Transaction disappeared in blockchain, lost my bitcoins (:

[leviathon1]

Bit disturbed but I'm sure we can find out what happened.

8f5332d1c09a8d7d291a542a90d97477508bd0647586135ddcfaa70a15b9dfd8: Seen by 1 peer. Pending/unconfirmed.

And then sat there for hours. So I looked to bitnz.com and multibit for help. Bitnz.com were helpful but in the end said to do the same as Multibit did.

Multibit told me to restart Multibit client.  I did that.
Multibit told me to restart the network and Multibit. I did that too.
Restarted PC, network and Multibit.

Transaction still showed a square meaning 'pending/seen by 1 peer'.

Multibit then told me to "Reset blockchain and transactions" so I did that too.

Now my transaction is gone, and so are the Bitcoins.

The transaction from start to finish never ever showed up in blockchain btw.

I had thought that resetting the blockchain would re-push my transaction but, it went from 1 peer seen to, 'no such transaction'.

Frightened.

My next transaction seems it 'may' be having an issue also.

Help

[deepceleron]

If you are not the one sending the initial bitcoins, then nothing you are doing is at fault, the Bitcoins sent to you likely were sent without fees, were too small, or were purposely double-spent.

If you spent Bitcoins you never received, then that transaction that requires them will never confirm either, for reasons that should be obvious.

[leviathon1]

I spent bitcoins I had received, so it's not that.

And I'm the sender, who has sent many coins before using the same client.

[frankenmint]

I've seen it happen sometimes  - how long has it been now?  For me, mt gox processed a withdrawl and it took the entire night before it became available which had never happened to me before that point.  The 2nd time it happened from a payout from bitminter.  So I've seen it before - just relax and confirm with us again tomorrow.

[leviathon1]

I think it's been nearly 2 days.

What if the bitcoins were sent to an address that didn't exist? In this case it should not have sent right?

[DannyHamilton]

I think it's been nearly 2 days.

What if the bitcoins were sent to an address that didn't exist? In this case it should not have sent right?

Bitcoins don't get "Sent" anywhere.

They are associated with bitcoin addresses.

Either the transaction confirms and the bitcoins are associated with the address that you "sent" them to, or the transaction ceases to exist and the bitcoins are still associated with your address.

If the transaction has vanished, then the bitcoins are back under your control (still associated with your address), unless the bitcoins that you spent were unconfirmed when you spent them.  In that case it is possible that the transaction to you never confirmed, and that the bitcoins are now associated with an address under the control of whoever sent those bitcoins to you.

[leviathon1]

...or the transaction ceases to exist and the bitcoins are still associated with your address.

How would one retrieve associated bitcoins then?


The coins were confirmed with 3 confirmations and Multibit had it's little green tick.

This is a screenshot before I reset the transactions:

[IMG=http://imagize[Suspicious link removed]http://ageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/132/lyc6.png][/img]

And this is after resetting the transactions:

[IMG=http://imagize[Suspicious link removed]http://ageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/534/jpry.png][/img]

If you work out the balance from the pretty new wallet there, you may note that my balance should actually have an additional missing 0.0679... Bitcoins.

Thoughts on how to retrieve?
Thoughts on where they might be? The transaction never went past 1 confirmation, and then just disappeared upon resetting transactions.

[DannyHamilton]

...or the transaction ceases to exist and the bitcoins are still associated with your address.

How would one retrieve associated bitcoins then?


The coins were confirmed with 3 confirmations and Multibit had it's little green tick.

This is a screenshot before I reset the transactions:

[IMG=http://imagize[Suspicious link removed]http://ageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/132/lyc6.png][/img]

And this is after resetting the transactions:

[IMG=http://imagize[Suspicious link removed]http://ageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/534/jpry.png][/img]

If you work out the balance from the pretty new wallet there, you may note that my balance should actually have an additional missing 0.0679... Bitcoins.

