Bitcoin-Qt - is it really that slow

[bigstevo]

I have managed to get some low value free coins and can see them when I input the address into blockchain, however my Bitcoin-Qt client has been syncing with the network for ages now and still doesn't reflect the transactions.

I assume it syncs constantly to keep up to date with transactions and dont understand how it would be useful if it cant show transactions in realtime.

Am I doing something wrong, any advice appreciated?

[empoweoqwj]

Yes it does take that long. Its not really that useful if you just want a wallet.

Not sure "real-time" really exists in the bitcoin world.

[simondlr]

Bitcoin-QT is unfortunately slow. It has been greatly improved recently.

If you've made a recent transaction, remember it's at the end of the blockchain. You will just have to wait.

Once it is synced, it will basically display it in real-time. New blocks are really small (check here: http://blockchain.info/). Just remember to keep it open.

[bigstevo]

so if you want to store your wallet.dat file offline, you could conduct trades via an online wallet like blockchain send them all to your client and just wait for it to sync? or is there an easier way?

[paradigm]

Consider using Multibit if you haven't heard of it yet.  When I first started a couple days ago I used bitcoin-qt and was ready to give up on the whole thing because of how slow it was and how much disk space and network activity it was using.  But multibit does great for me without the problems.