Topic: Lost bitcoins - Transferring from android to iOS (Both wallets from same seed) (Read 362 times)

Found an interesting note in the "Bitcoin deterministic wallet compatibility" spreadsheet that is available here: https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=584F122BA17116EE!313&app=Excel


It seems that prior to version 1.4... Mycelium for IOS was using a "different" derivation path:





So, I would suggest that you try and import the seed into Electrum, when prompted for the script type/derivation path, Click on the "legacy (p2pkh)" option... and then change the derivation path from: m/44'/0'/0' to: m/44'/0'/0'/0

The screen should look like this:



Hopefully that will find the missing addresses/transactions/coins etc.

If you are sure that it was the same seed then your problem is the right derivation path.
I would suggest you import it on Electrum already suggested above but this time you will need the xPub or zPub under wallet>information you will need to analyze it using xPub analyzer.
Here's the tool https://blockpath.com/wallets/new?action=appxpub

Then paste the xPub or zPub of your wallet then scan all, if the tool found used addresses with balances you will see the derivation path on the left side use it to find the exact derivation path of your wallet.

I assume you meant "% sure we never used a passphrase".
If it's a bug or corruption that made the two wallets different, then there's nothing else you can do about it.

You can try to build and install the exact version when you've restored it in IOS: github.com/mycelium-com/wallet-ios/releases
Then restore your seed phrase there, but as I've said, (AFAIK) Mycelium haven't changed their BIP39 seed derivation.

Hi again,

@HCP

To test with different derivation paths did not solve my issues.

All 4 transactions are to different addresses.

When I look at it I see that I might have given you wrong information earlier, from what I can see on oxt.me it looks like this:

1. Trying to recover bitcoin balance on mycelium iPhone, showing balance 0 etc
2. Trying to recover bitcoin balance to  android mycelium, showing correct amount BTC
Ps. Both iPhone and android were restored using the same seed.
3. Sending all balance to the iPhone mycelium wallet, since the android phone wasn't mine. (In theory sending to and from myself, same seed)
4. A few days later selling 1 BTC at Kraken. First small transaction, then 0,99 BTC.

5. Then a year later wanting to check, finding mycelium on iPhone is not installed. Installing app, recovering with seed, finding the balance is 0,000X and not the correct. Also testing with android, but also showing 0,000X BTC.
Ps. We do not know what happened to the mycelium app on the iPhone, maybe we deleted it, but at least thinking it was the same seed, since we recovered with seed and sent between two wallets with same seed.

@nc50lc

The amount on our wallet is the same as the change address on the transaction 4.
For me looking it looks like it leads to a new transaction, from where the BTC is laying unspent.

What I make out of this is that we only see 4 transactions, all from transferring BTC from android to iPhone (same seed - no passphrase)

We are missing the transactions from a few days after, selling the BTC on kraken from the mycelium iPhone. This was also done in two transactions.
One to verify and one to sell when seeing it is working.

---

The question is why these transactions do not show up (not even on the iPhone), and that there might have been a glitch between the mycelium android and iPhone versions causing the two wallets to be different even with same seed? (One for the android and one for the iPhone).

And that is why the wallet showed 0 BTC, and that when we sent the BTC to "ourselves" iPhone version created a different set of addresses and did not manage to attach it to our wallet seed used in the android?

Ps. The phrase we had on the same paper is not our passphrase as we are 99,99999999999999999999% sure we never used a seed and only used the same seed on both phones, we do not have knowledge about this so we did check it throughly before doing the transactions. (Not throughly enough though it seems like).

Any ideas on where to go from here?

Yes... did you send the small amount and the big amount to the same address?


Yes... when you're creating the wallet, you need to select options, check the BIP39 option... then when prompted between "Legacy", "Nested" or "Native"... select based "Legacy" and change the derivation path to m/44'/0'/1' (it will default to m/44'/0'/0' which is the "main" account in Mycelium).

