<p>A method that should work most of the time is the "child pays for parent" method. It is explained <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/49723/replace-by-fee-vs-child-pays-for-parent">here</a> by user maservant: "Child pays for parent means, as the name implies, that spending an unconfirmed transaction will cause miners to consider confirming the parent transaction in order to get the fees from the child transaction included in the same block."</p>

<p>While the post describes the general mechanism very well, I couldn't find a detailed description on how to apply it in Electrum. Hence, I wrote up a detailed description myself. You can find it <a href="https://data-dive.com/unconfirmed-bitcoin-transactions-electrum.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>.</p>

<p>In short:</p>

<ul>
<li>First, find out if an output of the unconfirmed transaction went to yourself by checking the details in the "History" tab. If so, write down the hash</li>
<li>Then, go to the "Coins" tab, select the corresponding hash, right-click and select "Spend from Address". This will take you to the "Spend" tab</li>
<li>Here, enter one of your own receiving addresses. Thus, you will create a new transaction, containing as an input part of the unconfirmed transaction. When miners confirm this new transaction, the former, unconfirmed one has to be confirmed as well. This is what solves your issue.</li>
<li>Add a fee high enough to make both transactions worthwhile for miners. To do so, check <a href="https://bitcoinfees.21.co/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bitcoinfees.21.co/</a> and apply their recommendation to the combined size of both your transactions</li>
<li>If your "change" address does not contain enough coins for this, you can transfer the total amount of your respective wallet instead. This will also include your unconfirmed output (if there was an output to yourself) as an input to the new transaction</li>
<li>Broadcast the transaction. When it is confirmed, the former transaction should be confirmed as well. </li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-14T21:54:04.183Z
MoMo:  it should just be one of the addresses that belong to you, i.e. you send it to yourself again. And you are right, the amount is irrelevant so it can be very low. The important aspect is the height of the fee.
mc51
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-13T16:11:29.990Z
mc51, can you clarify this statement "Here, enter one of your own receiving addresses." Do you mean the address that you used to send the original transaction that is now stuck? In other words, are we creating another transaction **to the same receiving address** but with a high fee? And do we send any nominal amount as long as the fee is high enough to cover this transaction and the stuck transaction? Thank you!
MoMo
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-03-16T23:34:10.703Z
2017-03-16T23:34:10.703Z
mc51
<p>If you are using Electrum, there is no equivalent to <code>-zapwallettxes</code>. The closest thing you can do is to restore your wallet from a seed. This will wipe your client of any unconfirmed transactions.</p>

<p>Then, you can resend the transaction with a higher fee.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-03-08T16:14:57.433Z
Perhaps you could add information about enabling RBF: AFAIK "To be able to 'boost' the fee of transactions you have to set `Tools > Preferences > Fees > Enable Replace-by-Fee`."
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-03-08T15:15:56.697Z
2017-03-08T15:15:56.697Z
Nick ODell
<p>You might want to ask ViaBTC.com to accelerate your transaction. If your transaction includes a minimum of 0.0001BTC/KB fee, you can submit your txid to the <a href="https://www.viabtc.com/tools/txaccelerator/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Transaction Accelerator</a> so ViaBTC prioritize your transaction. The 100 submissions limit resets every full hour.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-22T12:34:00.440Z
2017-02-22T12:39:13.413Z
2017-02-22T12:39:13.413Z
Aley
<p>I've just visited #electrum on IRC to get some advice. While restoring from a seed may make your wallet forget a transaction and allow you to resend it with a higher fee, abpa there told me that this sometimes doesn't work because the server will remind the client about the transaction if it's still in the server's mempool.</p>

<p>abpa suggested using <code>child-pays-for-parent</code> to unstuck transactions, i.e. to send a transaction that spends the change output of the previous transaction with a higher fee to pay for both transactions. (Update:) Apparently, the Electrum developers have added GUI-support for CPFP in <code>Electrum 2.8.0</code> on 2017-03-09.</p>

<p>In general it is recommended to activate <code>replace-by-fee</code> when using Electrum. This allows updating the fee after the transaction was broadcast if it turns out that the first estimate was insufficient. The setting can be found at <code>Tools &gt; Preferences &gt; Fees &gt; Enable Replace-by-Fee</code>.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-04T18:47:46.270Z
But this doesn't solve that issue if replace by fee option was disabled while sending a transaction
Abdul Rauf
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-04T18:48:55.707Z
@AbdulRaufMujahid: Spending your change output in a child-pays-for-parent transaction does. If you didn't create a change output, I don't know a solution.
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-03-09T17:27:19.233Z
2017-05-27T19:31:32.130Z
2017-05-27T19:31:32.130Z
Murch
<p>I've sent a transaction with <code>Electrum</code>, but accidentally included too little fee. What can I do to speed up the transaction's confirmation or to replace it?</p>

