Watching wallet on new computer - cold-storage coins sent without signing.How?

[rustbucket]

Hi all,

just restored from seed a new copy of my watching-only wallet for my coins kept in cold storage on a 2nd, linux-based computer. Restored version 2.6.4 as that's the version holding the keys on the cold-storage computer.

Strange thing happened. When restoring the wallet I didn't notice that the installation didn't warn me that this was a watching-only wallet - it's been a while since I've restored, ported or installed a wallet - and when I sent a coin, bam! Off it went, and arrived as usual.

What did I actually restore? Why didn't it tell me this was a watching-only wallet, and why didn't it ask me to sign the transaction before broadcasting it? How come this worked?? And what do I have to do to turn this back into a watching only wallet?

Thanks for your help

[steven0021]

If you used the seed then you've restored your wallet with all its private keys. Watching-only wallet doesn't have seed.

To create a watching-only wallet you'll have to choose "Watch Bitcoin Addresses" when creating a new wallet. You can then enter the addresses you wish to monitor.
It looks like you can't watch using the master public key. Never mind. You import the master public key by choosing "Standard Wallet" then "Use public or private keys".

[ranochigo]

What did I actually restore? Why didn't it tell me this was a watching-only wallet, and why didn't it ask me to sign the transaction before broadcasting it? How come this worked?? And what do I have to do to turn this back into a watching only wallet?

Thanks for your help

Yes, the above user is correct.

You didn't restore a watch-only wallet. Once you use the seed, you are restoring the entire wallet.

When you ask Electrum to prompt you, you have to press "preview" instead of "send".

To use the watch-only wallet, you have to go to Wallet>Master Public keys and copy it out. The master public keys can give Electrum the full list of address your seed can generate. To make a wallet into a watch-only wallet, go to Standard wallet>Use Public or Private keys and key your xpub in.

[rustbucket]

Aha. Dammit.

So i've compromised my cold-storage wallet?

I'm probably right then in thinking the only thing to do now is create a new cold-storage wallet on my offline computer and use it to generate a new watching wallet on the online computer?

Damn, what a pain.

Thanks a million for your help though!

[Coin-Keeper]

Aha. Dammit.

So i've compromised my cold-storage wallet?

I'm probably right then in thinking the only thing to do now is create a new cold-storage wallet on my offline computer and use it to generate a new watching wallet on the online computer?

Damn, what a pain.

Thanks a million for your help though!

I don't know how many coins you are protecting (that is your private concern), but I too would make a new wallet if I ever let my online computer see my private keys even for a blink.  I ran the two computer cold wallet model for a few years so I know the small hassle for you.  Its worth it though; because if you screw up and expose the full keys you don't really have another choice!  My .02

[Abdussamad]

Aha. Dammit.

So i've compromised my cold-storage wallet?

I'm probably right then in thinking the only thing to do now is create a new cold-storage wallet on my offline computer and use it to generate a new watching wallet on the online computer?

Damn, what a pain.

Thanks a million for your help though!

Yes that's right. There's a guide here if you are interested:

http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/coldstorage.html