is it possible to transfer funds into watching only ? lost all my bitcoin HELP!

[bitcoin-newbb]

anybody experienced something similar?

[nc50lc]

What do you mean by "experienced"?
Sending to watch-only isn't something anyone has experienced randomly, but done intentionally or not.
And yes, it's possible to send to a watch-only wallet as long as it has a Bitcoin address.

It's better if you can explain the issue so Electrum users can give you better solutions, you can follow this topic for the common format:
[READ BEFORE POSTING] Tech Support Help Request Format

[o_e_l_e_o]

is it possible to transfer funds into watching only ?

It is possible to transfer funds into a watch only wallet, yes.
It is not, however, possible to transfer funds out of a watch only wallet, unless you have the relevant seed phrase or private keys imported to another wallet.

A watch only wallet is, put simply, a collection of addresses. You can see those addresses, you can watch those addresses, you can send things to those addresses. A watch only wallet does not contain any of the private keys needed to spend any coins present at those addresses. Most people who use a watch only wallet also have the full wallet (which does contain the private keys and therefore can spend the coins) stored on a secure device somewhere else.

Are your funds currently on a watch only wallet? Where did you get this watch only wallet from? Did you create it yourself, or did someone give it/sell it to you?

[bitcoin-newbb]

thanks for posting back, im thinking that i may have pressed export in my default wallet to send them into my wallet-1 which is watching only, because i never even knew that i had a watching only account untill the money had been sent into there.. theres no seed on the watching only, only option i have is to  sweep private keys or it says import addresses. is still  very confusing to me what to do as it has been stressing me out for atleast a week now

[OmegaStarScream]

thanks for posting back, im thinking that i may have pressed export in my default wallet to send them into my wallet-1 which is watching only, because i never even knew that i had a watching only account untill the money had been sent into there.. theres no seed on the watching only, only option i have is to  sweep private keys or it says import addresses. is still  very confusing to me what to do as it has been stressing me out for atleast a week now

AFAIK, the only way to "export" the wallet and make it watch-only is by using the master key. Did you do that? If not, and if the address you're watching doesn't match with one of the addresses found in your default wallet, then sadly, there is no way to recover the funds. You would need the private keys for that.

[o_e_l_e_o]

thanks for posting back, im thinking that i may have pressed export in my default wallet to send them into my wallet-1 which is watching only

So at some point, you (or somebody else using the same computer as you) must have created wallet-1 by importing either one or more addresses or a master public key. Do you remember doing this? Do you remember where the addresses or keys you imported came from?

only option i have is to  sweep private keys or it says import addresses.

The "Sweep" option in Electrum is to sweep other funds in to that wallet, not to send funds out of a wallet, so it won't help you in this case. Import addresses allows you to add other addresses to the watch only wallet to watch them as well, and has nothing to do with sending funds.

The only way you can recover your coins is if you can remember where you imported these addresses from, and therefore be able to locate their private keys and/or seed phrase.

[nc50lc]

thanks for posting back, im thinking that i may have pressed export in my default wallet to send them into my wallet-1 which is watching only, because i never even knew that i had a watching only account untill the money had been sent into there.. theres no seed on the watching only, only option i have is to  sweep private keys or it says import addresses. -snip-

I assume that you have an "imported, watching-only wallet" since you have the option "Import addresses".

As long as you didn't used "Sweep", your funds are most likely safe since "Import addresses" will only add those addresses to the watch-only list, no funds will be transferred.
So if you've used import addresses and pasted an address from your default wallet, it's just showing that address' balance as part of the wallet but the funds aren't sent there.
Sweep (under private key option) however will send all of the funds from the private key(s) to the wallet.

[Stalker22]

thanks for posting back, im thinking that i may have pressed export in my default wallet to send them into my wallet-1 which is watching only, because i never even knew that i had a watching only account untill the money had been sent into there.. theres no seed on the watching only, only option i have is to  sweep private keys or it says import addresses. is still  very confusing to me what to do as it has been stressing me out for atleast a week now

You're giving me a headache as I try to figure out your posts.

If you want the help of the members of this forum, I recommend that you be as concise and factual as you can. Try to describe roughly what you did, step by step, and what the result of your actions were. Feel free to post your addresses here, too. This does not pose a danger to you and will make it easier for us to figure out what exactly happened to your coins.

[bob123]

im thinking that i may have pressed export in my default wallet to send them into my wallet-1 which is watching only, because i never even knew that i had a watching only account untill the money had been sent into there..

A watch only is a wallet with only address(es) or the master public key imported.
It does not contain any private keys and therefore there is no way to spend from that wallet.

How did you set up that watch-only wallet? You must have imported an address / public key / master public key. Where did you get it from?

Without the missing secret information (the private key), you won't be able to spend the funds.
It is crucial for you to find the wallet you have used to "export" the address from.

[HCP]

thanks for posting back, im thinking that i may have pressed export in my default wallet to send them into my wallet-1 which is watching only, because i never even knew that i had a watching only account untill the money had been sent into there.. theres no seed on the watching only, only option i have is to  sweep private keys or it says import addresses. is still  very confusing to me what to do as it has been stressing me out for atleast a week now

What happens if you use the "File -> Open" menu option in Electrum? How many files do you see in the "Wallets" folder? Do you see a "default_wallet" file?

If you see a "default_wallet" file, then it would seem that your Electrum is set to open the "wallet_1" wallet on start up (it defaults to opening the last wallet file that you had open)... what happens if you select "default_wallet" and open that? Do you see the same address/funds that you see in "wallet_1"?