Bitcoin transfer stuck on 'unconfirmed' - low mining fee?

[hammichpty]

Hi everyone! I was wondering if you could help me. It has been about 12 or so hours since I sent a bitcoin transfer through Electrum to another wallet, but the payment has not left. It is stuck on my wallet with the label 'unconfirmed' and it doesn't have even 1 confirmation. The transaction fee is somewhere around 0.0001 bitcoin. Could the problem be related to that? Is there a way I can fix this? How can I at least get my money back in the wallet so I can send out the money again with a higher fee.

I'm a newbie in the bitcoin world, as I'm sure it shows, so I'd appreciate any input and help you are able to offer. Thanks!

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

Yeah you used too low a fee. Should be using .0005 routinely now. Check the tx id on blockchain.info and give it a day should confirm. Remember to use a higher fee next time.

[hammichpty]

Gotcha thanks! What should I do if it doesn't confirm after a day? Is there no way to cancel an unconfirmed transaction to send it again with a higher fee?

[Herbert2020]

Yeah you used too low a fee. Should be using .0005 routinely now. Check the tx id on blockchain.info and give it a day should confirm. Remember to use a higher fee next time.

two things are missing in this comment.
first you have to remember that the amount of fee is a suggestion and it is calculated per size of transaction meaning bigger transaction (more inputs not the amount you are sending) requires higher fees
https://bitcoinfees.21.co/

and also currently 10000(~13000) satoshi is good enough to be considered high priority still

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

Yeah you used too low a fee. Should be using .0005 routinely now. Check the tx id on blockchain.info and give it a day should confirm. Remember to use a higher fee next time.

two things are missing in this comment.
first you have to remember that the amount of fee is a suggestion and it is calculated per size of transaction meaning bigger transaction (more inputs not the amount you are sending) requires higher fees
https://bitcoinfees.21.co/

and also currently 10000(~13000) satoshi is good enough to be considered high priority still

New users are not sophisticated enough to calculate exact fees based on size of transaction. Using a .0005 fee routinely when new to bitcoin prevents problems like OP had. Many wallets are starting to use .0005 when user selects high priority and is not excessive.

[phat]

Hello,

I have received and sent several payments recently and they all where confirmed very quickly using a low fee.  However last few days I feel like something has changed.

I made 2 BTC payments the other day with low fees.  I'm new and was not sure what the fee should be, I did some research and found that I needed to use a higher fee.  In any case, it's been more than 24 hours and their still stuck on 0 confirmations.  On blockchain it says: "Estimated Confirmation Time   Within 6 Blocks (Medium Priority)"

Secondly,  I just made another payment and included fees based on what my other Bitcoin Core wallet recommended at the time to confirm within 25 blocks which was 0.0007037 BTC.  This one has 0 confirmations for approx. 12 hours. Blockchain says: "Estimated Confirmation Time   Very Soon (High Priority)"

In the past its take very little time to send and receive payments. 

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.  Thanks.

[ranochigo]

Hello,

I have received and sent several payments recently and they all where confirmed very quickly using a low fee.  However last few days I feel like something has changed.

I made 2 BTC payments the other day with low fees.  I'm new and was not sure what the fee should be, I did some research and found that I needed to use a higher fee.  In any case, it's been more than 24 hours and their still stuck on 0 confirmations.  On blockchain it says: "Estimated Confirmation Time   Within 6 Blocks (Medium Priority)"

Secondly,  I just made another payment and included fees based on what my other Bitcoin Core wallet recommended at the time to confirm within 25 blocks which was 0.0007037 BTC.  This one has 0 confirmations for approx. 12 hours. Blockchain says: "Estimated Confirmation Time   Very Soon (High Priority)"

In the past its take very little time to send and receive payments. 

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.  Thanks.

The estimate that Blockchain.info gives is almost always wrong. I can probably guess that the first transaction you have made complies with the free transaction rule and would probably not have any problem under normal circumstances. However, the mempool has a huge backlog of transaction that it has to clear and it would result in your transaction having a much lower priority.

For the second transaction, the estimate was when the network was at a much lower volume and it would be inaccurate after 25 blocks. I would suggest you to wait for some time. Could you provide the transaction IDs for better clarity?

[phat]

Hello,

I have received and sent several payments recently and they all where confirmed very quickly using a low fee.  However last few days I feel like something has changed.

