Bitcoin Forum

Ultimate way to delete your forever unconfirmed transactions

• Backup your wallet just in case
• Download Pywallet (https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet)
• Run './pywallet.py --web'
• Go to http://localhost:8989 in your browser
• Fill the Delete form like this:
  
  
  • Wallet Directory: /your/wallet/directory
  • Wallet Filename: yourwalletfilename
  • Key: all
  • Type: leave 'Transaction'
  
  
• Click the Delete button
• Run 'bitcoin -rescan'
• Done, no more unconfirmed tx's

Maybe add a small "backup your wallet just in case" message ?

Since your utility is for dealing with wallets would it be hard to add a backup and encrypt option?

Is this open source?  If so were can I look at the code?

P.S. For some reason this post says red flag to me, but I'm paranoid so it's probably nothing.

It's in python. Follow the link and you can either download the code and read it or you can see the source code in your web browser at the github site. I don't know much python but I did give it a quick look. I think others have as well.

It was stupid to forget that, thanks

I think it's better that the user makes it himself, because each of us have a different way to backup. But if many people ask so, I can add it
I absolutely don't know how Satochi's client encrypts wallet, and I prefer waiting the official release before looking into that

As Bitlotto told you, it's in Python and open source: https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet/blob/master/pywallet.py
Commits: https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet/commits/master
Pywallet thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34028.0

Better safe than sorry ;)

+10
 this is awesome

So I have this problem on a Blockhain.info wallet.

Would I be correct to assume the following:

1. Export wallet.dat from blockchain.info
2. Do as you say with it.

3. Now what? Should I just Import wallet in Blockchain.info using my now modified wallet.dat, or should I first completely delete the wallet & all key from my blockchain.info acc (is this even possible)??

How do I make sure the unconfirmed transactions do not stay at blockchain.info??

Here is the guide if you didn't use bitcoin-qt to create the transaction
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=231309.0

Thanks, currently downloading the chain. I'll let you know.

worked, thanks!

may want to mention the website is located at http://localhost:8989

Indeed, I added that, thanks

My unconfirmed transactions are gone (following instructions above), but it did not restore my balance (nearly 1 BTC). Still no record on blockchain.info and still unconfirmed for over a month.

How do I fix my armory?

When I try to run I get the "'twisted' package is not installed" error. I manually installed twisted and even tried the pywallet install.bat but neither worked.

We assume some version of Windows...

Install Python 2.7.6 (32 bit): http://python.org/download/

Below, download the 32 bit build of the python 2.7 package:
-install zope.interface : http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#zope.interface
-install twisted : http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#twisted

Download and save the pywallet.py script to the directory C:\python27 (just so we know where it is).

Press "windows key" + "R" for run, and paste C:\Python27\python.exe C:\Python27\pywallet.py --web


...I edited myself a version of pywallet where --web is the default and it launches a web browser with the URL for you.

Please DEV look into this

Sorry I just want to confirm, this will work with bitcoins that I trying to send to another wallet that are stuck? And I will see the bitcoins appear in my Bitcoin-QT wallet once I do these steps?

Thanks,

It will delete the transaction. So if the Qt wallet is the sending wallet, the btc will ready to spent again. If the Qt wallet is the receiving wallet, it doesn't remember anything about this transaction.

So I remove the tx that is I am trying to send from my QT wallet do the bitcoins appear back into my wallet? If I was talking about 0.0x BTC's I wouldn't have really lost much but I am talking about more than half a bitcoin is stuck. I checked the Transaction ID on blockchain.info and it doesn't show up there.

Yup  ;)

How do i get this to run?

I have P2Pool running on my openSUSE so I know python 2.7 is installed and running but when I try to run the pywallet.py --web and use sudo before it it tells me pywallet.py : command not found, any ideas?

Thanks,

./pywallet.py

but before you do make backups of everything

Good evening!  Could someone post instructions how to run pywallet on a mac? Or another way to cancel/delete unconfirmed transactions on Mac.
I think i'll need to delete this transcaction:
https://blockchain.info/tx/9f7624921d399b93cd4a93226e5fb375fe1bd402b452dca0171c385edae5d86f

or maybe wait to see if ever confirmed?
I made this transaction from my Bitcoin-QT wallet and accidentally used 0 fee...

Please help me!

jack jack!
you are amazing!

New method with 0.9+ built directly into core client:

  -rescan                Rescan the block chain for missing wallet transactions
  -zapwallettxes         Clear list of wallet transactions (diagnostic tool; implies -rescan)

It does exactly what it says - it rebuilds the transaction list from the officially confirmed blocks.

Naturally, get a reliable wallet backup first.

First step:
"C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe" -rescan
Second step:
"C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe" -zapwallettex

Or is it:

"C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe" -rescan -zapwallettex
in one command line?

