How to backup an Electrum Wallet

[platinumsteel2016]

I have an Electrum Wallet...I would like to know the procedure of how to back it up (layman terms please)!!! Where can I locate the file as well. I would like to
save it to my flashdrive...I truly hope to hear from you very soon.

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[pooya87]

the only thing you need to back up is your seed phrase. and that can be found here from toolbar click on:
Wallet > Seed
then enter your password and make sure to write down the words on a piece of paper and double check to see if there aren't any mistakes.
whenever you wanted to recover your whole wallet, you can just use this seed to recover all your keys.


[optional-although a good idea to have multiple backups]
you can also backup the wallet file. your wallet file is found here:
http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html#where-is-my-wallet-file-located
make sure to store it in a safe place and it is a good idea to encrypt it (set a password for your wallet: Wallet > Password)

[Abdussamad]

You can use file menu > save copy to save a backup of the wallet file.

[lizardbtc]

the only thing you need to back up is your seed phrase. and that can be found here from toolbar click on:
Wallet > Seed
then enter your password and make sure to write down the words on a piece of paper and double check to see if there aren't any mistakes.
whenever you wanted to recover your whole wallet, you can just use this seed to recover all your keys.


[optional-although a good idea to have multiple backups]
you can also backup the wallet file. your wallet file is found here:
http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html#where-is-my-wallet-file-located
make sure to store it in a safe place and it is a good idea to encrypt it (set a password for your wallet: Wallet > Password)

I just want to add. I think that seed is the best and easier backup that we can use, as with it I don't need to pray for my USB to not fail. All I need is to write them down on multiple places or even engrave on metal plate or something.

Also if electrum stops to operate (this is highly unlikely at the moment) it is relatively easy to generate the private keys from that seed so even easier to backup multiple keys as electrum is HD wallet.

[platinumsteel2016]

Thank you all for your input...I just want to be SURE that I understand. Just save my seed and password. So consequently, if anything happens to my
computer. I can download a new Electrum wallet and bring up my seed and password from my damaged computer???  Just a scenerio to determine how this tactic would play out...I hope to hear from you soon....

[kolloh]

Thank you all for your input...I just want to be SURE that I understand. Just save my seed and password. So consequently, if anything happens to my
computer. I can download a new Electrum wallet and bring up my seed and password from my damaged computer???  Just a scenerio to determine how this tactic would play out...I hope to hear from you soon....

You don't even really need the password. The seed is all that is needed and you can recreate the entire wallet on a new computer. You would just download Electrum and go through the process and indicate you already have a seed when creating a wallet.

[Abdussamad]

Thank you all for your input...I just want to be SURE that I understand. Just save my seed and password. So consequently, if anything happens to my
computer. I can download a new Electrum wallet and bring up my seed and password from my damaged computer???  Just a scenerio to determine how this tactic would play out...I hope to hear from you soon....

I've explained it in detail here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1964940.msg19537728#msg19537728

[platinumsteel2016]

Greetings Kolloh,

 You stated:

"You don't even really need the password. The seed is all that is needed and you can recreate the entire wallet on a new computer. You would just download Electrum and go through the process and indicate you already have a seed when creating a wallet."

This is PERFECT!!!! I have only only question: Where, or at what point would I indicate that I already have a seed???

[stevegee58]

Just be sure aware that the seed only covers the private keys it generated itself.  If you imported keys into your wallet those are not backed up by the seed!

[HCP]

This is PERFECT!!!! I have only only question: Where, or at what point would I indicate that I already have a seed???

This is specified during wallet file creation (or after you select File -> New/Restore). You simply select the "I already have a seed" when prompted by the wizard:

Just be sure aware that the seed only covers the private keys it generated itself.  If you imported keys into your wallet those are not backed up by the seed!

You shouldn't need to worry about having any private keys that aren't covered as Electrum does not let you import private keys to an HD (aka seed based) wallet in the first place. They can only imported into an old style keystore wallet which needs to be manually backed up.