Outgoing transactions are not being confirmed

[Exqulior]

Hello,

I have tried to send out a payment, but it just stays stuck at 0 confirmations. I use the 3.21 client on Linux. I cannot find the -rescan of -debug options on bitcoind.

I also tried restoring my wallet.dat and downloading the chain all over, but then, again, when I send out my payment, it stays stuck...

Any suggestions?

[JoelKatz]

How long have you waited? You want to make sure to keep your client running for at least twenty minutes after you enter the transaction. If it's pending but not confirmed, you can confirm it got out to miners here: http://bitcoincharts.com/bitcoin/

[m0w3r]

Unfortunately, sometimes sending bitcoins does get stuck.   Smack the top of your computer case with the open palm of your hand once or twice will usually solve it.

[Exqulior]

@JoelKatz:
Thanks for your reply! Much appreciated. How long have I waited? Uhm.. over 36-48 hours..

[Exqulior]

I restored my wallet again, and it has downloaded the chain up to the most recent block again. Now is says my balance is back up to the lever it should have including the beforementioned outgoing transaction. Thats all good, but what use does it have when I cannot send out my coins.. :-P
I am pretty sure the transaction will just be as stuck as before my wallet restore when I try to send them out now again.

What should I do?

[JoelKatz]

I restored my wallet again, and it has downloaded the chain up to the most recent block again. Now is says my balance is back up to the lever it should have including the beforementioned outgoing transaction. Thats all good, but what use does it have when I cannot send out my coins.. :-P
I am pretty sure the transaction will just be as stuck as before my wallet restore when I try to send them out now again.

What should I do?

I'm not sure why you're having trouble. You should just have to command the transaction and wait a half an hour or so, leaving your client connected the whole time. What version of the client are you using?

[Stephen Gornick]

I restored my wallet again, and it has downloaded the chain up to the most recent block again.

If for some reason the transaction hadn't been announced to the network and you then restored your wallet from a backup, then the network never knew you made that transaction, and now your local client doesn't either.

But there's no guarantee that the earlier transaction didn't make it to a node.  That transaction could be queued as could still could go through.

Normally, the bitcoin client will attempt to re-announce the transaction at a later time.  But you need to leave the client running -- for an hour or longer even, perhaps, for it to finally retry sending the transaction out.  But now that you've restored the wallet, the client won't be retrying anything.

You can always check to see a queue that helps to determine if a transaction has been announced to the network.  The queue shows transactions that were announced but are not yet included in a block.
  - http://www.bitcoincharts.com/bitcoin

And once it is in a block, it will appear in Block Explorer:
  - http://www.blockexplorer.com

After 6 confirmations, the client will change from unconfirmed to confirmed.

So, if your wallet doesn't know about that transaction, and it isn't showing as a queued transaction nor appears in block explorer, then you probably are safe in assuming the transaction never made it out.