Help recovering history/bitcoins from Electrum wallet

[Newbie62]

n 2013 or 2014, I set up a standard Electrum wallet (downloaded a version of 1.7 from the electrum.org website on Windows with Linux). Kept a record of my password and the 12-word seed. Created only one Electrum wallet so I know it’s the only password and seed.

Haven’t touched the account in years but there was some activity in it around the time it was created.

Recently downloaded Electrum 3.0.6 and entered my password. This opened a wallet that contains the correct 12-word seed. But the wallet pops up empty. No BTC, no history.

If it’s relevant, the wallet was originally created on a Windows computer but I am now using a Macbook Pro 15 (High Sierra 10.13.3).

Here’s what I tried so far:

• Opening the wallet with the password AND recovering from seed on BOTH version 3.0.6 as well as version 1.9.7 (the oldest version I could now download from electrum.org).
• Increasing the gap limit to 120.
• Started trying to plug addresses into blockexplorer.info. Tons of addresses to try and I’ve gotten nowhere so far though will keep trying.
• Changing servers (both on 1.9.7 and 3.0.6), both with and without checking the automatic box. Used SSL and no proxy. On 3.0.6 also tried without SSL and with SOCKS5.
• Can’t seem to get the command line working in Electrum (Terminal works just fine and I can open Electrum from it but I can’t seem to access the Electrum command line). If I could figure this out I’d try to rescan.
• Found this which sounds promising but have absolutely no idea what it means: “It seems that the RELEASE-NOTES from version 1.7.2 says * Due to an internal format change, your history may be pruned when you open your wallet for the first time after upgrading to 1.7.2. If this is the case, please visit a full server to restore your full history. You will only need to do that once.” Anyone know what is meant by a “full server” in this context? Could anyone translate this into English for a newbie or suggest something I haven’t tried? Many thanks.

[SomberNight]

Anyone know what is meant by a “full server” in this context?

These days every server is a "full server"; no one runs a "pruning" servers (non-full) anymore.

When you enter the 12-word seed into Electrum (when you restore from seed), before you click "next", there should be a "seed type" written under the textbox. What is it?

[ecdsa]

@SomberNight it is probably an 'old' seed with version 1.7 @Newbie62 two questions:

• did you ever import private keys in your wallet?
• did you ever modify the gap limit setting? (not this time, but back then)

[SomberNight]

did you ever import private keys in your wallet?

Yeah, good call: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/42a16d9c3e19785ad39f272517aa2ce54b9e0f7f/lib/tests/test_storage_upgrade.py#L18

If OP still has the wallet file, and sounds like he does, something like this should work from the in-app console: wallet.storage.get("imported_keys")

[Newbie62]

1. Never imported private key into the wallet. I assume that means the wallet.storage.get option isn’t won’t help. Am I wrong about that?
2. Seed type is “old seed”
3. Never previously tried to increase the gap limit. Many thanks to all who are trying to help.

[Newbie62]

Am I correct that the in-app command line doesn’t work on osx so I need to use the console?

[SomberNight]

^ by "in-app console" I meant the Console tab in the QT GUI.

(EDIT: this is hidden by default. You can unhide it: View>Show Console)

Never imported private key into the wallet

but in that case that advice won't help

[Newbie62]

Any way to get old versions of electrum to go through one by one and see if opening the wallet in one of them might work? The oldest version that I can download from the electrum site on my mac is 1.9.