Watch only wallet with Private key

[Bennas]

Good day everyone

Thanks for your help here.

My frustration as follows:

I have Legacy wallets from bitcoin core as from 2012/2014 with their corresponding private keys. I checked the coins on cointracker with the address and coin results correspond.

https://bitcoinelectrum.com/importing-your-private-keys-into-electrum/

I import the corresponding private key into electrum exactly using the guide above and insert the appropriate prepend script for my wallet like in the info button on the page. It synced after 30 hours and gave me the same balance and coins but put a message up saying the following:

“This wallet is watching-only. This means you will not be able to spend Bitcoins with it. Make sure you own the seed phrase or the private keys, before you request Bitcoins to be sent to this wallet”

But that is exactly what I did. I do own the private key and imported the private key. It starts with “K” and others with a “L” is 52 characters long and has a corresponding wallet address starting with 1, in other words Legacy address.

I did not import the address at all. The privacy key gave me the right address after import. The history and coins are also right.

Did you experience before?

Thank you in advance

[pooya87]

I import the corresponding private key into electrum
It synced after 30 hours
“This wallet is watching-only.

The only thing I can think of is that you are not using Electrum. It is either some other software (eg. a full node) or it is malicious (eg. fake Electrum). Did you verify the signature? Here is a guide: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5240594.0

Because Electrum barely downloads 70 MB when it is syncing for the first time and it shouldn't take 30 hours to download that. And if you have imported private keys there is no way for Electrum to have built a watch only wallet.

[NeuroticFish]

Did you experience before?

The only time I had problems importing a private key into Electrum was when I was playing with key that's pretty much known by everybody and it has far too many transactions. In such a case the Electrum servers will make you wait a lot and possibly even fail.

Just some safety checks:
Did you download electrum from electrum.org? Did you verify it? https://bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-verify-your-electrum-download/
Did you put p2pkh: before the private key at import?


If the number of transactions is indeed that big you may need a wallet that doesn't rely on electrum servers, and then I don't know a better option than Bitcoin Core (with the 300+GB of blockchain). So let's see where the problem is. The number of transactions you can see on a block explorer by address.

[Bennas]

Yes we checked the signature after downloading from electrum.org

Also I stay in South Africa in a more rural area and my line speed is around 4.5m/sec and latency round 250msec

I have a quick question. I installed the electrum app on my one laptop and synced the database. I wanted to check my other wallet on my other laptop because of the line speed and copied the database over after installing the app. Will it have any effect because the error came up on this laptop?

[pooya87]

I installed the electrum app on my one laptop and synced the database. I wanted to check my other wallet on my other laptop because of the line speed and copied the database over after installing the app. Will it have any effect because the error came up on this laptop?

You can copy the "blockchain_headers" file and your wallet file and everything should be fine as long as the Electrum version on both systems are the same. Other files like "config", "daemon", and "certs" folder should be fine too but there is no need to copy them.

[Bennas]

I saw a topic on the forum which make me think it could be the problem as Hugesie27 said he could not solve his similar issue and only manage to after uninstall the app and do a complete new install.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5333170.msg56868841#msg56868841

Also I am using Electrum for the first time so I cant reply on whether it happened before. We used Bitcoin Core way back when it was still small.

[o_e_l_e_o]

This should not happen.

Are you sure you are opening the correct wallet file? You can have multiple different wallet files with Electrum. It is possible you created a watch only wallet using the addresses which Electrum is now opening by default when you open Electrum, whereas the wallet file you create the with private keys is elsewhere.

Repeat the whole process again. Create a brand new wallet, choose to import private keys, and make sure you are entering p2pkh:K....

If that doesn't work, uninstall, redownload, reverify, and reinstall Electrum, in case there was some issue with your download or installation.

[Pmalek]

Are you sure you are opening the correct wallet file? You can have multiple different wallet files with Electrum. It is possible you created a watch only wallet using the addresses which Electrum is now opening by default when you open Electrum, whereas the wallet file you create the with private keys is elsewhere.

OP, you can easily check that by looking in your Electrum roaming folder and seeing how many wallet files are there. If you use Windows, you can find it in 'C:\Users\Your User\AppData\Roaming\Electrum\wallets'. You might need to enable hidden files to access the Roaming folder.