You can also check m/44'/0'/2'... but Mycelium only allows one "unused" account, so it's probably not worth checking anything higher than 2' or 3' (unless you know you had setup lots of "accounts" in Mycelium).

NOTE: You will need to create a new wallet in Electrum for each Mycelium "account" that you want to check.

Yes, there's no way that two same wallets (Mycelium) with the same seed, will generate two different wallets unless the other has a passphrase.
As you can see, when you restored the seed to your current installation, it keeps on generating the same wallet as the Android Myceium.

---

By the way, since you can see the transactions.
Search the output of transaction #4 and check it it's now spent. If it is, it's most likely that your previous deleted IOS Mycelium was a fake.
If not spent, it may be the correct app and you still have a chance if you can guess your passphrase or found the correct seed phrase.

To check if it's spent:

• First, change the blockexplorer option in the settings, among the choices, blockchain.info(com) is the one with easy indicator if the output was spent.
  (that's in "Menu/...->Settings->Block explorers->Bitcoin->blockchain.info")
• Go to 'Transactions' tab, tap transaction #4 (should have red amount for 'send-out txns', the amount should be the "missing funds")
  It will be highlighted, then click "Show Details" above.
• Click on the "Hash" and you will be redirected to blockchain.com through your default browser.
• In that page, look for the outputs ("to" or the green arrow pointing right);
  spent outputs have a "red globe" icon next to it instead of a "green globe" (unspent). the change should be green since it's still in your wallet.

---

Last note: It's not recommended to write the BIP39 passphrase on the same paper as the seed phrase, or it will defeat its purpose.

@BitMaxz

I am not sure I understand what you mean. But the balance is the same on the iPhone and the Android now when restoring.

When I am at the balance side (iPhone) I cannot see any address, I entered the public key, main account, (hope this is what you mean) into blockchain and the balance and transactions looks the same.

"there are 3 types of address on balance" On the balance tab, I only have Main account balance, send, receive and cold storage (iPhone). But that might be different on the Android, at the time of writing this I can not verify that. Probably I need the Mycelium app for android to check all three account types?

With regards to looking into the Electrum wallet it says:
Script type: p2pkh
Wallet type: standard
Seed available: False
Keystore type: bip32
Lightning: Not available for this wallet
Derivation path: m/44'/0'/0'

This makes me wonder, since I seem to remember that to restore my mycelium wallet the guide said to check bip39, could this mean something?

@HCP

Sorry for the stupid question, but are you referring to if the "output" addresses are the same in #3 and #4?

I tried adding new accounts (iPhone) with no success.
But did not get a question to ensure it was HD accounts.
I do not have the possibility to check the android at the time of writing this. Would you know how I could check this in electrum?

@nc50lc
Sorry for the confusion. Thanks for the assistance.
I think you are correct on the balance that it is the change of transaction #4.

I do not think it was backed up after the transfer, therefore no new seed. With "keep on restoring it with your commonly used passphrase." you mean that I should try to guess the passphrase?
(Most likely I do not have any). The reason why I am so sure about this is that I have the seed written down with one additional code, not for this. I had these with me when performing the transactions, so if any new seed and or passphrase they would most likely have been noted down on the same place.

Thanks :-)

So it's the other way around in comparison to your previous reply, hmm...
But it still subjected to the fact that you've sent the funds to your IPhone Mycelium that 'you think' has the same seed as your Andoid Mycelium.
And the final balance "0.000X BTC" that you're seeing is the change of that #4 transaction.
The rest of the balance is in that deleted wallet, it's basically same thing.

If HCP's suggestion to create the second HD account didn't work,
you'll have to search for another seed phrase backup or keep on restoring it with your commonly used passphrase.

Are the addresses that the coins were sent to in #3 and #4, the same or different?

