Watch only wallet with Private key

[Bennas]

However, I want to ask you, I uninstalled electrum from my Laptop and did a fresh download and checked the signatures and even deleted all in the appdata so it can start 100% fresh. Why is it taking so long (12 days)? IS there a way I can see what it is doing and how far it is? 100Gigs of data is a lot if the download is merely 57megs.

It shouldn't do this and there is no point leaving it longer. There is obviously something stopping it from syncing properly. Try the following:

• Ensure Electrum version is 4.1.5.
• Click on Tools -> Network, find any new server, right click on it, and click "Use as server".
• Then click on the Proxy tab in the same window, and ensure it is turned off.
• Check that Electrum isn't being block by a firewall or antivirus.
• Check that Electrum isn't being blocked by a VPN if you use one.
• Try deleting the blockchain_headers file and reopening the wallet.

But now its not showing a watching only wallet after 2 days like before. It seems stuck in syncing.

Although it is not syncing, is it showing you the correct address in the Addresses tab?

Thanks for the advise.

When I start to import the Privacy key it gives me another address which I am not sure at this point where it is coming from but the moment it showed me the coins it switches to watching only and gives the correct address and correct coins. That was the previous time I tried. But now it again show a different address but still not showing me coins and also not showing watching only like with the previous attempt. Although this is a fresh start and fresh app installation.

Still Oeloe I really didn't make a mistake with the privacy keys. If I attempt importing it into blockchain.com I get a different address like I said in my above messages. An address wont start with a K or L. That is all I am working with.

My firewalls are disabled and I dont use a VPN.

Regards

[1713967489]

1713967489

[Bennas]

Address: 1AgV6A1vaRQ16G8sRR1VUW4r8EDnmdEBpy (coins are in here)

Just a small remark, since you wrote "coins are in there": if this is indeed the address you want to recover, it has no funds. I mean, it has one satoshi, which you cannot move. And I've found a lot of linked addresses that are empty.

An idea would be to stop the internet connection (so it doesn't sync at all) and get from the console again the relevant private keys. I think that you may have been mixing up something - from the wallet for which you've saved the things, to - I don't know - some attempts to encrypt your saved data which now returns something different. Bitcoin core should have the keys though.

Of course, before doing anything you should make a safe copy of the correct wallet.dat

Yes true there is only 0.00000001 coins in it and that's why I call it dust which cant be moved. Only reason I posted that specific one is because it is doin the same thing but at least I don't play with my other wallets on the forum. I don't intent to move anything from there. How do you see which other addresses are linked to it? I need to find the source of my problems.

Thanks in advance

[o_e_l_e_o]

When I start to import the Privacy key it gives me another address which I am not sure at this point where it is coming from but the moment it showed me the coins it switches to watching only and gives the correct address and correct coins. That was the previous time I tried.

Wallets cannot switch from a standard wallet to a watch only wallet. This functionality simply does not exist. You are misremembering what happened in the past.

But now it again show a different address but still not showing me coins and also not showing watching only like with the previous attempt.

So every time you import the private key, it gives you the same address which has no funds. And the only time you have seen funds is when you have imported the address in to a watch only wallet. It sounds like the address you have written down is not related to the private key you have written down.

[NeuroticFish]

How do you see which other addresses are linked to it? I need to find the source of my problems.

I don't think that it will find the root of your problems. Sorry to say, but you seem to be doing something wrong and you seem to misunderstand something related to wallet, private keys and/or what you've been doing there. I don't know what though.

However: if you go to the page I've linked, you'll see that in one direction (source) you can have 16AZ9BZpSGEufpacYcwYv9Y8Jp6L5KoCuT and its parents,
and in the spending direction (aside of the 1dice gambling site you've been playing at) 1BNGRgo31K3AbxdVSZs9ErBP1sz8GPGL87 (which was probably the change address when you've been depositing/playing)
Both may or may not be yours.

From there you can go in all directions and find a plethora of addresses and transactions, with higher or lower chance to be yours.
You can basically take into account all the change addresses from your transactions (just going upstream the chances to go wrong increase) and probably ignore other addresses from the transactions sourced from 1dice.

This was by hand. You can use specialized websites too, like walletexplorer.com, which may or may not do a better job (or may just gather info from you for others' use).

[askbitcoinman]

I forget private key and seed pharse
I have only dat file
How to recover my wallet with only dat file?

[NeuroticFish]

I forget private key and seed pharse
I have only dat file
How to recover my wallet with only dat file?

1. Make your own topic with your questions.
2a. Easiest is to install Bitcoin core (and place the .dat file to correct location) to at least extract the relevant private keys from that wallet. Or sync if you can.
2b. Or use Pywallet to extract the private keys: https://notatether.com/bitcoin/how-to-use-pywallet-to-extract-bitcoin-private-keys/

[nc50lc]

-snip-
I have only dat file
How to recover my wallet with only dat file?

