Forgot my bitcoin wallet passphrase, can I access it with the wallet key?

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quantumzNewbie
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#1Apr 15, 2020, 07:57 AM
Is there a way to unlock my wallet with the key?
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#2Apr 16, 2020, 10:10 AM
You haven't provided enough information.  Do you have a seed phrase wallet with an additional word, i.e. Bip39 passphrase?  Or do you mean you forgot the password to your wallet file?  What software are you using?  The more detail you can provide the better we can help.   You've been around long enough that I probably don't have to tell you to not post any private keys, seed phrases, or passwords, and don't trust anyone offering help in PM.
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quantumzNewbie
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#3Apr 16, 2020, 02:07 PM
I forgot the passphrase to open the wallet to send funds or change passphrase to the locked wallet, but I do have the key for the wallet. I believe the passphrase is with letters and numbers if seed phrase you mean.
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bull770Full Member
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#4Apr 16, 2020, 02:57 PM
By wallet key do you mean private key, that is in this format "5HueCGU8rMjxEXxiPuD5BDuUet89Z5c4vGbGJ2PR63QBsxEmZ6G" OR  you mean the 4 digit - 6 digit access key of the wallet. Having the wallet key (password) won’t help you bypass the wallet encryption. The function of the key is to protect the wallet in general, without it the you can’t extract your private key or passphrase just like others have warned on the forums. If you neither have your private key or your passphrase, then you are in a tough position because you can access your wallet unless you backed up your wallet using wallet.dat from Bitcoin core., or maybe you save the key in a cloud storage, or have exported it in a paper form and forget about it. Aside from this, you have no option than to require the help of wallet recovery platforms but I do not trust most of them.
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quantumzNewbie
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#5Apr 16, 2020, 05:06 PM
It's like this one  "5HueCGU8rMjxEXxiPuD5BDuUet89Z5c4vGbGJ2PR63QBsxEmZ6G" I believe when I made the passphrase it said to back  this up.
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#6Apr 16, 2020, 08:16 PM
It sounds like you might be using Bitcoin Core, but I'm still not sure so I'll make some assumptions.  If so, then yes, you can recover your wallet with the private key.  I'm also assuming you have a single private key you'll want to import into a new wallet.  Depending on the version of Bitcoin Core you're using (21 and later, IIRC,) it may not allow you to do so without jumping through some hoops.  I recently posted the method for doing so here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5545286.msg65435592#msg65435592
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quantumzNewbie
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#7Apr 17, 2020, 02:27 AM
Oh, sorry, yea, bitcoin core 28.1.0 I don't understand this, guide.
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bull770Full Member
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#8Apr 17, 2020, 05:19 AM
These times you make use of the search engine at least you have a hint on where to start. Meanwhile - watch how to import your private key wallet on Bitcoin core - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ev33XGCH8M In other words- Access the console in your Bitcoin core. Use Ctrl T then type the code below. Replace "your_private_key" with your private key, and then replace "label" wit any unique name, optional though, set rescan to false. Click enter. It will return with a response. Use "getaddressinfo" to verify if the import was successful or not.
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quantumzNewbie
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#9Apr 17, 2020, 10:35 AM
Bitcoin core says it is in fact encrypted.
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quantumzNewbie
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#10Apr 17, 2020, 10:48 AM
Ok so, I added this to to bitcoin.conf Start bitcoin core. I chose this option, 3. I enter in the cmd line I tried both boolean, optional, default=false & (boolean, optional, default=false) I receive Method not found (code -32601) I am stuck at step 2. Edit. Is this for a Blank wallet example?
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quantumzNewbie
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#11Apr 17, 2020, 04:07 PM
I did this when I run I receive an error. I added deprecatedrpc=create_bdb to bitcoin config file started it. createwallet "Main2" false true "Main2" true false false false does not work as above. I tried cmd line -deprecatedrpc=create_bdb & deprecatedrpc=create_bdb
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quantumzNewbie
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#12Apr 17, 2020, 07:31 PM
LoL. Finally popped in my head, I put in the bitcoin shortcut. facepalm.
