Can't seem to get past the import private key section

[authorjames]

Hi there,

I'm having trouble importing a private key. During the installation/wallet creation process it asks to input a list of private keys. I type in mine (just the one) and the 'next' button doesn't activate, but stays disabled. I can't seen what else I should be doing.

I want to send the money from my paper wallet to a desktop wallet (Electrum).

I downloaded the standalone version. Ran the exe. Selected 'Standard Wallet' from the first question. 'Use Public or Private Keys' for the second question. Then on the third page is where I get stuck, as it won't let me continue to the next stage after typing in my paper wallet's private key.

Then, I tried another way... I went back and selected 'Create new seed' from the second question. Then once I finished the installation, I went to Private Keys->Sweep and here I am again having the same problem in that the 'sweep' button doesn't become clickable after I enter my paper wallet's private key.

Has anyone else had the same issue(s)? Am I doing something wrong?

Forgive me if I'm being a total noob and it's something obvious!

Thanks

[jonald_fyookball]

usually bad format -- make sure you didnt delete a letter and that theres no spaces

[HCP]

Also, make sure you have your upper and lower case and characters correct. Bitcoins purposely uses Base58 to try and decrease the possibility of incorrect character interpretation... but if you're typing in a key manually, you might just be using the wrong character. For instance, there are no 0's (zeros) or O's (Uppercase o)... there are only lower case o. No Uppercase i, only lower case i. No lowercase l, only uppercase L...

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Base58Check_encoding#Base58_symbol_chart

[HI-TEC99]

I want to send the money from my paper wallet to a desktop wallet (Electrum).

Does your paper wallet use mini private key format? Some paper wallets do.

A mini private key is 30 alphanumeric characters long, and the first character is always the uppercase letter S.

Back in 2015 electrum couldn't import private keys in that format, it could only import private keys in Wallet Import Format (WIF).

Oh yes i forgot to note that its a mini private key actually. So is it so that it cannot be imported to electrum as it is? Do i need to decrypt it or something? If so then i didnt realize that.

So simply put, everything i said + its a mini key, the kind that begins with an S, just like in that link it is described. Do i do something with that?

You can only import private keys in Wallet Import Format (WIF). You can convert to WIF using the wallet details tab of https://www.bitaddress.org . You can download this page and run it offline. It uses client side javascript for everything.

You can convert keys to WIF format using an offline copy of this page.

https://www.bitaddress.org

Never put your private keys into an online copy of it. To download it open that link, then scroll to the bottom and click the link marked "(zip)". Unzip the downloaded file, open the unzipped folder, then open the file named bitaddress.org.html inside your browser.

To use the webpage first wiggle your mouse around until the randomness % shows 100%. Afterwards click the "wallet details" button, enter your private key in the text box, then click the "view details" button next to the text box. The page should then show your private key in a range of different formats including WIF.