Bitcoin Forum

When I open my Bitcoin wallet after a few days or a week, it takes many hours to sync.

Is this normal?

If you are using Bitcion-QT then yes.
You need to download and verify the blockchain.

I would recommend that you switch to a different wallet.
E.g. Electrum

2 Advantages:
1. Very quick sync
2. Deterministic wallet (as long you don't loose your seed you can always recover all your addresses)

Yea that happens to me, it only does it once though

An online wallet is always synced to the blockchain and you can't lose it because of hard drive corruption etc.
I would recommend that all newbies use a blockchain.info wallet or similar.

Prolifik… I have alway's backed up my wallet on a hard drive. So that should keep things safe.

torusJKL…If I loaded a different wallet, how would I transfer the info to the new wallet?

regards, Marv.

Yea mine has been syncing for hours >.<

The easiest thing would be to send yourself the bitcoins to an address of your new wallet.
If that isn't an option than you could import the private key but in case of Electrum that private key would not be part of the determenisitc recovery with the seed.

Thanks torusJKL,  I'll look into that.

It takes hours because what it does actually when is syncing is downloading the blockchain. You may want to try a lightweight client like multibit if you find the syncing part annoying.

Good luck fixing this, i never got mine to work, I keep my btc online

It's not something that is broken.
Bitcoin is a decentralized system if you use the Bitcion-Qt client then you become a node in this system. But that means that you need to have the full blockchain downloaded and verified.

Agreed that for the casual user this is very cumbersome and it's better to use a lightweight or web client.
When choosing a web wallet just make sure that only you have the private keys and make backups locally.
There where some web wallets that stole money or just closed down in the past.

. What are the best, most secure "web wallets"?

of cause not

Blockchain.info is IMHO the most secure online wallet system.

They are really a lightweight JavaScript client and an encrypted  wallet.  All decryption is done client side.

You are still at risk from malware on your machine, and the risk is serious.  Just look for threads on lost bitcoins.

I never turn my wallet server off. its always syncing all the wallets :)

It is normal, no worries. :)
You may always try some other lightweight wallets.

i use multibit, can i change for electrum with the same bitcoin adress ?

Because by that time many transaction happen which fill up the block chain.
You can try Multibit if that's the case.

I am extremely new to bitcoins and after much nailbiting and research I went with Coinbase to start due to its ease of use and registration.  It may not be as secure as others, but for me at this junction in my bitcoin experience I felt it was the easiest to get my feet wet so to speak.  It stays synced with the blockchain.

Coinbase is an online wallet and they have full access over your funds. Obviously its easier to deal with and it's a more familiar way for most of the newcomers but online wallets have failed people many times before.

I am reminded of the saying "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket". If you have a lot of bitcoins, I think the sensible thing to do is to spread them between all available options.

Coinbase is an online wallet and they have full access over your funds. Obviously its easier to deal with and it's a more familiar way for most of the newcomers but online wallets have failed people many times before.
[/quote]

I am reminded of the saying "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket". If you have a lot of bitcoins, I think the sensible thing to do is to spread them between all available options.
[/quote]
Yes, I'm thinking the best option is to put it in 2 online wallets.  Coinbase being one of them.  I'm guessing their Venture Capitalists that have funded them are making sure they are securing things they way they say they are in the website.

What large online wallet backed by various VCs have failed in the past?  Educate me. The ones that i have read about failing are set up by drug dealers and are 1 or 2 working part time on the site.

Multibit is the only one I have ever used. I find it very good and I have had no problems with it, although for some reason I tend to feel more secure using Coinbase.

I personally prefer blockchain.info myself, it's a lot more convenient than having to download the actual blockchain.

yeah, but when you downloaded a wallet, it's all in your hands and you don't depend on hacker attacks,crashes etc. :)

sinc it once , have a good antivirus and keep your money in your pocket :D

Obviously coinbase looks 100 times more secure and professional than all those wallets that got "hacked" but it is still yet another online wallet.
Bitcoin.org even has a warning for online wallets in their choose a wallet section.