In any case, it seems that instead of sending to the wallet on iPhone that uses the same seed and/or derivation path as the wallet on the Android device, it's been sent to a completely different wallet... otherwise, you would see the "incoming" transactions from #3 and #4 and not just the outgoing ones


Have you tried adding new "accounts" in Mycelium to see if maybe the addresses you sent to in #3 and #4 are in different HD accounts in Mycelium? (This is effectively the same as changing the derivation path in Electrum from m/44'/0'/0' to m/44'/0'/1', m/44'/0'/2' etc)

Click the "Key+" icon or tap 3 dots and select "add account"... then select "Add Bitcoin HD Account"... Note that Mycelium only lets you have one "unused" HD account... so you may not be able to add a 3rd (or subsequent) account if the 2nd one has no transaction history.

If they're not there, then your chances of recovering these coins are going to be very low...

So both of them have no balance between iPhone and Android?

Sometimes mycelium is not syncing if you imported a new seed you can't see the updated balance right away.
That is why I suggested you go into the balances tab copy the address there and paste it to any block explorer like blockchair.com to check the transaction history and current balance.

Take note there are 3 types of address on balance tab so copy all of them and check them one by one on blockchair.com
To see other types of addresses just tap the QR code and it will change from p2pkh to p2sh if you tap it again it will change to Bech32. Let see which address that you actually use check them all to block explorer to see the updated status about that address.

Hi,

Thanks a lot for following up and assisting.

I have four outbound transactions in when restoring the wallet.

As I remember them:

All outgoing from Android Mycelium wallet:

1. Small to check that transfer from android to Kraken is working.
2. Sending 1 BTC from android to kraken.
3. Sending small portion from android to iPhone to see I it works.
4. Sending the rest of the balance from android to the iPhone.

5. Deleting mycelium on iPhone
6. Restoring and balance is same as Android Mycelium, 0.000X.

I am trying to look into oxy.me to fully understand the transactions, but since I am before beginner, it takes some time.

All ideas, assistance,  "dummy" guides for transaction explanations and oxt.me guides are heartly welcome :-)

He had posted that in his "information update" in Post number 11.
What I get is: From android to Iphone (almost all funds), then Iphone to Kraken (just a portion, left a change with large funds).

So you sent 1 BTC to Kraken before you transferred the rest to the iphone? So, you can see that as a separate transaction in your transaction history? If so, then that would make nc50lc's theory incorrect:

As the transaction happened before the coins were transferred to the "deleted IOS wallet"... which then begs the question...

what is the last transaction that you can see in your recovered wallet? Following your description, it should be the transaction that sent from "Android to IOS"... is that correct?

It also falls to scenario 1 or 2 in the list in my previous reply of "possible scenarios".

See, if your IOS and Android Myceliums are different wallets (due to IOS having a passphrase or just a different seed entirely) and you've sent the balance from Android to IOS.
The change "0.000X BTC" that you're seeing is the change of that "from Android to IOS transaction", thus balance of the Android Mycelium.
The change of "from deleted IOS wallet to Kraken" transaction should be in that deleted wallet, not in the Android Mycelium.

And since the original deleted IOS Mycelium seems to be a different wallet (I mean not a copy of your Android Mycelium),
when you restored using the seed of  "Android Mycelium", the restored wallet to IOS Mycelium only has the "0.000X BTC" balance which is the change of the "from Android to IOS transaction".

With all the statements, it seems like you've added a passphrase that made the deleted IOS Mycelium a totally different wallet; if not, it has a different seed to begin with.
Specially the very first paragraph in the OP:

The seed phrase doesn't need to be updated. Your seed phrase can generate all your addresses (The addresses you have used so far, the addresses you will use in future and all your change addresses).


That means your wallet has generated 9 private keys (and 9 addresses) so far.
The total balance of those 9 addresses is 0.000X BTC.

Thanks again for all the answers,

@hosseinimr93
I am 99,999999% sure no passphrase was added. That makes it a bit weird. And leads me to thinking sending coins from yourself (android) to yourself (iPhone) leads to the seed not being updated on the changes on the iPhone after and the coins being sent to another address.

