Need help with my old account (no DMs please)

Please, no DMs about anything. If you've got something useful to say, share it here in the open. Appreciate it. Hey everyone, I found my seed phrase paper from 2014, and it's the real deal. The issue? I can't remember which platform I had my BTC stored on. So here’s the tricky part: I've got SEVENTEEN (17) words in my phrase. Not the usual 12, 18, or 24. Here's what I've tried so far to get back into my account: I attempted to recover my details from Blockchain. I entered my seed phrase and it gave me the password for my account from back then. My username is my old email, which is still active (who would've thought!). I got into Blockchain and it worked... but here's where it got even messier: there’s no BTC or any crypto in my account at all! On top of that, when I checked, there are only TWELVE (12) words this time instead of the SEVENTEEN (17) from before, even though I used my account password. So, here's my main question for this thread: Are there any other sites from back then where I might have bought my BTC apart from Blockchain? Is there a way to recover my BTC using my 17-word phrase? Thanks a lot!

That 12-word backup phrase is different, It's your updated wallet's BIP39-compatible seed phrase that is a backup of the new HD keys that your wallet generated as you login to the new version. Your 17 words backup, on the other hand, is just a backup of your account login credentials. (Password and WalletID) If you're expecting any balance from your wallet and if it's not caused by faulty wallet synchronization; It could be in the non-HD addresses below your "Wallets and Private Keys" menu in the Settings. The problem is, if there's no other addresses/keys there; only them [Blockchain(dot)com] can help you with it since that 'wallet.aes.json' file that's associated with your login credentials has been sitting in their server and nowhere else.

Firstly, THANK YOU for posting this detailed guide. Now I am stuck where I have quoted you. I am getting an error after I run the command in the command prompt: Traceback (most recent call last):   File "C:\Users\XXX\Desktop\btcrecover-master\btcrecover-master\btcrecover.py", line 30, in <module>     from btcrecover import btcrpass   File "C:\Users\XXX\Desktop\btcrecover-master\btcrecover-master\btcrecover\__init__.py", line 2, in <module>     from .btcrpass import *   File "C:\Users\XXX\Desktop\btcrecover-master\btcrecover-master\btcrecover\btcrpass.py", line 35, in <module>     import sys, argparse, itertools, string, re, multiprocessing, signal, os, cPickle, gc, \            time, timeit, hashlib, collections, base64, struct, atexit, zlib, math, json, numbers ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'cPickle' I don't know what to do here. Please help. Thanks again.

I don't know how you managed to get to that point without any issue with obtaining the payload since the instructions isn't specific on the "wallet" part. Specifically, in step 6, it should be named as your actual wallet_id instead of "wallet". For clarification and for you to double-check, you should see "payload": appended to the actual payload. And take note that the given instructions will only download the same wallet file that you've been using in their client, containing the same keys. It's mostly used for obtaining the wallet.aes.json file of a wallet with forgotten password for bruteforce purposes. It's apparent in step5 where It said that "it will likely fail" since it expected the user to put a random wrong password on that step. Anyways, it could be a solution if the issue is only in their client's synchronization or inability to manage its old keys.

Thanks for this. Btcrecover with Python is running fine, however, I am getting an error message when I try to run the command python btcrecover.py --wallet-file wallet.aes.json --password "your-recovered-password": btcrecover.py: error: ambiguous option: --password could match --password-repeats-pretypos, --password-repeats-posttypos, --passwordlist I tried using the command as is without password and with password, but the same error comes up. I did run the test to check if Btcrecover is installed properly or not and it is installed properly. Please help. Thanks.

First of all, thank you for being so patient with me. I ran all the steps exactly you mentioned, but I ran into a new problem: From my understanding, this is a problem with the wallet.aes.json file itself? 1. When I clicked Response and Preview, both had different contents in them starting with '{'. So I saved both in notepad as wallet.aes.json but in completely different folders. Then I tried to use them one by one in btcrecover-master folder, but they don't work? 2. Which brings me to this question: Where am I supposed to put the wallet.aes.json file? In btcrecover-master folder, or in its sub folder btcrecover, or even one more folder inside called btcrecover? OR do I simply leave it on the desktop itself where I had saved the notepad file? The contents of one of the wallet.aes.json seem to only say which languages it supports, so that shouldn't be the actual file needed to get decrypted, however, I still have both files. Please let me know what you say. Thank you.

