<p>I believe your options are to:</p>

<ul>
<li>Upgrade to Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind v0.9 or greater, which takes care of this situation.</li>
<li>Live with it as-is (showing an 0/unconfirmed that will never confirm)</li>
<li>Transfer funds elsewhere and abandon your wallet</li>
<li>Export your keys and import them into another wallet, perhaps a new one</li>
<li>Perform wallet surgery (pywallet to remove the private key used in the double spend, rescan, then import it back in.  <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/3657/153">Instructions</a>).</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-11T05:27:18.430Z
Should I open a bug report? I don't have a lot of information I can post here, so I'm not sure what to write in the "How to reproduce" section. Is there an existing bug like this that you're aware of?
ripper234
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-11T07:03:03.137Z
This bug is well-known. There's no need to report it.
David Schwartz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-09-09T19:01:24.287Z
Apparently if there are double spend transactions, pywallet can be used to remove ALL transactions, rescan, and that will fix it.  Transactions that confirmed will reappear as the result of the rescan of the blockchain.
Stephen Gornick
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-11T04:59:29.487Z
2014-04-21T23:16:03.253Z
2017-04-13T12:47:34.187Z
Stephen Gornick
<p>I started the standard client with <code>--rescan</code> instead of <code>-rescan</code> after switching wallets and before synchronizing with the latest blockchain, and made an going transaction.</p>

<p>This transaction got "stuck", never validating, even after the client caught up with the chain, after multiple restarts (last one with -rescan). I now have a <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/1164" rel="nofollow">too high balance</a> shown in the client, and the tx never went out (I checked it in Blockchain.info).</p>

<p>After the blockchain was synchronized, I create another similar tx (same amount and target address), and that one went through ... but the bad tx is still shown in my client.</p>

<p>What should I do about it?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-11T05:00:53.027Z
possible duplicate of [What is the best way to recover from an accidental double-spend?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/3654/what-is-the-best-way-to-recover-from-an-accidental-double-spend)
Stephen Gornick
<bitcoin-core><doublespend><rescan>
What to do about a "stuck" transaction?
ripper234
# What to do about a "stuck" transaction?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-07-11)

I started the standard client with `--rescan` instead of `-rescan` after switching wallets and before synchronizing with the latest blockchain, and made an going transaction.

This transaction got "stuck", never validating, even after the client caught up with the chain, after multiple restarts (last one with -rescan). I now have a [too high balance](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/1164) shown in the client, and the tx never went out (I checked it in Blockchain.info).

After the blockchain was synchronized, I create another similar tx (same amount and target address), and that one went through ... but the bad tx is still shown in my client.

What should I do about it?

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, doublespend, rescan

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: possible duplicate of [What is the best way to recover from an accidental double-spend?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/3654/what-is-the-best-way-to-recover-from-an-accidental-double-spend)  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2012-07-11. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

I believe your options are to:

* Upgrade to Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind v0.9 or greater, which takes care of this situation.
* Live with it as-is (showing an 0/unconfirmed that will never confirm)
* Transfer funds elsewhere and abandon your wallet
* Export your keys and import them into another wallet, perhaps a new one
* Perform wallet surgery (pywallet to remove the private key used in the double spend, rescan, then import it back in. [Instructions](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/3657/153)).

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Should I open a bug report? I don't have a lot of information I can post here, so I'm not sure what to write in the "How to reproduce" section. Is there an existing bug like this that you're aware of?  
> **username_2**: This bug is well-known. There's no need to report it.  
> **username_1**: Apparently if there are double spend transactions, pywallet can be used to remove ALL transactions, rescan, and that will fix it.  Transactions that confirmed will reappear as the result of the rescan of the blockchain.  

---

