Why Electrum has 20 receiving addresses and 6 change addresses?

[Claire927]

I want to know how to decide the number of addresses, thank you.

[NeuroticFish]

I want to know how to decide the number of addresses, thank you.

That's the default number of addresses you "normally" see. It's not the number of all addresses in your wallet.
As soon as the wallet needs more addresses, you'll see more. Or you can force more addresses yourself: http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html#what-is-the-gap-limit

[Pmalek]

20 unused addresses is the default set up for Electrum. When you use these address Electrum will create new ones.
It is recommended only to use one address per transaction and always use a new address for every transaction you receive.
You can read more about it here > http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html

Since you are brand new here it doesn't hurt to ask where you downloaded your Electrum installation from and have you verified the signature?

Edit: @NeuroticFish was faster it seems. 

[djhomeschool]

To change the number of addresses on Electrum do this:

1 - Open Electrum
2 - Click "View" -> "Show Concolse"
3 - In the console type: wallet.change_gap_limit(number of addresses you want)
     For example to have 200 addresses type: wallet.change_gap_limit(200)
4 - The console will reply "True"
5 - Close Electrum
6 - Open Electrum again
7 - Your wallet will now have 200 addresses

Notes: This only works on the wallet you have opened, all other wallets will still have the standard settings.
           Electrum will create extra addresses by itself when you use all standard addresses so you really don't need to do this.

[Claire927]

I want to know how to decide the number of addresses, thank you.

That's the default number of addresses you "normally" see. It's not the number of all addresses in your wallet.
As soon as the wallet needs more addresses, you'll see more. Or you can force more addresses yourself: http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html#what-is-the-gap-limit

Thank you so much, I understand it now, and I'm also curious about why the number is 20/6，not 17/3, etc.

[Claire927]

To change the number of addresses on Electrum do this:

1 - Open Electrum
2 - Click "View" -> "Show Concolse"
3 - In the console type: wallet.change_gap_limit(number of addresses you want)
     For example to have 200 addresses type: wallet.change_gap_limit(200)
4 - The console will reply "True"
5 - Close Electrum
6 - Open Electrum again
7 - Your wallet will now have 200 addresses

Notes: This only works on the wallet you have opened, all other wallets will still have the standard settings.
           Electrum will create extra addresses by itself when you use all standard addresses so you really don't need to do this.

Thank you，I just tried it and then the "Address" showed 29 receiving addresses and 6 change addresses, is it because the interface sets the maximum number of displays?

[Claire927]

20 unused addresses is the default set up for Electrum. When you use these address Electrum will create new ones.
It is recommended only to use one address per transaction and always use a new address for every transaction you receive.
You can read more about it here > http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html

Since you are brand new here it doesn't hurt to ask where you downloaded your Electrum installation from and have you verified the signature?

Edit: @NeuroticFish was faster it seems. 

I downloaded from the website https://electrum.org/#download.
I don't have verified the signature, what is it?

[NeuroticFish]

Thank you so much, I understand it now, and I'm also curious about why the number is 20/6，not 17/3, etc.

I am not Electrum dev, but a common sense guess would be that there are some numbers ThomasV thought they are good to start with.
I am not aware and I would also not expect he would publish a comprehensive research based on which he picked those numbers

[djhomeschool]

To change the number of addresses on Electrum do this:

1 - Open Electrum
2 - Click "View" -> "Show Concolse"
3 - In the console type: wallet.change_gap_limit(number of addresses you want)
     For example to have 200 addresses type: wallet.change_gap_limit(200)
4 - The console will reply "True"
5 - Close Electrum
6 - Open Electrum again
7 - Your wallet will now have 200 addresses

Notes: This only works on the wallet you have opened, all other wallets will still have the standard settings.
           Electrum will create extra addresses by itself when you use all standard addresses so you really don't need to do this.

Thank you，I just tried it and then the "Address" showed 29 receiving addresses and 6 change addresses, is it because the interface sets the maximum number of displays?

No you should be able to see all addresses created. Did the console return "True" when you did the command? Did you close and re-open the same Electrum wallet?

[Claire927]

To change the number of addresses on Electrum do this:

1 - Open Electrum
2 - Click "View" -> "Show Concolse"
3 - In the console type: wallet.change_gap_limit(number of addresses you want)
     For example to have 200 addresses type: wallet.change_gap_limit(200)
4 - The console will reply "True"
5 - Close Electrum
6 - Open Electrum again
7 - Your wallet will now have 200 addresses

Notes: This only works on the wallet you have opened, all other wallets will still have the standard settings.
           Electrum will create extra addresses by itself when you use all standard addresses so you really don't need to do this.

Thank you，I just tried it and then the "Address" showed 29 receiving addresses and 6 change addresses, is it because the interface sets the maximum number of displays?

No you should be able to see all addresses created. Did the console return "True" when you did the command? Did you close and re-open the same Electrum wallet?

Yes, I totally followed these steps exactly and I tried twice.

[Claire927]

Thank you so much, I understand it now, and I'm also curious about why the number is 20/6，not 17/3, etc.

I am not Electrum dev, but a common sense guess would be that there are some numbers ThomasV thought they are good to start with.
I am not aware and I would also not expect he would publish a comprehensive research based on which he picked those numbers

Thank you, I agree.

