Electrum: send transactions status Unconfirmed after 12 hours

[markrockny]

I sent a small amount of BTC between my two Electrum wallets. After almost 12 hours the transactions status is still Unconfirmed in both wallets.
From Wallet:
Unconfirmed [1.5 sat/b, 503.19 MB]
Unconfirmed [1. sat/b, 503.39 MB]
To Wallet:
Unconfirmed [1.5 sat/b, 503.39 MB]
Unconfirmed [1. sat/b, 503.39 MB]
I don't think this is normal. How do I get this resolved?
thanks

[OmegaStarScream]

It looks like the transaction fee you paid was way too low. Try to increase the fees by right-clicking your transaction in the transaction history. This should give you a better idea of how much you should set the fees to: https://mempool.space/

[Upgrade00]

I don't think this is normal. How do I get this resolved?

You used a fee which is below the current purging rate, meaning your transaction will not be confirmed by any miner.

If your transaction purpose is not urgent and you're not ready to spend more than 20 says/vbyte to get it confirmed, you can allow it to be dropped by nodes.
If you want it confirmed, choose your priority fee and bump it to that, then rebroadcast.

Current rate;
Low, medium and high priority is approximately: 34, 37 and 42 satsvbyte.

[Findingnemo]

I sent a small amount of BTC between my two Electrum wallets. After almost 12 hours the transactions status is still Unconfirmed in both wallets.
From Wallet:
Unconfirmed [1.5 sat/b, 503.19 MB]
Unconfirmed [1. sat/b, 503.39 MB]
To Wallet:
Unconfirmed [1.5 sat/b, 503.39 MB]
Unconfirmed [1. sat/b, 503.39 MB]

You can't really broadcast a transaction with 1.5sat/b with the current network congestion because most of the electrum servers will reject the TX and probably you will get an error like this.

The server returned an error when broadcasting the transaction. Consider trying to connect to a different server, or updating Electrum. insufficient fee

I don't think this is normal. How do I get this resolved?
thanks

Use the bump fee feature and set the fee over 30sat/vbyte for your transaction to get included in the next block.

[Zaguru12]

I don't think this is normal. How do I get this resolved?

It’s normal it is just that the transaction fee is just too low, you need to bump the fee to the ones suggested above, know that you need to have an extra funds in those wallets to bump the fee. If the sending wallet is where you have extra funds then use the RBF bumping method. But if it is the receiving wallet that has the extra funds to cover for the charges then use the CPFP bumping method from the second wallet.

You can't really broadcast a transaction with 1.5sat/b with the current network congestion because most of the electrum servers will reject the TX and probably you will get an error like this.

The server returned an error when broadcasting the transaction. Consider trying to connect to a different server, or updating Electrum. insufficient fee

I was also a bit surprised that such transaction was allowed to broadcast with that low fee. But my guess is maybe the server he is connected to actually allows transactions with such fee rate, since nodes have different mempool settings, but definitely some nodes wouldn’t have the transaction in the mempool currently.

[Apocollapse]

In addition what @Findingnemo is saying, you can remove your transaction manually in your local machine and start to create a new transaction base on current mempool condition at least 31 sat/vbyte (don't forget to enable RBF feature).

[Charles-Tim]

If your transaction purpose is not urgent and you're not ready to spend more than 20 says/vbyte to get it confirmed, you can allow it to be dropped by nodes.

He supposed not be able to broadcast such transaction because nodes are not accepting a transaction below the purging. I am doubting it that it may be a local transaction.

@markrockny
Are you sure that it is not a local transaction? If not, it is better to increase the fee rate. 35 sat/vbyte is enough as fee rate. You can make use of https://mempool.space/ to know the fee rate to use. If it is a local transaction, you can also use 35 sat/vbyte to broadcast it.

[BIT-BENDER]

This is not a problem, infact everyday the complications in Crypto-currency keeps getting simpler, I don't know the version of electrum you using but I use the updated version and on this version it tells you what you should do if you are having issues like unconfirmed transactions.
I believe if you go to your transaction status you would see a note asking you to bump you transactions fee to speed up the process it's that simple.

