Bitcoin Forum

I'm somehow unable to send any bitcoins with my electrum wallet, I keep getting the same error message :

"The server returned an error when broadcasting the transaction. Consider trying to connect to a different server or updating electrum. Unknown error"

I tried reinstalling Electrum, because I was already using the latest version 3.3.8 and ofc I also tried switching servers many times, both didn't worked.
After I type in all information in the sending tab and confirm my password, I always get this error. I also tried diffrent adresses and so on, didn't worked either.
So currently my BTC are locked in my wallet and I'm unable to use them.

-EDIT-
Somehow it's working again, but damn don't know why it didn't the last 3 days. Anyways thanks everyone for replying.

Weird error. Never experienced nothing similar.

Did you download from Electrum.org?

I don't like to recommend other wallets, because this is my favorite (electrum). Do you have your 24 words seed?  Do you know if is it BIP39 or electrum format?

Try connecting to a different server:
https://bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-switch-to-a-different-electrum-server/

I didn't heard like that problem before. Are your sure your electrum software isn't effected by malware? Because that kind of message were shown during electrum hack couple of months ago. So don't click update from popups. If you are unable to change server as describe above post then try to reinstall electrum software again again from original website (https://electrum.org). It will not effect your existing funds or private keys. Before that please export all your private keys. If you are thinking you are on risk then move your fund by private via some other software from different devices. That error would show only if network weak. So also you should check your internet connection as well if its working fine.

The problem might be from the server you are connected to or from the transaction you are trying to broadcast.

First, try to connect to other servers and try again.
if you are in a hurry, you can use Electrum to sign the transaction and copy the raw data and push it using any online tool like:
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/pushtx or https://live.blockcypher.com/btc/pushtx/

If this doensn't solve your problem then, probably, there might be something wrong with the transaction. Maybe its size exceeds the maximum allowed (100kb). Electrum servers will consider it as non-standard and will reject it.

It's working again, but I do not know why it didn't in the last 3 days.
Anyways thank you guys.

Most likely it was because the server you were connected to was not functioning properly. The fact that you got the "unknown error" message is a strong indicator that you were connected to "fake" server(s) designed to trick users of older versions into downloading "fake" updates.

A "normal" server would likely display a proper error message. As for why changing servers didn't work, the scammers often spool up large numbers of fake server instances on AWS etc flooding the server pool and making it difficult for users to actually connect to a legit server :-\

Glad you managed to get it working tho.

If you ever face the same problem again, try to manually select the server. Keep a list of which server returned the same error message so you can avoid it in the future.

Quick question: Did you had the "automatic server selection" ticked or did you select the server on your own before?

Glad to see that its working fine. If you did nothing and working fine that means there would be two issue, first your internet connection was too slow (I were faced this issue). Second thing is you were chose server manually and that was not working fine. However, if you able to detect problems share with us so it will be helpful for future users.

it is only one of the possibilities, and i wouldn't say it is a strong one. the only thing that we can say for sure is that the response message that the server sent back after receiving the transaction was not inside the handful of hard-coded messages inside Electrum. whether it was a malicious one or simply a message that Electrum didn't recognize is not possible to say.

Standard Bitcoin transactions are not instant so there will always be a 'delay' like you say. It takes 10 mins+ to mine a new block. Depending on how full the mempool is and how big of a fee you are ready to include your transaction can be confirmed in the next block or it can take several hours or days.

The issue in this particular thread is probably due to a non-functioning server as the OP was able to send his transaction later on.

Not necessarily... the idea is to maintain an "average" of 10 min blocks... but by definition this means that some blocks will be mined faster than 10 mins and some slower.

I've seen blocks mined within 30 seconds of each other... and other times when it has been 2 hours. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mempool size is generally not really a factor in determining how long your confirmation takes, their isn't "one mempool to rule them all" anyway... each node has their own. It's more the fee rate that you use. Granted, the number of unconfirmed transactions will often influence the fee rates that people are using... but even with 100K+ unconfirmed transactions, you can still almost guarantee next block confirmation... if you use an "appropriate" fee rate :P