How do I restore a Multibit HD wallet from a backup using only a password?

Question

I could not find an answer to this: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/search?q=multibit+hd+restore+wallet+password

I asked about restoring a wallet from mbhd-*.zip.aes files, and someone said that there are two different types of files, one of using wallet words, and one of them using only the password. https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/38966/3267

So how do you restore a MultiBit HD wallet from a *.wallet.aes file using only a password? There isn't an option in MultiBit for selecting a file during restore.

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Still no answer to this specific question, only avoidance. Why can't someone just copy the .wallet.aes file into the location MultiBit HD looks for it?

Answer 1

MultiBit HD dev here.

The mbhd-*.zip.aes backup files are encrypted using an AES key derived from the wallet words. Hence you need your wallet words to do a restore from one of these.

The wallet that is opened normally in MultiBit HD is encrypted with your password. This is the *.wallet.aes file.

You can also restore just the transactions using only your wallet words.

You cannot do an 'Open wallet' specifying a location because the wallets are stored in specific directories created with no user input. We found in MultiBit Classic that users would lose wallets simply because they put them 'somewhere' and then forgot where they had stored it.