The -zapwallettex inlcudes a rescan, no need to specify it separately.

kk thx, but didnt work.


Tried to run pywallet, but got this error message:

C:\Python27>python c:\python27\scripts\./pywallet.py --web
  File "c:\python27\scripts\./pywallet.py", line 6
    <!DOCTYPE html>
    ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax



What is this? Any other ideas on how to get bitcoins back from zero-confirmation-transactions? 4 days past and no confirmation ^^

I'm having the same problems with one of my transactions I initiated last night to pay for some equipment.  From everyone I've spoken with, the transaction will either be confirmed or dropped.  It could take several days for either.  >:(  The best thing, they said, is to just wait it out.

If i will remove dat zero-confirmation-transaction from the bitboin-client, will i get all bitcoins back? Or will i lose them with this removal?

No, you won't lose anything.  The network will either accept your transaction eventually and the coins will be spent or it will drop the transaction and the coins won't be spent.  However, if you delete the transaction from your wallet and spend the same inputs again on a new transaction, the miners might see a double-spend and reject that one, too.

Best thing is just to wait it out.  :(

I confirmed this works with Zetacoin as well.
The Wallet and Client need to be closed before any edits can be made.

Installed on Windows 8.1 64bit (in this exact order to their default directories):
python-2.7.6.amd64.msi
Twisted-13.2.0.win-amd64-py2.7.exe
zope.interface-4.1.1.win-amd64-py2.7.exe
ez_setup.py
pywallet-master.zip

The files in the pywallet-master.zip were extracted to C:\Python27 and then I created a .bat file that ran "pywallet.py --web" (no quotes of course)
Then used Chrome to open the http://localhost:8989 or just localhost:8989
Then clicked the top bar / menu option of "DELETE"
And filled out the form as directed but with the Zetacoin wallet.dat file info.
Clicked the Delete button on the bottom of the form.
After it deleted the transactions, I selected the QUIT option on the top bar / menu. This closes out the DOS window in the background and the webpage goes to "page not available".
Created a shortcut to the Zetacoin-QT.exe file with the added line of -rescan. Opened the shortcut file. Zetacoin splash screen loaded and after a few minutes, only the confirmed transactions were there and the one transaction that was "unconfirmed" for a few days was gone.

Works great with DarkCoin too.

OP - if you have a DRK address post it or PM me and I will send you a well deserved tip!  ;D

Some version settings for FRK and ADN

FRK - 35
ADN - 23

This is a useful tool. Great work! :)

just worry about ssome error in send transaction . maybe will crash or will be put iit on
spend bitcoin yea.

I did all the steps as pointed out, but now get a message when i send a transaction that this is a potential double spend and the transaction is being rejected by the client.

It's polite to warn that yours is a necropost ;).

Wait some hours/days until the network forgets about your previous attempt. Then broadcast the new transaction.

I am sorry about that, had to look up the meaning of the word. Shall never happen again. So I guess I shall keep trying everyday to send and see what happens.

This might sound like a dumb question...but uhm why delete those unconfirmed transactions?...Sorry I am not really that much knowledgeable with the technical aspect of a lot of things...

no miner fee, double spend or anything is not valid in terms of transaction specs may cause unconfirmed transactions.

Crazy !! , Thank you +1000

Has anyone tried this guide recently?

I tried the -zapwallettxes feature of the Bitcoin QT wallet, which does the exact same as the python trick: the unconfirmed transaction is gone from your wallet, and your balance seems to be restored.

BUT it won't allow you to double spend your bitcoins, you still need to wait for the network to drop (or confirm) your initial transaction.

I now really start to like this 'replace by fee' suggestion, there is a clear need to be able to increase the fee in case your transaction does not get confirmed quick enough.

C:\Program Files\Bitcoin>bitcoin-qt.exe -zapwallettex doesn't seem to work on my Testnet wallet. I have a zero conf tx (mh1BnfNWBi6tY1RCC7vEu5DwCqDqKdVC2A) and it's still there in my transaction history. The testnet coins are somewhere in cyberspace now...

Any other methods, next to pywallet?

What about if using blockchain wallet. Is there anyway to delete transaction or maybe push it

IIRC, Blockchain.info does not rebroadcast transactions after it gets dropped out of mempool. You can push the transaction by getting the raw format at copy the entire thing and go to and paste the entire code.

Firstly i wanna say thanks for responding here.. i just done everyting u write.
But its show "Transaction Already Exists"
Is this done?

