Ethereum presale password recovery - unmentioned method?

fluffyfluffy Member Posts: 3
I carefully wrote down my password, but it isn't accepted. I tried brute-forcing it, tried shaking up my memory, but nothing. I'm just staring at the password carefully written down on a piece of paper and I'm completely lost.
However,
I also wrote down a list of seemingly random words that was given after I bought the ether at the pre-sale. I recall it said that this can help you recover a lost password. Does anybody know how to use it? Even help desk didn't mention it when I contacted them...

Comments

  • BanksyBanksy Member Posts: 45
    edited March 2016
    Hmmm... I do not recall this list of seemingly random words that was given after I bought the ether at the pre-sale... Are you sure you bought a .json wallet at Ethereum.org? Can you open the .json file and locate the pre-sale ETH address?
  • fluffyfluffy Member Posts: 3
    Yes, I can see the pre-sale address. I bought it from Ethereum.org. I remember being very careful because I'm usually very skeptic about stuff. I vividly remember those mnemonics and I have them written down. I contacted helpdesk and they said that it might be a feature enabled by some bitcoin wallets, such as Mycelium and Greenadress and that there were no mnemonics for password recovery, but I remember they appeared at the end of the sale, along with the password!
    This is so weird.
    Anyway, I find it hard to believe that I typed in the password with the same typo three times so I downloaded the pre-sale website from https://github.com/ethereum/www and ran it, and when entering the password with caps on, no notification pups up, as it does on many websites.
    I also have a Hebrew keyboard and when it's set to Hebrew, no notification of any kind is shown, so the only thing I can think of is that either I had caps on (which I tried already but it looks like it's not it) or I had the keyboard set to Hebrew.
  • BanksyBanksy Member Posts: 45
    edited March 2016
    Not sure you've seen it already but this old "Ether Purchase Troubleshooting" post from Vitalik (3rd paragraph) may help: https://blog.ethereum.org/2014/07/23/ether-purchase-troubleshooting/

    You could try various simulation till you figure out the right combination... Please let me know how you get on mate :)
  • tylershustertylershuster Member Posts: 1
    I'm having this problem as well. When I use pyethsaletool.py I can enter my password and it will decrypt correctly but the GUI client gives me a "Wrong Password" for the same entry
  • Nimrod7Nimrod7 Member Posts: 3

    I'm having this problem as well. When I use pyethsaletool.py I can enter my password and it will decrypt correctly but the GUI client gives me a "Wrong Password" for the same entry

    I couldn't get the GUI client to accept my password either. Lots of similar stories if you check the GitHub. I kept seeing suggestions to use the terminal instead, or try KryptoKit's beta wallet, or Kraken (all seemed to work).
  • jaggysnakejaggysnake Member Posts: 1
    edited March 2016
    I got to decrypt my wallet at KryptoKit's https://ethereumwallet.com, same password didn't work with the official Ethereum Wallet, strangely.
    However, the online wallet shows 0 ETH, although it should show something more than 0. I know it's the right password, because anything else was also refused from that site.

    Any help appreciated to free my Ethereum :)

    Edit: never mind... blocking some javascript on that website lowered my balance to 0
    Post edited by jaggysnake on
  • webbroiwebbroi Member Posts: 1
    I'm having the same issue. I had my password generated and saved using lastpass and its not working.
  • BanksyBanksy Member Posts: 45
    Same issue. I could not import my json with the new Homestead wallet (Wrong Password) but successfully claim my Ether with Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ether/ Register first... Since you will need to "enter your Account ID" Hope this help.
  • KarzaKarza Member Posts: 15
    I too have the same problem, I have a list of words (mnemonic) stored with my .json file.

    Now I seem to remember following a guide to the ether sale someone posted which has long since been taken down, something to do with either using blockchain.info or brain wallet.org as a way to generate/store the password? (maybe taken down because of the problems that arose with brainwallet.org?). I can't recall whether it was an official post or an independent blog/forum post. Does this ring any bells?

    In any case my mnemonic was associated with a blockchain.info wallet, I recovered the password to this wallet using the mnemonic thinking it may be my ether presale password (even though it's missing one of the character/symbol types)..turns out not to be the case. Even have tried walletrecoveryservices.com with this password.

    Fluffy, let me know if any of this helps you remember anything. I'm at a loss what direction to go in with my wallet.
  • BanksyBanksy Member Posts: 45
    Karza said:



    Now I seem to remember following a guide to the ether sale someone posted which has long since been taken down, something to do with either using blockchain.info or brain wallet.org as a way to generate/store the password? (maybe taken down because of the problems that arose with brainwallet.org?). I can't recall whether it was an official post or an independent blog/forum post. Does this ring any bells?

