<p><strong>Use Bitcoin Core 0.14 (or higher) and the new <code>importmulti</code> RPC call.</strong></p>

<p><code>importaddress</code> does always a complete rescan (back to the genesis block) which can take serval hours. Very inefficient if you import multiple addresses.</p>

<p>where <code>importmulti</code> can import multiple keys/addresses at once only requiring a single rescan.
You can also set the according address birthday timestamp to avoid rescanning the complete chain from the genesis block.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-07T11:03:29.553Z
And here is how to use it: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/64364/2075
Jus12
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-08T17:38:35.280Z
it's not always re-scanning the blockchain, you can supply false argument for rescanning. 
quote from Bitcoin.org: 
Set to true (the default) to rescan the entire local block database for transactions affecting any address or pubkey script in the wallet (including transaction affecting the newly-added address or pubkey script). Set to false to not rescan the block database (rescanning can be performed at any time by restarting Bitcoin Core with the -rescan command-line argument). Rescanning may take several minutes.
Tailer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-07T08:12:04.033Z
2017-12-07T08:12:04.033Z
Jonas Schnelli
<p>When I try to run importaddress using the core client it takes a long time to execute, over 10 minutes, even though I have supplied a "false" argument for rescanning. For example:</p>

<pre><code>bitcoin-cli importaddress "32jdC23ABv86M2ptiqMzFzCaufBtE2NCdN" false
</code></pre>

<p>When I run this, it takes so long to compute that it times out with "unable to connect to server error". If it is not rescanning, what is it doing? Why is it taking so long just to add an address to the wallet?</p>

<p>(note that adding a label field makes no difference, it still hangs)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-07T06:44:27.020Z
Are other commands working ok, for example `listaddressgroupings`? What version of Bitcoin Core are you running?
Adam Millerchip
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-07T06:56:15.857Z
@AdamMillerchip Nothing works. The daemon is not responding.
Harry Pillsbury
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-07T08:31:15.343Z
The second argument is a label isn't it, not the scan boolean? It's also scanning, not hanging, it has to read 150GB of blocks from disk and filter them.
Claris
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-13T17:27:44.463Z
Can you specify what Operating System and Bitcoin client versions you are using ?
dbkeys
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-13T18:01:19.150Z
Could you try with another server, internet connection? Because i'm pretty sure the issue is with your server, internet connection because this function is working pretty good and i guess it's not something with Bitcoin core.
Tailer
<bitcoin-core><importaddress>
Importaddress taking a long time to run / does not work
Harry Pillsbury
# Importaddress taking a long time to run / does not work

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-11-22)

When I try to run importaddress using the core client it takes a long time to execute, over 10 minutes, even though I have supplied a "false" argument for rescanning. For example:

```
bitcoin-cli importaddress "32jdC23ABv86M2ptiqMzFzCaufBtE2NCdN" false

```

When I run this, it takes so long to compute that it times out with "unable to connect to server error". If it is not rescanning, what is it doing? Why is it taking so long just to add an address to the wallet?

(note that adding a label field makes no difference, it still hangs)

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, importaddress

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Are other commands working ok, for example `listaddressgroupings`? What version of Bitcoin Core are you running?  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Nothing works. The daemon is not responding.  
> **username_2**: The second argument is a label isn't it, not the scan boolean? It's also scanning, not hanging, it has to read 150GB of blocks from disk and filter them.  
> **username_3**: Can you specify what Operating System and Bitcoin client versions you are using ?  
> **username_4**: Could you try with another server, internet connection? Because i'm pretty sure the issue is with your server, internet connection because this function is working pretty good and i guess it's not something with Bitcoin core.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2017-12-07. Score: 0

**Use Bitcoin Core 0.14 (or higher) and the new `importmulti` RPC call.**

`importaddress` does always a complete rescan (back to the genesis block) which can take serval hours. Very inefficient if you import multiple addresses.

where `importmulti` can import multiple keys/addresses at once only requiring a single rescan.
You can also set the according address birthday timestamp to avoid rescanning the complete chain from the genesis block.

> **Comments:**
> **username_6**: And here is how to use it: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/64364/2075  
> **username_4**: it's not always re-scanning the blockchain, you can supply false argument for rescanning.  quote from Bitcoin.org:  Set to true (the default) to rescan the entire local block database for transactions affecting any address or pubkey script in the wallet (including transaction affecting the newly-added address or pubkey script). Set to false to not rescan the block database (rescanning can be performed at any time by restarting Bitcoin Core with the -rescan command-line argument). Rescanning may take several minutes.  

---

