Electrum address beyond the gap limit

[kruglikov]

I received some BTC to one of my Electrum wallet addresses. But now it has a red background that means the address is beyond the gap limit. Can I still receive and send funds using that address?

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[ranochigo]

Yes. Just remember if you're restoring from your seed that those addresses are not generated with the default gap limit and you'll have to change the gaplimit settings or generate the addresses on your own. They're still generated from your seeds so you won't lose it.

[kruglikov]

Yes. Just remember if you're restoring from your seed that those addresses are not generated with the default gap limit and you'll have to change the gaplimit settings or generate the addresses on your own. They're still generated from your seeds so you won't lose it.

No I am not restoring anything. But I read that Addresses beyond the gap limit are red. If money is sent to one of them but never to the g addresses before them, Electrum will not look for it does that mean I will not be able to see the total balance if I will receive money on that red marked address? Ok is I if I will use use the new receiving address will be I able to send the total amount received on both addresses? I do not want to lose my BTC.   

[Abdussamad]

you won't lose your btc. what you're describing only happens during wallet restoration which you've already been warned about. don't worry just use that address.

[DireWolfM14]

What ranochigo is saying is that in the case that you do have to restore your wallet, the funds will be there.  You won't lose them, but they will not be visible initially.  You'll have to increase the gap limit yourself.

To increase the gap limit open the console and enter the following command:

Code:

[wallet.create_new_address(False) for i in range(50)]

Source: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq.html#gap-limit

This will add 50 addresses to list of wallet addresses.  You can change the number of addresses you want to generate to anything you like.

[o_e_l_e_o]

To increase the gap limit open the console and enter the following command:

So, minor correction. The command you have given doesn't actually increase the gap limit. What it does is simply generate and display the next 50 or so addresses beyond the last address in your wallet, without paying any attention to the gap limit. Addresses which it generates which are beyond the gap limit will show up with a red background.

If you want to actually change the gap limit, you would use the command:

Code:

wallet.change_gap_limit(50)

You can change the value of "50" to any value you like. If you decrease the gap limit from what it currently is, you will need to restart Electrum before the extra addresses disappear from your "Addresses" tab.

You can also use the following command to view your current gap limit:

Code:

wallet.gap_limit

[ranochigo]

No I am not restoring anything. But I read that Addresses beyond the gap limit are red. If money is sent to one of them but never to the g addresses before them, Electrum will not look for it does that mean I will not be able to see the total balance if I will receive money on that red marked address? Ok is I if I will use use the new receiving address will be I able to send the total amount received on both addresses? I do not want to lose my BTC.  

Only if you are going to restore your wallet. Once generated, it functions like any other addresses. Yes, you will be able to use those receiving addresses like how you would use any other normal addresses.

Electrum not looking for them only applies if you are restoring your wallet. You have to manually generate those addresses or increase the gap limit. The way Electrum works when generating a wallet is to follow a gap limit of 20 (for normal receiving addresses), which means it will keep generating addresses for the hierarchical deterministic seeds until it reaches 20 unused addresses. If the address is generated after the gap limit, Electrum will not generate those addresses. It is not lost, however just not generated yet.

[pclaas]

Hello, I unfortunately have a problem with my electrum wallet.
After successfully restoring the wallet with the seed, I don't see my balance. It seems that i added an additional address, but it doesn't show up in the address list anymore. I've tried increasing the gap to 150 but to no avail. I know the address with the credit. is it possible to manually enter this address individually in electrum?

[NeuroticFish]

Hello, I unfortunately have a problem with my electrum wallet.
After successfully restoring the wallet with the seed, I don't see my balance. It seems that i added an additional address, but it doesn't show up in the address list anymore. I've tried increasing the gap to 150 but to no avail. I know the address with the credit. is it possible to manually enter this address individually in electrum?

1. You should make your own topic instead of reviving (and hijacking) an old one.
2. You cannot add addresses to Electrum like that (a new wallet based on an address would be watch only anyway, hence not spendable) and the address you cannot find may be from a different derivation path, or from a different seed, or by using a passphrase over the seed. You may have to think a little more about how your initial wallet was made (you no longer have that wallet file at all?).

[hosseinimr93]

After successfully restoring the wallet with the seed, I don't see my balance.

Do the addresses generated by electrum start with the same character as the address you are looking for? If no, you have selected an incorrect script type.
(If the seed phrase has been generated by electrum itself, this can't be the problem.)

is it possible to manually enter this address individually in electrum?

Take note that you can't import an address or a private key into a HD wallet.
If you own the private key of an address, you can create a new wallet with that private key.

[pclaas]

Hello, I unfortunately have a problem with my electrum wallet.
After successfully restoring the wallet with the seed, I don't see my balance. It seems that i added an additional address, but it doesn't show up in the address list anymore. I've tried increasing the gap to 150 but to no avail. I know the address with the credit. is it possible to manually enter this address individually in electrum?

