How can I restore wallet from secret.key file?

[yuelipeng]

when i heard 0.12 version has low disk usage, i just copy my secret.key out, i thought it is the keystore like ethereum. then i delete the old 0.11.2 version's daedalus folder。 when i finished sync of 0.12, i copy secret.key into Secrets-1.0 folder, it can't identify.

i lost my 12 words phase unfortunately。so how can i restore wallet from secret.key file, please.

[nikolaglumac]

Hi @yuelipeng,

This is going to be a bit tricky but here's what you need to do:

1. Uninstall your current Daedalus installation and delete your state directory (on Windows this directory is in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Daedalus, while on OSX it is in ~/Library/Application\ Support/Daedalus).
2. Download and install previous Daedalus version 0.11.2 from one of the following links (depending on your platform):

• Windows: https://github.com/input-output-hk/daedalus/releases/download/0.11.2/daedalus-0.11.2-cardano-sl-1.3.2-mainnet-windows-10311.exe
• OSX: https://github.com/input-output-hk/daedalus/releases/download/0.11.2/daedalus-0.11.2-cardano-sl-1.3.2-mainnet-macos-3541.pkg

3. Run Daedalus and before it syncs go to application menu View > Toggle Developer Tools (like shown on the screenshot below - my screenshot is taken on OSX but this looks almost the same on Windows)
4. You will then see the developer tools in your Daedalus window and you should click the 2nd tab "Console".
5. Then type the following command in the Console window: daedalus.api.ada.importWalletFromFile({ filePath: 'path-to-secret-file/secret.key' }); (but be sure to provide the correct path-to-the-secret-file) and simply hit "Enter" key.
6. Wait for Daedalus to fully sync - upon which you should see your wallet in the wallets menu.
7. Create a new wallet (and please write down your mnemonic phrase this time 😄) and transfer all your ADA from the salvaged wallet into this one so that you can easily restore it in the future (restoring from secret.key file was never officially supported and it is no longer present in the latest Daedalus version 0.12.0 - which is why you need to use the older Daedalus version to salvage your wallet).
8. Daedalus will eventually show the update notification and then you will be able to automatically update it to the latest 0.12.0 version.

Hope this heps! :)

[nikolaglumac]

@yuelipeng I have originally posted wrong links to the previous Daedalus installers - please use the ones from my comment which I have now updated. Thanks!

[yuelipeng]

i'm in mac too. this secret.key is created at early 2018 not 0.11.2.
and i have tried 0.11.1, 0.11.2 and 0.9.0 all shows error , but i think my file path is right, because it add a secret.key.lock file automatically.

[nikolaglumac]

@yuelipeng did you have a spending-password set for this wallet of yours?

[yuelipeng]

@nikolaglumac yes, password protected.

[nikolaglumac]

@yuelipeng so the problem is your wallet's secret.key file is encrypted and therefore it can not be imported using the steps I have described in my first comment.
I'll investigate if there is something else we could try.

[nikolaglumac]

@yuelipeng did you save any other files from the state directory besides the secret.key one?

[yuelipeng]

@nikolaglumac no

[nikolaglumac]

@yuelipeng unfortunately, there is no easy way to extract a wallet.key file out of the secrets.key you have. Still, there is no reason for despair as @cleverca22 is working on a util app which will make this extraction possible. Once this util is ready @cleverca22 will update this thread and you will then be able to use the extracted wallet.key for importing in the latest Daedalus version.

[yuelipeng]

@cleverca22 when will this extraction util app be done, you can just build a command line tool to decode.

[webmacho]

This is what I need because when I instaled the new daedlus instance year after this instance used wallet that I don't have password for it so it never asked me for 12 words phrase to write down, I have sen't funds and downloaded paper wallet instuctions I tought that was it but money is now stuck in old wallet from what I don't have a password or phrase

[webmacho]

@cleverca22 when will this extraction util app be done, you can just build a command line tool to decode.

that is it, with decryption we could see our wallet password and send it to another wallet

[webmacho]

OMG I found my old 12 word phrase now, lucky as hell