what you would need to do is not import the seed or any private keys..
instead you would have to import the MASTER PUBLIC KEY not the sending transactions singular public key
dont follow the other peoples advice about importing private keys or seeds
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But the thing is that he does not want to create a watch-only wallet, he wants to
verify his backup seed. At least that is how I understood it...
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The only other possibility mentioned in this thread is that I imported a wrong seed into the cold wallet. I checked twice and think highly unlikely, but tomorrow I may try again.
You seem to be unnecessarily complicating things too much. You do not need to make transactions to verify your seed phrase. All you have to do is "make" your wallet software to show you the same set of addresses as in the Electrum/KeepKey setup (which you seem to call a "hot" wallet).
You have to understand what derivation path means in hierarchical deterministic wallets. Basically, this means that you can generate many, many different wallets and key pairs from the same seed phrase. If I am not mistaken, Electrum and KeepKey are using different derivation paths - so you have effectively created 2 different wallets from the same seed phrase.
Now, I do not know exactly which derivation path KeepKey uses, you should consult the documentation or look for that information online, but when you want to recreate the same wallet in a new Electrum installation, it is important to tell it which derivation path to use.