Dust outputs preventing transaction

[oggie679]

Hi,

New to BTC and BTC transactions but I am using v4.0.6 of Electrum and although my first transaction last week was successful, the one I tried to do last night will not work.

Error message is: "The server returned an error when broadcasting the transaction. Consider trying to connect to a different server, or updating Electrum. Transaction could not be processed due to dust outputs."

I have gone into the server section, selected "choose from peers" and tried to select a different server. I have updated Electrum. I have waited overnight and tried again. I have set up a new transaction but nothing is working.

Anyone have any ideas on how I can start using my wallet again?

[1714057258]

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[1714057258]

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[1714057258]

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[LoyceV]

Error message is: "The server returned an error when broadcasting the transaction. Consider trying to connect to a different server, or updating Electrum. Transaction could not be processed due to dust outputs."

Are you trying to send a transaction smaller than 0.00000546 BTC? That's (currently) not possible.

[ranochigo]

AFAIK, Electrum automatically eliminates dust outputs from change by spending it as fees.

I suspect that you've gotten your units of Bitcoins wrong. Are you sure you're using BTC and not mBTC? Many newbies were confused by the UI and tends to treat the mBTC as BTC, thus resulting in them trying to spend 0.0001mBTC, etc.

[o_e_l_e_o]

AFAIK, Electrum automatically eliminates dust outputs from change by spending it as fees.

It does do this for automatic change outputs - removes any dust outputs and adds it to the fees - but it won't do this for any outputs that OP has specified manually. If he has typed in 546 satoshi as an amount he wants to send to an address, then it will proceed with creating the transaction and then display the above error.

In terms of base units OP, go to Tools -> Preferences -> Base Unit and choose your preferred option.

[oggie679]

Hmmm maybe that is it, I'm trying to do 0.00146mBTC I believe, about $30 I think... But yeah I am a newb so perhaps I'm stuffing up the conversion (mBTC Vs BTC)... I'll check this afternoon and try again, thanks all, very helpful!

[Rath_]

Hmmm maybe that is it, I'm trying to do 0.00146mBTC I believe, about $30 I think... But yeah I am a newb so perhaps I'm stuffing up the conversion (mBTC Vs BTC)... I'll check this afternoon and try again, thanks all, very helpful!

0.00146 mBTC is 0.00000146 BTC or 146 satoshis. It looks like you have confused mBTC with BTC. As far as I remember, Electrum displays mBTC by default. You can change it in the settings ("Tools -> Preferences -> Base unit").

[LoyceV]

Hmmm maybe that is it, I'm trying to do 0.00146mBTC I believe, about $30 I think...

That's about $0.02783. When in doubt, you can use http://preev.com/ to get the dollar value (make sure to change BTC to mBTC).

But yeah I am a newb so perhaps I'm stuffing up the conversion (mBTC Vs BTC)...

In mosts parts of the world, people use milli all the time in daily life (mainly mm and ml), so I guess you're from a part that doesn't use that?

[oggie679]

It worked thanks all, was about the conversion. No I'm from the UK but more of an amateur issue - didn't notice website was BTC and wallet was mBTC!

[tranthidung]

It worked thanks all, was about the conversion. No I'm from the UK but more of an amateur issue - didn't notice website was BTC and wallet was mBTC!

You can change the unit.

Tools > Preferences > General > Base unit:

• BTC
• mBTC
• bits
• sat

Units (Bitcoin.it). Please read to understand bitcoin units. Personally, BTC and mBTC are enough for me.
By the way, I used to know about the scam approach: seller tried to sell bits but buyers naively thought they were buying bitcoin. Differentiate bits and bitcoin, please.