Bitcoin Forum

Hi

My electrum wallet was working fine. All of a sudden my wallet turned into a "watch only" wallet. I can't send btc. My balance still appears.

Then when I attempted to send btc to someone's wallet, my transaction attempt would just sit in pending.

And I would be asked for my pin prior to attempting to send and it would say something about spendable.


Also my 12 key phrase, 2 of the words are identical
 Is this normal? I tried to enter my 12 digit phrase into an external wallet and nothing happened.

Thanks

A watch only wallet is a wallet which does as it says - it simply watches the address, but is unable to sign any transactions or spend any coin. It is highly unlikely the wallet simply "changed" on its own. It is more likely you have accidentally opened the incorrect wallet file.

Yeah, a watch only wallet is unable to sign transactions, so your transaction will never be broadcast.

Your PIN? Do you mean your wallet password?

It is entirely possible to have two identical words in a seed phrase. If the seed phrase was generated by Electrum then it is unlikely to be compatible with any other external wallet - Electrum uses their own method for creating and restoring seed phrases. You'll need to restore it to a new Electrum wallet.

Long ago I had a blockchain wallet and I had my seeds. Then when I started getting familiar with Electrum and learnt to restore wallets I suddenly discovered on the seed, I had two identical words. First I thought it was a mistake that I wrote it incorrectly but after successfully recovering my wallet it proved me wrong.

All of a sudden is not logical and impossible. As o_e_l_e_o said, you have done something without your understanding. Since you have the seed, just restore the wallet.

On top of what Leo said, you can open a different wallet by going to file>recently open and see if anything is listed there. Alternatively, you could click open to see if there's another file there.

If you downloaded electrum via a browser, you might want to search your history to see if it came from electrum.org (just to be safe). And check you're running the latest version.

Then, if the top two steps fail, restore your wallet from seed using the file > "new/restore" > "I already have a seed" and follow the next steps.

I have had a wallet with 24 seed words, two of the words are identical too, this does not mean anything wrong. If also happening like that on 12 seed words, just know that it is possible and also very normal for it to occur, it does not affect the security of you wallet at all too.

As for your wallet problem issue, just like others said, you remembered your wallet seed phrase, you have nothing to worry about, download a new electrum wallet from electrum.org, input the seed phrase on the new wallet, your balance will appear, the wallet will work normal. 

For reference, with a 12 word seed phrase and a word list of 2048 words, there is a 1 in 31 chance of two words being the same. For a 24 word seed phrase, there is a 1 in 8 chance.

Given that OP is currently using Electrum, there is no need for him to download it again from electrum.org. He can simply follow jack's instructions - open Electrum, enter a new wallet name, and select "I already have a seed".

Wallets don't magically change to "watch only"... I would guess you have accidentally opened the wrong wallet file.

Do as suggested and check "File -> Open" and see what wallet files appear.


You can't spend from a "watching only" wallet. It doesn't have the private keys necessary to sign transactions.


PIN? Do you mean wallet password? ???


Yes, it's normal... as noted, Electrum seeds are not compatible with other wallets.

So, check "File -> Open" and see what other wallet files are there, you actual wallet file is likely to be listed there... alternatively, just create a new copy of your wallet by using "File -> New/Restore -> Standard Wallet -> I already have a seed" and then put in your 12 word seed mnemonic.

It should restore a complete copy of your wallet, but will include the private keys... it should say "[standard]" at the top instead of "[watching-only]"... and you'll be able to spend coins again ;)

when you say "external wallet", what exactly do you mean?
you should never enter your mnemonic in any other wallets, specially if you were online. there is a good chance that this wallet of yours is currently compromised and you should transfer all your funds from this wallet to a newly generated wallet with a fresh mnemonic.

Things (especially when talking about a PC and its user) don't "suddenly just happen".
Either it was a watch-only wallet all the time, or you opened the wrong wallet, or someone else did.

Since you have the mnemonic code, you can simply create a new wallet file with your seed.
However, you might just have opened a wrong wallet file (as mentioned by HCP). Wouldn't hurt to check this first.


Also, please confirm that you did not enter your mnemonic code on any website or shady software you have downloaded. If you did, move your coins ASAP.

Just a minor correction. It is actually possible to import an Electrum seed into Bluewallet. Both Legacy and Segwit is supported. The only condition is that the wallet the seed restores is not empty and has received Bitcoin sometime in the past.     

Correct, which is why I said "unlikely to be compatible" and not "won't be compatible". :P