[hosseinimr93]

(don't forget to enable RBF feature).

The option to enable/disable RBF has been removed since the version 4.4.0 of electrum and all transactions are automatically flagged as RBF.

He supposed not be able to broadcast such transaction because nodes are not accepting a transaction below the purging. I am doubting it that it may be a local transaction.

OP posted the transaction status and according to that, the transaction has been broadcasted by the server.
Nodes can have their own setting and it's not that they all have the same purging fee rate.

Of course, many other nodes have probably rejected OP's transaction and it's possible that the transaction status changes to local once OP is connected to a different server.

[avikz]

I sent a small amount of BTC between my two Electrum wallets. After almost 12 hours the transactions status is still Unconfirmed in both wallets.
From Wallet:
Unconfirmed [1.5 sat/b, 503.19 MB]
Unconfirmed [1. sat/b, 503.39 MB]
To Wallet:
Unconfirmed [1.5 sat/b, 503.39 MB]
Unconfirmed [1. sat/b, 503.39 MB]
I don't think this is normal. How do I get this resolved?
thanks

The fees is way too low. I don't think it will ever get confirmed. I believe Electrum gives an option to increase the fees so please make use of that and increase the fee according to the mempool. Otherwise your money will be lost forever in the Blockchain.

Check fees here - https://mempool.space/

This is a big issue that Bitcoin network is facing right now. Unless these ordinals are banned from the network, I don't think it will ever get resolved.

[EarnOnVictor]

I sent a small amount of BTC between my two Electrum wallets. After almost 12 hours the transactions status is still Unconfirmed in both wallets.
From Wallet:
Unconfirmed [1.5 sat/b, 503.19 MB]
Unconfirmed [1. sat/b, 503.39 MB]
To Wallet:
Unconfirmed [1.5 sat/b, 503.39 MB]
Unconfirmed [1. sat/b, 503.39 MB]
I don't think this is normal. How do I get this resolved?
thanks

Bro, this is what many people are facing recently due to network congestion and you may check the current info/stats through mempool.space in case you do not know it. The site will always guide you on the current standing of the network and the right fees that will help your transaction to push through as quickly as possible. By what you quoted, the speed priority is very low, your transaction will not be mined in the block.

But don't be discouraged, as it is now, Electrum wallet has the replace-by-free enabled for every transaction, so you can pump the fee to make the transaction go faster.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

With very low fee rates like 1 to 1.5 sat/vbyte, your transactions will be dropped from many mempools but even there are some mempools don't drop your transactions, they will not confirm yours.

Waiting is waste of your time.

Try to connect your Electrum wallet to some different Electrum servers and if you see your transaction shows as Local. Click on it to Remove. Then rebroadcast your transaction with higher fee rate. Current mempools will give you confirmation with fee rate like 40 sat/vbyte.

[0t3p0t]

I sent a small amount of BTC between my two Electrum wallets. After almost 12 hours the transactions status is still Unconfirmed in both wallets.
From Wallet:
Unconfirmed [1.5 sat/b, 503.19 MB]
Unconfirmed [1. sat/b, 503.39 MB]
To Wallet:
Unconfirmed [1.5 sat/b, 503.39 MB]
Unconfirmed [1. sat/b, 503.39 MB]
I don't think this is normal. How do I get this resolved?
thanks

This is way too low mate mine was set to 35 sats/vB and was confirmed already but it took maybe 2-3 days to hit at that level. Just like yours I also have a 1 sats/vB, 28 sats/vB and a 30 sats/vB transaction and all of them were still unconfirmed though it was just a trial and error but yeah I am happy that the one transaction with a much higher fee that I cancelled was already confirmed like two days ago.

