Cannot create watch only wallet

[diegozapar]

Hi Guys,

This is my first post here, even though i've reading and following bitcoin discussions for  quite some time. i am going to explain my case plain and simple:

1. bought some BTC on Kraken.

2. made cold storage Electrum wallet on a bootable USB with tails

3. send BTC from Kraken to this wallet adress

4. Make watch only wallet with master public key in my brothers computer to check if the balance was OK (which was).

5. Make watch only wallet on my PC to be able to make transfer orders to send my BTC elsewhere (and the export that orders to my cold wallet, sign them, export to the watch only wallet and broadcast them).


Everything has worked up to step 5. I simply cannot make the watch only wallet on my windows PC. I follow all steps: make standard wallet/use public or private keys/ fill in the key and then i cannot click on next.

Here is some (maybe) important info:

Tails is running electrum 2.8.xx i cant remember exactly but 2.8.something.

Brother´s PC is windows 7 64bits runing electrum 3.0.3

My PC is windows 10 64bits running electrum 3.0.3

I also tried making a watch only wallet in my cold wallet in Tails, and it works just fine.


Any help will be appreciated guys!! thanks a lot

[Coin-Keeper]

About the only thing you need to make a good Electrum watching only wallet is your wallet MPK (master public key) and a solid internet connection.  Are you sure the MPK you are using is the same as the one on your brother's computer?  Doesn't matter how many computers have that MPK, it will remain the same on each of them.  Using your brother's computer wallet as an example.  If you copy the MPK from that watching wallet to a usb, and then using Electrum on your machine you attempt to create another watching wallet by pasting the MPK in Electrum ---- what exactly happens that prevents you from creating your wallet?  You don't need to be online to create this either, but of course the "watching" part requires a connection.  No SEED on this wallet so its safe and is watching only.   If something is grey'd out it is almost always because the keys being used are not correct (mathematically).

[TryNinja]

Ask your brother to send you his watch-only wallet file or get it from your Tails (both will be the same if created with the same master public key). Then, start Electrum and select it.

You can use this site to find the default directory of the wallet files for each OS: http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html#where-is-my-wallet-file-located

[diegozapar]

Hi Again

Thanks for the comments. i tried getting my watch only wallet file from tails and opening it from my Windows PC and it works fine. Still bothers me not being able to directly create it haha but at least i can continue moving my assets.

many thanks guys!!

[HCP]

Was your watch only wallet actually created with the Master Public Key (aka "xpub")... or was it created using just the Bitcoin Address?

The wallet creation options were changed slightly in Electrum v3... so when you use "Standard -> use public or private keys"... you can ONLY use the xpub or xprv. You can no longer import a bitcoin address here to create a watching only wallet.

To use an address only, you need to use "Import Bitcoin address or private keys" option right at the start.