Can't recover funds from a watch only address

[aquatic_]

Hello there! A couple years ago I've created a wallet in MyCelium Bitcoin wallet through my android phone. Mistakenly, I opened a watch-only address without writing down the 12-word seed. I still own the phone, and the app is installed. I have 1.04 BTC stuck in that wallet(!).
Wallet address: 1PkQe6RwVPArxcaqpA8YxeGxvj3mBse6bn
I am in desperate need of your guys' help on how I can recover it.

Thank you so much in advance
Aquatic

[1715201308]

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[1715201308]

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[1715201308]

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[OmegaStarScream]

Sadly, there is no way to recover the funds from a watch-only address without the 12-word seed or the private key.

[aquatic_]

Sadly, there is no way to recover the funds from a watch-only address without the 12-word seed or the private key.

Considering I have the app installed, is there no way messing with the files after rooting the phone? Possibly the private key is in there?

[Upgrade00]

After generating your seed phrase and creating the wallet did you delete the original one before creating a watch only wallet?
If you do not have access to that and did not safe the seed phrase, then there is no way to recover your wallet.

[aquatic_]

After generating your seed phrase and creating the wallet did you delete the original one before creating a watch only wallet?
If you do not have access to that and did not safe the seed phrase, then there is no way to recover your wallet.

Can you make the question more clear? Access to what?

[OmegaStarScream]

Considering I have the app installed, is there no way messing with the files after rooting the phone? Possibly the private key is in there?

I doubt it. If the wallet and the private keys were in your device, you should be able to see that in the "accounts" tab. Is that the case here?

[Charles-Tim]

Can you make the question more clear? Access to what?

If you download mycelium wallet and you open it, it will generate you seed phrase, and if you are still using the wallet, you can get the seed phrase from the wallet. Or, you are no more able to accessing the wallet again on that old device, and you imported master public key to another device which generate you watch-only wallet? And now you are not having the seed phrase?

If you do not have the seed phrase, you will only be able to see your balance, but you can not spend from the coin without importing the seed phrase.

[aquatic_]

Can you make the question more clear? Access to what?

If you download mycelium wallet and you open it, it will generate you seed phrase, and if you are still using the wallet, you can get the seed phrase from the wallet. Or, you are no more able to accessing the wallet again on that old device, and you imported master public key to another device which generate you watch-only wallet? And now you are not having the seed phrase?

If you do not have the seed phrase, you will only be able to see your balance, but you can not spend from the coin without importing the seed phrase.

Considering I have the app installed, is there no way messing with the files after rooting the phone? Possibly the private key is in there?

I doubt it. If the wallet and the private keys were in your device, you should be able to see that in the "accounts" tab. Is that the case here?

Sent a picture of the app (on the new phone).
Let me know what you think.
https://i.imgur.com/VmefYv8.png
https://i.imgur.com/MjhIBPp.png

[suzanne5223]

The idea of watch only wallet is to allow people to keep track of the incoming and out transaction of their paper or cold storage wallet i.e you'll see the wallet balance but won't be able to access it so showing us the balance image won't do you any help.
What you need to access the wallet is the wallet seeds without it forget about the BTC.

[aquatic_]

I realize that brother, but there's 60,000$ stuck in here. If you're able to help me retrieve it, I'll reward you big time. Literally in any way

[Bitcoin_Arena]

I realize that brother, but there's 60,000$ stuck in here. If you're able to help me retrieve it, I'll reward you big time. Literally in any way

There is literally no other way you can retrieve the Bitcoins without the Private Keys or seed phrase. No private keys/ back up phrase, means No Bitcoins.

I am curious though, how could anyone possibly create a watch only address if they did not go through the process of creating an HD account that has actual private keys/ seed phrases in mycelium?

I thought that by the time you decided to create a watch only address, you will have already created a normal HD account.

[nc50lc]

Sent a picture of the app (on the new phone).
Let me know what you think.

So it's an imported watch-only SA account, means that you've imported an 'address' instead of a 'private key' to include that address in your wallet.
The bad news is there's absolutely no way to spend from that wallet without the address' "private key".
Bitcoin doesn't have a central authority/server to retrieve users' lost keys or balances, it's up to the user unless the fund is in a centralized service like an Exchange,
Mycelium's SA Bitcoin wallet isn't centralized.

The question is, where did you get that address from?
Because depending on where, you might have a chance to recover the funds.

Funny thing is: You claimed that it's "a couple of years ago", but you've used the default name which is the date when the address was imported  
What gives?

[aquatic_]

Sent a picture of the app (on the new phone).
Let me know what you think.
https://i.imgur.com/ff7YpPk.png https://i.imgur.com/Kk4iphs.png

So it's an imported watch-only SA account, means that you've imported an 'address' instead of a 'private key' to include that address in your wallet.
The bad news is there's absolutely no way to spend from that wallet without the address' "private key".
Bitcoin doesn't have a central authority/server to retrieve users' lost keys or balances, it's up to the user unless the fund is in a centralized service like an Exchange,
Mycelium's SA Bitcoin wallet isn't centralized.

The question is, where did you get that address from?
Because depending on where, you might have a chance to recover the funds.

Funny thing is: You claimed that it's "a couple of years ago", but you've used the default name which is the date when the address was imported  
What gives?

You seem knowledgeable - can you contact me on discord/twitter to further help me with this? paid of course.
@og_aquatic on Twitter or Aviv#6201 on discord.
Thanks

[nc50lc]

-snip-

You seem knowledgeable - can you contact me on discord/twitter to further help me with this? paid of course. -snip-

Sorry but I have to turn down your paid private assistance request, I'd rather continue the discussion in public.
Having said that, please be careful on PMs claiming to be me or someone else since you've already shared your contacts, those are usually scam attempts.

Based from the current set of info, I don't have anything to add to my previous reply.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Sent a picture of the app (on the new phone).

What do you mean "On the new phone"?

Have you been trying to move the wallet from an old phone to a new one? And the wallet on the new phone is a watch only wallet? What about the wallet on the old phone - is that watch only too?

When creating a watch only wallet you have imported either a public key or an address, rather than a private key or a seed phrase. This public key or address has to come from somewhere. Do you remember creating any other wallets on your old phone (using Mycelium or any other wallet software or app), or on another device or computer around the time?

[HCP]

Wallet address: 1PkQe6RwVPArxcaqpA8YxeGxvj3mBse6bn

Where did you get this Address from? Mycelium doesn't just generate random watch-only addresses for you... you have to explicitly enter it when setting up a "Stand Alone" Bitcoin wallet within the app.

So, you got that address from somewhere... the question is... WHERE?