Don't know where I went wrong - gladly pay for assistance

[Mendozer123]

Short story.
Long time MYCELIUM user, same wallet for 8+ months
Overnight I login and find a strange new public key which I don't recognise.
I also see that my entire phone book has been deleted.
My original wallet still shows up as a secondary and the balance is correct but I have no private key associated and I do not know what to do.

I'm going to get burnt for saying I can't remember if I followed proper backup protocol with my wallet when I first started using it, so I don't have any private keys or passwords backup up :-)
At the time. I stupidly found all the bitcoin jargon too hard to follow and since my wallet was carrying amounts so small not to be concerned I did not pay proper attention.

Can anyone assist me in any way - I will pay generously
I ran in to a few sites that claim to be able to recover your key/password but I am dubious.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can suggest something easy enough for a tech noob like me to try, alternatively I'm happy to pay someone to help

[frankenmint]

Short story.
Long time MYCELIUM user, same wallet for 8+ months
Overnight I login and find a strange new public key which I don't recognise.
I also see that my entire phone book has been deleted.
My original wallet still shows up as a secondary and the balance is correct but I have no private key associated and I do not know what to do.

I'm going to get burnt for saying I can't remember if I followed proper backup protocol with my wallet when I first started using it, so I don't have any private keys or passwords backup up :-)
At the time. I stupidly found all the bitcoin jargon too hard to follow and since my wallet was carrying amounts so small not to be concerned I did not pay proper attention.

Can anyone assist me in any way - I will pay generously
I ran in to a few sites that claim to be able to recover your key/password but I am dubious.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can suggest something easy enough for a tech noob like me to try, alternatively I'm happy to pay someone to help

Sounds like the funds are there - can't you send the funds to a second wallet you own or control like one stored on blockchain.info, coinbase, or I suppose you could send them back over the 2nd mycellium address and then keep a backup of that private key. 

[Mendozer123]

Yes indeed the funds are showing up as there, however the button to send has been disabled , saying that without a private key I'm unable to move any of the funds   

[Newar]

Is your phone rooted?

The "key" symbol does not show in the "keys" tab? (You may have to enable "Expert" mode in the settings to see them all.)

Do you have any keys archived?

Does the "correct balance" belong to the "strange new public key"? You can see this in the "keys" tab.

[Mendozer123]

Hi there. Phone not rooted
I deleted the other strange key ( which by the way had BTC 0) and my old key shows itself with the correct balance, but no key next to it.

Once again, the correct balanceis against the old key, however without the ability to send btc due to the missing private key.

BTW - $150 USD for anyone who fixes this :-)

[Newar]

If your backup does not contain those private keys, I think your best bet would be emailing to developers@mycelium.com explaining what exactly happened or ask in their thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=293472 .

[Mendozer123]

Short story.
Long time MYCELIUM user, same wallet for 8+ months
Overnight I login and find a strange new public key which I don't recognise.
I also see that my entire phone book has been deleted.
My original wallet still shows up as a secondary and the balance is correct but I have no private key associated and I do not know what to do.

I'm going to get burnt for saying I can't remember if I followed proper backup protocol with my wallet when I first started using it, so I don't have any private keys or passwords backup up :-)
At the time. I stupidly found all the bitcoin jargon too hard to follow and since my wallet was carrying amounts so small not to be concerned I did not pay proper attention.

Can anyone assist me in any way - I will pay generously
I ran in to a few sites that claim to be able to recover your key/password but I am dubious.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can suggest something easy enough for a tech noob like me to try, alternatively I'm happy to pay someone to help

Sounds like the funds are there - can't you send the funds to a second wallet you own or control like one stored on blockchain.info, coinbase, or I suppose you could send them back over the 2nd mycellium address and then keep a backup of that private key. 

Not sure it's possible to send funds from mycelium without the associated private key.
Is there perhaps another way ?

[Newar]

You can't send without a private key. 

I don't know, but to me it sounds your installation got corrupted *somehow*. That's why I thought it'd be a good idea to talk to the devs.

[trasla]

So, what you say is:

- You got a new key without taking any action (and you deleted that key again later)
- The key holding your funds changed to watch only, without you taking any actions

I can see no way at all how this could happen on its own.
Does anybody else has access to your phone?
Do you have a PIN set in mycelium?

If the private key was deleted to turn it into a watch only account, there is no way to send money from it.
You will have to scan the private key again from the backup.
Either import it, or do cold spending from it to another address.

[Mendozer123]

So, what you say is:

- You got a new key without taking any action (and you deleted that key again later)
- The key holding your funds changed to watch only, without you taking any actions

I can see no way at all how this could happen on its own.
Does anybody else has access to your phone?
Do you have a PIN set in mycelium?

If the private key was deleted to turn it into a watch only account, there is no way to send money from it.
You will have to scan the private key again from the backup.
Either import it, or do cold spending from it to another address.

Im hoping this clears things - hoping you can also elaborate on the cold storage based on my points below:
1- I think my kid tried to delete the data associated with mycelium in the apps section of android settings.
They do this to free up space for games :-(
2-I didn't have a backup :-(
3-where the other key came from I have no idea

[trasla]

Im hoping this clears things - hoping you can also elaborate on the cold storage based on my points below:
1- I think my kid tried to delete the data associated with mycelium in the apps section of android settings.
They do this to free up space for games :-(
2-I didn't have a backup :-(
3-where the other key came from I have no idea

Not having a backup is already a very bad idea on its own.
Its even worse when someone (especially without understanding what they do) deletes data on your phone.
We really try to tell people to make backups as much as we can, we are just short of making it impossible to use the app without a backup.
(In the next version, it will at least be easier to make a backup - you will have to write down twelve words, thats it.)

When there is no private key in the app on startup, it generates a new random one for you.
Thats where the new one came from.

So there is really nothing we can do.
Only option for you is a data recovery service, if its worth it.
(Dont know about the chances to get the data back again, though, if it was cleared to be overwritten right away by some game, its probably hopeless.)

[Mendozer123]

Im hoping this clears things - hoping you can also elaborate on the cold storage based on my points below:
1- I think my kid tried to delete the data associated with mycelium in the apps section of android settings.
They do this to free up space for games :-(
2-I didn't have a backup :-(
3-where the other key came from I have no idea

Not having a backup is already a very bad idea on its own.
Its even worse when someone (especially without understanding what they do) deletes data on your phone.
We really try to tell people to make backups as much as we can, we are just short of making it impossible to use the app without a backup.
(In the next version, it will at least be easier to make a backup - you will have to write down twelve words, thats it.)

When there is no private key in the app on startup, it generates a new random one for you.
Thats where the new one came from.

So there is really nothing we can do.
Only option for you is a data recovery service, if its worth it.
(Dont know about the chances to get the data back again, though, if it was cleared to be overwritten right away by some game, its probably hopeless.)

Yeah that makes a lot of sense re the new key !
Can't argue re the backup - just damn stupid.
There was about $1500 in the wallet so I may throw $500 at some potential at a recovery - worth a shot I guess :-)