Decrypting Start9 backup file

StartOS Support
1

I have a backup file from March 2025 which included the LND backup.

However, I was running a lightning channel on LND with Bitcoin Core which I opened in July 2025 and I don’t have a backup of that one, but it’s the same channel which I still have with the macaroon in my Zeus Wallet as well.

The goal here is the July 2025 LN channel was just force closed in October 2025, but the LND I had restored from May 2025 is not seeing those funds or that force closed channel.

I think I need to descrypt my Start9 back up file to gain access to my LND wallet.db and channel.db files to sweep funds from the newer force closed channel back to an address I control? Does that seem correct?

2

Before doing any surgery with your backups, I would suggest you try a more basic approach and use the action you can find in the LND “Actions” menu:

“Reset Wallet Transactions”

That will search for any transactions that were missed by LND.

3

Thanks, sadly, resetting wallet transactions, which I just did now for the second day in a row, after the graph synced nothing from recent activity is being seen.

4

What could be the next step @Alvaro ?

I lost a million sats or more if I can’t recover.

5

You definitely don’t want to lose sats.

In general, force closed channels generally take about 2 weeks to return funds on chain - but depending on exact circumstances YMMV. Funds returned would go back to an address controlled by your current wallet. How long has it been since the force close?

Your description above is not clear on the sequence of activities so it adds some confusion and makes it harder to determine if there is anything that might assist you in the backup file.

The next step would be to more clearly describe the current situation and how you got there. When were backups taken / restored? When were channels opened / closed? Did you run the restored LND node on a new machine at the same time the old node was running on an old machine? How are you managing your LND node (RTL, Thunderhub, Zeus, ???) What do you see in those tools?

I think if you provide more information on your situation it will be easier to assist you in determining next steps. Note that this may require support from LND side - depending on the exact status you are in.

6

I was running an LN node using Alby Hub with LND on my Start9 home server. I also have RTL, Thunderhub, and Zues Wallet in use with that node. I had a backup from May of 2025 but the 2 channels I had opened were forced closed.

So I started a new LN node in July 2025 which had it’s last channel force closed in October 2025. That force close on on October 28th.

:hourglass_flowing_sand: Closing 0.01000000 channel with ZacredMTN 0286666e15ca41b5c8a5a425e7841ddda14e682035c2dcd76c3bba4ec9e5dd493b
Funding Outpoint: 6ad72c1e624071d8d6246d278812c794627600b314c725e0e8527d97e46ac7e7:1

I restored my May 2025 backup and did NOT remove my July thru October node from Zeus so I have the macaroon and that one is still connected but my May restored node is not seeing any of these new transactions since May or the force closed one either.

I only run my LN node on my remote home server machine and that’s the one I restored it to after uninstalling LND when I had an issue a couple weeks ago.

Anything not clear still?

7

My recently closed node was Opened here mempool - Bitcoin Explorer

and force closed here mempool - Bitcoin Explorer

8

The transaction you point to as channel close was on October 28, a week ago. In general, force closed channels generally take about 2 weeks to return funds on chain.

While you wait, check out https://www.plebnetwiki.com/ It’s a great source for information on lightning and running a node…

9

But in Zeus I don’t see that force closed channel, just the old one closed month ago before I opened this channel with was force closed. So the transactions are not updating anywhere and I’m worried I won’t be able to sweep funds. I think I see the funds on a BTC address already I have it now.

10

It’s been enough time, No funds came back to the Node I had restored.

11

Anyone I can contact to try to recover funds @Jesse ?

12

I’m not understanding the part about having Zeus connected to a node that does not exist and using that to confirm. Did I misunderstand that?

Separately, have you set up SSH and used the command line to verify the current status of things?

In terms of contacting someone to recover your funds for you… I’m not sure anyone would do that, but if you have discovered a bug in LND, the process of investigating and reporting that bug might help. Even the LND dev team won’t recover your funds for you, but they could tell you what you need to do and why and with what tools.

13

The Zeus wallet wasn’t ever disconnected when I had to recover LND because I uninstalled it on the Start 9. But when I restored it the timestamp was from May, Not the newest channel that was still connected in Zeus started in July. Sounds like I’m out $1000. I generally still hate lightning because stuff like this does happen more than I wish to admit.

14

Are you saying that your last backup was in May, but you opened channels after that? That might be more of a backup issue than a lightning issue.

15

Yes exactly what you said it what happened. Any way I can get help to know how to get the node to fully sync to recently?

16

Without access to a more current backup, I don’t think I can be much help. You may want to contact the LND team to see if they think anything can be done. If there is something that say needs to be done, but you need StartOS specific help to get access to that, we’d be happy to help.