@BitMaxz
We deleted the Mycelium app from the iPhone after the transfer. (At least that is what we think happened)
The iPhone is now showing 0.000X and not the complete balance on the iPhone, so if we backup now this is the balance we backup (0,000XBTC) and not the balance with the total amount of BTC?

Looking at the Android vs the iPhone both balances are identical, also both showing the same transactions.

@khaled0111
The phone was my wife's, so not to worried :-)
We have tried to restore in Electrum, showing same balance as on the iPhone and Android, 0.000X and not the complete amount of BTC.

@nc50lc
That is correct, but also before transferring to the iPhone we sent one BTC to Kraken to sell it, sold this one.
And the rest should be on the balance, but as mentioned it now says 0.000X instead of correct amount.

ADDITIONAL INFO:

iPhone vs Android

Now both Android and iPhone shows same transactions;
Looking at Android and iPhone
   1. Balance 0.000X
   2. Transactions identical

What I find on the Android mycelium app that I do not find on the iPhone mycelium app is this:

Android says:
Bitcoin HD 1
Account 1
Contains 9 private keys
Balance 0.000X BTC

Could these private keys be hiding the coins or would the balance then be correct?

Once again, thanks for assisting.

It's stated in the OP that the android phone is his wife's.

A little TL;DR of the whole thread: He said that he restored the same seed to his Iphone and His wife's Android;
but only the Android showed the correct balance so he sent the bitcoins to his IPhone.
Deleted the Mycelium app in IPhone after a transaction.
Then the issue occurs.

What do you mean by the phone wasn't yours? (Thank you nc50lc for the clarifcation). Did the phone owner have access to your wallet? When you restored it, did you protect it by a password/pin code? If the phone owner has access to your wallet then he can steal all your coins.  I' m not saying he did, but this is one of the (many) possibilities.

The first thing to do is to restore your wallet using a propper wallet such as Electrum and see if it has any balance then report back here so we can help you.

You can still able to back up the seed from your iPhone if the mycelium app is still installed from your iPhone.

Just go to the Accounts tab and choose the wallet that you want to back up seed after choosing a wallet you should see something like "create backup". Tap that button and it will ask if you want to do this now then choose yes and then show first word.

Until you complete the 12 words seed backup.


You can also confirm if they are used the same seed Android and your iPhone by checking the address if the address from iPhone is the same as the address from your Android then they are using the same seed.

It's not a glitch.
If you have the correct seed phrase (+ passphrase, if there's any), you can easily recover your fund.
Not only on mycelium, the seed can be imported into any other wallet that support BIP39 seeds.

You already said that both of your wallets (the android one and IOS one) had a same seed phrase.
If you have added a passphrase to your seed phrase, as stated by nc50lc, you need that too.

You can prove that they were sent from your wallet, but you cannot prove that you were owning the destination wallet. I mean that for proving it's yours you need the same thing as you'd spend the coins, which I'm afraid you don't (of course, unless you manage to recover that wallet you've sent your coins to).

Hi again,

I think there is a chance they are lost, we did not take a backup of the wallet on the iPhone after transferring balance from the android.
We thought they still would be attached to the seed. And that we could recover them from the seed.

It also could be a glitch in the Mycelium wallet if they were supposed to be recoverable from the seed.

Is there a way for me to trace the transactions and prove they are mine?

Thanks.

AFAIK, Mycelium uses the same 'change address format' as the output's format, like if you're sending to a SegWit address, Mycelium will use SegWit change address.
(but that info won't help with the recovery of your funds, only to identify which output is the change).

Anyways, there shouldn't be any issue with the funds being sent to your change address, it's also recoverable from the seed phrase (or with passphrase).

But like I've mentioned:
"Seed Phrase A" will still recover the same set of (receiving) addresses and change addresses from 'Mycelium A'.
If you've restored "Seed Phrase 'A' with a Passphrase", it will recover an entirely different set of addresses and change addresses.
So, if you have set a passphrase in the deleted IOS mycelium, all you have to do is to restore the same seed but with the correct passphrase.
Wrong Passphrase will work but will create a new-different wallet.

