How to set up?

[neptune-klm]

I downloaded close to a year ago, and don't remember getting any keys. I just opened EW again, and see my ETH, but where do i get the 12 word phrase in case I want to switch wallets?

[developerkevin]

You were supposed to write those down and keep them in a secure place at the time of opening and creating your wallet. Not sure if the version back then supported wallet file downloads which you must remember the password.

Unfortunately if you don't have those words, lost them, or didn't backup that wallet in any other form, even as a private key you most likely will never get them.
:\

What version?

[neptune-klm]

Using wallet version 2.4.2 So, I do have access to my wallet and have sent ETH not too long ago. Recently, i did a disc compress on my computer. After that, I was not able to send any ETH, it is giving me the following error...

ERROR: An unexpected error has occurred. Please restart & update emerald wallet.
The error was: Error invoking remote method 'vault/signTx': Error: Failed to sign

I know my password and also have the json file which is in notepad form. As mentioned above, I don't have the seed words. So, I uncompressed the Emerald wallet.exe and the json file. I am still getting the same error. I tried downloading EW to a different computer and then 'import existing private key' with the Unencrypted Private Key (copied/pasted the key) that is in the json file. That also gave me an error...

ERROR: An unexpected error has occurred. Please restart & update emerald wallet.
The error was: Error invoking remote method 'vault/addWallet': Error: internal error in Neon module: Invalid JSON with options: Error("invalid type: null, expected struct AddWalletJson", line: 1, column: 4)

I don't know where to go from here. I know my password is correct and I am actually in my wallet, but can't send.

Please helpl!

[splix]

Hi @neptune-klm.

Error: Failed to sign actually means that the password is different from what was used to encrypt the key. Can you double check you use correct password?

I'm not sure I understand the part about the "Unencrypted Private Key (copied/pasted the key) that is in the json file". The JSON Key is always encrypted. Are you decrypting it in some other app before doing import? Are you trying to import it as Raw Private Key? Or you import it as JSON Private Key? Both supported by Emerald Wallet, but latter would be easier I think.

[neptune-klm]

I don't know what could have changed, I used the same password to sign the transaction that I did about a month ago. I can actually open my json file and read it. It has an Unencrypted Private Key listed in the file. Yes, I was just trying to import the raw private key number from that json file.

Since I can open my wallet and view my ETH, is there anything I can export that could help me?

Also, when I installed the 2.4.2, everytime I want to try to open it, it actually installs again. It didn't do this before. Could the disc compression messed something up even though I uncompressed the files? Is it possible I deleted some associated file on accident?

[splix]

Standard Ethereum JSON keyfile doesn't contain Unencrypted Private Key, it's always encrypted with a password. And if you imported that JSON before, the password for that JSON is the password you should use to create a transaction. Do you know the password that was used when you created that JSON file?

I cannot explain why Emerald Wallet installs again, but it looks like some system feature that reverts changes or installs the app into a temp directory. Which Operating System do you use?

[neptune-klm]

Windows 10 pro. I believe it's the same password I use for my wallet. Nothing has changed since I last sent ETH from my wallet and used my password, except that I did a disc compress. Is it possible I accidentally deleted a file that I would have needed? I did delete some files to free up disc space.

[splix]

I don't think it's related to any deleted file, because the installation would fix it, or there would be different error.

Can I ask you to try to open that JSON file with MyEtherWallet or MyCrypto? To make sure it opens with the password, and shows a correct address.

[neptune-klm]

I tried to upload it to a new EW on a different computer and it didn't do anything. Where may the encrypted json file be stored for me to look for it? What are those json files typically named? i am going to recover lost files and see if i can find the encrypted one

[splix]

You can check if you actually have a JSON file with private key. Please see examples on https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Web3-Secret-Storage-Definition and if your file have similar structure then it's a standard encrypted Private Key file, which can be imported into the Emerald Wallet.