1. You should make your own topic instead of reviving (and hijacking) an old one.
2. You cannot add addresses to Electrum like that (a new wallet based on an address would be watch only anyway, hence not spendable) and the address you cannot find may be from a different derivation path, or from a different seed, or by using a passphrase over the seed. You may have to think a little more about how your initial wallet was made (you no longer have that wallet file at all?).

I'm relatively sure that the seed fits the wallet and I didn't add any more words to the seed. I was able to restore the wallet file, but unfortunately a little too late because it started to be overwritten. when I want to open the wallet, electrum gives the error: can not read file/UnicodeDecodeError

[pclaas]

After successfully restoring the wallet with the seed, I don't see my balance.

Do the addresses generated by electrum start with the same character as the address you are looking for? If no, you have selected an incorrect script type.
(If the seed phrase has been generated by electrum itself, this can't be the problem.)

is it possible to manually enter this address individually in electrum?

Take note that you can't import an address or a private key into a HD wallet.
If you own the private key of an address, you can create a new wallet with that private key.

Seed Phrase was generated by electrum itself. What is HD wallet?
I only have the seed and can extract the master private key

[hosseinimr93]

I'm relatively sure that the seed fits the wallet and I didn't add any more words to the seed.

If your seed phrase is correct, it should generate correct addresses and if the wallet is synced, it should display the correct balance. Otherwise, the seed phrase you entered is wrong.

Seed Phrase was generated by electrum itself. What is HD wallet?

HD wallet is a wallet in which you have numerous addresses all generated from a seed. HD stands for Hierarchical Deterministic.

[pclaas]

If your seed phrase is correct, it should generate correct addresses and if the wallet is synced, it should display the correct balance. Otherwise, the seed phrase you entered is wrong.

just to clarify, if i create a wallet and generate, let's say 3 more addresses (to the 20 default) and then do a seed recovery of the wallet and generate, let's say 10 more addresses (to the 20 default), then pop the 3 addresses (from the first creation of the wallet) directly under the 10?

[hosseinimr93]

just to clarify, if i create a wallet and generate, let's say 3 more addresses (to the 20 default) and then do a seed recovery of the wallet and generate, let's say 10 more addresses (to the 20 default), then pop the 3 addresses (from the first creation of the wallet) directly under the 10?

Yes. They would be the same.
Note that all your addresses (not only the first 20 addresses) are derived from your seed phrase through a defined algorithm. Therefore, your seed phrase always generates the same addresses.

[nc50lc]

-snip- It seems that i added an additional address, but it doesn't show up in the address list anymore.

It's only possible to add a private key to a wallet with seed in the old versions.
IIRC, it's around v2.7 or close (2016), so if your wallet is that old and you did imported a private key to your wallet, then it's not covered by your seed phrase.
You can only restore it by importing its private key or get from the actual wallet file where it's imported.

For reference, old Electrum will show you this warning when you try to import a private key to an HD wallet:

[pclaas]

just to clarify, if i create a wallet and generate, let's say 3 more addresses (to the 20 default) and then do a seed recovery of the wallet and generate, let's say 10 more addresses (to the 20 default), then pop the 3 addresses (from the first creation of the wallet) directly under the 10?

Yes. They would be the same.
Note that all your addresses (not only the first 20 addresses) are derived from your seed phrase through a defined algorithm. Therefore, your seed phrase always generates the same addresses.

Ok, than it will be another wallet:/ or an additional word that I used and dont remember. Is it possible to repair the wallet file that I still have, or to read it out to get the seed or the additional word?

[khaled0111]

just to clarify, if i create a wallet and generate, let's say 3 more addresses (to the 20 default) and then do a seed recovery of the wallet and generate, let's say 10 more addresses (to the 20 default), then pop the 3 addresses (from the first creation of the wallet) directly under the 10?

That's correct. Every time you restore your wallet from seed (or wallet file), addresses will be generated and displayed in the same order.
Do you remember why you had to generate and use an address above the gap limit? Remembering the reason why you had to do so may give you an idea on how many addresses (above the gap) you have to generate to find the one you are looking for.

[pclaas]

just to clarify, if i create a wallet and generate, let's say 3 more addresses (to the 20 default) and then do a seed recovery of the wallet and generate, let's say 10 more addresses (to the 20 default), then pop the 3 addresses (from the first creation of the wallet) directly under the 10?

That's correct. Every time you restore your wallet from seed (or wallet file), addresses will be generated and displayed in the same order.
Do you remember why you had to generate and use an address above the gap limit? Remembering the reason why you had to do so may give you an idea on how many addresses (above the gap) you have to generate to find the one you are looking for.

