Synchronization

To find your transactions, Biscuit downloads each new block from a node and checks it on your computer. Until it has caught up, recent payments don’t show and your balance may be behind. The status bar says Synchronized once it’s done.

How long it takes

A wallet opened every day catches up in seconds. One left closed for months needs to scan every block since: a few minutes, longer over Tor, where the data travels through three relays. Bitcoin and Litecoin sync separately and much faster: Biscuit asks an Electrum server about your addresses instead of scanning blocks.

Help › Debug info shows the wallet height (the last block scanned), the node’s height, and the restore height.

The restore height

The restore height is the block a wallet starts scanning from: nothing before it can belong to the wallet. A new wallet starts at today’s block, so its first sync is instant.

• Polyseeds contain their creation date, so Biscuit knows the restore height.
• For a 25-word seed or a hardware device, Biscuit asks for it. Don’t know it? Enter the date you created the wallet, or an earlier one if unsure: Biscuit works out the height.
• Too high, and payments before it are missed: the balance is wrong. Too low only makes the first sync longer.

If it seems stuck

• Check the connection icon in the status bar. If the node stays disconnected, Biscuit moves to another one; you can also pick one in Settings › Network › Node.
• Wallet › Advanced › Update balance (Ctrl+U) refreshes the balance.
• Still wrong once synchronized? See My balance looks wrong.