Don't let the Keystore folder clear so easy!

[richh94]

This is not a bug, but just a very, very small request which probably can save lots of people.

Today I tried opening my Ethereum Wallet, which I haven't opened in the last weeks. After it promts that there is an update, I got some errors (geth wasn't starting, still don't know why, probably due a changed folder for the blockchain download). I wasn't able to get it running so I tried to update Ethereum Wallet to version 0.9.3. And after installation, it did start, so I was happy. It asked for a password, so I entered mine and hoped it would directly load my wallet. Yay!

Nope: what it did is create an new account, with a new address. In the same Keystore folder.

It seems that the software first removes all files in the Keystore folder AppData/Roaming/Ethereum/keystore and then puts the new one in.
I tried it again with a new installation and it seems that it really clears that folder.

Really? Why is it even clearing that folder?

At least it could just prompt you 'found something in the keystore folder, do you really want to delete this!?', right?

Yes, I know you should make backups of the keystore (and I thought I did so... still looking for it 😜). The application warns you for this. It's my own mistake, I understand. But I'm probably not the last one with this problem. And I'm guessing I'm also not the first one, see for example the (open) issues #3323, #2762 and #2719.
It seems that these issues are related to my story: updating Ethereum Wallet results in lost of keystore file.

I'm now scanning my drive for removed files with Recuva btw, so if you got the same problem: please try that as fast as possible.

Edit: I was able to retrieve my wallet with Recuva!

[evertonfraga]

Hi @richh94, thank you for reporting. That's an interesting finding. Could you please get back with some answers?

• Have you seen any message on your anti-virus that could potentially have moved your keystores onto quarantine?
• before updating, could you confirm your keystore were there? did it appear on the wallet?
• which Geth version were you using before — and now?
• can you send me (ev at ethereum dot org) your log files? AppData/Mist/node.log*
• did you download any other crypto wallet recently?

All these people lost money because of this and that could be prevented to not clear that folder so easy.

It is not confirmed yet if they had the same issue.

thank you.

[richh94]

Hi, sure :)

1. Nope
2. Yes. Recurva did find the wallet file from that keystore folder.
3. 1.7.2 now. I'm not sure which version I had before, probably one or two versions before it. I did removed it once to let it reinstall, but I never touched the keystore folder.
4. I cannot find anything special to the log files when it happend. I'm using Ethereum Wallet btw, not Mist. The first lines are relevant I think, and they are just the following:
   WARN [12-13|04:04:29] No etherbase set and no accounts found as default
INFO [12-13|04:04:29] Starting peer-to-peer node instance=Geth/v1.7.2-stable-1db4ecdc/windows-amd64/go1.9
INFO [12-13|04:04:29] Allocated cache and file handles database=C:\\Users\\Rich\\AppData\\Roaming\\Ethereum\\geth\\lightchaindata cache=1024 handles=1024
INFO [12-13|04:04:29] Writing default main-net genesis block
   The first line says it couldn't find the wallet file?
5. Nope

And you're right, we don't know that for sure, but I do think they are related. Will edit that.

If you want to reproduce what happend, I think the following happend in my case:

1. Download Ethereum-wallet version 0.9.2
2. Install and enter password. Wallet will be created, check keystore folder for the file.
3. (maybe?) remove geth.exe in binaries/Geth/unpacked, so it reinstalls geth
4. Download Ethereum-wallet version 0.9.3 and install
5. Before running, check the folder with the keystore. Keep it open so you can see what happens when you run it
6. During initiating of Ethereum Wallet (which starts by updating geth in this case) the contents of the folder changes.

[evertonfraga]

@richh94 thank you for this in-depth information, I'll try that tomorrow.

[tobiv]

I followed your steps on a fresh login, fresh install (macOS) – the keystore file survived.