This means that your transaction has not dropped out of mempool. If it does get dropped, your transaction would be forgotten by the network and you can create another transaction with a higher fee. If you rebroadcast it again, it would stay in the mempool till a miner includes it into a block or it drops out again. The longer you wait, the higher the possibility of it getting included as a free transaction as the priority will rise due to the increasing coin age.

cool thanks im gonna check this out

So this could be a way to delete unintentionally sent transactions? The only thing it needs is that it should have 9 confirmations, right?
But this methods could than be used as a scamming method too...

This is a way to delete transactions that are still shown on your client. The transaction should not have any confirmations for it to work and the mempool should have dropped your transaction already. AFAIK, only one doublespend was successful and it was during the march 2013 fork, the money was returned.

This has happened with me also twice. This problem arises just because of network issues at that time, and what happens is that one transaction is displayed twice. This can be solved easily in most cases by a heavy refresh of your wallet,  and if that doesn't solve, just make a new transaction, it will do a force refresh and probably fix problem. Alternatively, in last option you can contact your wallet provider for assistance. This will surely solve it out.

Do i really need to wait 3-5 days till my (https://blockchain.info/tx/78ff157d5745883864ae0bcd3cb8fb8f1f14fbd4d73aa8e338baf2366b322fc1?show_adv=false) 24hours still unconfirmed transaction is cancelled?
Is it possible to delete it using electrum wallet?

does the network kill transactions that are hanging around forever?

That transaction has 2 other conflicting transactions spending a few common inputs. Only one of them would get confirmed eventually. AFAIK, there isn't anyway to delete transactions from electrum.


[1]https://blockchain.info/tx/31e2c7812ad5b3a7a6cda5aa560a00f3b5e54b67bbcfa97eed24fa7ea28f77f1
[2]https://blockchain.info/tx/2bac296464c67fedeef00b1654e9a96affce866cfe35b56d77fe253de68711df
Transactions will eventually drop out of the mempool if they get unconfirmed for too long and the user can reinitiate another transaction from the same input. It isn't the case for wallet which automatically rebroadcast though.

According to the wiki (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Running_Bitcoin) it should be -zapwallettxes=<mode>

there is a way to make the same operation with multibit?
I need a backup every tx that I delete or just private key one time (first use!)?

Is this a way to reverse a transaction?

It's a too fool question... Is a basic of btc that you can reverse a transaction... hope in a fork :)

worked, thanks!

http://thanks-bro.com/cart/images/1.png

worked fine for me too

get rid of the unconfirmed txn in your wallet and then send all of your coins to another address with a really high fee... hope for the best.....maybe your new txn will have preference on the network and get confirmed.... leaving the old one in never never land until it dies

Thank you. Under what circumstances will you use this?

Good guide.... however I don't use core.... and blockchain just retries it automatically.

Hey,

I just try to follow this instruction... but got problems.

I downloaded pywallet and run pywallet.py --web. If I run it it wants to download a file called "pywallet.py" which I did...
But what to do now?

If I type in http://localhost:8989 in my brower I just get a message that it is not available.

Does my wallet needs to be open at the time I do this?

how about just start core with -zapwallettxes ? the unconfirmed tx will be gone.

I use core v0.11.0
As far as I know this is only available from 0.12.0

it has been available since 0.9.0 .  :)

Thank you :)
I'll try it now - let's see if it works.

I did a transaction earlier with 0 transaction fee. It was unconfirmed for a long time. I wanted to cancel it. I didn't find this tutorial at that time. This is a great guide, every other bitcoin user needs to know. Do pywallet has the feature to remove an address from a wallet file?

My unconfirmed transaction was 100% restored after opening bitcoin-qt with the following command...

There was no need to install any additional programs. The functionality is built into bitcoin-qt.

For the uninitiated, here's how to run the command above on Windows... (note: this will only work for bitcoin-qt v9+)

• Open your Bitcoin Core wallet (bitcoin-qt.exe).
• Make a backup of your wallet, just in case [File > Backup Wallet].
• Close Bitcoin-qt (don't just minimise it, close it).
• Make a new shortcut or copy your existing bitcoin-qt shortcut.
• Right-click the new copy of the shortcut and choose Properties.
• Add " -zapwallettxes" (with a space and without quotes) to the end of the existing 'Target' field (see the command above - your path may be different, so just leave your path as it is).
• Click OK to save and close the properties window.
• You can now open your Bitcoin Core wallet using this new shortcut. After it opens, you should see "rescanning network XX%".
• Done! Your unconfirmed bitcoin should now appear in the balance area.
• Close your wallet.
• Delete the shortcut you just created to prevent accidentally using it again.
• Open your wallet using the original shortcut.

The lesson: Don't be a potato and send your transactions with zero fees!

If I have missed something, please let me know.

Actually the easiest way on Windows (assuming Bitcoin is installed in default location) can be boiled down to simply:

• Backup Wallet (always before messing with your wallet)
• Start->Run->type "cmd" -> hit enter, a black command prompt window should appear
• Type

in the window and hit enter

No need to mess with shortcuts or anything, this will launch the GUI one time using the -zapwallettxes flag which is what you want in this case.

