servers you connect to are bad servers with watching of IP address, there are so many of them you can rely on. There are at least two people on the forum who offered servers to wallet; you can trust them, or you can run a full node and run your server from your computer. If there is anything, you wouldn't have to worry about IP addresses and balance links.

That make complete sense to forget the derivation path and WIFI format can definitely cause heart attack to a person until he figure out the correct script type like  Legacy, SegWit etc.... Sometime it became difficult for beginners to attach the correct derivation paths with the address format .

Don't wish for what's bad. You don't have to tamper with the derivation path when you create a wallet, and even if they show you, just proceed with the default, as most wallets use similar derivation paths, but know the version of the wallet you are using so in the future, if the path of default are change, you can download the old wallet and import your seed phrase and send your coins out.

[Floxynice]

It's a good reminder that, if at any time we get a similar scare, after putting our hands to our heads, we remember that there is still hope that your Bitcoin are still there.

It's a very technical post to be in this section, but for most of us, newbies included, just knowing that this can happen and that it doesn't mean that the coins have been lost I think it's worth sharing it here. I imagine that there will be many people who, due to ignorance of this, will have discarded wallets in which there were funds, especially when the amounts were small (although a small amount in the past can be a fortune at current prices).

I noticed something on my wallet recently. Found out that my balance was not adding up anytime bitcoins was sent to address. I panicked and thought there was someone stealing from me. I checked my transaction history and there was no evidence that any bitcoin was transferred from my wallet. I talked to my man about it and he made me understand that it was from my wallet software ,that nothing happened to my bitcoins. I just needed to update my wallet for everything to synchronise faster.

Knowledge is indeed power. I am imagining also in my head the number of people that have abandoned their wallets thinking that their bitcoins were stolen.

[Karl_3000]

I noticed something on my wallet recently. Found out that my balance was not adding up anytime bitcoins was sent to address. I panicked and thought there was someone stealing from me. I checked my transaction history and there was no evidence that any bitcoin was transferred from my wallet. I talked to my man about it and he made me understand that it was from my wallet software ,that nothing happened to my bitcoins. I just needed to update my wallet for everything to synchronise faster.

Hope you are not using Trust wallet or Cake? These are the two wallets that I have seen this before. I liked Cake because it is open source but the bug is too much which made me stop using it and stop visiting what people are posting about it on its thread on this forum. Use electrum or bluewallet, you will like both of them.

[Floxynice]

I noticed something on my wallet recently. Found out that my balance was not adding up anytime bitcoins was sent to address. I panicked and thought there was someone stealing from me. I checked my transaction history and there was no evidence that any bitcoin was transferred from my wallet. I talked to my man about it and he made me understand that it was from my wallet software ,that nothing happened to my bitcoins. I just needed to update my wallet for everything to synchronise faster.

Hope you are not using Trust wallet or Cake? These are the two wallets that I have seen this before. I liked Cake because it is open source but the bug is too much which made me stop using it and stop visiting what people are posting about it on its thread on this forum. Use electrum or bluewallet, you will like both of them.

Yea, it was actually one of these wallets you just mentioned, Trust wallet. I thought the problem was because I failed to update my wallet, then everything became slow. Thanks for the recommendation, I will look into the two wallets you just mentioned. I don't wish to panic about such a situation again, or anything else I don't know about yet.

[Myleschetty]

This is useful information, but I expect the OP to also mention checking to see if the wallet is fully synchronized when the wallet displays a 0 BTC balance after using the correct recovery phrase word, which has been a problem for some Bitcoiners who neglected to do so before requesting for help on this forum.
This is also worthwhile, in my opinion, if someone notices a zero balance before looking at transaction history to see if the coin has been moved and whether the proper recovery configuration is being used

[Cookdata]

This is useful information, but I expect the OP to also mention checking to see if the wallet is fully synchronized when the wallet displays a 0 BTC balance after using the correct recovery phrase word, which has been a problem for some Bitcoiners who neglected to do so before requesting for help on this forum.

It's not all the time wallet balance show 0 is a synchronize issue and even if it's, there is limit to number of address wallet can sync by default, you have to increase it to see an address with balance. Most often seed phrase and derivation path is one of the common problems, electrum for example does not generate bip39 seed but it supports Bip39 seed phrase. If you import electrum seed phrase on Bip39 wallet might not work because they are not the same.

