Bitcoin Forum

I sent bitcoin that I had on binance to the wallet that I recently made on electrum but on binance the transaction was completed but on electrum the bitcoin didn't arrive, someone help me, I'm kind of sad to lose these bitcoins without even knowing why

Is your electrum wallet synced?

If you are using the desktop version of electrum, check the circle located at bottom right corner of the window and if you are using the mobile version, check the circle located at top right corner of the window.
If the circle is not green, you are not connected to any server.

If the circle is green and the wallet is synced, check if you made the withdrawal to the correct address.
If you are using the desktop version, go to "Addresses" tab and if you are using the mobile version, tap on your wallet name at top of the screen and then "Addresses".

In the case you don't see "Addresses" tab on the desktop version, click on "View" at top of the window and check "Addresses".

Further steps besides checking whether the Electrum wallet is really synced would include:

• Double-check whether you have chosen the correct wallet address.
• How much time has passed since Binance was sent to the wallet? At the moment the fees are extremely high and the mempool is more than full... well done, Ordinals  ::)
  I would suggest that you check the TXID (transaction ID) on one of the block explorers of your choice. (use Blockchair for example)

If it appears there and the recipient reflects your address from Electrum, you can assume that it is an Electrum sync problem.

My circle isn't green, it's red, I think it's because I haven't added wifi yet, is it necessary to add wifi to see and use my wallet on the laptop and on the watchonly wallet?

So, your wallet is not synced.

I am not sure I am understanding you correctly. Are you saying you are not connected to the internet?

You need internet connection, so that you can get your transaction history from a server.
If you are using electrum as a cold storage, the wallet which contains your secrets should be on a device which is disconcerted from the internet, but your watch-only wallet should be created on an online device.  

So, your wallet is not synced.

I am not sure I am understanding you correctly. Are you saying you are not connected to the internet?

You need internet connection, so that you can get your transaction history from a server.
If you are using electrum as a cold storage, the wallet which contains your secrets should be on a device which is disconcerted from the internet, but your watch-only wallet should be created on an online device.  
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Yes! I want a cold wallet but i did all that people say to do a watch only but my watch only say that is disconnected and i dont know what to do anymore.

Do you have two separate devices now?

As I said in my previous post, your watch-only wallet should be created on an online device.

In the case the device you created your watch-only wallet on is online but your wallet is not synced, make sure you are connected to a working server.

If you are using the desktop of version of electrum for your watch-only wallet, click on the circle located at bottom right corner of the window and make sure "Select server automatically" is checked. For connecting to a different server manually, right click on any of the servers listed under "Connected nodes" and select "Use as a server".

If you are using the mobile of version of electrum for your watch-only wallet, tap on the circle located at top right corner of the screen and go to "Network". Tap on "Server setting" at bottom of the screen and make sure "Select server automatically" is checked.
To select any of the servers manually, just tap on them.

If you tried some different servers and your wallet isn't synced yet, there may be a problem with your internet connection. Try using a VPN.

It seems you are trying to create a DIY airgapped wallet, which is a very good option for security, but you have to know what you are doing so that you do not make any serious mistake, and no offense but i don't think you know what you are doing yet, follow the advise by other users above. Link ^[1] and ^[2] will also help you understand how to create your offline wallet.

Take note that you must have two devices, one would be totally airgapped and the other would be an accompanying watch-only wallet that would be connected to the internet, you'll create and broadcast tx's with your watch-only wallet and your offline wallet would sign your tx's.

[1] https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html
[2] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5237614.msg54149363#msg54149363

Do you have two separate devices now?

As I said in my previous post, your watch-only wallet should be created on an online device.

In the case the device you created your watch-only wallet on is online but your wallet is not synced, make sure you are connected to a working server.

If you are using the desktop of version of electrum for your watch-only wallet, click on the circle located at bottom right corner of the window and make sure "Select server automatically" is checked. For connecting to a different server manually, right click on any of the servers listed under "Connected nodes" and select "Use as a server".