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quantumzNewbie
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#13Apr 18, 2020, 12:02 AM
Guys, I never had a importprivkey "L1dybNT1HRMRcj39t3cAbEccbVvexUTFaHudGWBzUTvrR2MA2Sf2" "somethingsomethingdarkside" false wordword passphrase like this for my private key. example "somethingsomethingdarkside"
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quantumzNewbie
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#14Apr 18, 2020, 02:00 AM
I just did the import cmd key with my private key and in fact it is saying rescanning. So, sounds like atm its working? 1% atm. Edit It's working. 6%. Gonna take 3 hours and 20min with a Seagate IronWolf 22TB HDD Reading@74MB/s read @ 72% active time. I imported like example without the seedphrase because there isn't one. importprivkey "L1dybNT1HRMRcj39t3cAbEccbVvexUTFaHudGWBzUTvrR2MA2Sf2"
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quantumzNewbie
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#15Apr 18, 2020, 08:13 AM
I hope this is not the case . I should have never password protected it/encrypted it. Big bad mistake. I'll find out once done importing.
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quantumzNewbie
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#16Apr 18, 2020, 01:00 PM
I looked at the wallet file creation date on the RW disc I have the wallet on, 2013. 12 years ago of a forgotten PW.
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#17Apr 19, 2020, 07:24 PM
If you imported the correct private key, as soon as it scan the block in which the transaction was inserted, the balance (if available) and the entire transaction history for the address will appear. If you want to do this faster, you should import the private key with the false parameter after the command so that the wallet does not scan directly after the import: After that, you should use the command: rescanblockchain previous_block_number later_block_number, e.g.: This way, if there's a transaction included between these two block numbers, Bitcoin Core will detect the transaction and show it in the balance if it still has some value. Now you should send the funds to a secure wallet, as from what I understand you created a blank wallet in Bitcoin Core, I recommend you create a new wallet, backup the wallet by writing down the 12 word seed phrase (e.g. electrum wallet), add a password to protect your keys from unauthorized access and transfer the remaining funds to the new wallet. Learn how to use descriptors: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5498210
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quantumzNewbie
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#18Apr 19, 2020, 09:34 PM
Imported the private key to a new blank wallet, it is password protected and encrypted. Also, this private key is for my main BTC address not the address's that received the remaining balance that sits in the wallet. Only thing is to keep and trying to recall the PW from 2014.
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#19Apr 20, 2020, 01:14 AM
Did you create a new wallet in bitcoin core or other wallets like Electrum? In bitcoin core you just need to protect the wallet with a passphrase and export the wallet.dat file, this file will be protected with your password used to encrypt the wallet. Wait, do you still have funds in this wallet from 2014? I got confused here because I thought you had restored everything using the private key. I noticed that you edited the post because initially you asked a question about fees, you can manually edit the wallet's fee using mempool.space as a reference, currently, between 1 - 2 sat/vB is enough to have your transaction approved in the next blocks. Note: Since Bitcoin Core's fee customization is per btc/kb (Kilobyte), just take your chosen sat/vbyte (e.g 2 sat/vB) and divide it by 100,000 (one hundred thousand bytes) for example: 2 / 100000 = 0.0002 btc/kb this is your fee (2 sat/B). Therefore, it's important to observe the customization option provided by the wallet, most use the Sat/vB standard, where you only need to provide the fee in sat/vB... But I recommend that you create a topic about it.
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bull770Full Member
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#20Apr 20, 2020, 05:30 AM
I had a busy day which made me did not follow up the discussion. Have you figured it out? Did you successfully install the wallet? So, yeah I see the progress now. Sadly from what is going on you just need to recover the password which is very difficult in this case. You have to manually guess the PW if you can get it correctly luckily. If truly, you have some Bitcoin there since 2014, it will be very painful to lose them.
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