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<p class="crumb"><a href="/guides">Guides</a> / Debug a stuck transaction</p>

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    <div class="card-body">
      <h1><span class="grad">Debug a stuck transaction</span></h1>
      <p class="lede">Broadcast a transaction and it just sits there, unconfirmed? That's a stuck transaction. This guide covers why it happens and the handful of ways to get it moving again.</p>
    </div>
  </div>

  <div class="toc">
    <p class="toc-title">On this page</p>
    <ul>
      <li><a href="#what">What "stuck" means</a></li>
      <li><a href="#why">Why it happens</a></li>
      <li><a href="#diagnose">Diagnose it</a></li>
      <li><a href="#fix">The fixes</a></li>
      <li><a href="#monero">Monero</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>

  <div class="card"><div class="card-body prose">
    <h2 id="what">What "stuck" means <a class="anchor" tabindex="-1" href="#what" aria-hidden="true">#</a></h2>
    <p>A stuck transaction has been broadcast but still shows <strong>zero confirmations</strong> long after you'd expect it to be mined. It's sitting in the mempool, waiting to be picked up. See <a href="/confirmations">how confirmations work</a>.</p>

    <h2 id="why">Why it happens <a class="anchor" tabindex="-1" href="#why" aria-hidden="true">#</a></h2>
    <ul>
      <li>The <a href="/fees">fee rate</a> is too low for the current mempool, so miners keep choosing others first.</li>
      <li>It depends on an unconfirmed parent transaction that's also waiting.</li>
      <li>The mempool filled up and evicted it.</li>
      <li>It's non-standard and some nodes won't relay it.</li>
      <li>On testnet, blocks can stall for a while because timing here is erratic.</li>
    </ul>

    <h2 id="diagnose">Diagnose it <a class="anchor" tabindex="-1" href="#diagnose" aria-hidden="true">#</a></h2>
    <p>Look it up on <a href="/explorer">TestnetScan</a>. Is it still in the mempool, or has it disappeared entirely? Check its fee rate against what recent blocks are accepting. That tells you which fix you need.</p>

    <h2 id="fix">The fixes <a class="anchor" tabindex="-1" href="#fix" aria-hidden="true">#</a></h2>
    <div class="table-wrap"><table>
      <thead><tr><th scope="col">Option</th><th scope="col">When to use it</th></tr></thead>
      <tbody>
        <tr><th scope="row"><strong>Wait</strong></th><td>On testnet, timing is erratic and it may clear on its own. Often the easiest fix.</td></tr>
        <tr><th scope="row"><strong>RBF</strong> (Replace-By-Fee)</th><td>If the transaction signaled RBF, rebroadcast a replacement with a higher fee.</td></tr>
        <tr><th scope="row"><strong>CPFP</strong> (Child-Pays-For-Parent)</th><td>Spend the stuck transaction's output with a new, high-fee child. Miners must take the parent to get the lucrative child.</td></tr>
        <tr><th scope="row"><strong>Let it drop</strong></th><td>If it falls out of every mempool, its inputs are free again and you can respend them.</td></tr>
      </tbody>
    </table></div>
    <p>Rebuilding and re-pushing the hex? See <a href="/broadcast-raw-tx">broadcasting a raw transaction</a>.</p>

    <h2 id="monero">Monero <a class="anchor" tabindex="-1" href="#monero" aria-hidden="true">#</a></h2>
    <p>Stuck transactions are rare on Monero. Usually you're just waiting for the standard ~10-block <strong>unlock</strong> before an output is spendable, not for a confirmation. See the <a href="/monero">Monero guide</a>.</p>
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