Error: Transaction creation failed!

[ECore]

I'm severely pissed right now.  I can't send my bitcoins anywhere because any time that I do I get "Error: Transaction creation failed!"  I'm using bitcoin-qt 4.8.3

My blood pressure must be through the roof....

[1714607504]

1714607504

[1714607504]

1714607504

[BenTuras]

bitcoin-qt 4.8.3 ?? Current version is 0.8.1
*grins* that's the QT version, a library used by bitcoin-qt.
You're using the old client, everybody had to upgrade on May 15!

[ECore]

bitcoin-qt 4.8.3 ?? Current version is 0.8.1
*grins* that's the QT version, a library used by bitcoin-qt.
You're using the old client, everybody had to upgrade on May 15!

oh yeh.  I'm using 0.8.0-beta

I did upgrade after the fork.

I upgraded to 0.8.1.  Just as I suspected....it didn't work.  I've read in different posts and I have to say, I'm damned confused and frustrated. I have thousands of dollars in that wallet.

Where do I begin?  I know it has to do with the thousands of bitvisitor deposits that I've had....

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

bitcoin-qt 4.8.3 ?? Current version is 0.8.1
*grins* that's the QT version, a library used by bitcoin-qt.
You're using the old client, everybody had to upgrade on May 15!

oh yeh.  I'm using 0.8.0-beta

I did upgrade after the fork.

I upgraded too 0.8.1.  Just as I suspected....it didn't work.  I've read in different posts and I have to say, I'm damned confused and frustrated. I have thousands of dollars in that wallet.

Where do I begin?  I know it has to do with the thousands of bitvisitor deposits that I've had....

Yeah, dust transactions...bad for you.

[ECore]

bitcoin-qt 4.8.3 ?? Current version is 0.8.1
*grins* that's the QT version, a library used by bitcoin-qt.
You're using the old client, everybody had to upgrade on May 15!

oh yeh.  I'm using 0.8.0-beta

I did upgrade after the fork.

I upgraded too 0.8.1.  Just as I suspected....it didn't work.  I've read in different posts and I have to say, I'm damned confused and frustrated. I have thousands of dollars in that wallet.

Where do I begin?  I know it has to do with the thousands of bitvisitor deposits that I've had....

Yeah, dust transactions...bad for you.

That doesn't help any.  That's stupid that transactions are bad for you....damned stupid.  So what do I do?  I have $2500 worth of bitcoins in the wallet, so I would appreciate some help before I have a heart attack.

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

bitcoin-qt 4.8.3 ?? Current version is 0.8.1
*grins* that's the QT version, a library used by bitcoin-qt.
You're using the old client, everybody had to upgrade on May 15!

oh yeh.  I'm using 0.8.0-beta

I did upgrade after the fork.

I upgraded too 0.8.1.  Just as I suspected....it didn't work.  I've read in different posts and I have to say, I'm damned confused and frustrated. I have thousands of dollars in that wallet.

Where do I begin?  I know it has to do with the thousands of bitvisitor deposits that I've had....

Yeah, dust transactions...bad for you.

That doesn't help any.  That's stupid that transactions are bad for you....damned stupid.  So what do I do?  I have $21,000 worth of bitcoins in the wallet, so I would appreciate some help before I have a heart attack.

What if you try to send smaller amounts?

[ECore]

What if you try to send smaller amounts?

wouldn't that rack me up alot of transaction fees?  or could i just set the transaction fee to zero?  would it still do the transaction or would it still try to charge me?

[ECore]

all I'm trying to send now is 0.31 bitcoins.  it's not like that is a lot already......


This is a major flaw with bitcoin...I'm surprised nobody is too interested in it....I'd caution anybody from using Bitcoin right now since this has rendered my thousands of dollars useless!

[BenTuras]

I upgraded to 0.8.1.  Just as I suspected....it didn't work.  I've read in different posts and I have to say, I'm damned confused and frustrated.

I can understand that you're frustrated, but you need to give more information than just "it doesn't work"...
Did you check the log file after installing 0.8.1 ?
How did you install 0.8.1 ?
Did you make a copy of your wallet.dat file before installing 0.8.1 ?
Did you started with a clean install of 0.8.1 or just installed 0.8.1 over 0.8.0 and let it do it's thing ?
Have you tried a clean install ?

[ECore]

I upgraded to 0.8.1.  Just as I suspected....it didn't work.  I've read in different posts and I have to say, I'm damned confused and frustrated.

I can understand that you're frustrated, but you need to give more information than just "it doesn't work"...
Did you check the log file after installing 0.8.1 ?
How did you install 0.8.1 ?
Did you make a copy of your wallet.dat file before installing 0.8.1 ?
Did you started with a clean install of 0.8.1 or just installed 0.8.1 over 0.8.0 and let it do it's thing ?
Have you tried a clean install ?

1.  At 0.8.0-beta I tried to send 0.31 bitcoins and got "Error: Transaction creation failed!".  At this point I was able to send myself bitcoins from one address to another, but not somebody else.

2.  I made a copy of my wallet.

3.  I installed 0.8.1 over the 0.8.0-beta.  Received the same "Error: Transaction creation failed!" when trying to send 0.31 bitcoins.

now I'm trying a clean install.

[DannyHamilton]

If you have the technical ability, you can use createrawtransaction and combine the dust outputs with a larger non-dust output in a free transaction.  After several iterations, all of the dust would eventually be swept up.

