Bitcoin Forum

Hello everyone,
I'm new to bitcoins and I've just installed bitcoin core.
First thing I've tried is to create a new reception address to use for buying bitcoins to be added to my wallet, but it looks like the function is not available (the create button in the reception windows is greyed out).
My question is: how do I get an address to be used for buying new bitcoins?

Thank you for yuor help.

Which version are you using? I don't see why would the button be greyed out since all fields are optional. Could you post a screenshot?

You can try to generate a receiving address from the console and see if you get any errors:

What version of bitcoin core are you using?
According to this issue (https://github.com/bitcoin-core/gui/issues/105), there was a bug in the version 0.20.1 causing the "create new receiving address" button to be disabled in the newly created wallets.
If that's the case, the button should be enabled simply with closing and opening the wallet.

You may have checked "Make Blank Wallet" when you created the wallet which produces a wallet.dat without any keys in it.
That obviously will disable "Create new receiving address" button.

Close that wallet and create a new one but do not modify the pre-selected options aside from "Encrypt Wallet" for your wallet passphrase.

Per my guesswork, it is a common newbie mistake of these days.

Probably OP has not created a wallet if they were a altcoin user previously as only new versions of wallet software got this feature. (Most altcoins still release old qt based or older version of core based wallets which creates wallet on its own on first launching of wallet).

If have not created a wallet manually then File->Create new wallet.

If created multiple wallets then you need to open one wallet when every time you launch wallet: File-> Open wallet.

Using "Open Wallet" menu isn't necessary, previously loaded/created wallet in Bitcoin Core wont automatically unload themselves.
Any opened (loaded) wallet will be automatically loaded when opening Bitcoin Core unless closed (unloaded) manually.

If there's a bug in the software; if not all, most of the users will experience that issue.
Only suggest to report a bug once the issue is confirmed, otherwise there'll be lots of false reports that could waste the developers' time.

Bitcoin Core's wallets can be used and generate receiving addresses even when locked.

Watching-only wallet in Bitcoin Core can produce new receiving addresses.

Note: It's best for the OP, the forum and for you if you test your hypothesis first before posting them.

I don't know what the argument is about because a blank wallet isn't watching-only until addresses/descriptors are imported... it's blank.

in bitcoin core is it possible to create a new reception address if the wallet isn't fully sync?  Or do we need to fully sync the wallet before I can process to create new reception address?

Addresses are generated locally in your device and you don't have to download the blockchain for that. You can generate new addresses even if your computer isn't connected to the internet.
Take note that to see the receiving transaction(s) and spending the fund, you will have to download the full blockchain.

The wallet must be synced, so you can see your balance and make transaction. For generating a new address, you don't have to sync your wallet.


It's recommended to use new addresses due to privacy reasons. That's not for security purposes.
You can give the same address to hundreds of people and be completely safe.