Electrum logistical question

[pacnw]

On a Windows 7 system where I have Electrum 1.9.8 installed (watching-only wallet), the (domain) user whose profile Electrum 1.9.8 was installed as no longer exists but the <userprofile>\AppData\Roaming\Electrum folder of the user does still exist and default_wallet is in the wallets folder and everything else is apparently still intact.

When I open Electrum 1.9.8 as a different use on the machine where the watching wallet is installed, I receive a pop-up window that says "Electrum could not find an existing wallet" and "What do you want to do?" with the three choices (radio buttons) being:

- Create new wallet
- Restore an existing wallet from its seed
- Create a watching-only version of an existing wallet

What's the method for getting back to a functional watching wallet?

Can I just copy the Electrum folder to the same PATH of the new user and open Electrum on the watching computer and Electrum will find the wallet and any other necessary files?

Or should I do one of the three choices and which one?

Also, can Electrum be used with a PATH that doesn't involve storing anything in the installing user's profile?

One last question, can anybody point me to documentation on how to upgrade Electrum to a current version when using cold storage and a watching-only wallet setup?

Thanks

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[Quickseller]

If the default_wallet file still exists on the old user's profile then you can copy this file into the use profile of the other user on your computer, and the wallet should load, along with labels and the same password.

If for some reason you are unable to move this file, and/or there is some other issue with the file, then you can click on "- Restore an existing wallet from its seed" and enter the recovery seed that you (hopefully) wrote down when you first created your wallet.

Also, can Electrum be used with a PATH that doesn't involve storing anything in the installing user's profile?

You can delete your wallet file every time you close electrum, and then restore your wallet from its seed every time you open it, however this is not something I would suggest doing because it would mean that you need to frequently access one of your backups which increases your risk of loss of bitcoin

[pacnw]

If the default_wallet file still exists on the old user's profile then you can copy this file into the use profile of the other user on your computer, and the wallet should load, along with labels and the same password.

If for some reason you are unable to move this file, and/or there is some other issue with the file, then you can click on "- Restore an existing wallet from its seed" and enter the recovery seed that you (hopefully) wrote down when you first created your wallet.

Also, can Electrum be used with a PATH that doesn't involve storing anything in the installing user's profile?

You can delete your wallet file every time you close electrum, and then restore your wallet from its seed every time you open it, however this is not something I would suggest doing because it would mean that you need to frequently access one of your backups which increases your risk of loss of bitcoin

Thanks for the reply.

Normally I'd just try this, but in this case I'm quite paranoid since I just spent a long sweaty summer spending hours at my desk about five feet from a heat pumping miner and I don't want to lose the resultant btc.

I'd guess that I should I copy the whole Electrum folder from the old profile to the new profile or does Electrum just look for a default_wallet file? The Electrum folder in the old profile contains two folders, "certs" and "wallets" (with default_wallet), and two files, "blockchain headers" and "config".

For my understanding, if I was to "restore an existing wallet from its seed" (and I do have the seed saved in a few places) does that automatically create the watching-only wallet since there is no private key present?

I don't get the last part of your reply. If I was to restore a wallet from seed, why would I need to access a backup? I thought the seed was all that was needed in "restore the wallet from seed" scenario.

**
Do you happen to have any knowledge of the procedure to update to a newer Electrum version in a watching wallet/cold storage configuration?

Thanks

[pacnw]

I copied the Electrum folder over to the new profile and the watching only wallet opened and the recent transactions showed up. Actually I tried with Electrum-LTC first since there was less value.

 

[Quickseller]

I would not personally copy the entire folder, only the default_wallet (or whatever you named the wallet file) file to the wallet folder of the 2nd user.

I am not entirely sure what exactly electrum looks for, however I know that it looks in the wallet folder by default.

For my understanding, if I was to "restore an existing wallet from its seed" (and I do have the seed saved in a few places) does that automatically create the watching-only wallet since there is no private key present?

No, electrum calculates each of the private keys based on the seed. If you restore from the seed then it will create a wallet with the same private keys associated with any other wallet with that same seed (assuming that you copied the seed properly).

I don't get the last part of your reply. If I was to restore a wallet from seed, why would I need to access a backup? I thought the seed was all that was needed in "restore the wallet from seed" scenario.

You should have at least 3 backups of your wallet file (/seed), stored in at least 2 storage mediums, one of which should be offsite. If you are accessing one of these backups on a regular basis then the chances of this backup being damaged and/or compromised would increase.

If you are frequently restoring from you seed, then you will need to frequently access a written (most likely) version of your seed, which means that any time you restore your wallet from your seed, it would be possible that an attacker would be able to physically steal your seed which would give them access to all your bitcoin. The risk of this happening is most likely overall low, however it is still greater then if you maintained a password encrypted/protected wallet on your computer. It is always best to minimize the risk of loss of your bitcoin as much as possible.

Do you happen to have any knowledge of the procedure to update to a newer Electrum version in a watching wallet/cold storage configuration?

No, sorry. However as long as the method of calculating the private keys remains the same across versions it should not be an issue to upgrade on your online computer but not your offline computer (you want to introduce as little outside software as possible to your offline computer)