Need help with a huge mess

[slashbtc]

Using osx el capitan I transferred bitcoin from bitcoin core to armory. Then I sent coins from armory to electrum but now they are in a watch-only wallet. I'm trying to armory to load but I pointed bitcoin to an external hard drive and can't figure out how to point armory to it. Later I made another mistake and somehow lost the whole blockchain and wallet that was currently on my mac.

But there's a silver lining. I found my original wallet.dat that I made with bitcoin core before I started this whole mess. So my question is what do I do now? Do I just wipe out armory, elctrum, and bitcoin core from my mac and reinstall Bitcoin core with my original wallet. Or is there something else I need to do before I start using it.

Your help is greatly appreciated. I've been racking my brain about this for months until I remembered I had the original file all along but now need guidance going forward.

[cr1776]

1. How did you transfer the bitcoin from Bitcoin Core to Armory?  Import the keys or make a transaction to transfer to a new address?
2. How did you send the coins from Armory to Electrum?  Import the keys or make a transaction to transfer to a new address?

If you just imported the private keys to each, then as long as you still have the wallet.dat that contains them, you should be fine.

If you actually "sent" the coins (as you stated) from Armory to Electrum, and the transaction was confirmed, you would need the private keys to that new address.

Are you running Time Machine so that you could have a backup of the armory or electrum files?

Whatever you do, make another backup (or two) of the wallet.dat file (or fileS) you do have right now.

[slashbtc]

1. How did you transfer the bitcoin from Bitcoin Core to Armory?  Import the keys or make a transaction to transfer to a new address?
2. How did you send the coins from Armory to Electrum?  Import the keys or make a transaction to transfer to a new address?

If you just imported the private keys to each, then as long as you still have the wallet.dat that contains them, you should be fine.

If you actually "sent" the coins (as you stated) from Armory to Electrum, and the transaction was confirmed, you would need the private keys to that new address.

Are you running Time Machine so that you could have a backup of the armory or electrum files?

Whatever you do, make another backup (or two) of the wallet.dat file (or fileS) you do have right now.

1) I created an address in armory and sent the coins to that address
2) I think I did the same with electrum.

I have the keys to the addresses and seed to electrum when it first loaded. Problem is I can't get it armory to load the blockchain so the balance of the wallet is not listed. Also as I stated electrum is watch only.

What steps do I have to take? I made a few copies of the original wallet.

[achow101]

1) I created an address in armory and sent the coins to that address
2) I think I did the same with electrum.

I have the keys to the addresses and seed to electrum when it first loaded. Problem is I can't get it armory to load the blockchain so the balance of the wallet is not listed. Also as I stated electrum is watch only.

What steps do I have to take? I made a few copies of the original wallet.

Having the original wallet.dat file is not going to help because you already spent the Bitcoin from that wallet.

You can recover your electrum wallet with the seed and any Bitcoin that you sent to it will still be there.

[cr1776]

1) I created an address in armory and sent the coins to that address
2) I think I did the same with electrum.

I have the keys to the addresses and seed to electrum when it first loaded. Problem is I can't get it armory to load the blockchain so the balance of the wallet is not listed. Also as I stated electrum is watch only.

What steps do I have to take? I made a few copies of the original wallet.

Having the original wallet.dat file is not going to help because you already spent the Bitcoin from that wallet.

You can recover your electrum wallet with the seed and any Bitcoin that you sent to it will still be there.

Exactly.  But make sure that you have a backup of that seed!

[slashbtc]

I'm on a mac and there are no options in electrum to unlock it.

I'm pretty much stuck here and don't know what steps to take. Plus the laptop I have bitcoin core on is too small to house the blockchain.

Anyone can provide me with a step by step process to try and get my coins?

[achow101]

I'm on a mac and there are no options in electrum to unlock it.

To unlock what?

I'm pretty much stuck here and don't know what steps to take. Plus the laptop I have bitcoin core on is too small to house the blockchain.

Anyone can provide me with a step by step process to try and get my coins?

Go to File > New/Restore and in the window that pops up, choose the option to restore a wallet.  Click Next and just follow the instructions in the wizard. You will need your seed phrase and you enter that at some point so that the wallet can be restored.

[Deep In The Mines LLC]

I hope you saved your seed, you should always write it down on paper.

If you don't get the option to unlock your Electrum wallet that's because you opened a blank or new wallet (That is not encrypted) or you haven't encrypted your wallet, in this case this shouldn't matter since you are gonna be restoring your wallet with your Seed.

What @achow101 stated are the correct steps for Electrum seed wallet retrieval, good luck and let us know how it goes!