Electrum tip for newbies! Plus my Recovery story

[Thekool1s]

So, i have a big tip for you guys, especially the newbies. So what happened was, a few months back, i moved from blockchain to electrum, electrum created a "Default wallet" for me, fortunately for me i saved the seed, in a text file even thou i did not intend to use it. Anyway i created a new custom wallet with a different name and closed the electrum thinking that it would have set the new wallet as default one.

After a while i started receiving payments and i did not pay attention to the wallet name, the wallet which was receiving the btcs, now a few months later i had to spend some btcs, i tried entering my password, it gave me an error, spent almost half an hour entering the password nothing happened, also i was very calm during the process, which helped me during my recovery. So after failing, i decided to use the seed of my custom wallet, it did recover but it empty, at this point it was clear to me that I had messed up big time.

Anyway i went to app data and found two wallets, the default one which had received all the payments and my custom wallet, i spent the next hour or so trying every password i had saved, but it did not work! I had almost given up my hope but then i thought maybe i did save the default wallet's seed and started going through all text files i had on my pc, i searched my hard drives one by one manually and didn't find any seed, after spending like 5 hours, i finished my hunt, the only part remaining was my desktop location, which too had too many text files.

There was one file sitting there named, new text document and it had the seed in it. Fortunately to me it was the one, this has been a life changing experience for me, and it's a lesson for newbies to pay proper attention when they use electrum.

TL:DR

Always make sure the wallet name is the correct one when using electrum.

[Abdussamad]

The wallet name is listed in the window title.

Also I suggest using full wallet file encryption to prevent situations where you receive money to a wallet you can't spend from. You can enable that by going to wallet menu > password, enter your password in all 3 fields, check "Encrypt wallet file and then save those settings. Now you won't even be able to view your wallet without entering the decryption password. Once you enter the password you will be able to both view and spend. So in order to get a receive address you have to enter a password and that minimizes the likelihood that you receive money to a wallet you can't spend from.

[Thekool1s]

The wallet name is listed in the window title.

Also I suggest using full wallet file encryption to prevent situations where you receive money to a wallet you can't spend from. You can enable that by going to wallet menu > password, enter your password in all 3 fields, check "Encrypt wallet file and then save those settings. Now you won't even be able to view your wallet without entering the decryption password. Once you enter the password you will be able to both view and spend. So in order to get a receive address you have to enter a password and that minimizes the likelihood that you receive money to a wallet you can't spend from.

Yup, have done that now, plus i have deleted the other wallets from the app data directory, the password on launch is really useful and ensures that the person is using the right wallet for receiving the Bitcoins.

[Coin-Keeper]

I have deleted all or any default wallet files from Electrum.  There is NO reason I can think of to have a wallet file that is not being used.  Its just a way to shoot yourself in the foot!  Electrum will mount the last wallet file open when it was shut down.  So, if you have that default wallet file and the "other" one you use just have the actual being used wallet open last.  Now go to electrum folder and delete the default wallet.  Its gone and so are the mistakes that often follow retaining such a useless wallet.  My opinion.

[Abdussamad]

Note you shouldn't save the seed on your PC. You write it down on paper so that even if anything happened to your computer you could still restore your wallet. 

[Thekool1s]

Note you shouldn't save the seed on your PC. You write it down on paper so that even if anything happened to your computer you could still restore your wallet.  

You see i just made a backup of the default seed on my pc, i never thought i would use that wallet. The New custom wallet i made, i wrote the seed on the paper as the "guides" on the internet tell us to, Made a couple of backups but i didn't pay attention to the wallet electrum was using. Also for newbies its quite easy to overlook it, So the Password thing is a must.

I have deleted all or any default wallet files from Electrum.  There is NO reason I can think of to have a wallet file that is not being used.  Its just a way to shoot yourself in the foot!  Electrum will mount the last wallet file open when it was shut down.  So, if you have that default wallet file and the "other" one you use just have the actual being used wallet open last.  Now go to electrum folder and delete the default wallet.  Its gone and so are the mistakes that often follow retaining such a useless wallet.  My opinion.

Electrum is one of the best wallets out there, Sure it may lack some features but it gives you total control over your coins and is so light weight that even 128 MB storage card would be able to hold it. It's just that you have to be attentive when you are dealing in bitcoins.