Because I didnt know it better, didnt know that adresses by default in electrum, thought I have always generate one, when I create a wallet.
I think, I have generatet 1-3 adresses more (by pushing the button New Address at the receive tab), therefore it have to be listet, when I increased the gap to 150, right?!

[BlackHatCoiner]

Because I didnt know it better, didnt know that adresses by default in electrum, thought I have always generate one, when I create a wallet.

You can verify it, instead of asking and trusting. Generate a new wallet, generate addresses beyond the gap limit in that wallet, later on try to recover it. You can verify that once you increase the gap limit, you'll have your addresses.

I think, I have generatet 1-3 adresses more (by pushing the button New Address at the receive tab), therefore it have to be listet, when I increased the gap to 150, right?!

Yes. Generating addresses with the "New Address" button does the same thing.

[BitMaxz]

when I want to open the wallet, electrum gives the error: can not read file/UnicodeDecodeError

It looks like this error is from opening a newer wallet.dat file to an older version of the electrum wallet make sure that you imported the right Wallet.dat file and make sure you downloaded and install the latest version of the Electrum wallet.

I just want to ask if your wallet is legacy because you can use a scanner tool like this one https://blockpath.com/wallets/local/101?action=appxpub

It only works to find wallet addresses with balance and to show the right derivation path you can then use it later to recover your addresses with funds.

[hosseinimr93]

I just want to ask if your wallet is legacy because you can use a scanner tool like this one https://blockpath.com/wallets/local/101?action=appxpub

pclaas already said that his seed phrase has been generated by electrum.
Since electrum doesn't allow you to change the derivation path when generating a wallet using its own seed phrase, it's not possible that you have an address generated by an electrum's seed phrase on a different derivation path.

[pclaas]

when I want to open the wallet, electrum gives the error: can not read file/UnicodeDecodeError

It looks like this error is from opening a newer wallet.dat file to an older version of the electrum wallet make sure that you imported the right Wallet.dat file and make sure you downloaded and install the latest version of the Electrum wallet.

I just want to ask if your wallet is legacy because you can use a scanner tool like this one https://blockpath.com/wallets/local/101?action=appxpub

It only works to find wallet addresses with balance and to show the right derivation path you can then use it later to recover your addresses with funds.

the wallet file i tried to open in electrum is the same version it was created in, i also tried the latest version. I think the problem is more that windows has started to overwrite the file. Unfortunately, I noticed too late that the seed recovery is not working. Only then I did restore the wallet file. is there someone I could contact to look at the file and possibly repair it?

[BitMaxz]

the wallet file i tried to open in electrum is the same version it was created in, i also tried the latest version. I think the problem is more that windows has started to overwrite the file. Unfortunately, I noticed too late that the seed recovery is not working. Only then I did restore the wallet file. is there someone I could contact to look at the file and possibly repair it?

What do you mean by Windows overwriting the wallet file?
Do you get any errors in Electrum while opening your wallet?
When installing or updating to the latest version it shouldn't overwrite the wallet file maybe when you open the Electrum wallet after updating you generated a new wallet?

Would you mind checking this folder location

Code:

\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Electrum (or %APPDATA%\Electrum)

Maybe there is two or more wallet file under that folder try to find the right wallet file by opening them one by one with latest Electrum and let's hope that you can find the right wallet file don't forget to increase the gap limit to each wallet.

[pclaas]

the wallet file i tried to open in electrum is the same version it was created in, i also tried the latest version. I think the problem is more that windows has started to overwrite the file. Unfortunately, I noticed too late that the seed recovery is not working. Only then I did restore the wallet file. is there someone I could contact to look at the file and possibly repair it?

What do you mean by Windows overwriting the wallet file?
Do you get any errors in Electrum while opening your wallet?
When installing or updating to the latest version it shouldn't overwrite the wallet file maybe when you open the Electrum wallet after updating you generated a new wallet?

Would you mind checking this folder location

Code:

\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Electrum (or %APPDATA%\Electrum)

Maybe there is two or more wallet file under that folder try to find the right wallet file by opening them one by one with latest Electrum and let's hope that you can find the right wallet file don't forget to increase the gap limit to each wallet.

I mean I deleted my Windows user account (where my electron was), after that I installed iTunes and backed up my iPhone. Then, realizing that my seed wasn't working, I tried to recover my user account, when restoring, r studio told me that the file had started to be overwritten. when i open the wallet file in the editor i can see something from apple inc...

when I open the wallet file with electrum, I get this error: can not read file/UnicodeDecodeError

[o_e_l_e_o]

when i open the wallet file in the editor i can see something from apple inc...

Are you opening it with a text editor? And you see data including some reference to Apple? What else do you see? Is there any plain text which makes reference to "seed", "xprv", "keystore", or "keypairs"? Or is there just a bunch of random looking characters (uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and + and /)?

