Regaining BTC sent with 0 conf

[omgitsmehehe]

Hello,

I have sent a 0.2805BTC transaction on 19/04/2013 and is basically stuck (has 0 confirmations). How can I get this added back into my wallet balance?

[syn999]

 I dont think there is a way to get it back

[DannyHamilton]

I dont think there is a way to get it back

Correction.  There is no easy way to get it back.

You can look into using pywallet to delete the transaction from your wallet.  You could also export all the private keys from your wallet and import them into a new wallet.

Either solution requires a bit of technical knowledge and runs the risk of losing bitcoins and messing up your wallet if you don't know what you're doing.

[FocusMedia]

It's not really worth messing up your wallet over it. If you're wondering why it isn't getting confirmed is that it can be slow so wait it out for a bit.

[CIYAM]

Assuming that you didn't send any fee with the tx you'll just have to wait (eventually it should go through).

Next time if you want the tx to go faster than add a tx fee (0.0005).

[DannyHamilton]

If you're wondering why it isn't getting confirmed is that it can be slow so wait it out for a bit.

The transaction doesn't even show up on the network. I don't think any miners know about it.  Looking at the date of the transaction in his image, it appears that it was sent 18 days ago.

I'm guessing that the OP is running an older version of the wallet that allowed them to send very large (in terms of bytes) transactions or transactions with outputs less than 0.01 BTC without including a transaction fee.  If that is so, then most likely, none of his peers are relaying it (or ever will).

Newer versions of Bitcoin-Qt enforce a fee to avoid this very situation.

[CIYAM]

Oops - missed the date sent (still half asleep) - I think pywallet is probably your best option now (to delete the tx from your wallet after which you may need to start with a -rescan to fix up the balance).

[scintill]

The transaction doesn't even show up on the network. I don't think any miners know about it.  Looking at the date of the transaction in his image, it appears that it was sent 18 days ago.

I'm guessing that the OP is running an older version of the wallet that allowed them to send very large (in terms of bytes) transactions or transactions with outputs less than 0.01 BTC without including a transaction fee.  If that is so, then most likely, none of his peers are relaying it (or ever will).

Newer versions of Bitcoin-Qt enforce a fee to avoid this very situation.

Interesting.  OP, if you still want the transaction to go through and you post the raw transaction, someone might be able to get it confirmed for you (such as through direct relay to Eligius -- I'm pretty sure I've seen them take a tx with no fees at all.)  This might be safer than hacking wallet.dat.  In any case, backup your wallet.dat before messing with it.

[MartinReynolds]

úpdate ur bitcoin software also.

[omgitsmehehe]

Hey guys,

I'm updated on 0.8.1. I also included a fee with the tx;

[Blowfeld]

Hello,

I have sent a 0.2805BTC transaction on 19/04/2013 and is basically stuck (has 0 confirmations). How can I get this added back into my wallet balance?

Untried.  But *should* work without using any non-standard tools and without risk to your existing wallet.  (Note step #2 !!!)

1.  Export the private key which was the source of the funds for the $0.2805BTC transaction.

2.  To be safe, use a different computer for the following!  I'm not responsible if you mess up your original wallet!

3.  Create a brand new wallet on the different computer.

4.  Import the private key you saved in step 1.  With most wallets, the import should kick off a rescan of the block chain.

5.  Assuming the client running your new wallet isn't talking to the client running your old wallet, the new wallet will only see what's in the block chain.  (And you say the blockchain still has your $0.2805BTC.)

6.  Send the money from the new client.  You can send it back to yourself or you can send it to the originally intended address.

7.  When the transaction created in #6 gets some confirmations, the original transaction will become a failed "double-spend" attempt.  All should be well.

Good luck.

[Edit:  
Revised #6.  Send *all* of the money from the new wallet back to yourself.  (To a receive address known to the old wallet).

Otherwise, be aware that your new wallet may send change back to a (possibly hidden) address known only to the new wallet.  Be sure all the expected money appears in your old wallet before you even *think* about destroying the new wallet.  You may need to explicitly send the change seen only in your new wallet to an address known to your old wallet.]

[Welsh]

I think pywallet, is your best option.
But beware, it's not really worth messing your bitcoin wallet up, unless you export all your bitcoin to a separate wallet.
There are other options, I believe there is a youtube video which has a step by step guide on how to do this, you might want to check that out.

[DannyHamilton]

Very odd that your wallet is not rebroadcasting that transaction.

You can try starting up the wallet with the -rescan option. You can try using pywallet.  You can try importing the private keys into another wallet. You can just live with it sitting in your wallet unconfirmed indefinitely. Or, you can send you wallet to a trusted expert who can resolve the issue for you.

At this point, after nearly 20 days, if it isn't being broadcast to peers, or if peers are refusing to relay it, then I don't think it will ever confirm on its own.

If you do decide to send your wallet to an expert, you may want to have them post some funds to an escrow holder.  The escrow holder could release the posted funds to you if the "expert" fails to deliver.  If the expert delivers, you'll want to generate brand new addresses (or better yet, start a brand new wallet) since the "expert" will have access to all the private keys of your old addresses.

[omgitsmehehe]

I'd rather not mess up my wallet since I have a fairly decent amount of BTC in there. I didn't realise it would be so complicated hehe.

Thanks anyway guys.