Is it a "wallet.dat" file or "electrum.dat" file?
If it's wallet.dat, post a new thread in Bitcoin Technical Support board and follow the sticky thread "Tech Support Help Request Format".
Otherwise, post it here in Electrum board.

For starters, if it's electrum.dat, you can just load a copy of it using the latest version of Electrum and it will open without issues.
For further concerns, please add it to the thread that you'll create.

[Bennas]

Good day Guys

Let me try and explain myself a little bit more. Hopefully someone might see my point and perhaps give some ideas to try and solve my problem.
I worked on this issue with my son that started with bitcoin mining in 2011 and stopped in 2015. When we say we loaded a private key and when we say we loaded an address we did it together and let’s assume we didn’t get confused.

We started with bitcoin core but we couldn’t get the private key to get the wallet to be spendable.

On 18/11/2021 I downloaded the Electrum setup file 4.1.5 (see image in folder). We have 8 wallets of which 3 have only 0.00000001 coins in it. The others are our primary wallet addresses. We had the addresses with their Private keys on paper on a sheet since 2015.

We loaded the private key (only) in Electrum after creating a new wallet and then choosing option 4 to import/restore wallet. With or without prepend doesn’t make a difference as we are using Legacy wallets. We didn’t encrypt it and it started syncing. At first it gave us a wallet that says imported and in the address line gave an address with the option of a private key (see image – Electrum1). It synchronized for around 30 hours and then gave us the total coins with the transaction history.  Besides that it turned to watching only and then in the address line it gives our old address.  (See image – Electrum2). At some point after that it gave a green line at the bottom that says Coin Control active and synchronized until the total 2022 was done (see image – coin control).

All this was done with only the private key. The wallet after turning to watching only gave us automatically our paper wallet addresses itself but stayed watching only. If we check the private key on another platform like Exodus or Blockchain it gives a different address. Our coins are in the Electrum given addresses as given correctly by Electrum (see images – Exodus or Blockchain)

We tried to but didn’t sweep any of the private keys. All coins are still in the same addresses as mentioned on top.

I know what you told me to start over and so on but if there are anybody reading this post that had a similar problem where it seems the address of the private key is different and that had a solution, please help.
It will be much appreciated.

All images are in the link below

[nc50lc]

-snip-
I know what you told me to start over and so on but if there are anybody reading this post that had a similar problem where it seems the address of the private key is different and that had a solution, please help.
It will be much appreciated.

I think the information you need is about the nature of private keys and addresses.
It's not some sort of a backup that'll fetch an address from a server; just think of it as a "pair".
The Private key is actually a big number which a public key can be computed from, and the address is derived from that public key.

Better ELI5 explanation: https://learnmeabitcoin.com/beginners/keys_addresses

There can't be a network/server-side error which could lead to wrong address recovered from a private key, all is computed by the client/wallet, if there's an issue, it's the client.
With that, if Blockchain.com and Exodus both derive the same address (and test other clients), then there's something wrong with your Electrum or you've imported the wrong private key.
You said that you've verified its signature and it checks out?

BTW, your images: "Coin Control" and the alleged turned watch-only wallet "Electrum 2" doesn't fit the story because of the huge difference in the number of available (unspent) outputs and "TX" count in the history.

[Bennas]

-snip-
I know what you told me to start over and so on but if there are anybody reading this post that had a similar problem where it seems the address of the private key is different and that had a solution, please help.
It will be much appreciated.

BTW, your images: "Coin Control" and the alleged turned watch-only wallet "Electrum 2" doesn't fit the story because of the huge difference in the number of available (unspent) outputs and "TX" count in the history.

Yes its true because I have 8 wallets and I didn't have an image for that particular combination so I posted a picture I took with my Phone.


We did check the signature. But how is it that my Electrum synchronization picks up all 8 my private keys' addresses 100% correctly. If it didn't belong to those private keys where did the information come from then. Is it not strange to you then? I mean they didn't come from my computer while syncing.

[pooya87]

We did check the signature. But how is it that my Electrum synchronization picks up all 8 my private keys' addresses 100% correctly. If it didn't belong to those private keys where did the information come from then. Is it not strange to you then? I mean they didn't come from my computer while syncing.

It is not that unlikely to make a simple mistake while importing those keys one by one. You may have even made the mistake of pasting an address that you had copied for some other reason into your import window which is why you ended up with a watch only wallet in first place. It definitely doesn't happen while you are syncing.

[Bennas]

We did check the signature. But how is it that my Electrum synchronization picks up all 8 my private keys' addresses 100% correctly. If it didn't belong to those private keys where did the information come from then. Is it not strange to you then? I mean they didn't come from my computer while syncing.

It is not that unlikely to make a simple mistake while importing those keys one by one. You may have even made the mistake of pasting an address that you had copied for some other reason into your import window which is why you ended up with a watch only wallet in first place. It definitely doesn't happen while you are syncing.

