Derivation on Electrum issues and fixes

Electrum uses BIP45 as well as BIP32 derivation paths. These paths are usually related to wallets that have a readable seed phrase that unlocks the wallet. The technical specification for the most commonly used HD wallets are:

• BIP-32 — HD wallets specification
• BIP-39 — The mnemonic phrase/word list
• BIP-44 — The derivation path stuff/algorithms.

Introduction

If you have any questions during this article, then comment on your issues below, and we will make sure to get back to you and better assist you. If you encounter any more electrum problems, check out our library of stories as we have step by step guides for all common electrum problems. This will save you a lot of time since you won’t need to contact support and wait long periods in high ticket liquidity times.
Today we will be talking about the derivation issues you might be experiencing on Electrum.
With hardware wallets, each phrase has an infinite number of keypairs or accounts that can access. To view the derivation path, you will need to follow a few simple steps. Non-segwit hw/bip39 multisig uses m/45'/0 as derivation path (so full path for first receiving key is m/45'/0/0/0) by default. Using the Qt GUI, if you unhide the Console tab, type wallet.keystore.derivation to see the derivation path.
If you are using a BIP39 seed:

• m/44'/0'/0'
• m/49'/0'/0'
• m/84'/0'/0'
  This basically shows that for legacy addresses the ‘receive’ addresses will come from m/44'/0'/0'/0/0 and the ‘change’ addresses will come from m/44'/0'/0'/1/0 , etc.

Issues and Fixes

Most of the Electrum Wallet issues can be resolve by updating!

Download last version of Electrum Wallet for:

1. **Download Electrum Wallet Setup version for Windows**
2. **Download Electrum Wallet Portabale version for Windows**
3. **Download Electrum Wallet for MAC OS**
4. **Download Electrum Wallet for Linux OS**
   If you are prompted to enter a derivation path when using Electrum, follow the fix below.
   Fix: Most of the time, when you are using a segwit wallet you will need to use the default m/44'/0'/0'/ path to a m/49'/0'/0'/ segwit path.

Conclusion

Derivation paths can be challenging to understand at first, but they are, in fact, quite simple aspects of your Bitcoin wallet. Follow the fix above to get the right derivation path when needed.
Whenever you’re using Electrum, you should remember to secure your recovery phrase safely. This phrase should be written down on a piece of paper and secured in a lockbox that is flameproof for maximum security. If your client or wallet ever crashes, you will use this sheet of paper to recover your assets. Without it, you could potentially lose all of your cryptocurrency since you own your private keys; it’s your responsibility to keep standard security.