There are a handful of reasons this could occur, and is one of the most commonly asked questions, so in an effort to create a comprehensive answer post to refer people towards I decided to start a forum thread on the topic.
If you are trying to import an account into Anchor Desktop and it’s not being found, this post should provide a starting point to figure out why.
Make sure you’re using a compatible API
Ensure that the API that Anchor connects with supports this operation.
Under Manage Blockchains (dropdown, upper left), click the small gear next to the blockchain in question. If it’s a greymass.com API, it likely has key lookups enabled, and this isn’t the issue. If it’s not a greymass.com API, we’d invite you to change it to one of our APIs to see if that resolves the issue (the page may take a minute to load).
Make sure you don’t already have that account loaded
When you input a private key to import, Anchor will automatically hide all of the accounts you already have imported to prevent you from importing it again. Check the account dropdown (upper left) to make sure the account isn’t already imported, and potentially check the Manage Wallets section as well.
Make sure it’s the right private key for the account
One of the common issues users face when trying to import via a private key is that they aren’t using the right key, maybe they changed their keys or just mistakenly are using the wrong one. It’s important to make sure the key you are using is the right one.
You can do this in the Tools section with the Key Validator.
Input your private key (starts with the number 5 or PVT) in the Key Validator tool and it will display the public key (starts with the letters EOS or PUB typically).
Then, go to a block explorer like bloks.io or eosauthority.com and lookup your account. Under the Keys section of your account page, it will display the public keys for the account, either in the EOS or PUB formats. You can toggle between the formats on some explorers by clicking the icon next to the key.
Ensure that the public key from the Key Validator matches that of what the block explorer displays. If it does not match, it’s not the right key for the account.
Still not working?
Let us know, reply to this forum thread or start a new thread and we’ll see if we can help further. If we come up with more scenarios and/or things you can try, we will update this post with them.