    Would it be there: http://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/796/which-trustworthy-sites-can-i-generate-a-brain-wallet-for-ethereum
  • fluffyfluffy Member Posts: 3
    I also managed to restore the bitcoin wallet password with the mnemonic I have, so I'm pretty sure this mnemonic has nothing to do with the ether wallet. I tried walletrecoveryservices, with various possible password combinations but they were unable to unlock the wallet yet (it's been about 2.5 weeks).

    The bottom line is that I was really confused about this mnemonic thing, but I convinced myself that there were no ethereum wallet related mnemonics at the presale by recovering the bitcoin wallet password with said mnemonic.
  • KarzaKarza Member Posts: 15
    Hmm, I've been clear in my mind from the start that there was no ethereum related mnemonic but I still can't reconcile why I have a blockchain.info mnemonic for an unused wallet backed up on two USBs along with my .json files. Does my question about following a guide to buying ether ring any bells?
  • optictopicoptictopic Member Posts: 10
    I successfully opened 2 presale wallets a couple months back. Now I tried to open another 2 wallets and I get the wrong password message on both wallets. I am certain I have the right passwords for both wallets. I tried kraken and kryptokit beta and neither of those worked. Not sure what to try next.
  • optictopicoptictopic Member Posts: 10
    edited April 2016
    So after trying the same password over and over again on the mist wallet and on kryptokit it finally worked on kryptokit. I was finally able to get the second wallet to work and that one wasn't working because I initially wrote it down incorrectly. Strange thing is it still wouldn't open in mist but it did in kryptokit.
    Post edited by optictopic on
  • zakalwezakalwe Member Posts: 13 ✭✭
    edited May 2016
    I still too have problems with my presale wallet. I wrote down the password and I'm pretty sure about it (I am very very careful about passwords).I am tring pyethrecover but nothing. Is it possible that some special characters have been switched in something else? I asked to helpdesk if I can have the html source so I can check putting my password what gives me back. I am waiting for their answer.

    Edit: I downloaded the .zip file here https://github.com/ethereum/www, I tried to install following the istruction but I had (in terminal) several warning messages (graceful deprecated, loadash deprecated, etc)
    Post edited by zakalwe on
  • tangrippertangripper Member Posts: 2
    same exact problems all the way around for me as well..walletrecoveryservices couldn't help me either.
  • afunctionofafunctionof Member Posts: 7
    I also have presale wallet issue. I have the password (absolutely certain this is correct) but am unable to import using either kraken or bittrex tool. Does anyone have any help or ideas on this. I'm reasonably concerned as the wallet contains a significant amount of ether. Thanks.
  • zakalwezakalwe Member Posts: 13 ✭✭
    Still not able to open my preale. And the value now is really important. I need to meet some of ethereum dev since I should try some attempts on the source html used to make the password. I must have done with an iPad and I'm afraid that some of my special characters have been switched in something else. How could I do?
  • silverfoxsilverfox Member Posts: 1
    edited June 2017
    Found it!!!

    Just a tip: Exclamation marks work (some posts read indicate them to be a problem, must be codeset issue/caps.). I used a passwd that I don't use anymore, tried out of sheer frustration...

    After nothing but bad crypto experience this pulled me back.

    After three years dormant, the technology works! Wow...

    ## In the same boat... Value could really help right now...
    Post edited by silverfox on
  • UTlex92UTlex92 Member Posts: 8
    Another case of not being able to access the presale wallet here. I have my json file and password but no luck gaining access. I have tried all options described in this thread with no luck. Does anyone know if spaces " " between words was accepted as an input for passwords?
  • figmentfigment Member Posts: 7
    I've also in a similar situation... tried all possible passwords, the pyethrecover tool, even walletrecoveryservices.com can't seem to crack it.
  • zakalwezakalwe Member Posts: 13 ✭✭
    Ok, I finally opened it! I got in touch with a powerful team and they have been able to open my wallet!!!!!!
  • ethreaperethreaper Member Posts: 39
    sorry to read it.
    to lose passwords is a really matter to lose money in such cases.
  • Crypt0ProCrypt0Pro Member Posts: 26
    ethreaper said:

    sorry to read it.
    to lose passwords is a really matter to lose money in such cases.

    Yes, but some people manage to open their wallets. It is very good news.
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