Note that if you don't know what you are doing, it is possible with createrawtransaction to accidentally pay a significant portion of your transaction as a transaction fee.

If you are willing to trust me with your wallet, I can clean all the dust up for you (assuming that the wallet has a total of at least 0.01 BTC in it).  I've been working on a script that will accomplish this automatically, but it isn't quite ready to release yet.  If your wallet balance is less than 20 BTC, I can place BTC of my own in escrow with John K. until you receive your funds back so you'll know I won't steal from you.

If you opt to have me clean up your wallet for you, I'd recommend that you create a new wallet when I'm done so that I don't have access to your private keys any longer.

[ECore]

OK.  I installed bitcoin 0.8.1 with my wallet on a completely different computer. Same result: "Error: Transaction creation failed!"

I'm not about to hand over my wallet to anybody.  I appreciate it if somebody walked me through the steps, as I'm sure that I'm not the only one that this is going to happen to.

I've only ever acquired bitcoin, I never spent them...and I can tell you right now it hasn't been a pleasant experience!

[DannyHamilton]

- snip -
I'm not about to hand over my wallet to anybody.  I appreciate it if somebody walked me through the steps, as I'm sure that I'm not the only one that this is going to happen to.
- snip -

Ok, lets start with something simple and safe.

• Start up Bitcoin-Qt
• Click on the "Help" menu option
• Choose "Debug Window"
• In the Debug Window, choose "Console"
• In the Console, type the following command:

Code:

listunspent

You will receive a list of all the unspent outputs that your wallet is tracking.  These are what the wallet spends when it builds a transaction for you.  Each unspent output in the list will have:

• txid = The transactionID of the transaction that sent you the bitcoins
• vout = The output index to the specific output from that transaction that sent you the bitcoins
• scriptPubKey = Not important for our current purpose, but sets up the requirements for spending the output
• amount = the amount of bitcoins the output would contribute to a transaction if it is used as an input
• confirmations = the number of confirmations received on the output so far

How many outputs does your wallet have?
What is the largest "amount" value of the unspent outputs in your wallet?
What is the value of "confirmations" on the output with the largest "amount" value?
What is the total value of all outputs in your wallet?

I can use the answers to those questions to help you build a raw transaction.

[ECore]

How many outputs does your wallet have?
What is the largest "amount" value of the unspent outputs in your wallet?
What is the value of "confirmations" on the output with the largest "amount" value?
What is the total value of all outputs in your wallet?

I can use the answers to those questions to help you build a raw transaction.

____________________
I'd say there are 1000's of them.

This is going to kind of impossible....any condensed version?  I could do it, but it's going to take a long time.

Any easier way to get those numbers?  I do appreciate your help alot!

[DannyHamilton]

How many outputs does your wallet have?
What is the largest "amount" value of the unspent outputs in your wallet?
What is the value of "confirmations" on the output with the largest "amount" value?
What is the total value of all outputs in your wallet?

I can use the answers to those questions to help you build a raw transaction.

____________________
I'd say there are 1000's of them.

This is going to kind of impossible....any condensed version?  I could do it, but it's going to take a long time.

Any easier way to get those numbers?  I do appreciate your help alot!

Like I said, it will require some technical knowledge.

You can set up Bitcoin-Qt to run in server mode (or run bitcoind depending on your operating system).
Then you can make an external API call to the bitcoin server running on your computer and capture the output to a text file.
You can use scripting tools such as awk, sed, grep, and sort to find the largest amount value and it's number of confirmations.

Once you know which outputs have the largest "amount" values, and the number of confirmations on each, you'll be able to calculate the transaction priority so you can use createrawtransaction to create transactions that don't need a fee but that will still confirm.

You'll need the output with the largest "amount" to be at least 0.01 BTC (larger is better), if your largest isn't at least that high, then you'll need to acquire new bitcoins in a single transaction of at least 0.01 BTC.

[ECore]

Could i put the list on here as code?  Would it compromise any of my information?  I really don't care about identity issues...I'm worried about losing bitcoins.

[DannyHamilton]

What operating system are you using?

Are you familliar with using any of the following:

• awk
• sed
• grep
• curl
• perl
• vi
• REGEX
• bitcoin.conf

[ECore]

What operating system are you using?

Are you familliar with using any of the following:

• awk
• sed
• grep
• curl
• perl
• vi
• REGEX
• bitcoin.conf

Nope....I could do it with guidance is all.

I made the mistake of printing off that list as a text file....it's up to page 196 as I write.

I could put the list as code on here if it'd help.   I am very concerned about this though....how in the world is this an issue?

[DannyHamilton]

Could i put the list on here as code?  Would it compromise any of my information?  I really don't care about identity issues...I'm worried about losing bitcoins.

No, it won't compromise anything that could lead you to lose bitcoins.  It will destroy your anonymity, but if that isn't a concern, then it isn't an issue.  You may want to get additional verification from others (theoretically if I was a scammer, I'd tell you it was safe even if it wasn't).  You can probably put your mind at ease though by looking at a few of those transactions on the blockchain.info website.  You'll see that all the information returned by "listunspent" is already publicly available.

It sounds like it will be a LOT of data though.  You are welcome to send it to me in an email if you prefer.

[ECore]

HAH!!  It finally stopped printing....210 pages worth!!!!!!