Changing the Description of an Incoming Payment in the Receive tab of Electrum

[dipepmining]

I recently went to the receive tab of my Electrum wallet and generated a new address to receive some Bitcoin. I accidentally left the description field blank before clicking the New Address button and would like to add a description after the fact for future reference.

What I noticed:
1. I noticed in the History tab I can edit the description of any transaction listed here. I was able to update the description on this tab.
2. I noticed in the Receive tab there is still no description for this transaction and the UI does not allow you to edit the description after it was already generated.

My questions:
1. I found that a way to add the description is to open the wallet's .json file and fine the Message: "" field and add the description I wanted. I am assuming this json file is what Electrum uses to load values in the UI and as long as I don't go around changing things like the structure or fields I don't know about then I should be fine. Is there anything wrong with me doing this?
2. Does the description field have anything to do with what is actually transmitted to the network or just for local reference within the Electrum app?
3. If I were to ever lose this .json I am assuming I could do a wallet restore with the recovery phrase. If I were to do this I would assume all descriptions I ever entered would be missing. Is this correct?

[1715537670]

1715537670

[Charles-Tim]

2. Does the description field have anything to do with what is actually transmitted to the network or just for local reference within the Electrum app?

No, the description filed does not transmit any data to the network.

3. If I were to ever lose this .json I am assuming I could do a wallet restore with the recovery phrase. If I were to do this I would assume all descriptions I ever entered would be missing. Is this correct?

Yes, it will be lost with the above obvious reason. But, if it is through wallet file, it will not be lost.

[dipepmining]

Great! Thank you for confirming. Do you think it is alright that I updated the .json directly with the message that I wanted since Electrum UI does not allow it?

[o_e_l_e_o]

Great! Thank you for confirming. Do you think it is alright that I updated the .json directly with the message that I wanted since Electrum UI does not allow it?

Provided you only edit that field then you should be safe. Be aware that editing something critical could corrupt your wallet file and render it useless unless you can figure out how to revert the changes you made. I would always make a back up of your wallet file first, and also make sure you have your seed phrase backed up safely before attempting to edit your wallet file.

[HCP]

1. I found that a way to add the description is to open the wallet's .json file and fine the Message: "" field and add the description I wanted. I am assuming this json file is what Electrum uses to load values in the UI and as long as I don't go around changing things like the structure or fields I don't know about then I should be fine. Is there anything wrong with me doing this?

As you can see the json contents of your wallet file, I assume you either do not have a password set, or you did not check the "Encrypt wallet file" option when setting the password for your wallet (so only the seed/private keys are encrypted within the json file and everything else is plaintext).

Note that if you ever decide you want to use the "Encrypt wallet file" option, you will not be able to manually edit the json (wallet) file directly... as, obviously, the file will be fully encrypted

[Abdussamad]

you could put in a  feature request to get this feature in the GUI:

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues

it used to be that when you selected an entry in that bottom half it would be loaded in the form in the top half. you could then edit things there and save it. idk why they removed that feature.