How to delete wallet history

[cellard]

I was testing Electrum out and opening different wallets, I realized it saves the "recently open wallets" in a list in the upper menu on the left.... this doesn't seem very smart privacy wise, as an attacker could know the name of a wallet which you aren't supposed to show. I don't know how to delete this history, it's not in the preferences, I can't find this option. You can probably do it modifying the OS registry files but seems annoying.

Please add an option to delete the recently opened history or better yet an option to not save any history.

[jackg]

I was testing Electrum out and opening different wallets, I realized it saves the "recently open wallets" in a list in the upper menu on the left.... this doesn't seem very smart privacy wise, as an attacker could know the name of a wallet which you aren't supposed to show. I don't know how to delete this history, it's not in the preferences, I can't find this option. You can probably do it modifying the OS registry files but seems annoying.

Please add an option to delete the recently opened history or better yet an option to not save any history.

I don't think that'll ever be possible under the current way electrum stores its data.
There's an electrum_data folder that stoes the name of every wallet you have also (as it's where it stores the wallets). If you have the seeds noted down, you can open the wallet you want to delete and click file>delete, however ensure you note down the seed.

You could also choose to encrypt the entire wallet file whcih can be done on setup (near where you input the password for the new wallet) it'll ask if you want to encrypt the wallet file. If that box is ticked, it encryptes the entire wallet file. If not, it encrypts just the private keys.

EDIT: actually, scroll down the the bottom of the config file to the "recent files" part and edit the names at the bottom/delete the lines of the wallets you don't want to show up (WARNING I HAVEN'T TESTED THIS YET - BACKUP THE ENTIRE FOLDER FIRST).

EDIT: tested and works, DO NOT DELETE THE FIRST AND LAST LINES IN THAT LIST AS THAT CAUSES IT TO RESET ELECTRUM, it doesn't delete wallet, just makes it a bit annoying as you then have to import them.

[cellard]

There's an electrum_data folder that stoes the name of every wallet you have also (as it's where it stores the wallets).

Where is this folder specifically in Linux and in Windows?

And just to be clear, if I have a wallet file in an USB, and I go to Electrum, and open this file from the USB, electrum will make a copy of the wallet and put it in that folder? because I don't want to store a copy of the wallet anywhere else but on the USB.

You could also choose to encrypt the entire wallet file whcih can be done on setup (near where you input the password for the new wallet) it'll ask if you want to encrypt the wallet file. If that box is ticked, it encryptes the entire wallet file. If not, it encrypts just the private keys.

Yes, my entire wallet is encrypted so you can't open it, I just don't want the filename to be saved on there.. it's just not necessary.

EDIT: actually, scroll down the the bottom of the config file to the "recent files" part and edit the names at the bottom/delete the lines of the wallets you don't want to show up (WARNING I HAVEN'T TESTED THIS YET - BACKUP THE ENTIRE FOLDER FIRST).

EDIT: tested and works, DO NOT DELETE THE FIRST AND LAST LINES IN THAT LIST AS THAT CAUSES IT TO RESET ELECTRUM, it doesn't delete wallet, just makes it a bit annoying as you then have to import them.

What config file are you talking about?

[jackg]

There's an electrum_data folder that stoes the name of every wallet you have also (as it's where it stores the wallets).

Where is this folder specifically in Linux and in Windows?

Linux is ~/.electrum I think and windows is C:\users\user\appdata\local\electrum_data\

Should be the data directory location.
Though I'm not sure for Windows is it's called electrum or electrum_data.

And just to be clear, if I have a wallet file in an USB, and I go to Electrum, and open this file from the USB, electrum will make a copy of the wallet and put it in that folder? because I don't want to store a copy of the wallet anywhere else but on the USB.

The config file uses absolute directory path which means it probably keeps iton your pendrive and doesn't copy it over (almost certain on that).

You could also choose to encrypt the entire wallet file whcih can be done on setup (near where you input the password for the new wallet) it'll ask if you want to encrypt the wallet file. If that box is ticked, it encryptes the entire wallet file. If not, it encrypts just the private keys.

Yes, my entire wallet is encrypted so you can't open it, I just don't want the filename to be saved on there.. it's just not necessary.