Repeat the whole process again. Create a brand new wallet, choose to import private keys, and make sure you are entering p2pkh:K....

Is the prefix really needed when entering private keys to recover legacy addresses? Electrum should automatically default to recovering a legacy address if no prefix is specified. Only if you want to recover SegWit address, you need to specify the correct prefix. Maybe he can try with and without and see if there is a difference. Although I don't think that's the issue here.

[o_e_l_e_o]

You might need to enable hidden files to access the Roaming folder.

A quicker way is to open "Run" from the start menu and type in %appdata%.

Only if you want to recover SegWit address, you need to specify the correct prefix.

The reason I suggested using the prefix here was not to make sure the address was legacy, because as you say Electrum will default to legacy address for the time being (although I suspect in the future it will default to segwit addresses just as it defaults to segwit seed phrases now). Rather, it was to make sure he really is entering a private key and not getting confused by entering an address. If he pastes either an address or a private key, it will accept either as is. If he uses the p2pkh prefix, it will only accept a private key and will not accept an address.

[Abdussamad]

Just start over via file > new/restore.

[Bennas]

Well now I am totally confused. I followed your advice and install a new Electrum from the website, checked the signature, and opened a wallet and import my private key with the prepend included. Didn't give me a watching only so far but have been syncing for 12 days already. Didn't display the coins so far. It downloaded the 57mbytes in the appdata directory which looks fine but used around 100gig of data in the past 12 days while synchronizing.

I am going to use some sample keys and addresses but it contains only dust so I am not concerned that it might fall into the wrong hands.

At first when I started off in 2012 I created Legacy wallets with their private keys (not encrypted) and had some transactions done in it. Last transactions done around 2013 to 2015. Then I stopped until November last year when I tried to access my wallets again for the first time again. That was when I imported the private keys for the first time into Electrum and it gave me a Watching only wallet as mentioned above.

I need to mention that I tried to sweep it as well once and it gave me a "no inputs found" pop up. I added my original wallet address on Cointracker and it shows my coins. Out of frustration I imported my smallest wallet (dust) in blockchain.com with the private key but it then gave me a different address. I couldnt believe it and imported my private key into a Key Compression tool and once again it gave me a different address but the same as blockchain.com.
Only Electrum showed me (and I imported only the private key) the right address and the coins in it, the way I created it back in 2013. Only the wallet was a watching only.

This is an example of my detail then and now.

In 2013 in Bitcoin Core I created and saved on a spreadsheet the following private key and address:
 Private Key: L3k1XxxxXXXXXxXxxxXxXxxxXXxXXxXXXxxXxXyxXxxxXxXXX5i
Address: 1AgV6A1vaRQ16G8sRR1VUW4r8EDnmdEBpy (coins are in here)

In 2022 the same private key shows the following address when importing it anywhere else:

Address:  14YjouC6ba7MR6WJWE7Wjsa6FdDYwjkX2p (no coins in here)

Can anyone please explain to me why this happened and more important why Electrum is showing the correct wallet address when imported the first time with same private key.

Much appreciated

[pooya87]

In 2013 in Bitcoin Core I created and saved on a spreadsheet the following private key and address:
 Private Key: L3k1XxxxXXXXXxXxxxXxXxxxXXxXXxXXXxxXxXyxXxxxXxXXX5i
Address: 1AgV6A1vaRQ16G8sRR1VUW4r8EDnmdEBpy (coins are in here)

In 2022 the same private key shows the following address when importing it anywhere else:

Address:  14YjouC6ba7MR6WJWE7Wjsa6FdDYwjkX2p (no coins in here)

Can anyone please explain to me why this happened and more important why Electrum is showing the correct wallet address when imported the first time with same private key.

The only possible explanation is either you imported a different key into "anywhere else" that got you the wrong address staring with 14 or the tool you used was seriously broken that created a wrong address. If I had to bet, I would say it is the former.

Your public key for "1AgV6A1vaRQ16G8sRR1VUW4r8EDnmdEBpy" is "0231454b30d68c681655c25d5f5985616c46d73ecee01a72fa2afcae82529e8138" (based on the only outgoing transaction this address has) and even if the tools use the uncompressed public key the address would still be "1CrSFKMZf3Q5xRrz6j2sMbYHFdTasNGoCh" not the one starting with "14".

