Before you begin
- You will need to download and install electrum first. You can download it from here. If you are on Windows you should use the installer version and not the portable one.
- You will need a pen and a notebook (recommended) or piece of paper to write down the seed mnemonic. The notebook will have to be kept somewhere safe once you are done with the installation process so it can’t be a notebook that you use on a day to day basis.
Creating the wallet
- Start new electrum wallet file by following this short guide. Then come back here and proceed to step 2.
- Click on next to see the wallet type selection window:
As you can see Electrum supports different types of wallets. If you are just starting out you should just select “Standard wallet”. - In the next step electrum asks you choose where the wallet secret will come from
The seed is a secret that unlocks all your bitcoins. When creating a new wallet you want to let electrum generate a seed for you. - Electrum displays the seed to you as a 12 word mnemonic. It’s important at this stage to write down the seed in a notebook. You must put it down on paper. Don’t keep it on your computer!
Also write down “Software: Electrum” in your notebook below the seed mnemonic. You wouldn’t believe the number of users who forget what software they used! - Electrum will next ask you to verify that you wrote down the seed correctly by typing it back in:
- You can also set a password to protect your wallet file from other people who might have access to your computer. This is entirely optional:
- Electrum will then generate your addresses and display your wallet window:
- Your wallet has now been created. You should put that notebook in which you wrote the seed down somewhere safe. In case you forget your wallet password or your computer crashes and you lose your wallet file you can still recover access to your wallet using your seed. It also means that anyone else can get access to your bitcoins with just your seed. So put it somewhere safe.
Additional resources
Why is there no info on how to make electrum work on a windows 10 computer.
I have the seed from the app version, but when i type it in and after the encrypt file section with the password it shuts down. Please help!
Regards
Why I can’t see Legacy option when I create new wallet..?
electrum creates segwit wallets by default now and no longer offers the option to create legacy wallets. in order to create a legacy wallet you have to go to the console tab and type this in there:
make_seed(seed_type="standard")
It’ll display a new seed which you copy to the clipboard and then restore using it:
https://bitcoinelectrum.com/restoring-your-standard-wallet-from-seed/
Sorry I can not find this control tab, I am a normal windows user with no programming knoledge, but I can follow detailed instructions well.
I have read the FAQ and searched the web, but did not find how to do this on windows version of Electrum
please help
I have found the answer after some more google searching at coinguides.com in a very convoluted post. At view one should activate console, after that it shows up in the options
Yes you have to enable it via the view menu. Then the console tab will show up.
The wallet keeps synchronizing and it will not connect. Please advise.
Thank you
See this: https://bitcoinelectrum.com/frequently-asked-questions/#electrum-is-stuck-at-synchronizing-what-can-i-do-to-fix-this
I can’t seem to install a live wallet, only a “watch-only” wallet. I click easy installation, windows installer and follow the instructions from there. Also, by “watch-only,” I assume that means I can’t send the bitcoins to another address from my Electrum wallet.
Help.
Where did you download it from? The one and only official site is electrum.org.
What do you mean you can only create a watch-only wallet? Where does it fail in the wallet creation process?
hello,
have one question!
when i’m installing the wallet in Window and Mac, in the installation ask me if i want a Segwit 2FA or Legacy 2FA.
But in all you documentation only show Segwit ans Standard.
It’s Lagacy the same as Standard?
thanks
They changed the label in recent versions. I will update the guide.
The difference between segwit and legacy is that segwit wallets will have bech32 addresses that begin with ‘bc1’. These are a newer type of address that not everyone supports sending to yet so I recommend going with a legacy wallet instead.
Can I have both a segwit and a non-segwit address at the same time? How can I do that? I already have a legacy wallet and I don’t want to lose it.
Not in the same wallet but you can have multiple wallets in electrum. Each wallet has its own wallet file. You can switch between them as per this faq: https://bitcoinelectrum.com/frequently-asked-questions/#how-do-i-open-a-different-wallet . Also see step 1 of the guide on this page i.e. “creating an electrum wallet”.
Cannot type in the 2fa QR code in setup of wallet after recording 12 seed words and passwords.Working from Imac. Block for code does not show any letters I type.
The file “users/r…./.electrum wallets/default_wallet” contains an incompletely created wallet….
I try and type from keyboard the google auth “GZG….LS”, but nothing appears in “code” box..?
You’re not supposed to type that code into that box. You’re supposed to install an OTP app on your phone like google authenticator and use it to take a picture of the QR code that electrum shows you. Then the OTP app will generate a suitable numerical password that you enter in the next step.
CAN YOU SEND BITCOINS TO WHOM YOU DESIRE?
yep
I’ve found this site after months of trawling the net.
