New wallet creation issue

[satashi_nokamato]

When I try to create a new wallet, it says that I should first unlock my existing wallet before creating a new one!
Is this a new limitation or am I missing something?

P.s, Can't remember the password of my old wallet.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[satashi_nokamato]

Probably a wallet created by hackers to steal people's coins.

What is the name of the wallet?
Which website you downloaded the wallet?

Google play store!!!  And ofcourse it is electrum mobile wallet.

[welovebit]

Probably a wallet created by hackers to steal people's coins.

What is the name of the wallet?
Which website you downloaded the wallet?

Google play store!!!  And ofcourse it is electrum mobile wallet.

Always use this official link for downloading Electrum Wallet.
 https://electrum.org/#download

[Charles-Tim]

Google play store!!!  And ofcourse it is electrum mobile wallet.

On Google Play store, you can copy the wallet link. Paste it on this thread. Do that so we can report it.

This is the right link of Electrum on Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.electrum.electrum

But you can download it directly from the Electrum official website: https://electrum.org/

[hosemary]

When I try to create a new wallet, it says that I should first unlock my existing wallet before creating a new one!

That's how the mobile version of electrum is desiged. In the mobile version of electrum, a single password is used to encrypt all your wallets.
If you want to create a new wallet, but you don't know your password, you need to clear electrum data from your device. Note that this will delete all your existing wallets.

Is this a new limitation or am I missing something?

It has been like this since version 4.1.0

Probably a wallet created by hackers to steal people's coins.

OP is right. If you have already created a wallet in the mobile version of electrum and you want to create a new one, you first have to enter the password.

[coinlary]

I use Electrum regularly on both mobile (Android) and Linux .
On android  I have the version 4.7.2 which is the latest version

It only ask for the password whenever I try to login to the app itself, I have more than one wallet opened on it .
The single password encrypts all the wallet as it's beign mentioned already but adding more wallets doesn't ask for the passwordfor me,  switching from one to the other existing wallets doesn't either.

[hosemary]

but adding more wallets doesn't ask for the passwordfor me,

No. You can't create a new wallet in the mobile version of electrum without entering the password for your existing wallets.
If you are able to create a new wallet, it's because you have already entered your password.

[coinlary]

If you are able to create a new wallet, it's because you have already entered your password.

Yes it asked for password when opening the app itself. I don't  have any PIN or biometrics set up as security, there's no PIN code again since the version 4.7.0 BTW

I can confirm that I tested more than two wallet creation and non of it asked for my password except that password i already entered while trying to access the app itself. Probably because I've had it installed for more than 2 years which I don't considered old . I didn't download it from Google play store though. I did directly from their Github asset.

[satashi_nokamato]

So, what are my options here? How can I save the wallet file and then delete it so that I could generate a new one?

Backup solutions available?
My version is 4.7.2

[khaled0111]

When I try to create a new wallet, it says that I should first unlock my existing wallet before creating a new one!

This is because, for some weird reason, the Electrum development team decided to implement what's called a unified password in the mobile version of Electrum (since version 4.1.0, thanks hosemay). This means that the same password is used to encrypt all your wallet files including any wallets you create later. So, if you don’t know the current password for your wallet(s) then you won’t be able to create a new wallet.

[hosemary]

I can confirm that I tested more than two wallet creation and non of it asked for my password except that password i already entered while trying to access the app itself.

What other password did you expect to be asked for?
There's only one password in electrum. It's the one you are asked for right after opening the application and that's what OP is talking about.

So, what are my options here? How can I save the wallet file and then delete it so that I could generate a new one?

As I already said, you need to clear electrum data from your device and after that you will have to recover your wallet(s) from your seed phrase (or your private keys)
Your old wallet is encrypted and that's useless if you don't have the password.

Backup solutions available?

Your seed phrase acts as backup. Do you have it?

If you have the seed phrase or the old wallet is empty, there's nothing to worry about.
If you have funds in your old wallet and you don't have the seed phrase, you should try to remember your password before deleting your old wallet(s).
If you have funds in your old wallet, you don't have the seed phrase and you can't remember your password, you have already lost your funds.

This is because, for some weird reason, the Electrum development team decided to implement what's called a unified password in the mobile version of Electrum (since version 4.0.1, if I remember correctly).

It was 4.1.0

[coinlary]

I can confirm that I tested more than two wallet creation and non of it asked for my password except that password i already entered while trying to access the app itself.

What other password did you expect to be asked for?
There's only one password in electrum. It's the one you are asked for right after opening the application and that's what OP is talking about.

Then OP can't access the app itself .
Right ? OP.

What exactly do you need the new wallet for OP? You can easily use another wallet like Cake Wallet if you don't want to lose the old wallet, especially if you have something on it without any backup.

You said you can't access it and don't know the old password. The two options remaining are deleting it or simply using another app. If your phone supports a work profile, you can add another Electrum without interfering with the existing one.

[nc50lc]

When I try to create a new wallet, it says that I should first unlock my existing wallet before creating a new one!
Is this a new limitation or am I missing something?

Looks like it's recently implemented in this commit: qml: disable 'Create Wallet' before first unlock [378a9e6] (December 2025)

The trick that you were trying to create a "non-unified password" setup should still work in versions without the commit (here's how it work),
However, that particular commit limits it in some specific use-case where the user forgot his old password like yours.

Anyways, the note in the commit is reasonable enough and under normal circumstances, the user should be able to restore it with the seed phrase anyways.
But they should be notified about your case to at least give a way for the user to backup the wallet file in the "wallet list" window.
I'll post a feature request issue regarding that later.

-edit-
Posted: [QML] New Wallet Creation Blocked if the User Needs to Preserve a Wallet File with Forgotten Password

[Mia Chloe]

When I try to create a new wallet, it says that I should first unlock my existing wallet before creating a new one!
Is this a new limitation or am I missing something?

So long you are using mobile Electrum you'll have to first type in your password before you can do anything on the app including creating a new wallet and this has been around for a while now I think since the last update but it's possible older versions allow it.

Looks like it's recently implemented in this commit: qml: disable 'Create Wallet' before first unlock [378a9e6] (December 2025)

This seems kinda interesting especially considering the fact that the mobile version of ELECTRUM barely packs a lot of features. If this works then it means the wallet  that loads up depends actually on the password you plug in. And I think it can come in handy sometimes.

[nc50lc]

So, what are my options here? How can I save the wallet file and then delete it so that I could generate a new one?

Backup solutions available?

Update: Based from the developers' response, a possible native wallet export option will still require you to type the wallet's password for safety purposes.
So, you can't count on the next version release.

It looks like your best option to preserve that wallet is to root your phone to be able to export its data, as they suggested.
AFAIK, the wallet file is also accessible with root file explorers in "/data/app/org.electrum..." but that requires a rooted phone as well.

The issue is still open so if anyone has a workaround or other ideas other than the suggested backup method, feel free to contribute.