Well what if I tell you it is impossible that I made a simple mistake like that. I also didn't make a mistake while posting it on blockchain?? I made pretty sure that it started with a K or L. I didn't even have the address on the same sheet. It happened by itself 100% sure. Is there really no one out there that might think of anything that can cause that result. It is just the way it happened. Is there some other forum where I can ask the same question?

[nc50lc]

BTW, your images: "Coin Control" and the alleged turned watch-only wallet "Electrum 2" doesn't fit the story because of the huge difference in the number of available (unspent) outputs and "TX" count in the history.

Yes its true because I have 8 wallets and I didn't have an image for that particular combination so I posted a picture I took with my Phone.
-snip-

Okay...
I see the situation strange based from the available info and at this point, I have no idea what's happening in your client since none of it should happen under normal circumstances.
('Imported' into 'imported watch-only' | Imported the same prvKey  to other wallets and derived different address)
Sorry I can't help more.

[Bennas]

BTW, your images: "Coin Control" and the alleged turned watch-only wallet "Electrum 2" doesn't fit the story because of the huge difference in the number of available (unspent) outputs and "TX" count in the history.

-snip-

Okay...
I see the situation strange based from the available info and at this point, I have no idea what's happening in your client since none of it should happen under normal circumstances.
('Imported' into 'imported watch-only' | Imported the same prvKey  to other wallets and derived different address)
Sorry I can't help more.

Thanks for your effort though. Much appreciated.

[pooya87]

Is there really no one out there that might think of anything that can cause that result. It is just the way it happened.

@nc50lc is right, the things you explain with certainty like importing the same exact key into different software and getting different addresses is not something that can happen under normal circumstances. One of the reasons why I initially asked you whether you had verified the Electrum file was this, you can't just get a different address from the same key if the software is legit.

Is there some other forum where I can ask the same question?

You could try reddit or SE.

[Bennas]

I agree with you there. Reason why I concentrated on this point is because without the addresses nowhere close to the Electrum platform it linked 100% the right addresses, with its transactions, when I only used the Private keys. I never even bothered to try and enter an address in Electrum ever. But these private keys come from 2011/2013. So I was surprised to find these Private keys brings up another address on another platform. You get my point there. Even if there were something wrong with the software. How did it arrive at my original addresses as I left it in 2013/14? Is there not another way to look at this issue?


You could try reddit or SE.

Thanks for the info

[o_e_l_e_o]

Besides that it turned to watching only and then in the address line it gives our old address.

Once again, wallets can not turn from standard wallets in to watching only wallets. This is simply not possible.

The wallets that you are showing in your images named Electrum1 and Electrum2 are two entirely different wallets. One is called "default_wallet" and the other is called "john 4". The former was created by importing a private key, while the latter was created by importing an address.

You need to ignore the addresses you have copied down - importing them will achieve nothing in terms of accessing your coins and they are just causing you confusion as you keep creating watching only wallets. I also think you have likely copied down some addresses you do not have the private key for. Import the private keys you do have in to both Electrum and Blockchain. If the addresses they generate match and are empty, then there is nothing else you can do.

[Bennas]

Besides that it turned to watching only and then in the address line it gives our old address.

Once again, wallets can not turn from standard wallets in to watching only wallets. This is simply not possible.

The wallets that you are showing in your images named Electrum1 and Electrum2 are two entirely different wallets. One is called "default_wallet" and the other is called "john 4". The former was created by importing a private key, while the latter was created by importing an address.

You need to ignore the addresses you have copied down - importing them will achieve nothing in terms of accessing your coins and they are just causing you confusion as you keep creating watching only wallets. I also think you have likely copied down some addresses you do not have the private key for. Import the private keys you do have in to both Electrum and Blockchain. If the addresses they generate match and are empty, then there is nothing else you can do.

The two images are not from the same wallet because I didn't have a screen-print for wallet after turning to watching only I agree. Fact is I dont even open the addresses file when I work with Electrum because I don't need them. The first image just shows that when a private key is imported it first give me an address with a private key from the system. After switching to watching only it gives me my old address that belongs to the private key

But thanks for the help oeloe. Much appreciated

[o_e_l_e_o]

The first image just shows that when a private key is imported it first give me an address with a private key from the system. After switching to watching only it gives me my old address that belongs to the private key

That's because they are different wallets. There is no link between different Electrum wallets. Just because you imported a private key in to the first wallet, it does not mean the address in the second watch only wallet is somehow linked to that private key.

[Pmalek]

Do you have a different computer you consider safe and malware-free where you can download a genuine copy of Electrum and try it there? Maybe even using the mobile version of Electrum.
It's not recommended to use older versions, but at this stage, you might just try that as well. You can find older Electrum versions here. Maybe try with the 3.3.8 (don't use older versions than that) or the 4.0.1.

Besides that, you might want to try and get in touch with the Electrum developers and the community over GitHub. Maybe someone sees something we haven't.