[markrockny]

First, thank you all for the info, very helpful for a novice like me.
I'm on the latest version of Electrum: 4.4.6, on Windows.
The transactions are now showing as Local in both wallets.
The balance in the receiving wallet shows as if they completed, but the balance is Frozen.
Based on what you all said, these transactions will never be completed because of the low fee. I purposely set it to the lowest possible because the actual amount is under $1, so there is no point in paying ~$20 to speed them up. These are my initial test transactions before I sweep the wallet and send entire balance to the receiving wallet.
What does it mean if I use Remove?
- will it cancel the transaction and reset the balances in both wallets to the pre-transaction value? If Remove is not the same as cancel, how do I cancel?
- what does it mean re-broadcast it after I remove it? Does it mean I enter it in the send tab as a new transaction?
 
thanks!

[o_e_l_e_o]

- will it cancel the transaction and reset the balances in both wallets to the pre-transaction value? If Remove is not the same as cancel, how do I cancel?

You cannot cancel a bitcoin transaction. Once it has been broadcast, it remains valid until the coins are spent in a different transaction, and could be mined at any time (although this won't happen for a long time given your very low transaction fee).

What you can do is remove the transaction from the sending wallet, which will allow you to spend those coins in a new transaction. If the transaction is showing as local, simply right click on it and delete it. This will indeed reset your balances, and you can then make a new transaction sending the same coins (plus any other coins you want to send) with a higher fee.

- what does it mean re-broadcast it after I remove it? Does it mean I enter it in the send tab as a new transaction?

You don't want to rebroadcast the same transaction. It won't achieve anything and it still won't be mined any time soon.

[hosseinimr93]

The transactions are now showing as Local in both wallets.

Being local means that the transaction exists in the wallet file, but the server you are connected to doesn't have it in its mempool.

What does it mean if I use Remove?

With removing the transaction, you would remove your transaction from the wallet file.
Take note that any node that has your transaction in its mempool will still have your transaction, even if you remove it. Once you connect to a server that has your transaction in its mempool, your transaction will appear again.

As mentioned above by o_e_l_e_o, you can remove your local transaction, so that you can make a new transaction.
If you don't want to make a new transaction after removing the local transaction, you wouldn't change anything just with removing the local transaction.

[Findingnemo]

I purposely set it to the lowest possible because the actual amount is under $1, so there is no point in paying ~$20 to speed them up. These are my initial test transactions before I sweep the wallet and send entire balance to the receiving wallet.
What does it mean if I use Remove?
- will it cancel the transaction and reset the balances in both wallets to the pre-transaction value? If Remove is not the same as cancel, how do I cancel?

As explained above, removing the local transaction will make the balance reappear and there won't be a trace of the transaction under electrum history. So by removing you can able to spend the amount with the higher fee but if the amount you are sending is less than the fee then consider it as dust and don't bother moving it.

[markrockny]

@hosseinimr93 and @o_e_l_e_o:
What if:
1. I remove the local transaction from the sending wallet
2. I spend all the coins
3. Can later one of the nodes which has my transaction actually complete it? If yes, then what happens?

[AprilioMP]

I sent a small amount of BTC between my two Electrum wallets. After almost 12 hours the transactions status is still Unconfirmed in both wallets.

The importance of adjusting transaction fees with mempol is to ensure that there are no delays in transactions.

The problem of unconfirmed transactions that you made from wallet A to wallet B using the Electrum wallet has been answered and the answer is that the transaction fees are very low, even below the mempol low priority transaction fees.

Carrying out small transactions with a calculated fee greater than the amount of Bitcoin you will transfer, my advice is not to do it.
If you still have to do it out of necessity, other solutions can be found outside of this.

[hosseinimr93]

3. Can later one of the nodes which has my transaction actually complete it? If yes, then what happens?

If the fee you use for the new transaction is high enough, those nodes that have the old transaction will replace that with the new transaction.
If the fee you use for the new transaction isn't high enough, those nodes that have the old transaction will reject the new transaction and will keep the old one.

Once one of the transactions gets confirmed, the other one would be invalidated and wouldn't have any chance to be confirmed.


By the way, transactions are not confirmed by the nodes. They are confirmed by the miners.