Seed Phrase in Electum

[Scorp810]

I'm trying to set up an Electrum wallet on my Mac desktop, in order to transfer transactions from a Hodl wallet.

When asked to enter the Seed Phrase, I get an error message..... 'BIP39 Unknown wordlist'.

The wordlist seems correct, but I am wondering if I am entering it in the incorrect syntax?

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[LoyceMobile]

Shouldn't you keep your seed phrase offline, and only use the online system to create a transaction on a watch-only wallet, sign it offline, and then broadcast it?

[Scorp810]

Shouldn't you keep your seed phrase offline, and only use the online system to create a transaction on a watch-only wallet, sign it offline, and then broadcast it?

Thanks for the quick response.  I don't know what any of what you said means.  :-(

What I have is a wallet on my phone 'HODL' app, which seems to work fine.  However, my first send transaction is languishing as 'unconfirmed' probably because of a low fee.  App support suggested that I install the Electrum app and move everything to it, as it allows me to increase the fee to speed up the confirmation, when their app does not. 

The Electrum app is only available for a Mac on my desktop, which I have installed.  But, when I try to create a new wallet, it asks for the 'Seed Phrase', which I assume is the 12 words that I was given when I set up the Hodl app.  I don't know.

I don't think this is online, although I haven't gotten very far with it.  I assume that any new app needs the seed phrase to move the assets? 

Any suggestions are appreciated, as I really don't know much.

Not a lot of money involved here (less than $100). I just want to learn how it all works.

[satscraper]

I'm trying to set up an Electrum wallet on my Mac desktop, in order to transfer transactions from a Hodl wallet.

When asked to enter the Seed Phrase, I get an error message..... 'BIP39 Unknown wordlist'.

The wordlist seems correct, but I am wondering if I am entering it in the incorrect syntax?

I never used Hodl wallet but guess what you are doing is the try to use SEED from Hodl in Electrum to get access to your stash.

To do this you need to choose in Electrum the restore option and tick BIP 39 box,  providing Hodl's SEED is BIP 39 compliant.

However I think doing this is not a wise approach. Much better would be the creation  of completely new Electrum  wallet and transferring fund there from your Hodl wallet .

[Scorp810]

I'm trying to set up an Electrum wallet on my Mac desktop, in order to transfer transactions from a Hodl wallet.

When asked to enter the Seed Phrase, I get an error message..... 'BIP39 Unknown wordlist'.

The wordlist seems correct, but I am wondering if I am entering it in the incorrect syntax?

I never used Hodl wallet but guess what you are doing is the try to use SEED from Hodl in Electrum to get access to your stash.

To do this you need to choose the restore option and tick BIP 39 box .

However I think doing this is not wise approach. Much better would be the creation  of completely new Electrum  wallet and transferring fund there from your Hold wallet .

That is exactly what I have attempted, but when I click that BIP39 box, I get the error, and nothing happens when the wallet is created.  I've considered creating a new wallet as you suggest, but I don't think I can get access to the transaction that is stuck awaiting confirmation.

[satscraper]

I'm trying to set up an Electrum wallet on my Mac desktop, in order to transfer transactions from a Hodl wallet.

When asked to enter the Seed Phrase, I get an error message..... 'BIP39 Unknown wordlist'.

The wordlist seems correct, but I am wondering if I am entering it in the incorrect syntax?

I never used Hodl wallet but guess what you are doing is the try to use SEED from Hodl in Electrum to get access to your stash.

To do this you need to choose the restore option and tick BIP 39 box .

However I think doing this is not wise approach. Much better would be the creation  of completely new Electrum  wallet and transferring fund there from your Hold wallet .

That is exactly what I have attempted, but when I click that BIP39 box, I get the error, and nothing happens when the wallet is created.  I've considered creating a new wallet as you suggest, but I don't think I can get access to the transaction that is stuck awaiting confirmation.

How  did you   feed SEED  into Electrum, manually or via copy-paste from somewhere.  The latter results sometimes in wrong syntax due to the difference in coding while manual input may bring the typos. Try once more with manual input paying special attentions  to typos that may crawl to SEED. Don't use copy-paste.

[hosseinimr93]

I just installed HODL wallet to see how it works. (I had to use a phone with an old version of android, since it was not compatible with a newer version of android.)

The seed phrase generated by HODL wallet is BIP39. So, if you entered the seed phrase correctly and checked "BIP39 seed" option, it should allow you to click on "Next" button.
The error you got means that you entered the seed phrase incorrectly. Check to see if you have made any typos.

App support suggested that I install the Electrum app and move everything to it, as it allows me to increase the fee to speed up the confirmation, when their app does not.  

If your transaction has been flagged as RBF, you should be able to increase the fee with electrum easily.
I haven't ever used HODL wallet, but since they suggested increasing the fee using electrum, I assume it automatically flags transactions as RBF.

Did their support tell you what derivation path you should use for recovering your wallet?
I created a wallet on HODL wallet and imported the seed phrase generated by it in electrum and got different addresses.

Edit:
According to their github, HODL wallet uses the derivation path of m/0' and that's what you should enter as derivation path when recovering your wallet from seed phrase.

[Scorp810]

Thank you everyone......  It appears I have solved the problem.

Error was me writing down the words from Hodl and capitalizing them.  Entering them in lower-case worked.

[Eh Moo Nah]

Thank you everyone......  It appears I have solved the problem.

Error was me writing down the words from Hodl and capitalizing them.  Entering them in lower-case worked.