Hi again,

The thing is that when I restored the seed on the iPhone I could not see the correct balance.

I could only see the correct balance on the android.
I then sent the coins to the iPhone. (Which was restored with the same seed, but not showing the coins)
Then sold one.
Then deleted app.

I am not an expert on transactions but I have been digging into a bit today, and that's why I suddenly came to think about the change addresses.

In the transaction history all transactions are done the same day as when we sold the one.

The remaining looks to be on a change address (As mentioned I am not expert and this could be wrong).

But maybe then they are on a change address created by the iPhone mycelium and not the android from which we sent them...

Should I have backed up the iPhone wallet after selling one coin? Since the remaining was sent to the change address?

My question now is if this is correct and I find the change address, can I regain access to it? and how?

Thanks again, priceless help, it is much appreciated.

You mean you were able to see your correct balance before after wallet restoration, but later after long time period, you want to restore the wallet, but the balance is now zero.

But you are able to see your transaction history on the wallet, check to know if the bitcoin has been sent to address(es) not known to you, check the last transaction(s), check if you were the one that sent Bitcoin to the addresses and check the date. Likely, your seed phrase was compromised if there is/are unkown transaction(s).

Thank you @Charles-Tim,

I restored the seed on both the android and the iPhone. But the coins only showed up on the android.
Same seed was restored, but the iPhone did not display the coins.

Since the android phone wasn't mine I sent them to the iPhone.

Then the coins appeared on the iPhone, I then sold one coin. It displayed six...
Later probably deleted the wallet from the iPhone.

When I tried to restore about a year later the balance is the same, both when trying to restore on the android and the iPhone, BTC lost, hopefully temporary.

Where would you suggest to try from here to recover the coins?

I have the original seed.

Thanks a lot for your answers.

Mycelium is a HD wallet, it generates change addresses. For example, if you have 1 btc on one address, you send 0.1 btc to another person's address, there will be 0.9 btc that will be sent to your wallet's change address as UTXO, and it is what you can see on your wallet balance immediately.

You sent the money from Android to iPhone, or you imported the seed phrase?

I think what I have just explained will maake this clear to you.

For wallet restoration, you need the seed phrase, private key or wallet file.

INFORMATION UPDATE.

Thanks for trying to assist me in this matter. I realised one vital thing that I forgot to include in my information.

When I had sent the money from the android phone to the iOS phone I sent one coin to kraken to sell it.

Could this have caused Mycelium to generate a change address on the iphone? And that the remaining BTCs are in this change address?

I am 99.99999% sure that the same seed was used on both wallets when we sent the BTC from android to the iOS, if that is the case is there a way to get back the money from this change address?

If we did not use the same seed, is there then a way to retrieve the money if we locate the change address?

Thanks for helping me trying to sort out this issue, highly appreciated.

Not at all, your wallet is just a collection of private keys to move your coins which are stored in the blockchain.
With a passphrase (actually "BIP39 passphrase"), it will just generate a wallet with entirely different set of private keys, the balance of the wallet without a passphrase/different passphrase wont be affected.

If you want to restore the wallet with "0.000X BTC" balance, you can just restore the seed without the passphrase.

Assuming that the device where it's restored is secured, there wouldn't be any major circumstances on trying to restore it with a passphrase.

Developers do not usually do that, most of the time, there's always cross-platform compatibility.
I'm also pretty sure Mycelium haven't changed derivation path in the earlier versions.

Thanks @nc50lc for your message and assistance.

Passphrase solution
At the point of writing this I have to assume I can not trust myself and will try all proposed solutions. Will it affect my wallet if I try to restore "another" wallet with a passphrase?

Lets say I:
1. Delete my wallet
2. Try to restore wallet as proposed with same seed + passphrase
3. Will I then after be able to restore my wallet only using the seeds? (no passphrase) after?

Regarding sending to same wallet, will the keys be different types in iOS / Android and make me have to search for other keys/account types?

