Need Help!

[waldler]

I built a "read only" wallet by mistake. On this wallet are some bitcoins. How can I get it back?

[OmegaStarScream]

I built a "read only" wallet by mistake. On this wallet are some bitcoins. How can I get it back?

That's the purpose of watch only wallets mate , you can't spend your bitcoins , it's just to check them on adress regulary if they are on Paper wallet for example.
If you have private keys of your wallet then you could import them to different wallets . (e.g blockchain.info/

[RustyNomad]

Do you have the seed of the wallet?

If so then just select the option to restore an existing wallet from seed. That will allow you to access the coins. If not then your coins are stuck in that wallet.

[waldler]

The option "private key" is grey, just like "seed" and "password". I installed electrum in hurry and used the adress to receive btc. I think there never was a seed. It´s the default wallet. What can i do?

[RustyNomad]

Not sure how you've set it up but if you started Electrum from scratch there should have been a setup process which would have taken you through the steps where you would have been given the seed of the wallet and also asked to re-enter that seed to confirm that you made a copy of it. Without that seed you will not be able to recover the wallet.

If you started up Electrum and it already had a default wallet then that also had to be setup at one stage or another with a seed. Not sure how you got a default wallet unless that was setup as a watch only.

You will not be able to access those coins unless you have the seed for that wallet as you will not be able to recover that wallet.

I hope its not a large number of coins you sent to that wallet.

[Quickseller]

Where did you get the addresses to create the "read only" wallet? When you create a new wallet, and you are selecting "restore a wallet or input keys" you need to tell it which addresses to "watch" either by address or by "master public key" (xbub key).

Electrum will not generate addresses in any automatic way like this.

[waldler]

Sorry for my bad english.
When i look into the file "default_wallet" it is a "wallet_type": "xpub"

[unamis76]

Sorry for my bad english.
When i look into the file "default_wallet" it is a "wallet_type": "xpub"

Which is a watch-only wallet, as you referred. Electrum does not create watch-only wallet out of thin air. You must have created a wallet, exported its Master Public Key and insert that key on the new wallet you created.

If you have the seed to that wallet you can get the funds back, otherwise no, so... Do you have the seed?

[waldler]

Ok, perhaps this is a trace. I lost the hard drive of my mac. I inserted a new one and installed yosemite. Then i tried to revover the old HD with file recovery and there where some files of electrum. So i tried to recover electrum, which does not work and I installed new electrum and when it asked wether to create new wallet or recover one I guess I tried to recover. It seems this wouldn´t work. There are not so many files that I could recover. Which one can help me to get my coins back?

[waldler]

btw:
I can´t believe that my coins are lost, cause i can see it in this fucking wallet. They must be anywhere. Is it possible to send it back to the sender? Is it possible for the sender to call it back ? It is not a illegal transaction, so i can talk to the sender in any way if it helps.

[RustyNomad]

Only way to get your hands on those coins is to get the private key of the address they are on or to get the seed of the wallet so that you can restore it. Without one of those, I'm sorry to say, but your coins are lost.

Care should be taken when setting up a wallet and one should always first make a backup after which you first send a very small amount to it to as a test. Once that small amount is in the wallet delete the wallet and see if you can restore the wallet from the seed or backup. If you can then you know that the wallet is setup properly and that your backup works.

Only then do you start sending larger amounts to that wallet.

The reason for doing this is because we all make mistakes from time to time and best to rather make a mistake on a small amount than one on your life savings.

[waldler]

I can restore the old wallets. The only thing is: the coins are not on the old wallets. So it helps not so much. If i had a seed from the wallet the coins are on, I think my problem where not so big. The coins are on "default_wallet" and "wallet01". Both are "nur lesen". I dont know how I managed to creat them. I think they where not ready createt, so there never was a seed. If anybody can answer in german i think i can explain it better. I needed a wallet to receive coins quickly. I installed electrum, copied the adress to receive and gave it to the sender. Thats it. Now my coins are on this fucking "read only" wallets which i never wanted. I am confused caus i can see the coins in this wallets, so i think they MUST be anywhere!?