How to withdraw from wallet?

[rmg777]

Hello, i have had some btc in my electrum wallet for some time but can't seem to get it out. When i try to scan the qr code for an invoice or external wallet it says 'unknown invoice'. The electrum app is on my phone & im not sure what to try next. Appreciate any pointers.

My proxy settings are currently off

[FinneysTrueVision]

If Electrum doesn’t recognize your invoice you can withdraw from your wallet by going to the “send” tab and manually pasting an address and the amount you want to send out. It has to be a valid Bitcoin address on the BTC blockchain.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

Hello, i have had some btc in my electrum wallet for some time but can't seem to get it out. When i try to scan the qr code for an invoice or external wallet it says 'unknown invoice'. The electrum app is on my phone & im not sure what to try next. Appreciate any pointers.

My proxy settings are currently off

Your proxy is not important because with Electrum wallet, you can make raw transaction offline from a cold wallet too.

You can ask the person or merchant you are trading with, to provide you a Bitcoin public address, if scanning QR code continues with failed result.

Sending Bitcoin from a wallet to another wallet can be done by scanning QR code or by pasting the public address.

How to send bitcoins using Electrum wallet

You can see in the screenshot. You can paste the Recipient's address or click on the Camera icon for scanning QR code.

[Faisal2202]

Hello, i have had some btc in my electrum wallet for some time but can't seem to get it out. When i try to scan the qr code for an invoice or external wallet it says 'unknown invoice'. The electrum app is on my phone & im not sure what to try next. Appreciate any pointers.

My proxy settings are currently off

If you are trying to scan the QR code or invoice of Binance or any CEX, which picks invoices in lower case while Electrum picks invoices in upper case. That can be an issue here. Proxy is not the issue, as it can't interfere with your transactions, AFAIK. If you still want to give a try to a QR code first find out if the receiving party accepts invoices in uppercase or lowercase. If that's the problem, you have to convert the QR from lower case to upper case. (source)

And yeah, you can still copy the address and paste it to the receiving address by clicking on the send option, just like FinneysTrueVision said.

[Frankolala]

Hello, i have had some btc in my electrum wallet for some time but can't seem to get it out. When i try to scan the qr code for an invoice or external wallet it says 'unknown invoice'. The electrum app is on my phone & im not sure what to try next. Appreciate any pointers.

My proxy settings are currently off

What version of electrum wallet are you using, ypu should download the lastest version of electrum and try again, if it doesn't work you should get the wallet address of the wallet you want to send the funds to.

Also check the icon on the right top of your wallet to see if it is color green and if it is not, it means that your wallet is not connected, you should connect it.

[BitMaxz]

This sometimes happens to me when I make a transaction for an offline transaction and scan it with my Electrum on my phone it reads unknown invoice which is why I copied the raw instead and use nearby share to transfer the raw code and sign it to my electrum mobile(With no internet) and transfer it back for broadcasting.

If this is not the same case and you are scanning QR codes from other platforms like from exchange that's a different issue upgrading the Electrum usually solves this case or it might be the QR code generated from that platform is not supported by Electrum, you better copy the BTC address instead and manually type the amount you are going to send.

[Bitcoin Smith]

When i try to scan the qr code for an invoice or external wallet it says 'unknown invoice'.

It means the QR code you're scanning is not following BIP70 protocol which is containing more information like amount to be sent not just the Bitcoin address.

I don't find any other valid reason because Electrum supports sending Bitcoin to every kind of Bitcoin address as far as I know so the underlying issue is present in the QR code itself and like others pointed out you can ask for the recipient to send the Bitcoin address and you can send the funds to it or ask them to create a new invoice for you.

[khaled0111]

If you are trying to scan the QR code or invoice of Binance or any CEX, which picks invoices in lower case while Electrum picks invoices in upper case. That can be an issue here. Proxy is not the issue, as it can't interfere with your transactions, AFAIK. If you still want to give a try to a QR code first find out if the receiving party accepts invoices in uppercase or lowercase. If that's the problem, you have to convert the QR from lower case to upper case. (source)

In that case, it’s the binance app that doesn’t accept Electrum qr code requests, not the other way around. Besides, the issue is only related to lightning invoices an I don’t think OP is trying to make a lightning transaction here.
As Bitcoin Smith has explained above, the reason why Electrum is showing an "unknown invoice" error message is because it’s not following the correct URI format (I believe it’s bip 21 not bip 70, though).