I made 2 BTC payments the other day with low fees.  I'm new and was not sure what the fee should be, I did some research and found that I needed to use a higher fee.  In any case, it's been more than 24 hours and their still stuck on 0 confirmations.  On blockchain it says: "Estimated Confirmation Time   Within 6 Blocks (Medium Priority)"

Secondly,  I just made another payment and included fees based on what my other Bitcoin Core wallet recommended at the time to confirm within 25 blocks which was 0.0007037 BTC.  This one has 0 confirmations for approx. 12 hours. Blockchain says: "Estimated Confirmation Time   Very Soon (High Priority)"

In the past its take very little time to send and receive payments. 

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.  Thanks.

The estimate that Blockchain.info gives is almost always wrong. I can probably guess that the first transaction you have made complies with the free transaction rule and would probably not have any problem under normal circumstances. However, the mempool has a huge backlog of transaction that it has to clear and it would result in your transaction having a much lower priority.

For the second transaction, the estimate was when the network was at a much lower volume and it would be inaccurate after 25 blocks. I would suggest you to wait for some time. Could you provide the transaction IDs for better clarity?

Sure I can provide all 3 unconfirmed transaction ID:

These 2 are the free transactions:

fa2962af69964ea3cccb8f8f4fe859bd934c5a1e51a3acffce8be85a50e4e3e7

cdce6f30ebe7679fe99b90ad512e2be3c2b151af929e554fd6a92641b721b4cd

This is the one at the Bitcoin core recommended fee at the time:

68783b31ca5e4f9eb8e872405a59dafc0be8dac8685ce069766f46e576630dba

[HannesVader]

Same problem here,

i made a payment 2 days ago (it was my first one) and also made a low fee (sorry)
no its pending unconfirmed. and says estimatet Conformation Time: within 6 Blocks (Medium Priority)

What can i do do get the BC back and retry with a higher fee?

[Herbert2020]

Sure I can provide all 3 unconfirmed transaction ID:
These 2 are the free transactions:
fa2962af69964ea3cccb8f8f4fe859bd934c5a1e51a3acffce8be85a50e4e3e7
cdce6f30ebe7679fe99b90ad512e2be3c2b151af929e554fd6a92641b721b4cd

This is the one at the Bitcoin core recommended fee at the time:
68783b31ca5e4f9eb8e872405a59dafc0be8dac8685ce069766f46e576630dba

priority:
the fact or condition of being regarded or treated as more important than others.

so when you are medeuim (the two first tx with 1000 satoshi fee) it means there are many others in front of you which are more important, so miners choose those instead, not your tx .

the estimated time is a code bc.i has which is based on the olden times that is why it says withing 6 blocks.

[merelcoin]

Sure I can provide all 3 unconfirmed transaction ID:

These 2 are the free transactions:

fa2962af69964ea3cccb8f8f4fe859bd934c5a1e51a3acffce8be85a50e4e3e7

cdce6f30ebe7679fe99b90ad512e2be3c2b151af929e554fd6a92641b721b4cd

This is the one at the Bitcoin core recommended fee at the time:

68783b31ca5e4f9eb8e872405a59dafc0be8dac8685ce069766f46e576630dba

i used to use https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ to calculate how many satoshi's per byte i needed, but now i use following tool:

https://www.blockonomics.co/api/tx?txid=fa2962af69964ea3cccb8f8f4fe859bd934c5a1e51a3acffce8be85a50e4e3e7
https://www.blockonomics.co/api/tx?txid=cdce6f30ebe7679fe99b90ad512e2be3c2b151af929e554fd6a92641b721b4cd
https://www.blockonomics.co/api/tx?txid=68783b31ca5e4f9eb8e872405a59dafc0be8dac8685ce069766f46e576630dba

It's about the same, but you don't need to calculate your size anymore. If you log in, you can calculate the optimal fee beforehand (offcourse, this calculator uses a couple assumptions about which inputs and output will be used/generated, so results can vary, but it might be a good compare tool to compare the fee with the fee calculated by your wallet, and in case of big discrepancies, you can double-check or calculate manually).
BTW: it's still the average confirmation time, there is no guarantee whatsoever!!!

