MultiBit wallet files: locations, formats, backups, and derivation paths

MultiBit was one of the most popular desktop Bitcoin wallets of the 2011–2016 era, and it has been abandoned software since 2017 — no official downloads, no support, and installers floating around the web that you should not trust. If you've found an old MultiBit wallet or backup and want your coins, this reference covers what every file is, where it lives, and how to get the keys out. It condenses what we've learned recovering MultiBit wallets for clients — see the MultiBit wallet recovery service if you'd rather have it done for you.

There were two entirely different products under the MultiBit name, and the first thing to do is work out which one you have:

• MultiBit Classic (2011–2015) — non-HD; a bag of individual private keys in a .wallet file
• MultiBit HD (2014–2017) — HD wallet; everything derives from a 12-word seed phrase, stored encrypted as mbhd.wallet.aes

MultiBit Classic: file locations and formats

Classic's data directory is typically:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\MultiBit\
• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/MultiBit/
• Linux: ~/MultiBit/

…but Classic also let you save wallets anywhere, so search every old drive for *.wallet and *.key files before concluding anything is lost.

The files that matter:

• .wallet — the wallet itself: your private keys, serialized with bitcoinj's protobuf format (the very earliest versions used Java serialization instead, which only ancient MultiBit builds can read). May be password-encrypted.
• .info — sidecar metadata for the wallet file. Not needed for recovery.
• .key — an exported private key file, created via Tools → Export Private Keys. Plain text, or AES-encrypted (OpenSSL-compatible) if you set a password on export. A .key file alone is enough to recover everything it contains.
• <walletname>-data/ folder — Classic's automatic safety net, and the thing that saves most Classic recoveries. Inside it:
  • key-backup/ — timestamped .key snapshots taken automatically when you added keys
  • wallet-backup/ and rolling-backup/ — timestamped copies of the .wallet file

So even a corrupt or deleted main wallet is frequently recoverable from its own -data folder. Check there before anything else.

Change addresses: MultiBit Classic was not an HD wallet and, in most versions, sent change back to your own existing addresses rather than to hidden change addresses — which is why sweeping the keys from a .key export normally captures the full balance. If a swept balance comes up short, an automatic key-backup snapshot from a later date usually contains the missing keys.

MultiBit HD: file locations and formats

MultiBit HD keeps everything under:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\MultiBitHD\
• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/MultiBitHD/
• Linux: ~/.multibit-hd/ (or a MultiBitHD folder in your home directory, depending on version)

Each wallet lives in a folder named mbhd- followed by a long letter-number string. Inside:

• mbhd.wallet.aes — the wallet, an AES-encrypted bitcoinj protobuf. This is the file you need.
• zip-backup/ — timestamped backups named like mbhd-20160115...wallet.aes.zip. If the main file is corrupt or missing, these are complete encrypted copies of the wallet.
• mbhd.spvchain, mbhd.checkpoints, mbhd.yaml — blockchain sync data and settings; irrelevant to recovery.

MultiBit HD wallets are protected by a password (needed to decrypt mbhd.wallet.aes) and derived from a 12-word seed phrase shown at wallet creation. If you have the 12 words, you don't need any files at all.

The MultiBit HD derivation path (restoring the seed in Electrum)

This is the detail that trips everyone up: MultiBit HD did not use the BIP44 path modern wallets expect. It derived addresses under m/0' (first BIP32 account, receive chain m/0'/0, change chain m/0'/1).

To restore a MultiBit HD seed in Electrum:

1. File → New/Restore → I already have a seed
2. Enter the 12 words, click Options → BIP39 seed
3. When asked for the derivation path, choose legacy (p2pkh) and enter m/0'

If you restore with the default BIP44 path (m/44'/0'/0'), you'll see an empty wallet and conclude your coins are gone — they aren't; the wallet is just looking in the wrong place. An empty-but-should-be-full restore is a derivation-path problem until proven otherwise. (The same trick recovers seeds from other bitcoinj-era wallets that used m/0'.)

Missing change after sweeping HD keys: if you exported or carved individual keys instead of restoring the seed, remember that change lives on the internal chain m/0'/1/… — sweeping only receive keys misses it.

"Could not load wallet" and other MultiBit errors

• MultiBit HD file opened in Classic (or vice versa) — the formats are incompatible; check which product the file came from (mbhd.* names = HD).
• Corrupt .wallet / mbhd.wallet.aes — restore from the automatic backups above first. If none survive, the protobuf can often be partially parsed or the keys carved out of the file directly — the same class of techniques described in our corrupt wallet-file recovery work.
• Very old Java-serialized Classic wallets — only load in early MultiBit releases; we keep the legacy software around for exactly this.
• Forgotten password — both Classic and HD passwords can be attacked with GPU brute force if you remember fragments or patterns; see forgotten wallet password recovery. A .key export you made before setting the password, or an unencrypted automatic backup, sometimes bypasses the problem entirely.

Don't run MultiBit itself — and don't download it

MultiBit's servers are gone, parts of the app fail against the modern network, and the installers on random download sites are exactly where fake and trojaned wallet software lives. The safe path is to take the keys or seed out of the MultiBit files and into modern software — our step-by-step guide to moving Bitcoin from MultiBit into Electrum covers the healthy-wallet case.

If the file is damaged, the password is gone, or the sweep came up short, that's our bread and butter: MultiBit wallet recovery — free evaluation, and no fee until your coins are back. Tell us what you have →