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.