Btc wallet showed a higher total than it should, then they were lost when moved

[slickwilly]

I hate to ask for help, but I also hate to lose my coins and I can't find answers anywhere else. Here is my issue: I had approx 8.5 btc in my wallet, then I sent 5 to another acct. After checking to see that my 5 btc transfer had been confirmed I noticed that I had more coins showing in my wallet than I should've. Instead of approx 3.5 left, I had a weird number like 7.925 approx. I wanted to see if I could spend it, so I decided to send it to the same place I had sent the 5 btc earlier. My comp flashed something like an error with a funny noise so quickly I couldn't really read it, and also all of my coins were gone. This includes the real amount I should've had and the money that appeared from nowhere. I waited to see if it would show up and it never made it to where I sent, probably because I didn't really have as much as my wallet showed. I re-downloaded the entire blockchain hoping my 3.5 would reappear since my transfer should've been rejected in the first place. They did not reappear however. I have a transaction id from the attemped transfer that doesn't show up when searched for on the blockchain. I can see that there was a fee charged also, so there must be some record of this and some way to get my coins back. I don't know how to track them down if it's even possible, or how my wallet could've shown more coins than I really even possessed. This problem is over my head, I need the community to help me out on this one if possible. I can't afford to let those coins just stay in limbo. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!

[LyQaN]

You try to contact Blockchain support?What they said about issue?
I'm sure if you mistakenly send coins to some other address or some thing wrong happens to your wallet they must have record of it.

[Herbert2020]

i think it is possible that you have sent a wrong amount to your other address, maybe used 5uBTC instead of BTC so that is why you saw "weird number like 7.925 approx" (with the fees) instead of 3.5 BTC

anyways check your addresses (your wallet addresses and the one that you have sent to) on an online block explorer to see what has happened and where the coins are. if they are not where they should be (the addition of all the coins (sent+remaining in your wallet+fees) must be 8.5BTC and if there is a suspicious tx that you don't recognize it might be a malware, keyloger on your computer (i don't know what that flash error thingy you said is) so you should check your PC for to remove those malwares

[shorena]

@slickwilly lets start at the start. It sounds like you are using bitcoin core, is that correct? If so, which version?

When you write "re-downloaded the entire blockchain" how exactly did you do that?

[unholycactus]

You try to contact Blockchain support?What they said about issue?
I'm sure if you mistakenly send coins to some other address or some thing wrong happens to your wallet they must have record of it.

Blockchain support? What is this and what for?

@OP, if you're able to, you should post the tx IDs if you have them.
They will help us a lot to solve your problem.

Unless you messed up sending to an address that isn't yours, you shouldn't panic and your coins aren't lost (if you really had them in the first place).

[notlist3d]

You try to contact Blockchain support?What they said about issue?
I'm sure if you mistakenly send coins to some other address or some thing wrong happens to your wallet they must have record of it.

Blockchain support? What is this and what for?

@OP, if you're able to, you should post the tx IDs if you have them.
They will help us a lot to solve your problem.

Unless you messed up sending to an address that isn't yours, you shouldn't panic and your coins aren't lost (if you really had them in the first place).

I think that person is assuming a blockchain.info account.   But from post sounds like OP used core.

What is your bitcoin address you were using OP?  If we know that.... we can see if there are coins in it or if no coins.  If coins are there hopefully it will sync up once downloaded (hopefully) if not I hope you made a backup of private key or wallet.dat.

We need more real info OP right now hard to help with information provided.

[Decoded]

If you have this kind of problem with your wallet, you should always think twice. Check different wallet explorers and try to find out the real balance. After that, refresh your wallet, or send to an address that you own.

[slickwilly]

Yes, my wallet is core i believe. I am not advanced in comp science, everything I know I taught myself by just reading online. I have had this wallet for approx 3 yrs never had an issue. I am not sure what version, what i see is bitcoin qt. I'm not sure if that helps anyone. When I redownloaded the blockchain from the beginning, I reset my comp to an earlier save point. I was then forced to download all 365 weeks and when finally in sync, my balance was still 0.00  I think i will try to run my info thru a wallet block explorer as suggested. I am not sure how or which one is the best to use tho.
Another aspect of this dilemma is that the address I sent the wrong amount to no longer exists. It was at a market where the address gets regenerated every time you send coin there. I used the address my wrong amount was supposed to go to a few days later, and everything worked fine. The fact that that address was still available means that it definitely never made it to the market account. The old market addresses are wiped away forever after seven days of being used, and any coins sent to that address after seven days are lost forever. I believe my coins should be in my wallet still, but aren't being shown. Either that or they are floating around somewhere. I hope this helps the people who are willing to give me some advice. I thank everyone who has taken the time to offer suggestions.

