How to find an old wallet on your computer

Before you start

What to search for by name

Use your system’s file search and look for these terms, one by one. Enable the option to include hidden and system folders: almost all wallets store their data there.

• wallet — covers wallet.dat, .wallet and many programs’ folders.
• .dat — for classic Bitcoin wallets.
• keystore and UTC-- — the Ethereum files from the 2017 era.
• electrum, multibit, armory, exodus, bitcoin — specific program names.
• seed, backup, phrase — in case you noted something in a document.
• .json in downloads folders from 2017 and 2018.

Where to look, in order of likelihood

1. Your email, sent folder. Emailing yourself a file was the normal backup method in 2013. Search small attachments too.
2. Cloud folders you synced and stopped looking at.
3. USB sticks and external drives in the drawer, including ones you think are empty.
4. System or phone backups, from any period.
5. Old computers, even ones that won’t boot: the drive can be read separately.
6. Your app store history: it will tell you which wallets you installed and when, even if you deleted them.
7. Leftover folders from old programs after uninstalling.

How to tell whether what you found is any good

If it is a wallet file, copy it to two places and check whether it holds a balance before worrying about the password: see I found an old .dat file. If it is a document with words, don’t edit it or «tidy» it: keep it exactly as it is.

And if you find nothing on the computer, the paper places remain: notebooks, the inside covers of books, document folders, the safe, your parents’ house. They are in I wrote the password on a piece of paper I can’t find.

Keep reading

• I found an old .dat file on a drive: how to tell if it’s worth anything
• I wrote the password on a piece of paper I can’t find: what to do
• I bought in 2017 and don’t remember where I stored it: how to reconstruct it
• How to back up the file before touching anything