MyEtherWallet (often abbreviated as MEW) is one of the most popular Ethereum wallets ever created. It allows users to generate and manage Ethereum addresses directly from their browser, and it has been widely used since 2015. Because it gives users full control over their private keys, many early Ethereum investors used MyEtherWallet to store their ETH or ERC-20 tokens. However, if years have passed since you last accessed your wallet, you may no longer remember where your wallet file is located.
If that sounds familiar, the best way to find it is to scan your computer with an application called Treasure Hunter. I will also cover a manual method later on.
How to automatically scan your computer for MyEtherWallet files
The most reliable way to find a MyEtherWallet file is to use software built for this job. Treasure Hunter inspects the contents of every file on your computer to determine whether it holds an Ethereum private key. It recovers the modern JSON Ethereum keystore files as well as the older proprietary JSON files generated by MyEtherWallet, and thanks to its advanced detection techniques, it can recognize them even if they have been renamed, buried in an archive or partially corrupted.
Treasure Hunter runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, and it can scan many types of storage devices: HDDs, SSDs, USB keys, SD cards, CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, etc.
The manual way
If you would rather not download any software, you can search for your MyEtherWallet file yourself. Just be aware that a manual search is far more error-prone than an automated scan: you may walk away empty-handed from a computer that does hold a wallet file simply because it was renamed, moved to an obscure folder or corrupted somehow.
Older versions of MyEtherWallet would generate wallet files with the Ethereum address in their filename. For example,
if you know that your address is 0xD9111841bb84eaDA42760c399F0d6E03428186aF, you can search your computer for a file named
0xD9111841bb84eaDA42760c399F0d6E03428186aF-unencrypted.json or 0xD9111841bb84eaDA42760c399F0d6E03428186aF-encrypted.json.
Newer versions no longer include the address in the filename, but they rely on a predictable pattern. For instance, the
wallet file might be named UTC--2025-06-25T09-15-01.945Z--87956771eefeebc1c3e19c45d770921ccf659622 or
UTC--2017-05-30T06-16-46Z--a928d7c2-b37b-464c-a70b-b9979d59fac5. Thus, you can search your computer for a file whose
name starts with UTC--.
The wallet file is a JSON document that may look like this:
1{
2 "address": "0x00b5dfb07f7df8dae658c15272cd0a95c6f0a5e8",
3 "encrypted": true,
4 "locked": true,
5 "hash": "86b35d93205d5c23c46ccabb447e3dc33bfffe7beae4cb94b805e077b8ed1b32",
6 "private": "U2FsdGVkX19232dmon3IeUqXNhRw/jd+A93yClgLtx9YzsNDGo393hANFa8NS2w9XMblDNPhPoEdxqF4nHwAxypmYjgTj0jjsbTV4A1tcIDVn5x0yxowTQw5CwFP/2QFce0e",
7 "public": "U2FsdGVkX19Egk8gVo/HYG6mZ3Dg9H0Hj1HqButEBFU33D96o+gJGIyLfqqFm1gDj8qcL+bn1ZjCcsmZw3P1KEb5BlB5qt2xb9hihDQlhNE8V06PsxCI7lE3uJ5WywWW9VU/ZaIaRC9NqM96H53TTiuRAe3LhwsnWuJ1VRyleKJLEHN2sKXADbOx9iP6hba3WU9pyHpspjmcA1OVy3/IYg=="
8}
Or it may look like this:
1{
2 "version": 3,
3 "id": "d0a74e6c-47d6-4d36-8d23-0fa60530d5e5",
4 "address": "87956771eefeebc1c3e19c45d770921ccf659622",
5 "Crypto": {
6 "ciphertext": "3f480b494f9152afc6a02e522e20715f83d02633a9a044cf12d5854f7979c87e",
7 "cipherparams": {
8 "iv": "5c6c80a340990a82ce598fc7a6afdff4"
9 },
10 "cipher": "aes-128-ctr",
11 "kdf": "scrypt",
12 "kdfparams": {
13 "dklen": 32,
14 "salt": "a0dd7c630f14b29df04a967353f2ef856497bab2d8b0d5ad069f3b2f1445c484",
15 "n": 1024,
16 "r": 8,
17 "p": 1
18 },
19 "mac": "2f4ccee5de1ac915e3154664bed6635ac590088bdc238ff57a3d2fb9d6ffa640"
20 }
21}
In any case, there are too many variations to list them all.
Unfortunately, these files can be stored virtually anywhere on your computer, which makes them difficult to find manually – especially if they were renamed or moved around.
What to do if you find a MyEtherWallet file
Whichever method you use, make a copy of the wallet file as soon as you find it and store it somewhere safe. Never experiment with the original file, as it may be silently overwritten or re-encrypted by MyEtherWallet. A single botched attempt can destroy the file for good. Once you have your copy, you can try to open it with MyEtherWallet.