[phat]

Sure I can provide all 3 unconfirmed transaction ID:

These 2 are the free transactions:

fa2962af69964ea3cccb8f8f4fe859bd934c5a1e51a3acffce8be85a50e4e3e7

cdce6f30ebe7679fe99b90ad512e2be3c2b151af929e554fd6a92641b721b4cd

This is the one at the Bitcoin core recommended fee at the time:

68783b31ca5e4f9eb8e872405a59dafc0be8dac8685ce069766f46e576630dba

i used to use https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ to calculate how many satoshi's per byte i needed, but now i use following tool:

https://www.blockonomics.co/api/tx?txid=fa2962af69964ea3cccb8f8f4fe859bd934c5a1e51a3acffce8be85a50e4e3e7
https://www.blockonomics.co/api/tx?txid=cdce6f30ebe7679fe99b90ad512e2be3c2b151af929e554fd6a92641b721b4cd
https://www.blockonomics.co/api/tx?txid=68783b31ca5e4f9eb8e872405a59dafc0be8dac8685ce069766f46e576630dba

It's about the same, but you don't need to calculate your size anymore. If you log in, you can calculate the optimal fee beforehand (offcourse, this calculator uses a couple assumptions about which inputs and output will be used/generated, so results can vary, but it might be a good compare tool to compare the fee with the fee calculated by your wallet, and in case of big discrepancies, you can double-check or calculate manually).
BTW: it's still the average confirmation time, there is no guarantee whatsoever!!!

Is there any way to accelerate the process?  Also, for future payments is there any way I can guarantee a certain time frame?

[ranochigo]

Sure I can provide all 3 unconfirmed transaction ID:

These 2 are the free transactions:

fa2962af69964ea3cccb8f8f4fe859bd934c5a1e51a3acffce8be85a50e4e3e7

cdce6f30ebe7679fe99b90ad512e2be3c2b151af929e554fd6a92641b721b4cd

This is the one at the Bitcoin core recommended fee at the time:

68783b31ca5e4f9eb8e872405a59dafc0be8dac8685ce069766f46e576630dba

i used to use https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ to calculate how many satoshi's per byte i needed, but now i use following tool:

https://www.blockonomics.co/api/tx?txid=fa2962af69964ea3cccb8f8f4fe859bd934c5a1e51a3acffce8be85a50e4e3e7
https://www.blockonomics.co/api/tx?txid=cdce6f30ebe7679fe99b90ad512e2be3c2b151af929e554fd6a92641b721b4cd
https://www.blockonomics.co/api/tx?txid=68783b31ca5e4f9eb8e872405a59dafc0be8dac8685ce069766f46e576630dba

It's about the same, but you don't need to calculate your size anymore. If you log in, you can calculate the optimal fee beforehand (offcourse, this calculator uses a couple assumptions about which inputs and output will be used/generated, so results can vary, but it might be a good compare tool to compare the fee with the fee calculated by your wallet, and in case of big discrepancies, you can double-check or calculate manually).
BTW: it's still the average confirmation time, there is no guarantee whatsoever!!!

Is there any way to accelerate the process?  Also, for future payments is there any way I can guarantee a certain time frame?

You can try to wait till the priority has gotten high enough or when the nodes drop your transactions out of the mempool. Otherwise, if possible, you can try to spend the unconfirmed output with a higher fee and miners with Child pay for parent patch would mine it for you. This wouldn't work if the destination address isn't yours however.

It is impossible for anyone to "guarantee" that your transaction can be included in a block in a specific timeframe. This is due to miners having the liberty of excluding any transactions. However, the probability can be raised by increasing the fees/kb. In this case, I would recommend you to use dynamic fees in Electrum to calculate the best possible fee.

[k0stas]

I use electrum very long time never had a problem with fees but these days there are problems with low fees and i wonder 3% -6% fee who i use is low and why to pay more this is bad enough for bitcoin.

[k0stas]

It is possible to cancel transaction like the Bitcoin core wallet with -zapwallettxes.

[merelcoin]

It is possible to cancel transaction like the Bitcoin core wallet with -zapwallettxes.

If i'm not mistaking, -zapwallettxes just removes any unconfirmed transaction from your wallet, so you can re-use the inputs and your core wallet stops broadcasting.
However, if the transaction was broadcasted before, and it's still in some node's mempool, it might still confirm, even after using zapwallettxes. So this method isn't a foolproof "cancel transaction" method.
You would need to re-use the inputs used for the zapped transaction in order to "cancel" it, or you'd have to wait untill it's completely forgotten by the network (and hope it's not confirmed before it's forgotten).

Similarly, for other wallets, you can always try to do a double-spend of the inputs before the transaction is confirmed, but AFAIK, there is no "real" way to "cancel" a transaction

[olufunsho]

How can I accelerate a transaction I was supposed to receive? The sender used a fee that is too low.