If it is plaintext, you might be able to extract something useful. If it is random characters, then it is encrypted and so the chances of recovery are almost zero.

[pclaas]

when i open the wallet file in the editor i can see something from apple inc...

Are you opening it with a text editor? And you see data including some reference to Apple? What else do you see? Is there any plain text which makes reference to "seed", "xprv", "keystore", or "keypairs"? Or is there just a bunch of random looking characters (uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and + and /)?

If it is plaintext, you might be able to extract something useful. If it is random characters, then it is encrypted and so the chances of recovery are almost zero.

yes, I opened the file with windows tex editor. There are many random characters, than some plaintext, than again random characters. The plaintext looks like, that it dont belong there. I didn find none of your keywords. I think it is encrypted, like you said. I will now, try to recover the file with HDDRawcopy, and hope it will recover that file without error. Maybe someone else can recommend me a good recovery program?

I have read in another thread, that someone opened his wallet file with pywallet, but it wasnt an electrum wallet file. Will pywallet open an electrum wallet file also?

[o_e_l_e_o]

yes, I opened the file with windows tex editor. There are many random characters, than some plaintext, than again random characters. The plaintext looks like, that it dont belong there. I didn find none of your keywords. I think it is encrypted, like you said.

In that case yes, it sounds like the wallet file is encrypted and has been partially overwritten by plaintext. If the plaintext is making reference to Apple, then it definitely doesn't belong there.

Do you remember the password you used to password protect the Electrum file? If you know the password, and the corruption is minimal, then you might have a very small chance of recovering something useful. But if a large part of the data is written over, or you don't remember the password, then you are almost certainly not going to be able to recover anything.

Will pywallet open an electrum wallet file also?

As far as I am aware, pywallet is only for bitcoin core wallet.dat files.

[pclaas]

yes, I opened the file with windows tex editor. There are many random characters, than some plaintext, than again random characters. The plaintext looks like, that it dont belong there. I didn find none of your keywords. I think it is encrypted, like you said.

In that case yes, it sounds like the wallet file is encrypted and has been partially overwritten by plaintext. If the plaintext is making reference to Apple, then it definitely doesn't belong there.

Do you remember the password you used to password protect the Electrum file? If you know the password, and the corruption is minimal, then you might have a very small chance of recovering something useful. But if a large part of the data is written over, or you don't remember the password, then you are almost certainly not going to be able to recover anything.

Will pywallet open an electrum wallet file also?

As far as I am aware, pywallet is only for bitcoin core wallet.dat files.

Yes, I remember the password! Can you tell me, how I could open the file? When I try to open it with electrum, I get this error: can not read file/UnicodeDecodeError. I had tried to delete the text, which I think, it doesnt belongs there also, with same result.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I assume you are getting that error because Electrum cannot decode the encrypted data because the plaintext contains invalid characters.

The only way to open this file with Electrum will be to replace the plaintext with the original data that it wrote over. If you are unable to recover this data with a data recovery tool, then the only option would be to bruteforcing the missing data. This will be relatively easy if it is just a few characters, but more likely it will be completely impossible if the plaintext is several words of text or more.

You could also try looking for some software which could try to decrypt the partial data you have remaining and see if anything useful can be recovered.

[pclaas]

I assume you are getting that error because Electrum cannot decode the encrypted data because the plaintext contains invalid characters.

The only way to open this file with Electrum will be to replace the plaintext with the original data that it wrote over. If you are unable to recover this data with a data recovery tool, then the only option would be to bruteforcing the missing data. This will be relatively easy if it is just a few characters, but more likely it will be completely impossible if the plaintext is several words of text or more.

You could also try looking for some software which could try to decrypt the partial data you have remaining and see if anything useful can be recovered.

do you know such a program? or can you give me a few keywords with which I could find such a program?

I think there are too many characters for brutforce, definitely up to 1000 characters..

[o_e_l_e_o]

I think there are too many characters for brutforce, definitely up to 1000 characters..

In which case no, there is no point in even trying. The data from this wallet file is lost.

Unless you have some other copy of this wallet file somewhere, or you have some other method of recovering the individual private keys you imported, then I'm afraid your coins are gone.

[nc50lc]

when I want to open the wallet, electrum gives the error: can not read file/UnicodeDecodeError

It looks like this error is from opening a newer wallet.dat file to an older version of the electrum wallet -snip-

For reference: doing so will return with a different error which is noted with the supported maximum "storage version" of the used Electrum Client version.
It's the "seed version" that's recorded in the wallet file.

[HCP]

do you know such a program? or can you give me a few keywords with which I could find such a program?

I think there are too many characters for brutforce, definitely up to 1000 characters..

As o_e_l_e_o has pointed out, if your wallet file is that badly corrupted then unless you have the seed backup + any extra words or a digital backup of the wallet file, then your chances of recovery are somewhere between zero and none.