Finding.onion Address on Windows for Bitcoin Node

I’m new here, running a full Bitcoin node on Windows and finally got it working through Tor hidden service. But I have 0 incoming connections and 10 outbound ones. Problem is, I can't access my router, and I want to connect via Specter. Can't find my.onion address anywhere, all the guides are for Linux.

Check out the debug.log file. It’s usually in the Bitcoin Core data directory, which for Windows is %APPDATA%\Bitcoin\. When you start the node, look for lines that say "init message: Done loading". You should see your onion address around there. You can also run bitcoin-cli.exe getnetworkinfo in the command line or console to find your local addresses.

Thanks for the tip, but I’ve tried all that. I’m looking at the entire debug log. I also tried the command in the prompt, but it just opened Bitcoin Core. My peers window shows that I have onion outbound connections but I can't figure out why my Tor hidden service is so hidden.

Make sure to close the Bitcoin Core GUI properly through the File menu. I don’t use Windows for Bitcoin Core, I’m on Linux, so I can't say for sure if the Windows version logs the onion address. Mine does, but maybe yours needs a specific setting in bitcoin.conf.

I’ve got Bitcoin Core on Windows too. I copied the config and actually saw the line mentioned. But you need to set those Control Port lines in the config like in the tutorial. Otherwise, the onion address won’t show up. Follow the instructions from the Tor setup guide.

Got it. Yeah, I kinda regret picking Windows for this node. Most guides are for Linux, and I'm not really at that level. As a newbie, a lot of these guides assume I know things I just don’t. I just copied the bitcoin.config and ran it, but the node crashed.

Thanks for the help. Like I said to Cricktor, this is a bit over my head. I don’t have a torrc file in the Tor directory, and when I tried creating one with the required lines, the node crashed again. The guide is hard to follow. Where do I find the CookieAuthFile and how do I enable read access?

Maybe check this guide to set up Tor on Windows: it's pretty straightforward, just a quick look and it seems okay. Don’t take it as gospel though. The Tor project also has a decent how-to, and there are tons of YouTube videos for Windows users.

My node has Tor enabled, but I still can't find the onion address to connect to Specter.

The tutorial is for Linux. For Windows, you need to adapt the folder structure. If you want to save your Bitcoin Onion Service directory to Drive D, your torrc file should reflect that. After restarting Tor, you should see a folder in D:/ with a hostname file that has your onion address.

Also, what nc50lc said is worth looking into. You should create a torrc file in your Tor installation directory and fill it with the config options mentioned. My link shows how to start Tor as a service on Windows and check if it’s running.

Awesome, that worked for me!

Can you share what ended up working for you? Other users might find it helpful.

The guides are good and clear for most people. I just fell into the typical traps. Not being familiar with command line, not realizing I needed Python for rpcauth, forgetting to restart Tor, and saving the torrc file wrong. If you’re like me and can’t find your onion address, get that torrc file sorted.