Blockchain.info transaction did not confirm. Coins returned to origin [RESOLVED]

[spark]

Hey guys, please help me out here.

I made a blockchain account. Bought a few botcoin.

paired a device successfully after many attempts.

changed the account password to a good secure one. Several days later could not login. had no idea wtf....

paired Device could still do transfers though.... so made a new account and transfered the balance to the new account.

Transfer went through... fine, using new account for almost a week with the balance showing the whole time...

Then I receive an email from blockchain.info...
"A transaction made through My Wallet has been removed from our database because it was taking a long time to be included in a block..
You may wish to try and make this transaction again, apologies for any inconvenience."

I log into my new account and the balance is zero... WTF? I thought transfers could not be reversed?
why would blockchain show a full balance for so many days in the new address then revert it?

Problem now is I have no access to the old account and still have no idea why.

[BitcoinTate]

Hey guys, please help me out here.

I made a blockchain account. Bought a few botcoin.

paired a device successfully after many attempts.

changed the account password to a good secure one. Several days later could not login. had no idea wtf....

paired Device could still do transfers though.... so made a new account and transfered the balance to the new account.

Transfer went through... fine, using new account for almost a week with the balance showing the whole time...

Then I receive an email from blockchain.info...
"A transaction made through My Wallet has been removed from our database because it was taking a long time to be included in a block..
You may wish to try and make this transaction again, apologies for any inconvenience."

I log into my new account and the balance is zero... WTF? I thought transfers could not be reversed?
why would blockchain show a full balance for so many days in the new address then revert it?

Problem now is I have no access to the old account and still have no idea why.

This is why I keep all my BTC in an offline encrypted password secured wallet on "my" hard drive that "I" control.

[Stephen Gornick]

Problem now is I have no access to the old account and still have no idea why.

Is it possible you were trying to login with the wrong wallet ID?  Did you assign an alias to it?   If not, did you have an e-mail or SMS assigned to it which might give you the wallet identifier?  
 - https://blockchain.info/wallet/forgot-identifier

I log into my new account and the balance is zero... WTF? I thought transfers could not be reversed?

Confirmed transactions cannot be reversed.  If the transaction was being ignored (or not being relayed) and never made it into a block, eventually the rest of the network will forget about it and the original client will need to re-broadcast it.    Blockchain.info is simply saying it no longer broadcasts it.

why would blockchain show a full balance for so many days in the new address then revert it?

Blockchain.info/wallet includes in your balance any transactions that have not yet confirmed.

Is it possible that the transaction from the "lost" wallet itself too had not confirmed?   That might happen if the party that sent those funds to you had double spent against you.  If you know the bitcoin address(es) in that "lost wallet", check blockchain.info to see if that address(es) till show the funds.  If not, then you have a different problem than not being able to login to the "lost" wallet.

[Edit: In the worst case scenario, blockchain.info (or someone else) might have an archive of the transactions.   If your transaction is valid and just needed to be rebroadcast, anyone can re-broadcast it.  If it instead simply didn't get relayed for whatever reason, and nobody has a copy of it, then you're out of luck.]

[freequant]

I log into my new account and the balance is zero... WTF? I thought transfers could not be reversed?
why would blockchain show a full balance for so many days in the new address then revert it?
Problem now is I have no access to the old account and still have no idea why.

Curse the marketers who induced you to believe that "The Cloud" is the next big thing.
Cloud is totally retarded. Don't use cloud services.

[willphase]

The transaction was not reversed, it just never entered a block presumably because you didn't enclose enough fee.

Since your original transaction never confirmed - you should have kept your old keys (the source of the non confirming transaction) and not destroyed them until you saw it was in a block.

Will

[spark]

Blockchain.info/wallet includes in your balance any transactions that have not yet confirmed.

Wow ok this i did not know.

Yes I have the right identifiers, old address now shows the balance. However I can no longer access it via the paired android device since I tried (and failed, buggy blockchain app) to pair it with the new account.


I still have encrypted backups of the old wallet. Can I import these elsewhere to regain access?

[willphase]

yup you can restore your old wallet and send the tx again with a fee - or you could post the txid here and maybe someone has it in their memcache (e.g. my bitcoin-qt runs 24h and might still have it) then you can just rebroadcast the tx and hope it gets accepted

Will

[Stephen Gornick]

I still have encrypted backups of the old wallet. Can I import these elsewhere to regain access?

Well, if you are sure you know the password you can try a script to decrypt it:
 - https://gist.github.com/fcicq/3368495

Additionally, while Blockchain.info might not be re-broadcasting the transaction, if it is valid anyone else with a copy of it can re-broadcast it. 

I posted a question inquiring if anyone has a copy of it:
 - http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/8946

[franky1]

lesson one
dont use online wallet for long term storage. only use for daily 'pocket money amounts'

lesson two
even if you have forgot your password, as long as you have the private key to your hoard you can use it anywhere.

lesson three
the private key is the most important thing in your life. keep it as a paper wallet. when you intend to spend a small amount of coin, produce a new paper wallet. Import the first(old) paper wallet to a desktop/web client do your spending and send the remnants/change/ hoard left over to the address of the fresh UN-IMPORTED paper wallet.

that way no hoards of coins remain in programs/cloud services.

here endith the lessons

[spark]

Fantastic. successfully imported the encrypted backup. Rare happy end to a 'argh I've lost my coins' story.

Thanks for the help guys. Lessons learned.

[BitcoinTate]

lesson one
dont use online wallet for long term storage. only use for daily 'pocket money amounts'

lesson two
even if you have forgot your password, as long as you have the private key to your hoard you can use it anywhere.

lesson three
the private key is the most important thing in your life. keep it as a paper wallet. when you intend to spend a small amount of coin, produce a new paper wallet. Import the first(old) paper wallet to a desktop/web client do your spending and send the remnants/change/ hoard left over to the address of the fresh UN-IMPORTED paper wallet.

that way no hoards of coins remain in programs/cloud services.

here endith the lessons

+1

[BitcoinTate]

Fantastic. successfully imported the encrypted backup. Rare happy end to a 'argh I've lost my coins' story.

Thanks for the help guys. Lessons learned.

Glad to hear it! Now move em offline!

[spark]

I posted a question inquiring if anyone has a copy of it:
 - http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/8946

Thanks so much for that Stephan. The willingness to help I see in the community is a real affirmation of the ideals and potential of bitcoin.

[piuk]

Title would be better as: "Blockchain.info transaction did not confirm. Coins returned to original wallet"  Good to see they were recovered anyway.

[jwzguy]

lesson one
dont use online wallet for long term storage. only use for daily 'pocket money amounts'

I heartily agree. But you're posting about a blockchain.info incident. And calling blockchain.info an online wallet is not very accurate. Sure, they store encrypted online backups of your wallet for your convenience, but it's run locally. No trust is required.

I don't think there is anything wrong with using blockchain.info as your main wallet. They provide the tools to both secure and safely backup your wallet, along with many other services, and don't require that you download the blockchain. I usually recommend them to new users.