<p>A wallet contains many addresses. An address is not the same thing as a wallet.</p>
<p>When you create a new address with Bitcoin Core, it is stored in the wallet that you are actively using at that time. This means it is stored in the wallet.dat file.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-21T19:45:17.743Z
2021-02-21T19:45:17.743Z
Ava Chow
<p>I have backed up my wallet.dat file, but now I find myself wondering if bitcoin core stores all newly generated wallets in the same wallet.dat file. Of course this is after having accidentally deleted some files I shouldn’t have. Can I safely restart my computer and download bitcoin core again, and load the old wallet.dat file or should I have seperate wallet.dat files for every newly generated wallet?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-21T19:19:05.923Z
Do you actually mean separate wallets, or just multiple addresses? A wallet.dat file contains one wallet, but all its addresses.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-21T19:30:55.600Z
That is exactly what I am not so sure about - I never modified/replaced the wallet.dat file, but I clicked create new wallet in bitcoin core - is that wallet just a new address that is added to the same wallet.dat file?
Martijn van Schaik
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-21T19:46:31.630Z
If you click create a new wallet, it creates a new wallet, which will be in a different file.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-21T19:58:52.057Z
Well Allright I hope I can recover them then, thanks for your answers :)
Martijn van Schaik
<bitcoin-core><wallet><wallet-recovery><wallet.dat>
Does my wallet.dat file contain all wallets?
Martijn van Schaik
# Does my wallet.dat file contain all wallets?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-02-21)

I have backed up my wallet.dat file, but now I find myself wondering if bitcoin core stores all newly generated wallets in the same wallet.dat file. Of course this is after having accidentally deleted some files I shouldn’t have. Can I safely restart my computer and download bitcoin core again, and load the old wallet.dat file or should I have seperate wallet.dat files for every newly generated wallet?

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, wallet, wallet-recovery, wallet.dat

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Do you actually mean separate wallets, or just multiple addresses? A wallet.dat file contains one wallet, but all its addresses.  
> **username_0**: That is exactly what I am not so sure about - I never modified/replaced the wallet.dat file, but I clicked create new wallet in bitcoin core - is that wallet just a new address that is added to the same wallet.dat file?  
> **username_1**: If you click create a new wallet, it creates a new wallet, which will be in a different file.  
> **username_0**: Well Allright I hope I can recover them then, thanks for your answers :)  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-02-21. Score: 2

A wallet contains many addresses. An address is not the same thing as a wallet.

When you create a new address with Bitcoin Core, it is stored in the wallet that you are actively using at that time. This means it is stored in the wallet.dat file.


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