Converting online wallet to watch-only

[FlintyParsimony]

Hi

I've got an Electrum wallet on my laptop which I use daily. I also have a desktop PC which only goes online every month or two (for updates etc.).

I'd like to "downgrade" the wallet on my laptop to watch-only, and have the main wallet on my desktop (i.e. offline 99% of the time). I know this isn't as secure as a fully offline wallet, but it's got to be better than what I have at the moment.

Found lots of tips for creating an offline wallet first and then a watch-only one on the online device, but can't find anything that quite matches my requirement.

I've only got around a couple of bitcoins, but I don't want to lose them by messing this up! Be great if anyone can help.

Thanks.

Flinty

[dabura667]

Code:

electrum -w /path/to/wallet/file deseed

This will deseed whatever wallet you set the path to.

[FlintyParsimony]

Ah right, thanks. So if I've understood OK I would:

1. Move my current wallet from my laptop to my desktop
2. De-seed it using the above code
3. Follow the instructions at https://electrum.org/tutorials.html#offline-mpk from the "Master Public Key" line onwards.

Is that right?

[ThomasV]

you can also create a watching only wallet with the gui and your master public key

[dabura667]

Ah right, thanks. So if I've understood OK I would:

1. Move my current wallet from my laptop to my desktop
2. De-seed it using the above code
3. Follow the instructions at https://electrum.org/tutorials.html#offline-mpk from the "Master Public Key" line onwards.

Is that right?

Yeah. Though the easier way might be what ThomasV just said:

1. Click "Master Public Key" on your wallet.
2. Copy it.
3. Click "Create New" under File.
4. Name your wallet file "default_wallet" (or you can just name it something else, then rename it later, Electrum opens default_wallet by default on startup)
5. Choose "Create New Watch Only Wallet"
6. Input your Master Public Key from #2
7. Delete your old seeded wallet (assuming the seeded wallet is already on your other computer) and make sure the new watch-only wallet is named default_wallet and is in the wallets folder.

[FlintyParsimony]

Many thanks ThomasV and dabura667, I followed your instructions and they have worked perfectly

Also had a brainwave and set up Electrum on my desktop PC with firewall rules (both inbound and outbound) to block the app from accepting and making connections. Not quite true offline, but as near as dammit for my purposes.

Cheers

Flinty

[jonald_fyookball]

not sure why you wouldn't want to create a true offline wallet.  Is it really that much trouble?