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I created the keys file sometime around 2016-2017. It doesn't have a password. It was originally named "wallet".

I renamed it to "monerowallet.keys".

I open the latest official Windows GUI wallet, click restore wallet from keys file.

It asks for a password, I leave it blank.

The error says "couldn't open wallet: internal error: failed to deserialize keys buffer".

I don't have the mnemonic phrase. All I have is the keys file.

Should I try using the Linux wallet? It might give me the same error. I have Linux but never use it, are there instructions?

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  • How can the keys file not have a password? What that implies is that the file is unencrypted. What happens if you change the extension to txt and open it? Do you see gibberish? If you see gibberish, then that's an encrypted file and a password was used. Why don't you install the Gui wallet from 2016/2017?
    – Elijah
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 16:00

1 Answer 1

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I renamed it to "monerowallet.keys"

A wallet has two files. One without an extension (which has things likes settings, labels etc), and another file that is named the same but with the extension .keys, which has the actual keys in it.

For example:

MyWallet
MyWallet.keys

So if you renamed MyWallet to MyWallet.keys (i.e. mv MyWallet MyWallet.keys), you'd overwrite your keys file!

If you had the original .keys file or seed phrase, you could restore your wallet. Without either, you have no way to restore.

It was originally named "wallet". I renamed it to "monerowallet.keys".

So rename it back, and hope you never deleted your original wallet.keys.

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  • I have backups of the files. If I don't have the original "wallet.keys" file then I lost my Monero?
    – Help me
    Commented Nov 18, 2021 at 2:23
  • "If I don't have the original "wallet.keys" file then I lost my Monero?" - if you don't have the keys file you won't be able to spend the Monero you received, nor will you be able to restore the wallet.
    – jtgrassie
    Commented Nov 18, 2021 at 2:26

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