EDIT: actually, scroll down the the bottom of the config file to the "recent files" part and edit the names at the bottom/delete the lines of the wallets you don't want to show up (WARNING I HAVEN'T TESTED THIS YET - BACKUP THE ENTIRE FOLDER FIRST).

EDIT: tested and works, DO NOT DELETE THE FIRST AND LAST LINES IN THAT LIST AS THAT CAUSES IT TO RESET ELECTRUM, it doesn't delete wallet, just makes it a bit annoying as you then have to import them.

What config file are you talking about?

Directly in the data folder, you get files. If you spot a file called blockchain_headers it's in that same directory it's just called config (don't think it has a file extension).

[HCP]

Linux is ~/.electrum I think and windows is C:\users\user\appdata\local\electrum_data\

Should be the data directory location.
Though I'm not sure for Windows is it's called electrum or electrum_data.

For "Installed" and "Standalone" versions of Electrum on Windows... The Electrum data directory is: %AppData%\Electrum

Wallet files are kept in a subdirectory under this called "wallets"

For the "Portable" version, it will create an "electrum_data" folder in the same location as the .exe and store all the application data there. It follows the same subdirectory structure, so again, there will be a "wallets" folder with your files contained there-in.


As for opening wallet files from other locations, I don't believe that Electrum makes a copy of them, it just opens it from wherever it was when you specified "Open".

[cellard]

Linux is ~/.electrum I think and windows is C:\users\user\appdata\local\electrum_data\

Should be the data directory location.
Though I'm not sure for Windows is it's called electrum or electrum_data.

For "Installed" and "Standalone" versions of Electrum on Windows... The Electrum data directory is: %AppData%\Electrum

Wallet files are kept in a subdirectory under this called "wallets"

For the "Portable" version, it will create an "electrum_data" folder in the same location as the .exe and store all the application data there. It follows the same subdirectory structure, so again, there will be a "wallets" folder with your files contained there-in.


As for opening wallet files from other locations, I don't believe that Electrum makes a copy of them, it just opens it from wherever it was when you specified "Open".

That is why I didn't install the portable version, actually ThomasV recommends not to use the portable version. Im glad to see that it was not copying my wallet files in the HDD as I opened them. I only found "defaut_wallet" in %AppData%\Electrum\wallets

I hope ThomasV sees this thread and adds an option in the GUI to disable saving wallet history and deleting existing one, one shouldn't need to find config files for such a basic thing.

Directly in the data folder, you get files. If you spot a file called blockchain_headers it's in that same directory it's just called config (don't think it has a file extension).

I found it, it worked, but it's annoying having to manually delete it every time.

[jackg]

Linux is ~/.electrum I think and windows is C:\users\user\appdata\local\electrum_data\

Should be the data directory location.
Though I'm not sure for Windows is it's called electrum or electrum_data.

For "Installed" and "Standalone" versions of Electrum on Windows... The Electrum data directory is: %AppData%\Electrum

Wallet files are kept in a subdirectory under this called "wallets"

For the "Portable" version, it will create an "electrum_data" folder in the same location as the .exe and store all the application data there. It follows the same subdirectory structure, so again, there will be a "wallets" folder with your files contained there-in.


As for opening wallet files from other locations, I don't believe that Electrum makes a copy of them, it just opens it from wherever it was when you specified "Open".

That is why I didn't install the portable version, actually ThomasV recommends not to use the portable version. Im glad to see that it was not copying my wallet files in the HDD as I opened them. I only found "defaut_wallet" in %AppData%\Electrum\wallets

I hope ThomasV sees this thread and adds an option in the GUI to disable saving wallet history and deleting existing one, one shouldn't need to find config files for such a basic thing.

Directly in the data folder, you get files. If you spot a file called blockchain_headers it's in that same directory it's just called config (don't think it has a file extension).

I found it, it worked, but it's annoying having to manually delete it every time.

Yes it is quite an annoying thing to do. You could always install electrum portable on the USB stick and use that. I have one on a external hard drive only use it on TRUSTED DEVICES and you're fine. It is safer just to use the regular electrum version but if it's a pendrive that will be kept really safe and only used in one or two computers then you'll probably be fine (I had 1.26BTC in mine for a few days and it was fine).

Portable versions get other issues as well though. Iike stuff might get deleted by antivirus stuff!
Make a backup of the USB stick also onto another USB stick/sandboxed computer.