OP, try to decode the qr code using any third party tool to see if it contains a valid bitcoin address.

[Faisal2202]

In that case, it’s the binance app that doesn’t accept Electrum qr code requests, not the other way around. Besides, the issue is only related to lightning invoices an I don’t think OP is trying to make a lightning transaction here.
As Bitcoin Smith has explained above, the reason why Electrum is showing an "unknown invoice" error message is because it’s not following the correct URI format (I believe it’s bip 21 not bip 70, though).

OP, try to decode the qr code using any third party tool to see if it contains a valid bitcoin address.

I don't think the existence of a lightining network is a factor to consider here because it can be a universal problem, so I mentioned it, If its not the case sensitive problem, then there are chances that it can be a URI format error. What third-party tool can he use, BTW, to decode the QR code? I found ZXing decoder don't have any experience with it.

If Electrum is not picking the QR code, that means there is something wrong with it, and the code we are scanning is if from Binance, then Binance is showing it in lower case while Electrum picks in upper case,, so what you mean by the first line. This is not a big problem though so OP can copy and paste the address simply 

[khaled0111]

I don't think the existence of a lightining network is a factor to consider here because it can be a universal problem, so I mentioned it, If its not the case sensitive problem, then there are chances that it can be a URI format error.

I'm using the most recent electrum version and I xan scan lightning invoices as well as onchain payment requests from binance with no problems.

What third-party tool can he use, BTW, to decode the QR code? I found ZXing decoder don't have any experience with it.

Am not familiar with this one but it should work. There are many qr code scanner apps and there are even online scanners. He can use any of them.
After decoding, the URI should look something like this:
bitcoin:address?amount=...

OP, what wallet or service are you trying to send your coins to? Are you certain you chose the correct chain?

[rmg777]

Thank you so much for everyones reply!!

I think part of the issue is i have the electrum app on my mobile device and when checking the settings it is a watch only wallet.. i want to enter the btc addresses to send manually but in the app it doesnt allow that.

I downloaded the electrum application on my windows device but i dont have the secret phase as it was on my old phone.
I do have the master public key but dont have the wallet file to upload on my computer

Are there any suggestions of how to open the wallet & change it to not watch only to proceed on my computer?
Or to get the wallet file / secret key?

Appreciate all of your support!

[Abdussamad]

Thank you so much for everyones reply!!

I think part of the issue is i have the electrum app on my mobile device and when checking the settings it is a watch only wallet.. i want to enter the btc addresses to send manually but in the app it doesnt allow that.

I downloaded the electrum application on my windows device but i dont have the secret phase as it was on my old phone.
I do have the master public key but dont have the wallet file to upload on my computer

Are there any suggestions of how to open the wallet & change it to not watch only to proceed on my computer?
Or to get the wallet file / secret key?

Appreciate all of your support!

You need the secret phrase which is better known as the seed mnemonic. Without it you can't spend from your wallet. Did you not write it down when you originally created the wallet?

[Z-tight]

I think part of the issue is i have the electrum app on my mobile device and when checking the settings it is a watch only wallet.

That is were the problem lies, you cannot send funds from a watch only wallet, because it does not hold your keys, you can only create and broadcast a transaction in your watch only wallet and sign it with your cold wallet.

Are there any suggestions of how to open the wallet & change it to not watch only to proceed on my computer?
Or to get the wallet file / secret key?

The only way you can recover your wallet is with its seed phrase, you cannot just turn a watch only wallet to one that now holds your key. I hope you backed up your seed phrase, if you did, recover your wallet with it.

[BitMaxz]

Are there any suggestions of how to open the wallet & change it to not watch only to proceed on my computer?
Or to get the wallet file / secret key?

Where exactly did you create your  Electrum wallet?
If you created the wallet in your current device then try to check if you have another wallet on your mobile Electrum by tapping the wallet at the top-left corner and then other wallets and open other wallets. Check the image below for how to...


Let's hope that your wallet is still there because you don't have other backups like seed phrases or private keys.

[khaled0111]

I think part of the issue is i have the electrum app on my mobile device and when checking the settings it is a watch only wallet.. i want to enter the btc addresses to send manually but in the app it doesnt allow that.