[DannyHamilton]

To start with, this discussion thread is full of people who don't know what they are talking about and are very likely to (at best) waste your time with bad advice and possibly (at worst) destroy your chance to recover the bitcoins.  Be very careful about which advice you follow.

Shorena is knowledgeable and I've always found that he is careful and gives good advice.  You may have a few others show up with good advice, but other than shorena, I'd think twice about what anyone else that has already posted in this thread says.

You've indicated that you think you are running Bitcoin Core (also known as Bitcoin Qt).  In the drop down menus you should see an option for "About Bitcoin Qt" or "About Bitcoin Core".  If you click on that menu option, you should see what version you are running.

Another question that will help a lot in figuring out what happened and how to fix it is what bitcoin address the initial 5 BTC were sent to, and/or what the transactionID is of that transaction.

I hope you created a backup of your wallet before you "reset my comp to an earlier save point".  If you didn't it might still be able to recover, but I wouldn't do ANYTHING else until creating a backup of that wallet and storing it in a safe place.

[notlist3d]

Yes, my wallet is core i believe. I am not advanced in comp science, everything I know I taught myself by just reading online. I have had this wallet for approx 3 yrs never had an issue. I am not sure what version, what i see is bitcoin qt. I'm not sure if that helps anyone. When I redownloaded the blockchain from the beginning, I reset my comp to an earlier save point. I was then forced to download all 365 weeks and when finally in sync, my balance was still 0.00  I think i will try to run my info thru a wallet block explorer as suggested. I am not sure how or which one is the best to use tho.
Another aspect of this dilemma is that the address I sent the wrong amount to no longer exists. It was at a market where the address gets regenerated every time you send coin there. I used the address my wrong amount was supposed to go to a few days later, and everything worked fine. The fact that that address was still available means that it definitely never made it to the market account. The old market addresses are wiped away forever after seven days of being used, and any coins sent to that address after seven days are lost forever. I believe my coins should be in my wallet still, but aren't being shown. Either that or they are floating around somewhere. I hope this helps the people who are willing to give me some advice. I thank everyone who has taken the time to offer suggestions.

Let it sync... hopefully it comes back and matches everything you think it should be.  Do you know your bitcoin address?  If you know that we can use a blockchain explorer to see if coins are still in it.

On second part using wrong address we need to again know more.  What site where you using when you say "market"?   There are a ton of sites so we cant say much unless you tell us where you sent it to. 

But again if you tell us your bitcoin address you were using.... it would be the most helpful thing currently.  Other then that wait for blockchain on core to sync and hope it's there.

[Pursuer]

.....  I think i will try to run my info thru a wallet block explorer as suggested. I am not sure how or which one is the best to use tho.

block explorers are not that much different. for your purposes you can use any of them https://www.google.com/search?q=bitcoin+block+explorer

I prefer https://blockchain.info/ myself.
to ease your mind before your wallet synchs, you can enter each of your bitcoin address in the block explorer's search box and see all your transactions and make sure where the money has gone.

[jak3]

hey mate can you give us the two addresses from where you are transaction and if is also possible that you mistakenly sent 5ubtc(to confirm this you have to check the tranaction tab) and after that when you tryed to send the remaining balance it should warn you that you are going to send all the balance

[slickwilly]

First of all thank you to shorena and danny hamilton for being people I can trust. I am fairly adept at weeding thru bullshit and I get a good feeling from you guys. Thank you for telling me how to find what version of core i'm using, those are the type of things that help me and hopefully teach me so that I wont have to ask for help in the future. It seems that some are trying to get info from me that will help them to steal the coins. As far as the notion that I sent less than 5 btc on my original transfer is wrong. The 5 coins made it to their destination and were used to make a purchase. We can eliminate that possibility. Before I paid to get access to this site I tried to find answers elsewhere and couldn't find a dilemma that was exactly the same. One piece of advice I got tho was to download the entire blockchain over until it shows up, someone said coins that were lost reappeared after doing this like 4 times. So far I have only done that once and I had no luck. I plan to make a backup of my wallet as suggested and proceed from there. This may sound like a dumb question but, do I have one singular wallet id to look for on a block explorer or is my wallet basically the combination of all of the addresses i've used to receive coins over time? As I said I am self taught and I really don't learn new skills to navigate until I am forced to. I guess you could say I like to stick with what works. Again, thank you to everyone who has offered to help.