Warning: I am an absolute novice. This entire experience is heartstopping!
Three years ago, having read a newspaper report about Bitcoin, I bought two. And promptly forgot about them. The transaction was through Multibit.
Earlier this year I was reminded of the transaction and warned to get my coins off the Multibit site.
I fully understand that there are problems.
However, I have been into the site – it still remembers me from my password and, having the magic words, restored my wallet.
At the end of several hours, in the Wallet start-up page, I have four ticks: loaded, connected to Bitcoin, Synchronised, wallet ready to use. However at the top of the page it says “unconfirmed”.
I would like to try and transfer to Electrum.
However, I have fallen at the first hurdle. I have tried to download – clicked the button, and just get a page describing where to go, based upon system being used (I am Windows 8), but cannot download.
Where am I going wrong please?
multibit isn’t a site. it’s an app. you can download electrum from https://electrum.org/#download. just download the windows installer and run it to install it.
Hello There! I had an ethereum Wallet but have lost my seeds phrase and my computer damaged and I wont be able to turn
it on, still have the private key ,is there any way to restore my coins
and funds and import them into a new electrum wallet! and if yes how do i do it? thank
electrum is a bitcoin wallet not ethereum wallet. do you have bitcoin or ethereum? if you have bitcoin then you could try importing the private keys into a new electrum wallet:
https://bitcoinelectrum.com/importing-your-private-keys-into-electrum/
I’m enjoying this site as a new crypto/electrum user , can I change wallet type?
you can create a new wallet of a different type and then send all your coins to it. begin via file > new/restore.
Hi, please i downloaded electrum 4.1.1 and have created a wallet, but seems all the address created starts with bc1, is there a way to switch to P2PKH type of address?? on windows
go to the console tab and type this there:
create( seed_type="standard", wallet_path="c:\path\to\new\wallet\file")
then use file > open to open your new legacy wallet file.
I have found seeds of an old multibit HD wallet. I am trying to restore it. In my memory , i had lost around 0.4 btc in 2017 (crashing of mutltibit) . With BRD , in fast sync i can see my original balance but i cannot transfer btc neither exchange them. On low sync, my balance is divided by 100. I didn’t try any transfer. Do you have any idea why the balance are different ? Do i have a risk to loose my btc ? I verified the original balance with the historic (csv file) . It’s the same that the BRD fast sync balance. I am a little bit confused. Some help is welcome.
don’t know anything about brd wallet. this site is about electrum. you could try restoring in electrum:
https://bitcoinelectrum.com/restoring-your-multibithd-wallet-in-electrum/
How can i make a legacy type adresses on mac os because i can make only segwit right now on electrum
go to the console tab and type this there:
create( seed_type="standard", wallet_path="/path/to/new/wallet/file")
then use file > open to open your new legacy wallet file.
how long will it talk my wallet to be credited because bitcoin has been sent to the wallet for more than 2 hours and it has not been received yet. pls help
i don’t have access to your wallet so can’t tell you one way or the other. you will need to post the transaction id to get any answers.
looking for a complete guide to creating an electrum wallet on Android Phone.
Can’t find it any where?
I’m new at this and I would be very greatfull to get info.
it’s the same process on phones as it is on PCs. you can refer to the guide for PCs here:
https://bitcoinelectrum.com/creating-an-electrum-wallet/
Downloaded Electrum for LINIX from the official site – but this “appimage” it gives me is totally “what the heck am I supposed to DO with this?” and I can’t figure out how to make it WORK – NOR ARE THERE ANY INSTRUCTIONS I CAN FIND TO USE THIS DOWNLOAD.
I don’t want a “command line” electrum, I want something close to what I’ve been using on Windows for years – but I can’t figure out how to even INSTALL it once downloaded!
Update – after an HOUR of searching, I finally found out you have to CHMOD the bloody thing to make it work – VERY non-standard and abnormal and downright WEIRD installation method for LINIX, and NOT OBVIOUS when I’ve never seen one of these “appimage” files from anyone else ever.
there is no installing it. you just chmod +x it and go.
alternatively you could have followed the instructions on the download page (https://electrum.org/#download) and used the source tarball. it’s very linux like.
OK 👌 thank you very much
If i install an electrum wallet and buy bitcoin via that wallet
can i buy items in bit coin directly from that wallet in other words if a company has an item that i wish to purchase and they are happy for a bitcoin payment for the item can I do that type of transaction directly from this electrum wallet
Electrum is just a wallet not an exchange. You can’t buy bitcoin using electrum. You will need to use an exchange to buy bitcoin and then you can withdraw those bitcoin to your electrum wallet.
However you can send bitcoin to merchants using electrum.