Transaction stuck at zero confirmations

[Marko]

I have a transaction that is stuck at zero confirmations. It has been like this for days (2-3). The transaction does not show up anywhere on blockexplorer or in the active list at bitcoincharts.

The app version is 3.19 on windows xp.

The current idea is to kill the block chain and let it download (no idea what else to do). Has anyone ran into this before?

[1715287568]

1715287568

[1715287568]

1715287568

[theGECK]

I've seen several other people mentioning this. It seems like a problem with free transaction, especially if somebody is flooding the marketplace with junk transactions. It just makes everything take a long time to confirm. You also could download 3.20 and use the -rescan switch to see if that finds any confirmations that were missed with the 3.19 client.

[Pieter Wuille]

If the transaction does not show up either in the block chain or in the pending transactions list, most likely it never managed to reach the network, while it did get stored in your client. Eventually it will be retransmitted, but that may take long (days?).

[caveden]

You mean your transaction is not here?

If it's not there after days, it means something's wrong. Either the transaction is invalid, or your client is not managing to broadcast it for some reason...

[theGECK]

You mean your transaction is not here?

Thank you for that link, I'll be referring to it if I see these type of posts again.

[Marko]

caveden:

yea, the transaction does not appear in that list. and it has been days...

theGeck:

what does that rescan switch do? would it resend those tranasctions back out to the network?

[theGECK]

The rescan switch is supposed to force the client to look through the block chain for transactions that it missed the first time, to double check that it has everything. But if it isn't appearing in that list, then the rescan won't help out.

One thing you could do to eliminate all possibilities is to go to blockexplorer.com and do a search for either the address you sent from, or sent to, and see if the transaction is anywhere in the block chain. If it's there, then the rescan switch should find it. If not, then the transaction hasn't been broadcast to the network, and I'm not sure what to do next.

[theymos]

Run Bitcoin with the -debug switch, double-click the transaction, and post the transaction dump here.

[Marko]

debug print
Debit: -50.02
Debit: -50.00
Debit: -50.02
Debit: -50.01
Debit: -300.03
Debit: -50.03
Transaction:
CTransaction(hash=273c0d99c7, ver=1, vin.size=6, vout.size=1, nLockTime=0)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(20bdd89081, 0), scriptSig=3045022100e37c0025aef854)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(88e17fa511, 0), scriptSig=304402204ce8a816ef95248b)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(24c31d07af, 0), scriptSig=30450220159e1732288d839a)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(305ba6490e, 0), scriptSig=3046022100e864131dea9f2f)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(913d37f326, 0), scriptSig=30450221009efd4e87eef1fe)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(6bc4c1625d, 0), scriptSig=3045022067621e5a25b3465d)
   CTxOut(nValue=550.11000000, scriptPubKey=OP_DUP OP_HASH160 ac827171a9e5)
Inputs:
CTransaction(hash=20bdd89081, ver=1, vin.size=1, vout.size=1, nLockTime=0)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(0000000000, -1), coinbase 0439f3001b0105)
   CTxOut(nValue=50.02000000, scriptPubKey=04123a18511590ce452512da795c65)
   2979 confirmations, IsMine=true
CTransaction(hash=88e17fa511, ver=1, vin.size=1, vout.size=1, nLockTime=0)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(0000000000, -1), coinbase 04bdcb001b0164)
   CTxOut(nValue=50.00000000, scriptPubKey=0433a01b276566b0c204240e7971f2)
   1244 confirmations, IsMine=true
CTransaction(hash=24c31d07af, ver=1, vin.size=1, vout.size=1, nLockTime=0)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(0000000000, -1), coinbase 04bdcb001b0116)
   CTxOut(nValue=50.02000000, scriptPubKey=04f5e35e524a4cd2a54c23151f4f77)
   1083 confirmations, IsMine=true
CTransaction(hash=305ba6490e, ver=1, vin.size=1, vout.size=1, nLockTime=0)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(0000000000, -1), coinbase 0439f3001b017e)
   CTxOut(nValue=50.01000000, scriptPubKey=04dce39a423f5226a731265c7ac4fd)
   1818 confirmations, IsMine=true
CTransaction(hash=913d37f326, ver=1, vin.size=4, vout.size=1, nLockTime=0)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(959236d510, 0), scriptSig=3044022026ad025871b52466)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(14c0710fc4, 0), scriptSig=304402201846dec2e568e386)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(b6dbb15b5b, 0), scriptSig=3046022100a1072d49190a52)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(b81aa56189, 0), scriptSig=3046022100f7966df37b596b)
   CTxOut(nValue=300.03000000, scriptPubKey=OP_DUP OP_HASH160 77d1c18b3d91)
   2427 confirmations, IsMine=true
CTransaction(hash=6bc4c1625d, ver=1, vin.size=1, vout.size=1, nLockTime=0)
   CTxIn(COutPoint(0000000000, -1), coinbase 0439f3001b0123)
   CTxOut(nValue=50.03000000, scriptPubKey=044070f54a39b1379840e033624487)
   2173 confirmations, IsMine=true

[theymos]

The transaction is invalid because the input 913d37f326 was already spent. This probably happened because you were running two installations with the same wallet, or you did some other strange thing with the wallet.

Some of those inputs are now tied up with a transaction that will never clear. You need to remove the transaction. If you have a wallet backup, delete the block database, restore from the backup, and see if that removes the transaction. (Make sure your balance is accurate.)