[shorena]

First of all thank you to shorena and danny hamilton for being people I can trust. I am fairly adept at weeding thru bullshit and I get a good feeling from you guys. Thank you for telling me how to find what version of core i'm using, those are the type of things that help me and hopefully teach me so that I wont have to ask for help in the future. It seems that some are trying to get info from me that will help them to steal the coins. As far as the notion that I sent less than 5 btc on my original transfer is wrong. The 5 coins made it to their destination and were used to make a purchase. We can eliminate that possibility. Before I paid to get access to this site I tried to find answers elsewhere and couldn't find a dilemma that was exactly the same. One piece of advice I got tho was to download the entire blockchain over until it shows up, someone said coins that were lost reappeared after doing this like 4 times. So far I have only done that once and I had no luck. I plan to make a backup of my wallet as suggested and proceed from there. This may sound like a dumb question but, do I have one singular wallet id to look for on a block explorer or is my wallet basically the combination of all of the addresses i've used to receive coins over time?

The word wallet can have different meanings. Most commonly it is refered to the software managing your private keys (e.g. bitcoin core) or the file that has the actual private keys in it (in case of bitcoin core that file is named wallet.dat). A wallet can store any number of private keys (and corresponding addresses) and its common that it stores more than one.

As I said I am self taught and I really don't learn new skills to navigate until I am forced to. I guess you could say I like to stick with what works. Again, thank you to everyone who has offered to help.

From what you write it sounds to me that you want the unconfirmed transaction to be removed from your wallet. If you have bitcoin core 0.12, 0.11.x or 0.10.x (where x is the highest available version). You can use -zapwallettxes for that. E.g. on windows you do:

#1 close core
#2 make sure its closed
#3 open "run" (win + r)
#4 enter: c:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe -zapwallettxes and confirm with ok
#5 let core do its thing.

What the command does is it removes all transactions from you wallet and rescans in the local blocks for any transactions for any of your addresses. This will mean that unconfirmed or conflicted (e.g. in case of a double spend attempt) transactions are not added again. Your wallet will show the balance before you created (or received) the transaction.

Usually this only helps if you created the transactions. Once its removed from your wallet you can recreate it after some time (~24 hours) with a higher fee. You will need to wait the ~24 hours to make sure a large portion of the network has forgotten about your transaction. This is because bitcoin network nodes (such as bitcoin core) do not relay transactions that conflict with ones the node already knows about. You want the transaction to get relayed to a miner in order to get it confirmed.

[slickwilly]

Unfortunately it looks like im using v0.8.2-beta when i look under the drop down menu under about bitcoin. Also, under the drop down menu for about qt it looks like im using qt 4.8.3. I would hope that I could still apply the same instructions you suggested for alternate versions, but i'm sure it won't be that easy. If know a way to do what you what you explained with the version I have, I would love to know and finally solve this problem. I thank you again for taking the time to explain things in a way that I can follow. I appreciate the fact that there are good people out there that are still willing to help, that's one of the reasons I enjoy the time I spend online.

[shorena]

Unfortunately it looks like im using v0.8.2-beta when i look under the drop down menu under about bitcoin. Also, under the drop down menu for about qt it looks like im using qt 4.8.3.

QT is just the part that creates the graphical user interface, its not as important as the version of core/qt you are using.

I would hope that I could still apply the same instructions you suggested for alternate versions, but i'm sure it won't be that easy.

 If know a way to do what you what you explained with the version I have, I would love to know and finally solve this problem. I thank you again for taking the time to explain things in a way that I can follow. I appreciate the fact that there are good people out there that are still willing to help, that's one of the reasons I enjoy the time I spend online.

The command did not exist when 0.8.2 was the current version. It was added because of things like these. The only solution back than was to use 3rd party software (like pywallet) to remove TX from the wallet.

Any reason why you dont want to update? There have been a few security patches since 0.8.2 as well.

[slickwilly]

Thank you for that info Shorena. I haven't had any issues until now, so I just haven't updated since I first downloaded it. I am always afraid I'm going to mess things up when they already work fine. I guess that i can still use the third party technique, or is it so outdated that it's no longer available? What do you think is the best way to procede considering the circumstances? Thanks again for your time and advice!

[shorena]

Thank you for that info Shorena. I haven't had any issues until now, so I just haven't updated since I first downloaded it. I am always afraid I'm going to mess things up when they already work fine. I guess that i can still use the third party technique, or is it so outdated that it's no longer available? What do you think is the best way to procede considering the circumstances? Thanks again for your time and advice!

Pywallet[1][2] is still available, but its not what I would call a user friendly tool. I personally would create a backup of the wallet file and update to 0.12.0[3]. If that does not work for some reason, I would try 0.11.2[4] or 0.10.3[5].

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=294439
[2] https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet
[3] https://bitcoin.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.12.0/
[4] https://bitcoin.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.11.2/
[5] https://bitcoin.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.10.3/