Bitcoin Forum

I have no idea what is going on here.

My regular wallet is on my laptop.

Exported private keys when I went on vacation.

Imported private keys while on vacation onto my tablet.

Deposited some BTC to Cryptsy to buy some Ripple.

When I returned home I started up the wallet on my laptop and it says I have way less than I actually have.


3.62077 – laptop says I sent this, I did NOT
.01 - tablet says I sent this – I DID

What is going on!?

My laptop wallet says I have 8.0077071 BTC
Tablet wallet says I have 14.57890441 BTC

The tablet is correct, but why won’t the wallet on my laptop reflect this?  How do I fix it?

OK – just now to test I sent .001 from the tablet wallet to Cryptsy.  Laptop wallet says I just sent .2419!

?????

I assume you are using some kind of non deterministic wallet (like bitcoin core or the "old" multibit"). Judging by the section it would be bitcoin core, but that would be pretty heavy on a tablet. Anyway...

The TX in question is sending change worth ~3.6 BTC to 14qejgAVxgrm22d9jX8hbLA19CW3WmLYxq

The private key for this address was probably generated by your tablet and thus your laptop wallet does not know about it. Seeing that you are missing a bigger amount there are probably more transactions like these which resulted in change.

Export all private keys from the tablet and import them into the laptop wallet.

I can only "Backup Wallet" from the tablet software, and Multibit can't seem to read the file.

I take it I need to upgrade to the latest Multibit?

Or not - I have the latest version.

The Bitcoin software on the tablet has a "wallet backup" - but it won't import into Multibit at all.  There's no .KEY extension.

Which wallet are you using in tablet? It's name?

It appears your talking about this address: https://blockchain.info/address/13Aqpr7qvUQdNpbjKKqx7u7jnqxk3DyXaj

Sadly the laptop is right it shows a transaction of that amount with conformations.  So it did happen.  All you have left is - Final Balance    0.2752 BTC

So it appears something is infected or compromised.  The tablet has a high chance as it happened right after all this it sounds.  I would blow away tablet and reinstall a firmware not a backup.

I would send what's left of that address to another account. 

Looks like the funds went to a change address.

As Shorena has indicated, most Bitcoin wallets are not designed to be aware of other other wallets that are using the same private keys.  Many of them will generate a brand new address and private key to store any change from a transaction, and any other wallet that has access to the same bitcoins won't know what happened.

What you probably should have done to avoid the problem is to have created a brand new wallet with new addresses on the tablet.  Then you could have sent from the computer to the tablet (with a transaction) any bitcoins that you wanted to have access to from the tablet.  Then when you were done with the tablet, you could have sent any remaining bitcoins back to the computer.

Trying to maintain access to the same bitcoins from more than one wallet at the same time will generally lead to confusion and occasionally lead to permanently lost bitcoins if you don't understand how bitcoin works and aren't careful about how you respond to the confusing situations that arise.

It is called simply "Bitcoin"

Link to the wallet?

It looks like this one:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet&hl=en

I can backup the wallet and email it to myself - but the file has no extension so not sure what good that does exactly? :(

If that's the case why does my tablet wallet say I have 14.57890441?

And if that's the case, Bitcoin really is shit!

Please note:

Just scanned the tablet with Malwarebytes Mobile - zero problems detected.

It appears I am using the Schildbach wallet, which encrypts the private keys in a strange way that appears very difficult to import to Multibit.

Instead of importing private keys, try just sending your entire balance, via a transaction, from your tablet wallet to an address on your computer wallet.

This is probably the only solid advice to follow here, among with the "how to avoid this in the future advice" by Danny above. After you send the TX your multibit wallet will probably be "confused" and possibly show more coins than it actually has or an otherwise wrong balance. Assuming you are using 0.5.18 and not the multibit HD beta you can fix this by clicking Tools -> Reset Blockchain and Transactions. This will make sure multibit rescans the blockchain and thus corrects its local data.

The Schildbach app on your tablet is aimed at beginners. AFAIK it is lacking features that might result in loss of coins, such as exporting keys. Exporting keys is a typical source of "theft" or "lost coins". It is possible to decode the wallet file by hand, but it might result in more problems along the way and its saver (and easier) to just issue a transaction.

OK, I did reset and it still shows the incorrect 8+ balance.

If the tablet Schildbach wallet shows 14+, do I have 14+ ?

Yes, think about it like this:

The Schildbach app knows all the private keys Multibit has, but also ones that have been generated when you create a transaction. These newly generated keys are not known to multibit, thus multibit does not know they are yours and is not tracking them as part of your balance.


Create the TX first, wait till it confirms. Multbit might also show the balance correctly afterwards, but after you made the TX, its confirmed and multibit is still showing the incorrect balance, do a Blockchain reset.

Oh - and I have tried sending a small amount to the laptop wallet address (Multibit)

Schildbach just shows a transaction with a question mark and nothing else.

Perhaps creating a new wallet and sending the BTC from Schildbach to Multibit will work?

It will take some time to confirm. Multibit should show it right away if not let it confirm first and afterwards reset blockchain again. Confirmations show as a (partly filled) green circle in schildbach app. Here is an old screenshot -> https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZI9-FqBJYdY/UG8Qy4NagFI/AAAAAAAAADI/TorYwX63ZJw/s914/bitcoin-sending.png
I only have fully confirmed TX atm and I dont use the wallet often so I am not 100% sure if the style was changed, but it should be similar.


You could certainly do this, but it would possibly create other problems. E.g. some of the address you used in your old wallet in multibit might still receive coins which you would have to send to the new wallet from time to time etc.

Have you checked in an explorer, for example www.blocktrail.com, about the transaction you sent? See if block explorer shows that transaction.

I would look at all the wallets on one system and on the other to see if you have the same or if you are sending from one address to another to check the tx out on blockchain.

If one is saying you got x amount and another says you got another amount and you know the table is correct then would indicate your other system does not have the addresses on it you could import them or  just send all your coin to an address you have access to and then start sending where you need to.

If you are saying its sent but you did not send it then maybe look as to where they have gone or back trace to see if you really sent by mistake or something you might of sent to for some reason and forgot about it.

I would just locate all coins on both devices and then send them all to 1 address if i does not add up to what you have then I would start looking at where the other coin has gone to or some address you do not have access to.

According to what he said, he has generated address(es) in his tablet which is not imported in Multibit. Obviously, this will make two wallets to show different balance. However, I don't really understand what happened when he sent BTC to new address. I think his wallet is out of sync and they might caused it. Let's see whether he can see that transaction in explorers.

Everything is OK now, thanks to everyone who gave good advice.

Good to know you got your problems fixed and back to normal. What was the actually problem in the end. Am guessing syn problem or missing address on one system or another.

Sync problem or missing address... ?

I just made a new wallet and all 14+ are safe there now.  Still have access to the old one in case I get some tiny faucet payouts or something.

As well you should. Never delete a wallet.

I've experienced this in the past, you just can't trust these wallet, not even blockchain. They should really improve the secure and trust level of these things. I feel you, hope you figure it out.  :)

doesn't seem that your funds are assoc. w/ those keys anymore  ???