This is also worthwhile, in my opinion, if someone notices a zero balance before looking at transaction history to see if the coin has been moved and whether the proper recovery configuration is being used

Iwhat do you mean by recovery configuration? Your first thing to check when your balance is 0 is if you are having the wallet address that have your balance is among the generated address. If there is anyone you know and have deposited Bitcoin, then the problem is not derivation path, it's synced issue and the fact that the address is even among pre-generated address is probably your server is not connected maybe internet.

[7juju]

Do we just get access to wallets or we own them?

You don’t just access wallets, you have to own a wallet before you can gain access to it through the seed phrase. For the user to said it got access a wallet, you should know it is a wallet under his control.

another thing is that if it is the same wallet you've opened 2 years ago in the same device, then it is obvious the coins are gone

I have used a wallet before, were I opened it in same device and it has stayed on that device for years. There was a time I updated the app, and opening it I couldn’t find my coins, and there was no suspicious transactions history. I had to scan my wallet address through the network explorers, and the coins were there. The update only turned off those coins from being visible. SoI had to turn them on myself. Before we can tag something as missing, we should exhaust every possible means of verifying if they are truly missing not.

[joniboini]

What tools or strategies do you recommend to effectively trace the correct derivation paths ??
Do you rely on the tools like Electrum manual path??

As others have said, it's unlikely for beginners to mess with derivation paths to be honest. At worst they mistype or use the wrong WIF format as I mentioned above. If they somehow get the wrong derivation path for whatever reason, maybe it's worth checking out with open source tools instead. Before that they, they have to make sure their key isn't wrong. Checking what type of key they have is probably important, and we can go step by step from there.

[Zaka1221]

This is useful information, but I expect the OP to also mention checking to see if the wallet is fully synchronized when the wallet displays a 0 BTC balance after using the correct recovery phrase word, which has been a problem for some Bitcoiners who neglected to do so before requesting for help on this forum.
This is also worthwhile, in my opinion, if someone notices a zero balance before looking at transaction history to see if the coin has been moved and whether the proper recovery configuration is being used

Here in this thread, there's enough information for newbies because they always need to understand and have knowledge of how to take care of their wallets and how things are working; if they are going to understand, it's surely going to be helpful for them in the long run. Managing a wallet and keeping your coins safe are always the first things that need to be learned, along with having all important things about them as well.

Here on this forum, there are too many cases and issues related to wallets, and many have lost their funds because they were not able to do all things as they needed. After reading this, I am feeling happy because now I also have a good understanding of managing a wallet and also have good knowledge in case I have a problem with my password. This thread and topic are some of the best for any newbie here on this forum.

[Perfectbaby]

It is worth knowing that if someone sees zero balance, the person should first check the transaction history to know if the coin has not been sent to another address.

Have you ever restored a wallet with the correct recovery phrase but received different addresses or an empty balance?

Anyone that know about the passphrase and the script type should be able not to make mistake. These are the two common things that can make someone make such a mistake of seeing zero balance if the coins has not been sent to another address.

In the derivation path, most mistake is the script type.

I think I have experienced something like this back then, I was trying to export from Trustwallet to send to Electrum when I loaded it was not able to display my balance or something load up completely.
I had to contact someone whom I think has a higher level of experience more than me, after all instructions I had to continue the whole process back and it restored. The reason why people are running away from some of the wallet is because they are close source and not open source so anything is likely to happen along the process.

[ezza3e]

I think I have experienced something like this back then, I was trying to export from Trustwallet to send to Electrum when I loaded it was not able to display my balance or something load up completely.
I had to contact someone whom I think has a higher level of experience more than me, after all instructions I had to continue the whole process back and it restored. The reason why people are running away from some of the wallet is because they are close source and not open source so anything is likely to happen along the process.

imo.. yeah that is 100% possible, tbh Ive seen this happen a lot.
correct seed but 0 btc usually because of 3 things:
1. Wrong Drivation Path - like you made wallet on Electrum with m/44 but restored on Trustwallet with m/84. Different addresses
2. Forgot Passphrase - even 1 word extra will change everything
3. Wrong script type - Legacy vs Segwit vs Native Segwit
try to import the seed to Electrum offline, then try m/44, m/49, m/84 manually and scan.
hope OP finds the coins 🙏 cmiiw

[PERtua]

If you're looking to change derivation settings. I believe the first place to start would be in the old receiving address and its transaction history. If the UTXOs are still unspent at that address then it's logical to check the recovery configuration. However if the coins were already spent. The path will change won't restore the coins. This also helps to distinguish two separate issues  where the wallet is pointing to the wrong addresses and where the coins are being moved. BIP39 provides an explanation of how the mnemonic and optional passphrase generate the seed. And how the derivation of the wallet generates the keys and addresses that follow.