[djhomeschool]

To change the number of addresses on Electrum do this:

1 - Open Electrum
2 - Click "View" -> "Show Concolse"
3 - In the console type: wallet.change_gap_limit(number of addresses you want)
     For example to have 200 addresses type: wallet.change_gap_limit(200)
4 - The console will reply "True"
5 - Close Electrum
6 - Open Electrum again
7 - Your wallet will now have 200 addresses

Notes: This only works on the wallet you have opened, all other wallets will still have the standard settings.
           Electrum will create extra addresses by itself when you use all standard addresses so you really don't need to do this.

Thank you，I just tried it and then the "Address" showed 29 receiving addresses and 6 change addresses, is it because the interface sets the maximum number of displays?

No you should be able to see all addresses created. Did the console return "True" when you did the command? Did you close and re-open the same Electrum wallet?

Yes, I totally followed these steps exactly and I tried twice.

If you followed these steps you should have 200 addresses in the "Addresses" tab.
You can also check your addresses by opening the console and typing "listaddresses()" without the quotes.

[Claire927]

To change the number of addresses on Electrum do this:

1 - Open Electrum
2 - Click "View" -> "Show Concolse"
3 - In the console type: wallet.change_gap_limit(number of addresses you want)
     For example to have 200 addresses type: wallet.change_gap_limit(200)
4 - The console will reply "True"
5 - Close Electrum
6 - Open Electrum again
7 - Your wallet will now have 200 addresses

Notes: This only works on the wallet you have opened, all other wallets will still have the standard settings.
           Electrum will create extra addresses by itself when you use all standard addresses so you really don't need to do this.

Thank you，I just tried it and then the "Address" showed 29 receiving addresses and 6 change addresses, is it because the interface sets the maximum number of displays?

No you should be able to see all addresses created. Did the console return "True" when you did the command? Did you close and re-open the same Electrum wallet?

Yes, I totally followed these steps exactly and I tried twice.

If you followed these steps you should have 200 addresses in the "Addresses" tab.
You can also check your addresses by opening the console and typing "listaddresses()" without the quotes.

still had 29 receiving addresses/6 change addresses.

[Lucius]

Claire927, do not play with address gap limit because this is really unnecessary at this point for you. Electrum is generated quite enough addresses and developer is decided that that number is exactly as you see it.

In case you play with gap limits you can increase number of address, but in case you at some point need to recover your wallet from seed, you will need to do same procedure again. Otherwise, it may happen that wallet is not show correct balance because it does not see all addresses.

[Claire927]

Claire927, do not play with address gap limit because this is really unnecessary at this point for you. Electrum is generated quite enough addresses and developer is decided that that number is exactly as you see it.

In case you play with gap limits you can increase number of address, but in case you at some point need to recover your wallet from seed, you will need to do same procedure again. Otherwise, it may happen that wallet is not show correct balance because it does not see all addresses.

OK, thank you.

[djhomeschool]

To change the number of addresses on Electrum do this:

1 - Open Electrum
2 - Click "View" -> "Show Concolse"
3 - In the console type: wallet.change_gap_limit(number of addresses you want)
     For example to have 200 addresses type: wallet.change_gap_limit(200)
4 - The console will reply "True"
5 - Close Electrum
6 - Open Electrum again
7 - Your wallet will now have 200 addresses

Notes: This only works on the wallet you have opened, all other wallets will still have the standard settings.
           Electrum will create extra addresses by itself when you use all standard addresses so you really don't need to do this.

Thank you，I just tried it and then the "Address" showed 29 receiving addresses and 6 change addresses, is it because the interface sets the maximum number of displays?

No you should be able to see all addresses created. Did the console return "True" when you did the command? Did you close and re-open the same Electrum wallet?

Yes, I totally followed these steps exactly and I tried twice.

If you followed these steps you should have 200 addresses in the "Addresses" tab.
You can also check your addresses by opening the console and typing "listaddresses()" without the quotes.

still had 29 receiving addresses/6 change addresses.

Then something went wrong.... always works on my side...
Maybe ThomasV can shed some light on this.

[HCP]

still had 29 receiving addresses/6 change addresses.

Maybe try the menu option "wallet -> addresses -> filter" and check that both boxes are set to "all"... Its possible that the filter is preventing all your unused addresses from being shown.

[djhomeschool]

still had 29 receiving addresses/6 change addresses.

djhomeschool missed an important command... You need to use wallet.storage.write() after you use the change_gap_limit() command

So on the console type the following commands one after the other... Then close and restart Electrum. That should set the gap limit to 200 and persist the change to the wallet file.

Code:

wallet.change_gap_limit(200)
wallet.storage.write()

That's weird... i always use the first command only and it always works. I have done this hundreds of times, last one was yesterday.....

[nc50lc]

-snip-

That's weird... i always use the first command only and it always works. I have done this hundreds of times, last one was yesterday.....

Maybe something to do with the linux's root access?
But it's weird that it "partially worked" for Claire927, it generated/displayed 9 more addresses: 29 from 20.

But I'm sure, If you're using Windows, you don't have to use the second command for the gap_limit setting change to persist.

[Abdussamad]

can you check your browser history and confirm the exact url you downloaded electrum from? also do you see a green orb in the bottom right?