Thoughts on how to retrieve?
Thoughts on where they might be? The transaction never went past 1 confirmation, and then just disappeared upon resetting transactions.

According to blockchain.info:
https://blockchain.info/address/17CjwPShqxzqHNsLjN658dAEVHUNeuVH8Q

You address 17CjwPShqxzqHNsLjN658dAEVHUNeuVH8Q should currently (at the moment that I'm writing this) have 0.09338642 BTC

If your wallet is not showing that, then there are transactions that are confirmed that your wallet is failing to find.

You can either try resetting the MultiBit wallet back to an earlier date, or you can export the private key from MultiBit and import it into some other wallet.

[escrow.ms]

you can export the private key from MultiBit and import it into some other wallet.

I will recommend electrum for alternate wallet.

[leviathon1]

FIXED

Solution: Go to "Tools", "Reset Blockchain and Transactions" and set to at least a day behind original transaction.

I tried to reset it back to the 21st and, (what I believe might be the reason causing Multibit not to initially retrieve my bitcoins) because I am in New Zealand, the transaction actually took place on the 20th according to the blockchain, perhaps?

Or I could be totally wrong.

Nevertheless, go 2 days prior to lost transaction to be safe and yet efficient.

Thank you to all for your help! Understanding the concepts better helped me figure it out.

Cheers

[Crestington]

When I first started using bitcoins I sent it without a fee and hung for days. I ended up downloading multibit, importing my wallet and resetting the transactions to an earlier date, essentially I double spent the same transaction with a higher fee so it would go through and reject my previous transaction.

[dscottmc]

I have been 40 days so far struggling to find my bitcoins.  I'm sure I'm giving out private stuff below, but at this stage I just need help!!    Please forgive the massive data!
FYI I'm running HP64 w/Windows 7 Pro
Here's the history as I see it:
1.  21 December 2013 – opened wallet in “Localbitcoins.com” and purchased $200.0 (USD) of bitcoins (.31255 less .00005 fee).  It showed up beautifully.

2.  I downloaded Multibit 0.5.16 and set up my wallet.

3.  22 Dec. 2013, I sent the .3125 bitcoin to Multibit wallet, address: 1LuMokUofndYgrBD8KRgfsjgDC4d7JPC73

4.  After time I checked with blockchain…all good. Balance at localbitcoin.com= 0, good. 1c47807b3f9ab10cc9b0acae92d27fd6c2f544fa3b6416c2cda90aefd517c5372013-12-22 07:40:56

5.  Restarted Multibit, computer, gateway numerous times, all combinations

6.  Validated current Java and "Reset blockchain and Transactions" (numerous)

7.  Set up second wallet.

8.  Exported private keys to a file, then imported them in from my second wallet.

9.  The log is (today, Jan 30, 2014) 1,785,512 Kb!  Downloaded Large Text Viewer (LTV) to see it.  Noticed reference to port 8331.

10. Windows:Set new rules for incoming and outgoing traffic opening ports 8333 and 8331.

11.  Wallets are still showing "Connecting"  No cigar.

12. I pulled up the private keys and changed the date from 20131221xxxx.key to 20131220xxxx.key to enable blockchain to go back a day before the transaction.

13.  Repeated it all over again...nada.

Here is what I can see:
Mulitibit today says:   (edited out HTML font references. The underlining is mine for emphasis)