Being a watch-only wallet is not supposed to be a probem when it comes to creating transactions. However, you won’t be able to sign transactions with it.

When you click on the "Send" button on the Electrum mobile app, it will start the qr code scanner by default. You need to copy the address you intend to send the coins to then click on the "Paste from clipboard" button at the bottom of the screen to paste it.
Since this is a watch-only wallet, all you can do is to save the unsigned transaction you have created.

I downloaded the electrum application on my windows device but i dont have the secret phase as it was on my old phone.

If you didn’t make any backup of your wallet seed/file and saved it somewhere else, then all you can do is to open the electrum wallet on your old phone and export the seed  then you can use it to restore your wallet on the desktop version.

[Faisal2202]

Thank you so much for everyones reply!!

I think part of the issue is i have the electrum app on my mobile device and when checking the settings it is a watch only wallet.. i want to enter the btc addresses to send manually but in the app it doesnt allow that.

I downloaded the electrum application on my windows device but i dont have the secret phase as it was on my old phone.
I do have the master public key but dont have the wallet file to upload on my computer

Are there any suggestions of how to open the wallet & change it to not watch only to proceed on my computer?
Or to get the wallet file / secret key?

So that was the problem here You can't sign the transaction but we can only monitor it, In order to make a transaction, you need the original wallet and the mobile app don't make dat file so you can't import wallet from dat file and from xpub key (master public key) so the only option you have now is to get access to your old phone where you have the original wallet.

You need a seed phrase in order to open the wallet on the computer because the dat file doesn't exist. I hope you have access to the old device.

[Pmalek]

Where exactly did you create your  Electrum wallet?

My guess is that he created it on his old phone and no longer has access to it. It could be that it no longer works or he got rid of it. I am also guessing that he never made a physical backup of his seed, and perhaps only kept a digital copy of the seed words in his old phone. I wonder where he found his master public key? It seems very weird to save that and not have a copy of something as important as your recovery phrase.

[Cricktor]

I just checked with current Electrum on a mobile. When you create a new wallet and the mnemonic recovery words are displayed to you to write them down in correct order, you can't easily make a screenshot because that is forbidden by a security policy (I haven't tried to find any workarounds). I tried gestures and key combos that otherwise work on my mobile to create screenshots. All I got was a brief toast message telling me screenshots here are forbidden by security policy that mobile Electrum enforces. Well done, indeed! No irony or sarcasm...

On this screen showing you the mnemonic recovery words, you also see some pretty obvious warnings (translated because my mobile is not set to English language):

• Do not disclose your seed words
• Do not enter your seed words on any website
• Do not store or save your seed words electronically

Of course, if you're stupid enough you can make a photo of your seed words with a second mobile phone.

The next screen forces you to enter all recovery words in correct order with the built-in Electrum keyboard that also presents matching words while you enter character for character. For some words the match is unambiguous with the second char, like for word "oyster". You can tap the correct suggestion for a shortcut entry of a word.

To be able to pass this backup verification screen and finish wallet setup, you must have written down your recovery words.
OK, OK, I haven't tried to jump the screens back and forth to circumvent manual writing. So not sure if that is even possible... It would be another stupid workaround and then you deserve a potential loss.

I guess OP forgot that or wrote them sloppily on a napkin that got lost. I don't know what to say, if my guess is correct.


P.S.
If the old phone is still working, you can display the recovery words after entering the wallet encryption password.

[amarquez808]

hello,

I am having an issue withdrawing as well.  I used a hardware wallet to create the electrum wallet, and now when I try to send the btc to a wallet, it has me "register wallet" on the hardware wallet and when I approve the 2 requirements (policy and key) in order to sign, it just goes right back to the "register wallet" prompt in a loop.  I have to "reject" it to get out of that loop.  Does someone know what to do here?

[nc50lc]

Does someone know what to do here?

Not without any information about the issue:

• Which hardware wallet? (model, and firmware version if old)
• Electrum wallet version.
• How did you created the wallet in Electrum? (need specific steps like script type/derivation path)

Don't worry too much though, as long as you have the backup seed phrase;
you have the option to restore it to an air-gap machine in case of the worst case scenario of not being able to use your hardware wallet to sign.

Also, you may need to open a new topic to post those answers since it's not actually similar to the OP's case.
Use the small "new topic" button at the right-hand side of electrum board.