It's just a typo Error, just Double check your seed phrase.

[BitMaxz]

Thank you everyone......  It appears I have solved the problem.

Error was me writing down the words from Hodl and capitalizing them.  Entering them in lower-case worked.

That's good I hope that you transfer your funds to a newly created wallet because using two different wallets with the same seed backup is a bad security practice.

And better to stay using Electrum than HODL wallet you can create a new wallet with Electrum and then send all funds from your old wallet to this new wallet for safety purposes.

[Scorp810]

Thank you everyone......  It appears I have solved the problem.

Error was me writing down the words from Hodl and capitalizing them.  Entering them in lower-case worked.

That's good I hope that you transfer your funds to a newly created wallet because using two different wallets with the same seed backup is a bad security practice.

And better to stay using Electrum than HODL wallet you can create a new wallet with Electrum and then send all funds from your old wallet to this new wallet for safety purposes.

Thanks for the response.  I guess I don't understand.

Right now, my funds seem to appear in both the Hodl wallet and the newly created Electrum site.  It's only about $25, but I would like to understand how this works.

[hosseinimr93]

I guess I don't understand.

With having the same keys in mutliple wallets, you decrease your security as you increase the risk of getting hacked. In other words, the more wallets you import your keys in, the more attack vectors you open for hackers. That's why it's recommended to have your keys in only one wallet and avoid creating multiple wallets with the same keys.

[Bureau]

I guess I don't understand.

With having the same keys in mutliple wallets, you decrease your security as you increase the risk of getting hacked. In other words, the more wallets you import your keys in, the more attack vectors you open for hackers. That's why it's recommended to have your keys in only one wallet and avoid creating multiple wallets with the same keys.

It is better to uninstall Hodl wallet and only use the Electrum wallet on your Mac. If you keep using both the wallets with the same seed phrases the security of both the wallets can be compromised. Electrum wallet is available for both Android and iOS mobile devices. You can download the one you need, use the same seed phrase to activate the same wallet on you mobile device. In this way you don't compromise the security.

[Z-tight]

Electrum wallet is available for both Android and iOS mobile devices.

Take note that Electrum wallet does not have an iOS mobile version. On mobile Electrum is only available on Android, however the Android version of Electrum lacks so many features like, signing a message, coin control, customizing fees, etc, Electrum is much better to use on desktop.

[hosseinimr93]

It is better to uninstall Hodl wallet and only use the Electrum wallet on your Mac. If you keep using both the wallets with the same seed phrases the security of both the wallets can be compromised.

If you have the same keys in two different wallets, with just uninstalling one of them, you don't really increase your security.
OP has generated the seed phrase using HODL wallet. Even if he/she uninstalls HODL wallet and only uses electrum, nothing would change as he/she would still have the same seed phrase.
It's better to create a new wallet and move all the fund to that.

Of course, since we are talking about a wallet which holds only $25 worth of bitcoin, there's nothing to worry about.

[LoyceV]

Thanks for the quick response.  I don't know what any of what you said means.  :-(

I misread your post, and didn't realize "Hodl wallet" is a wallet name (and not just referring to your long-term storage). Glad you've solved it already.

[Bureau]

Electrum wallet is available for both Android and iOS mobile devices.

Take note that Electrum wallet does not have an iOS mobile version. On mobile Electrum is only available on Android, however the Android version of Electrum lacks so many features like, signing a message, coin control, customizing fees, etc, Electrum is much better to use on desktop.

That is correct they do not have an iOS mobile version, thanks for correcting me. I recently downloaded the current version on my Android device and you are again correct many features are missing. I did not like the new user interface of the current version, I think they with this new version their focus is more on LN. it is obvious with the new QR code scan screen whenever you want to send some coins.

If you have the same keys in two different wallets, with just uninstalling one of them, you don't really increase your security.
OP has generated the seed phrase using HODL wallet. Even if he/she uninstalls HODL wallet and only uses electrum, nothing would change as he/she would still have the same seed phrase.
It's better to create a new wallet and move all the fund to that.

Of course, since we are talking about a wallet which holds only $25 worth of bitcoin, there's nothing to worry about.

Thanks for the update, I was a bit confused, that is why I quoted your reply. Now everything is clear to me and hopefully, it will be for OP.     

[Yamane_Keto]

Thank you everyone......  It appears I have solved the problem.

Error was me writing down the words from Hodl and capitalizing them.  Entering them in lower-case worked.

It is the first time that I know that electrum seed is case sensitive. I used to think that when you enter any seed word, it will be rechecked using the BIP 39 dictionary list. Therefore, you can always choose the correct word when you click on suggestions and you will not find new suggestions if the previous word you entered dis-matches the words of BIP 39. This is the way you know that you entered the wrong word.

[LoyceV]

It is the first time that I know that electrum seed is case sensitive.

I just tested it, and the case doesn't matter. Electrum is smart enough to still understand the word.
OP must have made a different typo.

[hosseinimr93]

It is the first time that I know that electrum seed is case sensitive.

I just tested it, and the case doesn't matter. Electrum is smart enough to still understand the word.
OP must have made a different typo.

Electrum's seed phrase is not case sensitive and it doesn't matter whether you use upper-case letters and or lower-case letters.
But if you have a BIP39 seed phrase and change any of the letters to an upper-case letter, you will see a message saying "BIP39 (unknown wordlist)" and you will get completely different addresses.

OP generated his/her seed phrase on another wallet and it was BIP39.