Need help recovering coins sent from wallet that didn't reach any nodes [reward]

[svensken]

[1 bitcoin reward offered for solution to this]

Hi! I realize this may be the wrong forum for this post and all but seeing as my account is new I don't have privileges to post anywhere else than here, I'm hoping somebody with the sufficient expertise will find this thread anyways!

So here's my problem;

Early morning 13 apr I tried sending bitcoins to two addresses, I sent it from my bitcoin-qt client version 0.7.1 and I shut down the client shortly afterwards, later I noticed that neither of the transactions went through and confirmed and it also seems they were not sent through any nodes nor do they show up at all on the blockchain. However the bitcoins are not available in my wallet any more and since they were never really sent I'm thinking I should be able to recover them somehow.

Here's the transactions' information from bitcoin-qt:

Status: 0/obekräftade <-- obekräftade is Swedish for unconfirmed
Datum: 2013-04-13 03:24 <-- date
Till: 1FskeHkysUY1YSmhiwSZV4mwEd4qZ4VEtC <-- receiving address
Belasta: -3.965 BTC <-- amount sent
Transaktionsavgift: -0.0001 BTC <-- txn fee
Nettobelopp: -3.9651 BTC <-- total btc amount sent
Transaktions-ID: d2396299d605df2ebb756e2f22c22aa5989dbc9279eee10fc566de936cae55af <-- txn ID

Status: 0/obekräftade
Datum: 2013-04-13 03:25
Till: 13bQgatMQVSJEFYiqnKWoM1Fbe9yokp2YD
Belasta: -14.885 BTC
Transaktionsavgift: -0.0005 BTC
Nettobelopp: -14.8855 BTC
Transaktions-ID: 39eebfbacb35f29368e1e47c269bd451be7fae2f1d554d1f9e446a8839500801

If you try searching for the transaction IDs on blockchain or blockexplorer, they do not show at all.


I do not have any early backup of this wallet file that still has these coins on it, only recent ones made after this.. Here's what I have tried to get my bitcoins back:

I encountered a thread with somebody having a similar issue, though I can't seem to find it again. A user had him try input "getrawtransaction *insert txn id*" and then "sendrawtransaction *insert output from getrawtransaction*"  in the console, and I did this with both transactions and they were immediately rejected with the message "TX rejected (code -22)".


I also installed the latest bitcoin-qt client (0.8.1) and downloaded the blockchain from scratch, moved the wallet-file to the new client but no cigar there. I've also tried running the client with the -rescan parameter and this did not help either.

Now I'm at a total loss of what to do next and that's quite a few bitcoins just floating around.. So I'm issuing a reward of 1 btc to the person that first helps me get this resolved.

I'm really hoping the coins are not lost in cyberspace and I'd appreciate any help with this. I can send the 1 btc reward to a moderator up front to hold if somebody's doubtful I'll pay up.

Thanks for your time

[theBigBadWolf]

Hi,

This is a bit strange, but most likely tx's just didn't get broadcasted to the network.

bitcoin-qt rebroadcasts it once in awhile, so I'd leave it running.

You could also have a look in the debug.log in the data directory. The location will depend on operating system

More info here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory

[DannyHamilton]

- snip -
I've also tried running the client with the -rescan parameter and this did not help either.
- snip -

You can also force it to rebroadcast by doing --rescan of the blockchain.

That doesn't sound like it's going to be very helpful advice.

[theBigBadWolf]

Hey gweedo,

I thought --rescan just re-reads the blockchain with respect to the current block and sendrawtransaction $(getrawtransaction $TXID) is what can be used to re-broadcast the tx?

M

[DannyHamilton]

- snip -
try input "getrawtransaction *insert txn id*" and then "sendrawtransaction *insert output from getrawtransaction*"  in the console, and I did this with both transactions and they were immediately rejected with the message "TX rejected (code -22)".
- snip -

- snip -
bitcoin-qt rebroadcasts it once in awhile, so I'd leave it running.
- snip -

From what the OP has said, I suspect that the client is unable to send these transactions for some reason.  It probably wouldn't hurt to leave it running for a couple of hours, but I suspect more help than that is going to be needed.

[drakahn]

backup your wallet, Load up pywallet, delete the transactions from your wallet

[DannyHamilton]

Depending on your technical skill, you could try looking into pywallet and seeing if you can remove the offending transactions from your wallet with that.

You could also try creating a new wallet and importing all the private keys from your old wallet into the new wallet.

[theBigBadWolf]

I was always under the impression that wallet.dat stored private keys and blockchain was where the tx log resided

[DannyHamilton]

I was always under the impression that wallet.dat stored private keys and blockchain was where the tx log resided

wallet.dat also stores the transactions that your wallet sent which haven't yet made it into the blockchain.

[theBigBadWolf]

I was always under the impression that wallet.dat stored private keys and blockchain was where the tx log resided

wallet.dat also stores the transactions that your wallet sent which haven't yet made it into the blockchain.

Learning something new everyday. I think this must be a new feature.
Last client I used was 0.3.14.

This is going to be interesting to catch up with all the development

[svensken]

backup your wallet, Load up pywallet, delete the transactions from your wallet

Depending on your technical skill, you could try looking into pywallet and seeing if you can remove the offending transactions from your wallet with that.

You could also try creating a new wallet and importing all the private keys from your old wallet into the new wallet.

I did try and remove those 2 particular transactions with pywallet and did a -rescan but it did not work, however when I deleted all of the transactions in the wallet and redownloaded the entire blockchain, voilà, it worked! I'll split the promised 1 bitcoin between you guys, post your addresses here and I'll have it sent ASAP. Thanks for helping me out guys, you're lifesavers

[DannyHamilton]

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I'll split the promised 1 bitcoin between you guys, post your addresses here and I'll have it sent ASAP. Thanks for helping me out guys, you're lifesavers

Send my share to Jackjack:
19QkqAza7BHFTuoz9N8UQkryP4E9jHo4N3

It's his pywallet that saved the day (and does so repeatedly for so many people).  We need to make sure we provide enough incentive for him to keep it up to date and usable.

[drakahn]

address is in signature

[darkskiez]

I love stories with a happy ending.

[svensken]

- snip -
I'll split the promised 1 bitcoin between you guys, post your addresses here and I'll have it sent ASAP. Thanks for helping me out guys, you're lifesavers

Send my share to Jackjack:
19QkqAza7BHFTuoz9N8UQkryP4E9jHo4N3

It's his pywallet that saved the day (and does so repeatedly for so many people).  We need to make sure we provide enough incentive for him to keep it up to date and usable.

Thanks, that's very gentle and respectable and I totally agree with you. At these exchange rates, that's quite a few bitcoins to lose and having a semi easy-to-use tool like this available when crap go haywire is fabulous  

jackjack and drakahn got their 0.5 coinz, thanks once again. This was a very pleasant first experience of the forum



Love your Tardis btw, Danny. lol