Bitcoin Forum

So I created a watch only wallet from my cold card xpub on my android electrum app. The wallet shows zero balance and no history. I followed the guide from electrum. I believe I have a few sats in there. Last night i exported a skeleton for electrum and loaded it up on electrum desktop. I transferred sats to that skeleton wallet address last night. Unless im missing something i should see them in the watch only wallet i just created on the electrum app off the xpub from that same CC wallet correct?

Yes, with that setup procedure you will also see the balance from the watch-only wallet on your Android device as long as it is connected to the internet.

Than perhaps i missed a step or something. Or is there a sync time? Ill have to double check the addresses on my desktop i think.

First off, you should check if the same addresses are visible on the address list on both your Android app and the Electrum desktop.

Since the xpub was taken from a ColdCard, the ColdCard hardware might use a different derivation path than Electrum, which will result in different addresses being made.

Agh...yes. I will verify that! I did verify the addresses i have listed on the watch only are not the addresses i used in the txn previously and are all labeled "unused"

There's a video that shows you how to change the derivation path for Electrum wallets (for desktop at least - I do not know if this is available on the app): https://youtu.be/sKaTmrwpYtY

Basically you connect the ColdCard to your desktop, and make a new electrum wallet and select "use a hardware device" and it will give you the option to change the derivation path, so change it to the one for ColdCard.

Now, possibly this option might also be available if you use the "Restore wallet" option instead of creating a new one (I don't know if it's there).

So either i figure out how to change the derivation path by either of those routes or is it possible to load the skeleton on the app off of the sdcard??

This is just my idea and it might work to find the right address on your phone.


- Can you try to "Dump Summary" to generate public.txt and look for "## Top-level, 'master' extended public key ('m/)" You can see xpub below/next to it.
- Copy it and paste it to https://iancoleman.io/bip39/ under BIP32 root key. (Take note for privacy concerns you should download the page and run it offline)
- And then scroll down under derivation path click BIP32 then under client choose custom derivation path
- Put the derivation path of your wallet you can find the right derivation path from your Electrum desktop where you generated the wallet under wallet information.
- Then after you put the right derivation path copy the "BIP32 Extended Public Key" and import it to your phone.

Let see if it will show the right wallet. I don't know if this method will work on segwit wallet but you can try and update it here.

I got the idea from this method below
- https://support.keys.casa/hc/en-us/articles/360045430991-How-to-Check-the-Coldcard-Ypub

So I think that would work after poking around on the desktop app. It occurred to me though that if I accessed the skeleton wallet I had already generated for the desktop and opened up the address info I could generate the xpub from there and it should generate with the same derivation? Well I tried that and scanned that QR with the mobile ap and it worked. I was over thinking it in I believe! Thanks you guys for your input!!! I appreciate it!