BTCs not found/Electrum/Tails issue

[greendeer]

First of all, I am fairly new to this so I'm sorry for my 5th grade level knowledge about all of this.

I had an electrum wallet on my Tails USB drive. And I noticed after sending coins from my regular Electrum wallet to the Tails wallet that my Tails wallet would not connect. Turns out, I have the old version that will no longer sync to servers. The address I sent it to in the Tails Wallet, and is obviously an older receive address. It's showing the completed transaction and balance when I checked the transaction on the blockchain site. When I installed Electrum on another PC of mine using the seed from my tails wallet, it connect right away and shows all of my old transactions. It does not show the tails receive address I Used, however, and does not show the new transaction  in history tab either. My balance is showing 0 BTC still, and I have been leaving Electrum on and connected throughout the past couple days to see if it would update at some point. Any ideas on where the heck my coins are? Thanks in advance!!

[1713460640]

1713460640

[1713460640]

1713460640

[1713460640]

1713460640

[1713460640]

1713460640

[BitMaxz]

Here is my list of question below.

- Let me ask if what Electrum version you use?
- Where did you download the Electrum?
- Can you share your bitcoin address where you sent your bitcoin and maybe it's not yet confirmed?
- Can you share the URL address if where did you download Electrum?

The current version of electrum is Electrum-3.3.4
Beware on fake electrum in random sources because there are many fake Electrum and steal their bitcoin.

[nc50lc]

Try to increase the Gap Limit to 50 if you already used more than 50 addresses before, 100+ if there are more.

Open the console (View->Show Console) then type this (change "50" to the needed value):

Code:

wallet.change_gap_limit(50)

Then restart Electrum.

[greendeer]

Here is my list of question below.

- Let me ask if what Electrum version you use?
- Where did you download the Electrum?
- Can you share your bitcoin address where you sent your bitcoin and maybe it's not yet confirmed?
- Can you share the URL address if where did you download Electrum?

The current version of electrum is Electrum-3.3.4
Beware on fake electrum in random sources because there are many fake Electrum and steal their bitcoin.

I downloaded Electrum on my PC  from their official site. It is the current version.
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/12vj8D3TUZSdYZ79Lk5RXxWTuaaq3v7JAS  <---this is the receive address provided by the electrum wallet on my Tails stick. The version of Tails is up to date, the electrum is not. I am not sure what version the tails wallet is one, I need to boot it up and check. Increasing the gap did not show me the address listed above. it's like it never existed or something. I have only done roughly 15-20 transactions.

[nc50lc]

-snip-

Have you imported an address/private key before?
If the Electrum's version was too old, importing private keys to an HD wallet is possible.

But whether yes or no:
I assume that you can still open that outdated wallet, so just Export the private key of that specific address and sweep it to a new wallet.

• Click "View", then "Show Address"
• Find the specific address, right click and select private key.
• Type your passphrase and the Private key should appear (do not share this to anyone)
• In the new wallet or you main wallet, click "wallet", then "Private key" and select "Sweep"
• Paste p2pkh:YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY to the text box, select a destination address (double-check if it's in the address list), then sweep.

[crairezx20]

Based on your statement it looks like you can't find your bitcoin address as a receiving address from tails to a new PC with correct seed phrase.
There is a way that you can verify if you own the address if you can't find the address using "Gap Limit".

Try this method to verify if you own this address.

Open your electrum then clock view then click shows console then put the code below.

Code:

ismine("Your bitcoin address")

Sample 12vj8D3TUZSdYZ79Lk5RXxWTuaaq3v7JAS since this is the bitcoin address from the link you share above. The input must be the same as below.

Code:

ismine("12vj8D3TUZSdYZ79Lk5RXxWTuaaq3v7JAS")

or you can get the wallet.dat from your .electrum/wallets folder then import it to your new wallet in another PC.

[greendeer]

Ok, so I went back to Tails. The Electrum is out of date on there obv but I can still open it. It does not connect.  However, it is showing the wallet that I sent my coins to under the address tab. It still does not show that particular receive on my PC Electrum wallet that is up to date. When I checked to see if I owned that wallet on the PC side, it said "false." But that address is showing on the electrum on tails in my address list. It is showing zero transactions though. I am so lost right now. Do I need to update electrum on tails, and if so, how do I go about doing that? Or can  I use the trick above  to send the coins in that wallet to an updated addresson the PC electrum wallet that is up to date/

[nc50lc]

It's showing Zero transaction because it isn't connected to any server and not synchronized.
You should confirm that the address belongs to Tails Electrum too though.

Have you tried exporting its private key as I said in my post above?

[Abdussamad]

on tails electrum go to file > save copy  and save the wallet file on a removable drive. in regular (not tails) electrum go to file > open and open that wallet file. is the balance correct now?

[greendeer]

It's showing Zero transaction because it isn't connected to any server and not synchronized.
You should confirm that the address belongs to Tails Electrum too though.

Have you tried exporting its private key as I said in my post above?

You are an ABSOLUTE F*CKING GOD. Please pardon my language. Thank you very much for your help. this worked!

[nc50lc]

Great, just make sure that the PC Electrum version was verified and/or came from the official site (electrum.org) and you should be safe.
It's better of that way since it's super weird that your SEED failed to produce that particular address (even "ismine" command resulted in "false").

[HCP]

Great, just make sure that the PC Electrum version was verified and/or came from the official site (electrum.org) and you should be safe.
It's better of that way since it's super weird that your SEED failed to produce that particular address (even "ismine" command resulted in "false").

It's possible he was using a BIP39 seed and just selected the "default" option of "native segwit" (aka bech32 aka "bc1") addresses when he tried to recover using the latest Electrum, as that is what the wallet creation wizard defaults to after you end your seed.

... When I installed Electrum on another PC of mine using the seed from my tails wallet, it connect right away and shows all of my old transactions. It does not show the tails receive address I Used, however, and does not show the new transaction  in history tab either. My balance is showing 0 BTC still, and I have been leaving Electrum on and connected throughout the past couple days to see if it would update at some point. Any ideas on where the heck my coins are? Thanks in advance!!

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/12vj8D3TUZSdYZ79Lk5RXxWTuaaq3v7JAS  <---this is the receive address provided by the electrum wallet on my Tails stick.

Do the addresses on the new PC with the latest Electrum start with "bc1"?

Did you create the seed with Electrum? Or is it an imported BIP39 seed? If it is BIP39, then for future reference, to recover your old wallet on the new PC with the new Electrum with your old seed... you need to ensure that you select the top option that says "legacy (p2pkh)" after you have entered your seed:



However if it was an Electrum seed, then I'd agree that is VERY strange that your seed is generated addresses that don't match... I'd suggest looking at the wallet on the Tails machine and using "Wallet -> Seed" option to actually double check that you have backed up the correct seed!

[nc50lc]

@HCP He stated that "it connect right away and shows all of my old transactions" in his PC Electrum so it's highly likely that the addresses were the same aside from that particular address which really strange, unless he imported it before (using old Electrum version with import function enabled on HD wallets).

Here's another possibility that I just thought of:
His Tails Electrum wallet got two wallet files and the "missing" address belongs to the second wallet, while the backed-up SEED belongs to the first wallet where his "old transactions" belong.

[HCP]

Does the change_gap_limit() command also affect "change" addresses?

I don't think it does... and if not, then I guess it's possible that somehow OP had been using a change address past the change address gap limit as a receive address... but I wouldn't consider that likely either. I would think the multiple wallet scenario to be more likely.

Indeed a very puzzling situation... and definitely one the OP should solve ASAP to avoid any coin loss with coins that appear to be held on addresses that are not backed up by their seed!