Wallet was restored fine but "unspendable".

[cyptomania]

I found my 15(yes 15 not 12)mnemonic words and went to blockchain.com where I'm sure I made the address,typed in the words and the wallet was successfully restored but as a Watch Only address.

There is a small amount in it and I really don't care about the bitcoin but care more about how this happened and what I can do.

I do not have the private key,just the 15 words and it restored it,if it's lost forever no big deal but I read this wallet can be imported to another wallet service like Tresor and I'll have access to the funds,10 cents or so LOL.

Any advice ?

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[jackg]

When did you create the wallet?

Can you send a screenshot of where it says its unspendable? 15 words is BIP39 compliant however I think this could be one from before then... And if its old it won't be I'm portable into trezor and other clients.

[bitmover]

unspendable means that you don't hold the private keys. This is wierd, because the seed should have returned them and blockchain.com should have recognized it.

I suppose you have a legacy address.

I suggest that you Downlaod iancoleman.io/bip39 website , run it in private mode and offline.

insert your words there and look for your address, in the bottom of the page.
You will find its private key there.

insert that private key in Electrum.org word, it will work (if you did everything correctly)

[cyptomania]

I used Mr.Coleman's tool but there are 1000's of addresses to go through,for 10 cents of BTC,no thanks.

[jackg]

I used Mr.Coleman's tool but there are 1000's of addresses to go through,for 10 cents of BTC,no thanks.

You can still search for the xpub on blockchain.com's explorer still can't you?

[cyptomania]

Hi,nope,it's "non-spendable" right now so I can't see anything,it's telling me "archive" it,that's the only option,basically treating my own wallet like it's not mine,have given up,more important things to do with 4 hours of my time than try to get 10 cents,the reason I asked this question was if it was $10000 dollars it looks like that persons money is gone even though they say the seed words will recover it,THEY WON'T,I'm stumped but really don't care anymore.

[Csmiami]

Hi,nope,it's "non-spendable" right now so I can't see anything,it's telling me "archive" it,that's the only option

That means that the address with the funds you are looking at was generated with another seed, and you imported the public key into that blockchain account.

You may have been using blockchain as your main wallet at the time, and tracked an exchange or similar service deposit wallet to see if funds got trough, that is purely open to speculation.

[hosseinimr93]

How did you recover you wallet using a 15-word phrase?

I just checked "Recover Funds" on blockchain wallet. It asks you to enter a 12-word seed phrase. So that tool has been designed to recover your wallet using a 12-word phrase.

Since the backup phrase blockchain wallet gives you includes 12 words, I guess you backed up your wallet in the old-version of blockchain wallet and that's why your phrase includes 15 words.
If so, you need to contact their support to recover your wallet.

[BitMaxz]

The weird part here is he has the 15-word phrase but he still got a watch-only wallet after he imports it to the blockchain.

You can only get a watch-only wallet if you import a public key, not a seed phrase. Am I right?

Maybe the word phrase you have has a missing character you will need to verify it each word from here below
- https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039/english.txt

Or your 15-word seed backup has rumbled words?
Incase it's rumbled the only thing that comes to my mind is to recover it using the BTCrecovery tool.

Much better check this recovery tool below
- https://github.com/gurnec/btcrecover

It includes a guide on how to recover the wallet.

[Csmiami]

You can only get a watch-only wallet if you import a public key, not a seed phrase. Am I right?

AFAIK, yes. But we are talking about a blockchain.com wallet here, so I wouldn't be surprised if the associated the seeds with their user ID (wallet ID I think it's called), and when you re-enter the seed, all of your old data is restored (labels, wallets, imported addresses.....).

Besides, if the seed was incorrect, wouldn't he get a completely new wallet?

[HCP]

I assume you used this recovery tool: https://login.blockchain.com/wallet/recover-wallet

"Old" blockchain.info 15 word recovery phrases... were for recovering the wallet password to your Legacy wallet. They do not (and can not) restore a seed/private keys.

If the wallet file you now have access to says "watching-only", then you have no way of recovering the funds in that wallet.

[cyptomania]

OK,thanks,I don't really care but someone who had a lot of money in one is getting screwed actually,your seed words are supposed to restore the wallet isn't it,I'm not being sarcastic or anything that's probably the first thing I was told years ago "save your seed words save your wallet",guess that's not really true.

[nc50lc]

-snip- your seed words are supposed to restore the wallet isn't it,I'm not being sarcastic or anything that's probably the first thing I was told years ago "save your seed words save your wallet",guess that's not really true. -snip-

For the record, blockchain.info had been using that mnemonic log-in info backup even before BIP39 was introduced in 2013.
So it's not actually reasonable to blame their old mnemonics for following something that didn't exist yet.
Their late implementation of BIP39 seeds is one problem though; not to mention (bec. off-topic), late native SegWit blockexplorer support.

The seed words I found were "thunder purchase pave tower lecture upgrade supreme half kid fitness tray shove"

That's a valid BIP39 seed.

[HCP]

OK,thanks,I don't really care but someone who had a lot of money in one is getting screwed actually,your seed words are supposed to restore the wallet isn't it,I'm not being sarcastic or anything that's probably the first thing I was told years ago "save your seed words save your wallet",guess that's not really true.

Yes.. that is true... for "BIP39 compatible" seeds and "HD" (Hierarchical Deterministic) wallets. They are able to fully replicate the wallet and all the private keys from the 12/24 word seed mnemonic.

As nc50lc said, the blockchain.info "recovery phrase" was around before BIP39... and was a password recovery mechanism. It was not a "seed recovery". You still needed to know your Wallet ID and/or have access to the wallet.json (that you could backup via email).

They (blockchain.info) updated to HD wallets in around 2016 and the 12 word seeds from those HD wallets allow full recovery.

A lot has changed in the last 6-7 years... and most HD wallets adhere to BIP39 (Electrum is a notable exception, but it can restore BIP39 wallets)... so yes, "save your seed words, save your wallet" holds true, assuming you actually have seed recovery words

[hulla]

Hi,nope,it's "non-spendable" right now so I can't see anything,it's telling me "archive" it,that's the only option,basically treating my own wallet like it's not mine,have given up,more important things to do with 4 hours of my time than try to get 10 cents,the reason I asked this question was if it was $10000 dollars it looks like that persons money is gone even though they say the seed words will recover it,THEY WON'T,I'm stumped but really don't care anymore.

This is the saddest part. I think we need to find the solution to this and it not about you not really care anymore because of the stress you have gone through and time wasted but for the future purpose cause another person will encounter the same thing in future.
With that been said, have you try to import the wallet through coinomi or other HD wallet cause it seems to support the mnemonic you said on OP.

Note : Used the mobile wallet cause the desktop was said to be vulnerable months ago but dont know if it ok now.

[keychainX]

They (blockchain.info) updated to HD wallets in around 2016 and the 12 word seeds from those HD wallets allow full recovery.

So a blockchain.info wallet from 2015 with multiple addresses used a RNG like the first version(s) of Bitcoin Core?

[HCP]

So a blockchain.info wallet from 2015 with multiple addresses used a RNG like the first version(s) of Bitcoin Core?

Correct, it was essentially just a collection of "random" keys like most of the early nonHD wallets (like MultiBit classic etc)... that's why you wee able to backup the wallet.json.

And the "recovery phrase", was password recovery... not wallet recovery. So, you needed: Password + WalletID to access via web... or Password + wallet.aes.json to decrypt offline. (They have an offline decryption utility here: https://github.com/blockchain/my-wallet-backup-decryption-tool)