Does someone knows how to do that on mac ? I'm using bitcoin core 0.12.1

Just writing to say thanks, I have just got back over 0.03 from numourous transactions that i had where i had not paid enough of a fee so they were just sitting there with no confirmations.

The above method of doing through command prompt works super easy.

Once again, THANK YOU

Follow this for on mac
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-to-the-Command-Line-on-a-Mac

Also key -salvagewallet works.

Sorry for the bump but are you guys aware of the fact that people might scam with that method? A lot of people do not know that it is possible to "delete" unconfirmed transactions, so they might give the goods or whatever before it gets confirmed. Or do I miss something here?

It's not that easy. If you were to try to replace a transaction, nodes that has a transaction which spends that UXTO will reject it. Hence, the probability of nodes relaying and propagating them is very low.

However, it is very possible with opt-in RBF. Nodes can be configured to accept and relay transactions which spends the same UXTO as another transaction in the mempool and has Opt-in RBF flagged.

If you are dealing with huge amount of BTC, wait for at least a confirmation. It's that simple.

Tl,dr; it isn't super easy.

I just understood the half of your answer but shouldn't it be possible to apply what the original poster described, wait a week and then spend the funds?

Aren't there any aspirations in the Bitcoin community to prevent this?

Rebroadcast it continually. If the transaction remains in the mempool, it is hard to double spend, provided that it doesn't have opt-in RBF flagged.

Else, check if the person included a reasonable fee. It would be stupid to accept a transaction that pays 0.0001BTC/KB when it is obvious that the transaction needs at least 0.0005BTC/KB to be confirmed in a reasonable timeframe.

Read my comment.

Anyway, if I were to include insufficient fee for transaction X, do I wait for it to confirm in a really long time? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There's a reason why we only accept 0 confirmations for transactions with low value.

Deleted that post because I realized ranochigo already replied to you (didn't get a user-have-posted warning like usual). He's correct and have explained it better.

i make it so and it works fine( ;D ) with the command : "C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe" -zapwallettxes  

but i got this message from bitcoin qt: "Urgent: Alert key compromised upgrade required" :o ???

That message is completely unrelated to this thread and to the broader topic at hand. See https://bitcoin.org/en/alert/2016-11-01-alert-retirement for information about that message.

thank you i see that i use in this case core 0.12.0 because of this i got the message ;)

I have pywallet with gnuwin32 and pywallet.py with python, but when I click on them they start, show a syntax error for seconds and the program close again.

Here is a screen of the error I got:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lw71w8mw33fb27y/pywalletsyntaxerror.jpg?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/lw71w8mw33fb27y/pywalletsyntaxerror.jpg?dl=0)


What is wrong?

In Terminal type: open -a bitcoin-qt.app --args -zapwallettxes

Hi sorry for bumping this but I have some 0 / Unconfirmed transactions on my wallet.  I have tried the -zap option and sure enough, it does remove them and restore the balance temporarily in my Core wallet.  But then it seems to catch up with the network and the transactions reappear (maybe because they're still in memory pool elsewhere).  I can definitely see them on Blockchain TXID as being 0 / Unconfirmed and unspent.  I've heard people say 3-5 days but how long should I wait once I zapped the Core to ensure that I'm going forward with higher fee-paid transactions with the "reclaimed" coins and not risking a double spend on the network with my coins? 

Is not touching Core for 3 days enough?  A week?  Thanks!

I was having issue with low fee transaction.  Did a double spend and after 2 weeks still no confirmation, and bitcoin balance was off in wallet.  Deleted the mempool.dat file in bitcoin folder and entered -zapwallettxes=2 in the bitcoin-qt shortcut (backed up wallet first) and transaction eliminated from core and bitcoin balance restored to correct amount.

Hello my friends,

To begin sorry for my bad English, I'm French :-)

I read all the posts but I don't understand some things.

I made a transaction with low fees (250) from Copay to Binnance. I never used Bitcoin core. Since 1 week the transaction is unconfirmed.

My money was sent from copay, so I can't use bitcoin core to recover this transaction? I tried to send my private key to bitcoin core but it doesn't work.

Can I change my wallet from copay to bitcoin core to use the "recovery tutorial" in bitcoin core?

Thanks, sorry for the inconvenience

Is it applicable to electrum wallet as well? I have two unconfirmed low fees transactions in my electrum wallet. I would like to cancel them. Please help.

 If I was talking about 0.0x BTC's I wouldn't have really lost much but I am talking about more than half a bitcoin is stuck. I checked the Transaction ID on blockchain.info and it doesn't show up there.