Unconfirmed send from Bitcoin Core to Electrum

[D. Kirk]

Help requested from worried new user please...

On 16th November I sent .2 from my Bitcoin Core to a new Electrum wallet.  (My second ever Send!).  The number is:   53da64c8c5675f930d3bcbc879f62fd9ac929adea898a61a7d2753ea428f43d9

It shows as "no fee" but I used the auto wallet function and a fee was paid.  (I previously did the same for a 1.00 Send which went through in minutes).
The transaction has appeared and disappeared in Electrum, but always Unconfirmed; the date of the Transaction slips every day or two and the Estimated Conf Time always says "Very Soon".  From this and other fora I read that more than a week is unusual for the Transaction not to settle/return.  I need the money plus I cannot keep the Core open indefinitely as it is eating all my memory...

Can you please tell me:

- is there a way to get the Transaction to settle in one of my wallets?
- how do I avoid this vexation in the future?

Thank you!

 

[ranochigo]

Your transaction does have a very high priority, which is about 12,122,931,937. This qualifies it for a free transaction. I believe that you didn't select a fee and Bitcoin Core assumed that it would be confirmed due to the priority and the size.

Bitcoin Core automatically rebroadcast and I doubt it would be confirmed anytime soon, especially since the network load is extremely high. You can force Bitcoin Core to stop rebroadcasting by running Bitcoin Core with -zapwallettxes command. For example, navigate to your Bitcoin Core folder, copy the directory. Open command prompt and key in this

Code:

"C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe" -zapwallettxes

. It would depend on your OS or where you installed it. Just run it with -zapwallettxes and you will be fine.

Given that it probably didn't propagate very well, you can construct another transaction with fee after a day of waiting.

[D. Kirk]

Your transaction does have a very high priority, which is about 12,122,931,937. This qualifies it for a free transaction. I believe that you didn't select a fee and Bitcoin Core assumed that it would be confirmed due to the priority and the size.

Bitcoin Core automatically rebroadcast and I doubt it would be confirmed anytime soon, especially since the network load is extremely high. You can force Bitcoin Core to stop rebroadcasting by running Bitcoin Core with -zapwallettxes command. For example, navigate to your Bitcoin Core folder, copy the directory. Open command prompt and key in this

Code:

"C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe" -zapwallettxes

. It would depend on your OS or where you installed it. Just run it with -zapwallettxes and you will be fine.

Given that it probably didn't propagate very well, you can construct another transaction with fee after a day of waiting.

Thank you.  Two clarifications please.  Do I copy the directory by opening File and then saving under Back Up Wallet? And is the Command Prompt the one under Help in Core?

[ranochigo]

Your transaction does have a very high priority, which is about 12,122,931,937. This qualifies it for a free transaction. I believe that you didn't select a fee and Bitcoin Core assumed that it would be confirmed due to the priority and the size.

Bitcoin Core automatically rebroadcast and I doubt it would be confirmed anytime soon, especially since the network load is extremely high. You can force Bitcoin Core to stop rebroadcasting by running Bitcoin Core with -zapwallettxes command. For example, navigate to your Bitcoin Core folder, copy the directory. Open command prompt and key in this

Code:

"C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe" -zapwallettxes

. It would depend on your OS or where you installed it. Just run it with -zapwallettxes and you will be fine.

Given that it probably didn't propagate very well, you can construct another transaction with fee after a day of waiting.

Thank you.  Two clarifications please.  Do I copy the directory by opening File and then saving under Back Up Wallet? And is the Command Prompt the one under Help in Core?

No and no.

You just have to find the directory that you installed Bitcoin in. For example, mine is C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe if you're using Windows.

The command prompt is the Window's, go to Accessories and you should find it. Change your directory to yours if it is different from mine.

[D. Kirk]

Thank you... i'll have to return to this tomorrow morning UK time now as I've just restarted Core by mistake and it takes about 40 mins to load!

[D. Kirk]

ranochigo, I couldn't get an ">" off the Command Prompt so I right clicked on Core to Properties and Tagetted zapwallet from Shortcuts in there.  It took the command but I'm a bit nervous as the Core Icon has also gone from the Desktop.  I'm going to leave things for 24 hours (unless you say otherwise) and then try to restart the Core Qt from "Computer".  Sound ok?  And thank you again.

[ranochigo]

ranochigo, I couldn't get an ">" off the Command Prompt so I right clicked on Core to Properties and Tagetted zapwallet from Shortcuts in there.  It took the command but I'm a bit nervous as the Core Icon has also gone from the Desktop.  I'm going to leave things for 24 hours (unless you say otherwise) and then try to restart the Core Qt from "Computer".  Sound ok?  And thank you again.

You don't actually need to wait for 24 hours before opening core. You can open it now and check if the unconfirmed transaction has disappeared from your transaction history. If so, you should wait a while and ensure that the transaction cannot be found on Blockchain.info before making another transaction using that input.

You should be fine if you used -zapwallettxes as the flag when creating that shortcut.

[D. Kirk]

Unfortunately its still there...

I returned to the Command Prompt approach but it gives me C:\> which, when I enter C:\Program Files (x86)\Bitcoin - zapwallettexes it returns "\Bitcoin was unexpected at this time"

I think its the ">" that's preventing the execution but I can't get rid of it.

I'll understand if you've had enough of this now!

[shorena]

Unfortunately its still there...

I returned to the Command Prompt approach but it gives me C:\> which, when I enter C:\Program Files (x86)\Bitcoin - zapwallettexes it returns "\Bitcoin was unexpected at this time"

I think its the ">" that's preventing the execution but I can't get rid of it.

I'll understand if you've had enough of this now!

Its simpler if you dont do it via the command line directly, but indirectly.

#1 make sure bitcoin core is closed and you are running at least version 0.12
#2 open "run" (hit win + r)
#3 enter c:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe -zapwallettxes
#3.1 modify path if needed, e.g. in your case it looks like you are using the 32-bit version, so it would be in ... Files (x86)\Bitcoin...
#4 let it do its thing. It will take some time.

[D. Kirk]

Thank you shorena I'll try this tomorrow...

[D. Kirk]

That worked; what a relief! Thank you to both shorena and ranochigo for your help and perseverance... and I shall donate what I can as a token of same thanks...