Sadly not the wrong BTC mBTC :-)

Thanks a lot for assisting!

These are the possible scenarios that could have happened based from your statements.
(Refer to the OP for the quoted parts):

• Since IOS Mycelium didn't have any balance in "Status at this point", the IOS Mycelium could have been a different wallet entirely.
  So after sending the bitcoins from your Android to the zero-balance-Mycelium in "Action taken", all that's left to the Android Mycelium is the change which is the "0.000X BTC".
  When you restored the seed from Android to the IOS in "Actions taken later", It displayed the same balance as the android which is the change of that transaction.
  
  
• This is a variation of the first scenario but recoverable: You could've added a "Passphrase" to the seed when restoring it to the IOS app.
  If this is the case, try to restore the seed again but now, check "I have a passphrase" and after typing the seed, you'll have to type exactly the same passphrase that you've used before.
  This is because adding a passphrase to the seed phrase will generate a different set of keys so it will create an entirely different wallet.
  
  
• Are you 100% sure that it's the same seed even with the passphrase or it doesn't have a passphrase? Yes?
  If your previous balance isn't too high, you might have used most of it as "transaction fee" for the transaction in "Action taken".
  That transaction did nothing but to send it to the same wallet. Because sending bitcoins between wallets with the same seed is pointless since it's basically a 'send-to-the-same-wallet' transaction.
  
  
• Or it's actually displaying the correct balance and "0.000X BTC" was just previously displayed as "0.X mBTC".
  In that case, it's just the Cryptocurrenct denomination, my example above have the same value.
  
  

Thank a lot all of you for answering and trying to help, this is highly appreciated.

@dkbit98
I used the same seed on different devices since I could not restore it on my iPhone, balance showed 0 BTC, I was afraid they were lost.
Tried then the Android where I managed to restore the coins.
Then transferred the coins to my iPhone. Same seed was used on both.

I tried with importing the seed to Electrum, no luck.
When using blockchair are you recommending me to search my wallet public key? Or the transaction IDs?

@Charles-Tim
"BlueWallet, it will be a good wallet most especially for beginners that want to make use of lightning network". What do you mean by this sentence about BlueWallet? Is it good for trying to recover? Sorry, I am at the stage before beginner :-)

@NeuroticFish
I tried several times to recover the wallet on the iOS before going to the android.

I am not sure if I understand how to check the addresses, but:
- When looking at the transactions overview, red transactions, outgoing they all start with 1.

- When I enter the transaction I have a transaction ID but also inputs and output addresses, which are you referring to?

Transaction 1:
In transaction overview address showing starts with: 1
Transaction details:
Transaction ID starts with c
Inputs start with: 1
Output 1 starts with: 1
Output 2 starts with: 1

Transaction 2:
In transaction overview address showing starts with: 1
Transaction details:
Transaction ID starts with 2
Inputs start with: 1
Output 1 starts with: 1
Output 2 starts with: 1

Transaction 3:
In transaction overview address showing starts with: 1
Transaction details:
Transaction ID starts with b1
Inputs start with: 1
Output 1 starts with: 1
Output 2 starts with: 1

Transaction 4:
In transaction overview address showing starts with: 1
Transaction details:
Transaction ID starts with 2
Input 1 starts with: 1
Input 2 starts with: 1
Input 3 starts with: 1
Input 4 starts with: 1
Output 1 starts with: 1
Output 2 starts with: 1

The seed should be the same for both wallets, could it be that they are showing as different account types / address types in the iOS and that I have to restore them another way?



@hosseinimr93
"Are you sure that both wallets had the same seed?" Yes I am sure they had the same seed.

"The other possibility is that your IOS wallet wasn't synced at the first, got synced after a while and the balance was shown." What would happen in this case?



@BitMaxz
Sadly I did not find them in Electrum. Which address do you suggest I use to look in the block explorer? The wallet address or one of the transactions?
And if it is the wallet address is this the same as the wallet public key?


Thanks a lot for helping out guys, this is really highly appreciated.

