"watch only" address not allowing access to bitcoin.

[aciel78]

I've asked this question elsewhere but I'll ask again here, maybe I will get some better advice.  So, I purchased bitcoin via coinmama, and can see that the funds were transferred to my bitcoin wallet in blockchain, but in a "watch only" address. The problem is when I try to access the funds in this address, i'm being asked for a private key. Or when I try to transfer funds to my wallet I get this message:

"Archive swept addresses? 0 address was successfully transferred to My Bitcoin Wallet. Would you like to archive this address now?"

What am i doing wrong? This is the 3rd time i've purchased bitcoin through coinmama and the first 2 transactions were fine. This "watch only" address is completely new to me. Now I need to provide the correct private key so I can move the funds to my wallet. Can someone PLEASE tell me how I can find my private key? From the research that I've done, it was as simple as clicking on addresses>more options>import/export and from there one would be able to get the private key, but on the latest version of blockchain there is no import/export tab. I've contacted blockchain support asking them how I can find my private key and they've told me there was no way of them knowing my private key (duh!) nor do they know how I can retrieve it. I know my 12 word backup phrase as well. It's frustrating to see 90% of my bitcoins in a "watch only" address that I can't even touch. There's got to be a way. Someone please HELP! Thanks in advance

[1715079188]

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[achow101]

You need to have the private key to an address in order to spend the Bitcoin associated with it. A watch-only address is an address in your wallet that your wallet does not have the private key for. You cannot spend from a watch-only address in the wallet where it is watch-only, you must spend it from the wallet that actually has the private key.

Unless you can figure out where that watch-only address came from, the Bitcoin is lost.

[DannyHamilton]

Blockchain.info does not create "watch only" addresses on its own.  You must have gotten that address from somewhere else.

If you have an address from somewhere other than blockchain.info, you can import that address into blockchain.info as a "watch only" address.  This allows you to "watch" what happens with transactions to and from that address, but does not allow you to actually do anything with those bitcoins.  That's why it is called a "watch only" address.

So, if you have a "watch only" address in your blockchain.info wallet, then you must have imported that address.  Where did you originally get the address from?  Why did you import the address into your blockchain.info wallet?