If you are using the mobile of version of electrum for your watch-only wallet, tap on the circle located at top right corner of the screen and go to "Network". Tap on "Server setting" at bottom of the screen and make sure "Select server automatically" is checked.
To select any of the servers manually, just tap on them.

If you tried some different servers and your wallet isn't synced yet, there may be a problem with your internet connection. Try using a VPN.
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Yes, i have 2 devices and i use my watch-only wallet on my cellphone, it is checked the "select server automatically" and still not synced. I tried open with VPN but it still not synced.

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Yes, i am new in electrum wallet and i know the basics of electrum i just need help to sync my wallet because of my unfamiliarity with electum. I did exactly what this two links says but my watch only wallet still isn't synced

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I solved the problem by disabling the proxy that I had left enabled, thanks for the help.

I have a little question, if i create an adrees that expires in 10 minutes and the bitcoin will only transfeer after it expirer, will i receive the bitcoins or it will be lost?

Addresses do not expire. Any of your addresses can be used to receive fund forever.

What expires is the request.
Let's say you want to sell something to somebody and tell him you will accept the transaction only if the person sends you the fund before a certain time. You set the expiry time to know that whether the sender has sent the fund before the deadline or not. This doesn't mean you won't receive the fund after the expiry time.
Also note that you don't have to make a request at all. You can go to "Addresses" tab and use any of addresses listed there to receive fund.

What exactly do you mean by an address that expires in 10 minutes? On Electrum? Do you mean a deposit address on Binance or the opposite? Bitcoin addresses don't actually expire; they cease to exist. From my understanding, the transaction will go through just fine. Even though the address is not available to you anymore, that doesn't mean that the generated address suddenly disappears from the network. As the previous poster already mentioned, as we were writing this reply simultaneously, the request is what expires.

You need to read the description - but there are exceptions if it is For Lightning requests.


The address displayed when you make a request is one of the addresses from the list of bitcoin addresses on your Electrum. Of course you can use it multiple times if you want - but if you want better privacy, then use different addresses.

You are right that addresses don't expire, but when you want to generate a new address in Electrum using the 'receive' tab, there is an expiry notice that displays 10 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day and 1 week, and this can confuse newbies a lot because they would think that it is the address they are generating that would expire after any of this time duration selected.

Op should take note that you don't even have to enter any payment request info when generating a new address, just click on 'create request' and you get your address, which never expires.

You don't need to sync your electrum wallet for cold storage purposes. If you want to know that address was received your bitcoin you sent, use bitcoin explorer such as blockchair, bitaps, mempool space, blockonomics and etc. Just put your address there and bookmark it, then, when you receive bitcoin on address you bookmark it, you will received an email notify. So, in this case, You don't need watch only wallet again.

If automatic server selection doesn't make your Electrum synchronize with the network, try selecting the Electrum server manually (Tools - Network - Overview). Here's an example of the server I'm currently using in Electrum.

https://i.ibb.co/g3LsJq8/Screen-Shot-2023-11-10-at-16-52-51.png

Ensure no firewall settings or similar prevent Electrum from connecting to the Internet.

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The answer is stated in the following description on Electrum:

https://i.ibb.co/cF61chh/Screen-Shot-2023-11-10-at-17-00-50.png

The wallet that contains the private keys must not be connected to the internet, but the watch-only wallet should be synced.
It's true that you can check your balance and transaction history on block explorers, but note that your watch-only wallet should have information about your UTXOs, so it can create the unsigned transaction.

I'd rather create a watching-only wallet in Electrum connected to a public server that I trust than using various blockeplorers and notification tool to monitor a single address from my wallet.
It's less convenient and possibly has worse privacy.

The main purpose of that watching-only wallet is to be a 1:1 copy of the air-gap wallet that can generate all the addresses that it can create.
That way, he'll never have to open the air-gap Electrum wallet whenever he need to create new addresses.
And also, to be able to conveniently create transactions whenever he needs to.