Mycelium on IOS is a well-known buggy and it seems the Mycelium website doesn't have an IOS version on their wallet page you can only see the Android Mycelium app.

So I think the Mycelium on IOS is no longer maintained?

If they have a different seed and the one from IOS doesn't have balance and you tried to import it into Mycelium android but still doesn't have the balance I would suggest you copy the address from your IOS and then look for block explorer like blockchair.com and paste it and check if the address has funds.
If it still has no funds it means you don't actually have a BTC on that wallet at least we can see the transactions if there is someone transfer them to another wallet. But if it doesn't have any transaction history from block explorer it means you didn't deposit BTC to that wallet.

As suggested above I also recommend using the seed from Mycelium IOS to Electrum when importing it to Electrum you will need to enable BIP39 to get the wallet that you have from Mycelium IOS. Let's see if you can find your BTC there.

If you are looking for a better and secured wallet for IOS you can switch to ledger nano they now support IOS with IOS ledger live.

If the wallets (the one on the IOS device and the one on android device) have the same seed, they should be a same wallet. Both should include same keys and same addresses.
If you don't see the balance on one of devices, it can be a syncing issue.

This is very confusing to me.
You already said that both wallets had the same seed.
If the wallets had the same seed and you transferred bitcoin from the android wallet to IOS wallet, you haven't sent bitcoin to a different wallet. You have actually sent bitcoin from a wallet to a same wallet and nothing should change.
Are you sure that both wallets had the same seed?

The other possibility is that your IOS wallet wasn't synced at the first, got synced after a while and the balance was shown.

I don't know how the iOS mycelium looks like, but it may be that first time you did not recover properly the initial wallet; second time you did recover properly the initial wallet.
The problem is that you need now the second wallet, where you've sent the coins to.

Does by chance the initial address start with 1* and the address where you've sent the money to starts with 3* or bc1*?



Your coins, if the transaction is confirmed, are at the address you've sent them to. You will need the private key or seed of that wallet in order to spend those coins.
I am not convinced I understand what actually happened there, hence I cannot tell yet whether or how you can access/spend those coins.

I think what Ole1990 was complaning about is that he is using iOS now, he tried to recover his Bitcoin using Mycelium app on the iOS device but did not work, I do not know how that can be true but people always complain of Mycelium wallet on iOS, while the best option is to make use of Android. Electrum is not having app for iOS, correct me if wrong, Electrum would have been the best alternative to go for. Also I have checked BlueWallet, it will be a good wallet most especially for beginners that want to make use of lightning network.

Big answer, your Bitcoin was never on your phones, they are only holding keys and enable you to sign and broadcast transaction, and Bitcoin is on blockchain all the time.
I don't know why you complicated things so much and why you tried to use same seed on different devices, but make sure your wallet is synced to show correct baalnce.
You can also see full history of your transactions in any bitcoin explorer (blockchair or similar) and see what address exactly has your coins.
Try to use seed words and recover them in different wallet like Electrum of BlueWallet, that I recommend more than ads filled Mycelium.

Restored Mycelium wallet on my new iPhone, Seed X, balance showing 0 BTC.
Also recovered the same Mycelium wallet on my wife’s android, Seed X (Same seed) , balance showing correct amount of BTC.

Status at this point:

Wallet (Seed X) recovered to two different phones, one android and one iOS.
Android showing correct amount of BTC. iOS showing 0 BTC.

Action taken:
Transferred the BTC from the android to the iOS.
From my wife's telephone to mine.

Status at this point:
iOS mycelium wallet showing correct amount of BTC.

Actions taken later:
iOS mycelium app deleted. (99% certain this is what happened)
Then tried to reinstall mycelium wallet on iOS with the same seed.
Balance showing 0.000X BTC.
All transactions visible in the transaction window.

Also tried to go back to the Android phone and recover again with same seed, but also the wallet when restored on android is showing 0.000X BTC.

The big question:
Where is my BTC and how can I recover them?