Armory either "Connected (0 blocks)", “Node offline (0 blocks)” or "Offline"

[Nicoerdannicoer]

Dear,

For a while now I am unable to run Armory successfully to gain access to by BTC.
Full situation description below (sorry for being lengthy and using non-technical language).

Running:
Armory 0.96.5
Bitcoin Core 0.21.1
(on Windows 10)

Bitcon Core (BC) is running and seems completely synced.
Armory wallet shows up in available wallets, but does not seem to connect with BC.
Bottom right corner in Armory has shown: "Connected (0 blocks)" in purple, “Node offline (0 blocks)” in red, and “Offline” in red. But never “connected ([xx number xx] blocks)”.

While trouble shooting I tried:

- Uninstalling both BC and Armory + deleting all Armory and BC data files under "C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming", and reinstalling both apps. Then only reusing the "blocks", "chainstate" and "databases" files for BC (not looking forward to downloading them again).
- Starting up BC, all seems all right, asking me to create new wallet. BC is not syncing anymore, so seems to be synced as it should be?
- When staring up Armory,  a windows popup showed:
"Disconnected
Connection to bitcoin core is lost! Armory cannot send nor receive bitcoins until connection is reestablished."
- Restoring and mirroring wallet seemed fine
- Armory shows "Armory is online!"
- And the transaction tab is accessible
- But the lower right corner shows "Connected (0 blocks)" in purple, which doesn’t seem right.
- Double checked the directories in Armory settings, which seemed to be set correctly.
- No actions seemed to change the situation.

- Rebooted Armory.
Now the bottom right corner below shows:
"Offline"
The centre of the interface shows:
"Node status" bar = fully green
"Build Databases" bar = fully green
"Scanning transaction History" bar = gray (Which stays static)
- Also the transaction tab is not accessible anymore

- Closed down both apps
- Opened BC first, then Armory
- When staring up Armory, the windows popup again showed:
"Disconnected
Connection to bitcoin core is lost! Armory cannot send nor receive bitcoins until connection is reestablished."
- Armory interface is the same, but the bottom right corner shows “Node offline (0 blocks)”.

- Rebooted Armory (with BC open)
- No windows pupup with connection problem message anymore
- Armory interface is the same, but there is a disk sign next to the green "Build Databases" bar, and the bottom right corner shows “Offline”

- Kept rebooting BC and Armory several times, and starting it up in different orders.
- No windows connection problem popup anymore
- Armory interface is the same, but without the disk sign next to the green "Build Databases" bar. Bottom right corner keeps showing “Offline”.

Executed the process above similarly two times with same result.

Also tried:
- Rebooting computer several times (including again deleting Armory files and logs, and restoring wallet).
- As there seem to be a problem with Armory connecting to BC I experimented with the Armory directory setting. But this wasn’t successful.
Still, as the windows popup shows the connection problem immediately when starting Armory, the problem is more likely to originate from somewhere else.

Armory log: https://pastebin.com/f2YiWi1P

Would be very grateful for you helping me out!

[1714995846]

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[nc50lc]

First, restart your PC so any lingering background process will close; armorydb usually stays running in the backgound causing issues,
Alternatively, force close armorydb in 'Task Manager' after closing Armory.

Next, add server=1 to your bitcoin.conf file in Bitcoin's data directory (C:\Users\USER\AppData\roaming\bitcoin) so Armory can communicate with bitcoin-qt's RPC.
You can open the ".conf" file using a text editor, type that setting, then save it.

Lastly, disable "pruning" in your Bitcoin Core's settings (Settings->Options...->Prune block storage to) and bitcoin.conf file so the older blocks wont be deleted.
This will require you to re-download and verify the blockchain (re-sync).

[HCP]

Code:

-ERROR - 09:57:27.140: (e:\users\goat\code\armory3\cppforswig\lmdb_wrapper.cpp:1503) Headers DB has no block at height: 0
-ERROR - 09:57:27.140: (e:\users\goat\code\armory3\cppforswig\lmdb_wrapper.cpp:1483) No headers at height 0
-ERROR - 09:57:27.156: (e:\users\goat\code\armory3\cppforswig\blockchainscanner.cpp:445) Missing file map for output scan, this is unexpected
-ERROR - 09:57:27.156: (e:\users\goat\code\armory3\cppforswig\blockchainscanner.cpp:447) Has the following block files:
-ERROR - 09:57:27.156: (e:\users\goat\code\armory3\cppforswig\blockchainscanner.cpp:451) Was looking for id #4294967295

Looking at the error messages from your ArmoryDB log file, it seems that your Bitcoin Core node is running in "pruned" mode... Unfortunately, Armory will not be able to work correctly with a pruned Bitcoin Core node.

Do as nc50lc has suggested and ensure that Bitcoin Core is not pruned... and then get Bitcoin Core fully synced. Note that this will require ~400+ Gigs of free storage space for Bitcoin Core to download and store the block data.

[Nicoerdannicoer]

Thanks @nc50lc and @HCP!

Did as suggested, and am currently downloading blockchain again.

Ill post the result when finished.

[Nicoerdannicoer]

Worked out great guys!
The pruning option in BitconCore was the problem indeed.
Thanks so much!


Just a note for possible other noobies like me:

Without pruning, my internal laptop SSD did not have sufficient space, and my external HD was not fast enough to facilitate the block validation in a reasonable time.
Therefore I got a new external SSD (with reading and writing speeds of 1050 and 1000 mb/s respectively). Sure an SSD with half that speed would be sufficient as well. But, in my case the download and validation of the blockchain took only <2 days on the external SSD, instead of a few weeks on the external HD.