How to check balance of Cold Storage Monero Wallet, easily, when privacy of balance is not an issue?

Question

I am aware similar questions have been asked - but I could not find the exact answer I seek.

In the situation of:

1. The user has a cold storage wallet, made on an airgapped computer, and has written down both the mnemonic seed / public key / view key.
2. The user has received multiple deposits to this wallet, with has no record of the transactions ID's and/or some transfers sent with no transaction ID.
3. The user does not care if the world can see their balance - but funds must be safe.
4. Seeking a solution using either a website, or Monero Gui Wallet. (no cli)

How can the user simply check the balance of their cold store wallet under these conditions? Are there any security issues with the above conditions?

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It seems like it should be as simple as just entering one's view key into a website and/or Monero Gui Client. Is it actually that simple? How to do that?

Answer 1

The view key detects incoming funds, and that is not enough to determine balance.

There is an easy way to do so, however: import your account on mymonero.com. There is a (currently) 1 monero fee for the blockchain scanning, but this will end up showing you your final balance. Of course, your wallet isn't cold anymore by that time.

A less easy solution, which keeps your wallet cold, is to export key images from your cold wallet, so the matching hot wallet can compute the final balance. See Can the import\export key images command can be used to check the balance of a paperwallet? for the details.