Coinbase to Bitcoin-QT Transfer and no coins appeared. Please help

[Berke]

I just tried to send my purchased coins from Coinbase to Bitcoin-QT (v0.8.1-beta) but I left my computer run because sync seemed to never end. After hours, I thought it was frozen so I shut down Bitcoin-QT. So now I have a confirmed transaction by Coinbase and a ZERO coin in my Bitcoin-QT wallet.

Can someone please let me know if those coins somewhere I can find or I simply lost them?

[1714732538]

1714732538

[1714732538]

1714732538

[1714732538]

1714732538

[monocolor]

is the sync completed? otherwise you need to wait it to complete

[ryantw]

check blockchain.info and make sure you have 6 confirmations. Also, Coinbase seems to take a little longer to send.

[Berke]

No it did not. I thought it was frozen so i closed Bitcoin-Qt before the sync completed. I re-opened it and there is no sync continuation. Quite frustrating. Don't know what to do?

is the sync completed? otherwise you need to wait it to complete

[The Extreme]

Depending on the speed of your internet connection, the sync to get the entire blockchain can take hours, hours, hours, if not the better part of a day.  When you open bitcoin-qt, what are the icons in the lower right of the window indicating?  When you hover over them, you should be able to see their status.  One (the bars) should give information as to how many blocks have been downloaded, and how long ago it was generated.  The other (the rotating arrows) should indicate how many connections you have to the bitcoin network. 

[Berke]

Thanks. I have checked and there are 84 confirmations on blockchain.info. Now what?

And yes, Coinbase is quite a trouble. Purchasing bitcoins were T+6 days.  

check blockchain.info and make sure you have 6 confirmations. Also, Coinbase seems to take a little longer to send.

[Berke]

Thanks for your response. All of a sudden sync has appeared and 81% left out of 230.000 blocks. I think I will have to leave it for the rest of the day as it does not move even for 1% since 5 minutes.

The question comes with this experience (this is my very first transfer from an exchange to my own wallet) is that if a transfer takes that much time from the exchange to my wallet, what happens to the promise of Bitcoin to enable instant transfers from one country to another?

Depending on the speed of your internet connection, the sync to get the entire blockchain can take hours, hours, hours, if not the better part of a day.  When you open bitcoin-qt, what are the icons in the lower right of the window indicating?  When you hover over them, you should be able to see their status.  One (the bars) should give information as to how many blocks have been downloaded, and how long ago it was generated.  The other (the rotating arrows) should indicate how many connections you have to the bitcoin network. 

[The Extreme]

I'm a newbie myself, so if I am mistaken someone please advise: my understanding is that once a Bitcoin transaction is undertaken, it is truly instant.  It is recorded on the blockchain and it's simply a matter of seeing the change show up.  To see the change can and usually does take some time. 

That said, I'd be hesitant to transfer to a local wallet unless that particular client address was fully sync'd.  The transfer might "feel" faster in that instance, because until the sync has occurred I'm not sure how a client can reflect the transfer (i.e. the block that was generated when the transfer took place will be among the more recent).

Still,, even if one waits a few hours for a BTC transaction to occur: that's still likely faster than having to use a bank or Western Union or something like that - is soem countries, getting somewhere to be on the receiving end of the money could prove interesting.  And the fee for sending the money is hard to beat!