If the structure of your file looks different, like you said contains unencrypted private key, then it's something non-standard and may need some different approach.

[neptune-klm]

I see the examples, but since it's encrypted, should it be normal text, or jibberish?

Do you have an example of what the file name would typically be called x.json?? there are lots of .json files on my computer to search through.

edit: I found what looks to be the file, but then got this error...
ERROR: An unexpected error has occurred. Please restart & update emerald wallet.

The error was: Error invoking remote method 'vault/addWallet': Error: internal error in Neon module: Invalid JSON with options: Error("invalid type: null, expected struct AddWalletJson", line: 1, column: 4)

[splix]

The file should look like the following:

{
    "crypto": {
        "cipher": "aes-128-cbc",
        "ciphertext": "07533e172414bfa50e99dba4a0ce603f654ebfa1ff46277c3e0c577fdc87f6bb4e4fe16c5a94ce6ce14cfa069821ef9b",
        "cipherparams": {
            "iv": "16d67ba0ce5a339ff2f07951253e6ba8"
        },
        "kdf": "scrypt",
        "kdfparams": {
            "dklen": 32,
            "n": 262144,
            "p": 1,
            "r": 8,
            "salt": "06870e5e6a24e183a5c807bd1c43afd86d573f7db303ff4853d135cd0fd3fe91"
        },
        "mac": "8ccded24da2e99a11d48cda146f9cc8213eb423e2ea0d8427f41c3be414424dd",
        "version": 1
    },
    "id": "0498f19a-59db-4d54-ac95-33901b4f1870",
    "version": 2
}

Does your file look like that? It may be written just as one line, but it's still same structure

[neptune-klm]

yes it does, some of the things are out of order, but i imagine that's no big deal right? like the id & version are at the beginning instead of the end etc. Also looks like it could be missing some spaces, like after "ciphertext": there is no space after the : In fact, I don't see any spaces at all. mine looks like this (i replaced the long strings of numbers with 123456)...

{"version":3,"id":"123456",
"address":"123456",
"name":"",
"description":"",
"visible":true,
"crypto":{
"cipher":"aes-128-ctr",
"ciphertext":"123456",
"cipherparams":{"iv":"123456"},
"kdf":"pbkdf2",
"kdfparams":{
"prf":"hmac-sha256",
"c":262144,
"dklen":32,
"salt":"123456"},
"mac":"123456"}}

[neptune-klm]

i tried to add spaces and put it in the same format as the example, but it's still throwing the error...
The error was: Error invoking remote method 'vault/addWallet': Error: internal error in Neon module: Invalid JSON with options: Error("invalid type: null, expected struct AddWalletJson", line: 1, column: 4)

is one of those long number strings the key that i can unencrypt and import instead of importing the .json?

[splix]

@neptune-klm sorry for the the delay. yep, your file is a standard encrypted Ethereum JSON Keyfile.

I was trying to to reproduce the error, but no luck, all worked fine with my test keys. I guess we use different path in the UI to import the key. Maybe you can describe step by step what you do and what you click to import the file?

As alternative, you can open the file with MyCrypto desktop wallet, and then check the "Wallet Info" tab on the top. It allows you to see the unencrypted Private Key by clicking the "eye" button there. So you can copy it and import as raw Private Key into Emerald Wallet.

[neptune-klm]

ok, i'll try MyCrypto, but, can you walk me through how do to that? I assume click on 'take me to my crypto', then it gives me some options like MetaMask, Wallet Connect etc. which one of those do i choose, and then how do i see the unencrypted private key from that JSON?

edit: so i just put my wallet address in under the magnifying glass option. i see my wallet balance, but i don't see a 'wallet info' tab.

[neptune-klm]

I got it out via MyCrypto, yay!!!!!!!!! Thanks for your help on this!

I tried the exact same thing to upload the private key on emerald wallet that i did on my Crypto, and oddly it's still throwing errors.