The user data directory is "C:\Users\dscottmc\AppData\Roaming\MultiBit".
The installation directory is "C:\Program Files (x86)\MultiBit-0.5.16".
Opening wallet "C:\Users\dscottmc\AppData\Roaming\MultiBit\multibit.wallet"...... done.
Opening wallet "C:\Users\dscottmc\AppData\Roaming\MultiBit\multibit-data\wallet-unenc-backup\multibit-20131221215513.wallet"...... done.
Starting blockchain replay from network...
Replaying blockchain from date "Oct 16, 2013"
Stopping Bitcoin network connection...
The new wallet "C:\Users\dscottmc\AppData\Roaming\MultiBit\multibit.wallet" could not be created. The error was "Could not write walletinfo file for wallet 'C:\Users\dscottmc\AppData\Roaming\MultiBit\multibit.info'".
Another program has changed this wallet. To avoid errors this MultiBit has stopped updates.
org.multibit.file.WalletSaveException Could not write walletinfo file for wallet 'C:\Users\dscottmc\AppData\Roaming\MultiBit\multibit-data\wallet-unenc-backup\multibit-20131221215513.info'
Another program has changed this wallet. To avoid errors this MultiBit has stopped updates.

After that, the log shows "Peer died"
[New I/O boss #17] INFO  com.google.bitcoin.core.Peer - [173.74.207.246]:8333 - connection timed out - or "Disconnected from peer, address, :xxxx,   - over and over.

This IS information overload.  Sorry

[Sonny]

3.  22 Dec. 2013, I sent the .3125 bitcoin to Multibit wallet, address: 1LuMokUofndYgrBD8KRgfsjgDC4d7JPC73

So, you have problems with Multibit, and you have the private key of the above address, right?

If so, you can just forget about Multibit, and import the private key in other wallets such as Electrum or blockchain.info.

[dscottmc]

   Sonny!!
Thanks man. You cut to the chase and I have my money back!!! BTC
I exported my Multibit private key(s) to a text file (Notepad).  I had three different iterations of Multibit so I exported from each one, assuming that each one would be the same since they came from the same source.  NOT SO!
I exported my private keys to Notepad unencrypted.  A typical key would read:
# KEEP YOUR PRIVATE KEYS SAFE !
# Anyone who can read this file can spend your bitcoin.
#
# Format:
#   <Base58 encoded private key>[<whitespace>[<key createdAt>]]
#
#   The Base58 encoded private keys are the same format as
#   produced by the Satoshi client/ sipa dumpprivkey utility.
#
#   Key createdAt is in UTC format as specified by ISO 8601
#   e.g: 2011-12-31T16:42:00Z . The century, 'T' and 'Z' are mandatory
#
LrxhH503lKjIIH46H443L18n4mlljbecusgeoWaswhoLbxfoNbPn
KyxlXtTpsi266cJldpxf352jgHMyy282LAyzqqualJaZyZedNbPn
# 013-09-25T14:09:06Z
# End of private keys

Well, actually all of the above was on one single line in Notepad.
IF the above were to be true, then only one was the actual key, (e.g. Lxxxx, not Kxxx).  Gary Rowe's article on how to import the key was great.  "Delete all lines that start with #, delete dates and signatures at the end of the key.  Copy the key line only, e.g. (as above, i.e.  LrxhH503lKjIIH46H443L18n4mlljbecusgeoWaswhoLbxfoNbPn) as your key will start with either L or K."

The process was simple (41 days of sweating ), but I went to www.blockchain.info, opened my wallet, clicked on Import/Export (accepted the warning), and after much trial and error finally copied the "L" key above into the line next to "Import Private Key", [Enter] the options "Direct Import/Sweep Key" and I chose the "Direct Import" (twice).  After trial and error, viola!!! There it was.  If anyone wants the diatribe of the details I did prior to your (Sonny)'s suggestion to drop Multibit and go to blockchain, see the post Sonny replied to.

Life is good...thank you, Sonny...thank you Gary Rowe and Jim618 and Mike Hearn.  I'll be back to Multibit when I am better equipped.

[Sonny]

Life is good...thank you, Sonny...thank you Gary Rowe and Jim618 and Mike Hearn.  I'll be back to Multibit when I am better equipped.

You are welcome.
Glad to see your problem solved.

BTW, when I first read your post, I am so worried that you really show your private key to the world

[MICRO]

That happened to me once when i sent with 0 fee. But was on my wallet 2 days later