[Bennas]

I copy and paste my keys so I doubt it that I could have made the same mistake at more than three places. Since there is nothing in this particular private key let me post it here with screen shots. Coming up

[hosseinimr93]

Can anyone please explain to me why this happened and more important why Electrum is showing the correct wallet address when imported the first time with same private key.

You are saying that you imported a private key and you didn't get the address you expected. You also imported the same private key into electrum and got a correct address but the wallet was watch-only.
And now you are asking why the electrum watch-only wallet generated the correct address while other wallets generated a wrong address.
Am I getting you right?

If so, as mentioned by pooya87, you have imported a wrong private key.
And you see a correct address on the electrum watch-only wallet, because you imported the address not the private key.

Don't say you imported a private key into electrum and it created a watch-only wallet. That's impossible.

[nc50lc]

-snip- Since there is nothing in this particular private key let me post it here with screen shots. Coming up

I'd never do that if I were you.
Even if it's empty in your tests, there may still be unclaimed be "fork coins" in there or specially if the issue turns out to be the software's fault.

Anyways, you can test if the Electrum you're using is indeed deriving the correct address from the given private key
by importing a random private key (e.g: from paper wallet generators) and see it the correct address will be imported; if it does, then it's what they've said.

[Bennas]

Can anyone please explain to me why this happened and more important why Electrum is showing the correct wallet address when imported the first time with same private key.

You are saying that you imported a private key and you didn't get the address you expected. You also imported the same private key into electrum and got a correct address but the wallet was watch-only.
And now you are asking why the electrum watch-only wallet generated the correct address while other wallets generated a wrong address.
Am I getting you right?

If so, as mentioned by pooya87, you have imported a wrong private key.
And you see a correct address on the electrum watch-only wallet, because you imported the address not the private key.

Don't say you imported a private key into electrum and it created a watch-only wallet. That's impossible.

In all due respect Hosseinimr93, it is 100% correct what I said. I did not have the addresses at hand when I copied it. I have 8 wallets and all of them are legacy wallets starting with 1 and private keys starting with K and L. If I made a mistake with 1 or 2 it is still unlikely that I made a mistake with all. It is now 3 months that I am busy with it and by now I will know not to be mistaken.

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

Is there any way you can assist me?

[Bennas]

-snip- Since there is nothing in this particular private key let me post it here with screen shots. Coming up

I'd never do that if I were you.
Even if it's empty in your tests, there may still be unclaimed be "fork coins" in there or specially if the issue turns out to be the software's fault.

Anyways, you can test if the Electrum you're using is indeed deriving the correct address from the given private key
by importing a random private key (e.g: from paper wallet generators) and see it the correct address will be imported; if it does, then it's what they've said.

Point taken

Thanks for the advice. I am just so frustrated with my situation that I would risk something to achieve something.

Thank you again

[Bennas]

In 2013 in Bitcoin Core I created and saved on a spreadsheet the following private key and address:
 Private Key: L3k1XxxxXXXXXxXxxxXxXxxxXXxXXxXXXxxXxXyxXxxxXxXXX5i
Address: 1AgV6A1vaRQ16G8sRR1VUW4r8EDnmdEBpy (coins are in here)

In 2022 the same private key shows the following address when importing it anywhere else:

Address:  14YjouC6ba7MR6WJWE7Wjsa6FdDYwjkX2p (no coins in here)

Can anyone please explain to me why this happened and more important why Electrum is showing the correct wallet address when imported the first time with same private key.

The only possible explanation is either you imported a different key into "anywhere else" that got you the wrong address staring with 14 or the tool you used was seriously broken that created a wrong address. If I had to bet, I would say it is the former.

Your public key for "1AgV6A1vaRQ16G8sRR1VUW4r8EDnmdEBpy" is "0231454b30d68c681655c25d5f5985616c46d73ecee01a72fa2afcae82529e8138" (based on the only outgoing transaction this address has) and even if the tools use the uncompressed public key the address would still be "1CrSFKMZf3Q5xRrz6j2sMbYHFdTasNGoCh" not the one starting with "14".

Thanks for the reply. Much appreciated. I however did not make a mistake with mixing up the keys. None of my wallets starts with a 14........  All are old legacy wallets

I cant help to feel there must be another explanation for the difference.

[NeuroticFish]

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

[o_e_l_e_o]

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?