Recovery guide · Retired wallets

MultiBit wallet recovery: getting Bitcoin out of MultiBit Classic and MultiBit HD

MultiBit was one of the most popular lightweight Bitcoin wallets between 2011 and 2017. KeepKey acquired it, then shut both MultiBit Classic and MultiBit HD down. The software still launches on some machines, but it can no longer sync the blockchain — which is why people open it years later, see a balance of 0, and assume the coins are gone. They aren't. The BTC is still on-chain at the original addresses; the job is to extract the keys from your old wallet file and import them somewhere modern.

Which MultiBit do you have?

• MultiBit Classic — files end in .wallet and .key. Each address has its own private key in the file.
• MultiBit HD — folder named after your wallet (e.g. mbhd-xxxx) containing mbhd.wallet.aes. All addresses derive from a 12-word BIP32 seed.

If you have the MultiBit HD 12-word seed

You don't need MultiBit at all. The seed is BIP32 but uses a non-standard derivation path (m/0'/0/i), which is why importing it into Electrum or a hardware wallet often shows a zero balance. The reliable path:

1. Open Electrum, choose "Standard wallet" → "I already have a seed".
2. Paste the 12 words, click the gear icon, enable "BIP39 seed" and set the derivation path to m/0'/0.
3. Let Electrum scan. If it still shows zero, try the path m/44'/0'/0'.
4. Confirm balances against mempool.space, then send a small test transaction before sweeping the rest.

If you have a MultiBit Classic .wallet file

MultiBit Classic stored private keys directly inside the .wallet file (Google Protocol Buffers format, encrypted with your spending password). The modern playbook:

1. Copy the entire MultiBit data folder to a safe offline location. Never edit the originals.
2. On an offline machine, use a maintained open-source extractor (e.g. btcrecover's extract tool) to pull the encrypted key blob out of the .wallet file.
3. If you remember the spending password, decrypt the keys and import them into Electrum as a "private key" wallet.
4. If you don't remember the password but have a rough idea (length, words, character classes), btcrecover can try variations against the extracted blob — this is the password-guessing step that's safe to run offline.
5. Once decrypted, sweep the imported keys into a new wallet on a hardware device.

When this stops being a DIY job

• A MultiBit HD seed that's valid BIP39 but shows no balance on any path you've tried.
• A .wallet file with a password you "almost" remember — you know the rough length and theme but not the exact characters.
• Only a partial backup — a screenshot of a few addresses, no .wallet file.
• An old hard drive image with a MultiBit install but no obvious wallet folder.

We've recovered hundreds of MultiBit wallets in scenarios like these. The work is mostly intelligent password searching, derivation-path sweeps, and forensic extraction from old disk images. You keep control of the keys throughout. No upfront fees, ever.

General educational information about the retired MultiBit Classic and MultiBit HD wallets. Not financial advice. We are not affiliated with KeepKey or the original MultiBit developers.