Thanks for your response.  Now before I go ahead, I just want to make sure that I'm not here to recover my password correct? Because I already have the password for my wallet. I am here to recover the seed for my wallet. Step B would have worked perfectly but I do not have any public address of my wallet unfortunately. I do have the 17 word mnemonic phrase, but it's irrelevant because of the absence of the public address of my wallet. The golden question now is: What to do now?

Haven't you noticed already? The inconsistencies in the command/arg that it has given you and the way it corrects itself? I'm seeing that you're quite versed on using commands so I'll just point you to btcrecover's help menu: That'll show you a list of available command line arguments and with explanation of each.

Thank you for spotting this fact. After digging more, it turns out some of his command is also invalid. I've mentioned some of his problematic post on https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5482297.msg65589083#msg65589083. To OP, have you tried reading BTCRecover documentation on https://docs.btcrecover.org/en/latest/? It's more helpful and accurate than following @Henark post.

Thanks for this info. It seems I do not have the actual json file at all! I followed this video to recover my json file from blockchain.com: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f63FpoTKwSw But it shows random info in the Response section instead of showing the actual payload file. And I get this error message: By the way, I did check your website, but it does not say how to recover keys from the mnemonic phrases? Thanks. I am sorry I cannot post back to back responses, but I was not ignoring your posts either.

I thought you had the "wallet.aes.json" file if you followed the guide from that YouTube link to take the payload and turn it into "wallet.aes.json" but you got that error. It means it's no longer working, I guess because the blockchain site on the recovery page seems changed. I like what file you are trying to recover in your 2nd post above. I thought that you already have the wallet.aes.json? If you already have that file, then skip the procedure and go to bruteforcing under that video or follow the guide from this link below - https://docs.btcrecover.org/en/latest/TUTORIAL/#running-btcrecover Or try to repeat the procedure from the first method from the video, but this time try with "legacy" wallet recovery and take the wallet.aes.json file from the payload. - https://login.blockchain.com/legacy-pages/forgot-password.html

Thanks. For the second method aka legacy wallet, there is no wallet file, but rather wallet-index.js file and still, the Response tab does not have any payloads. I confirm I DO NOT have any json file. At first, when I saved Response following @Henarks's posts, I thought I had it. But no, those are invalid files and do not match the one I saw in that YouTube video at all. Ok - I will make it clear once again. What I have: 17 word mnemonic phrase Working password for Blockchain.com (which used to be Blockchain.info earlier around 2014) But that's it. The mnemonic phrase helped me to retrieve my password, but that's all I have. Thanks.

Blockchain.com used to send a wallet.aes.json file back at that time. Take a look at the e-mail folders (or another e-mail accounts) that you used to create your wallet.

I confirm I do not have any emails from Blockchain AT ALL. I checked everything in my email THOROUGHLY, but I cannot find any records from Blockchain, not even the registration email. Yes I can see other emails from back then, but nothing related to Blockchain. The fact that Blockchain actually provided me the account password using mnemonic phrase is itself a miracle tbh though.

Hi OP, check old emails for hints, try custom seed recovery tools

You can refer to one of my previous reply for the latest method of getting the correct payload. Basically, you'll need to know your Wallet_ID and monitor your browser's Developer Menu's Network tab (should be open before the login attempt and email verification). Then, your wallet.aes.json's payload should be in the list named as your Wallet_ID at the correct timeframe after you verified your device/IP via Email verification and/or 2FA. Actual Example (open in new tab to view full size): It still works even provided with a random password. However, downloading the wallet.aes.json is quite unrelated to the issue like I mentioned before because you know your password and the private keys that you would've exported is still available in their client since it's using the same wallet.aes.json file. It worth considering if you want to make sure that it's not caused by a bug in their online client though. As for the possible solution, I'd still stand on my first reply.

Nice. thx.. also to download your wallet.aes.json from Blockchain.com, use the Developer Tools/Network tab during login, find the request with your Wallet_ID, and extract/save the payload as a JSON file.

Is this your solution when you said you stand by your first reply?

No, since it's an online wallet, even though their wallet is deemed self-custodial, there's little to nothing you can do if there's an issue with the wallet file itself. So if their suggested manual export of the private keys from the wallet file via btcrecover doesn't help, The only solution left is to communicate with their technical support (which will be a big problem considering their track record)

How can I find my wallet ID? I do not have any emails from Blockchain.info from back then. Thanks.