<hr>

<p><sup><em>This is a complementary question to <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/9046/5406">Why is my transaction not getting confirmed and what can I do about it?</a> which answers the question's broader implications and proposes mitigation mostly focused on Bitcoin Core.</em></sup></p>

<transaction-fees><electrum><unconfirmed-transactions><canonical-question>
How to unstuck a low-fee transaction with Electrum?
Murch
# How to unstuck a low-fee transaction with Electrum?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-12-07)

I've sent a transaction with `Electrum`, but accidentally included too little fee. What can I do to speed up the transaction's confirmation or to replace it?

---

*This is a complementary question to [Why is my transaction not getting confirmed and what can I do about it?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/9046/5406) which answers the question's broader implications and proposes mitigation mostly focused on Bitcoin Core.*

**Tags:** transaction-fees, electrum, unconfirmed-transactions, canonical-question


---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2017-03-09. Score: 8 | Accepted answer

I've just visited #electrum on IRC to get some advice. While restoring from a seed may make your wallet forget a transaction and allow you to resend it with a higher fee, abpa there told me that this sometimes doesn't work because the server will remind the client about the transaction if it's still in the server's mempool.

abpa suggested using `child-pays-for-parent` to unstuck transactions, i.e. to send a transaction that spends the change output of the previous transaction with a higher fee to pay for both transactions. (Update:) Apparently, the Electrum developers have added GUI-support for CPFP in `Electrum 2.8.0` on 2017-03-09.

In general it is recommended to activate `replace-by-fee` when using Electrum. This allows updating the fee after the transaction was broadcast if it turns out that the first estimate was insufficient. The setting can be found at `Tools > Preferences > Fees > Enable Replace-by-Fee`.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: But this doesn't solve that issue if replace by fee option was disabled while sending a transaction  
> **username_0**: @AbdulRaufMujahid: Spending your change output in a child-pays-for-parent transaction does. If you didn't create a change output, I don't know a solution.  

---

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-03-16. Score: 2

A method that should work most of the time is the "child pays for parent" method. It is explained [here](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/49723/replace-by-fee-vs-child-pays-for-parent) by user maservant: "Child pays for parent means, as the name implies, that spending an unconfirmed transaction will cause miners to consider confirming the parent transaction in order to get the fees from the child transaction included in the same block."

While the post describes the general mechanism very well, I couldn't find a detailed description on how to apply it in Electrum. Hence, I wrote up a detailed description myself. You can find it [here](https://data-dive.com/unconfirmed-bitcoin-transactions-electrum.html).

In short:

* First, find out if an output of the unconfirmed transaction went to yourself by checking the details in the "History" tab. If so, write down the hash
* Then, go to the "Coins" tab, select the corresponding hash, right-click and select "Spend from Address". This will take you to the "Spend" tab
* Here, enter one of your own receiving addresses. Thus, you will create a new transaction, containing as an input part of the unconfirmed transaction. When miners confirm this new transaction, the former, unconfirmed one has to be confirmed as well. This is what solves your issue.
* Add a fee high enough to make both transactions worthwhile for miners. To do so, check <https://bitcoinfees.21.co/> and apply their recommendation to the combined size of both your transactions
* If your "change" address does not contain enough coins for this, you can transfer the total amount of your respective wallet instead. This will also include your unconfirmed output (if there was an output to yourself) as an input to the new transaction
* Broadcast the transaction. When it is confirmed, the former transaction should be confirmed as well.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: username_1, can you clarify this statement "Here, enter one of your own receiving addresses." Do you mean the address that you used to send the original transaction that is now stuck? In other words, are we creating another transaction **to the same receiving address** but with a high fee? And do we send any nominal amount as long as the fee is high enough to cover this transaction and the stuck transaction? Thank you!  
> **username_1**: username_2:  it should just be one of the addresses that belong to you, i.e. you send it to yourself again. And you are right, the amount is irrelevant so it can be very low. The important aspect is the height of the fee.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2017-03-08. Score: 1

If you are using Electrum, there is no equivalent to `-zapwallettxes`. The closest thing you can do is to restore your wallet from a seed. This will wipe your client of any unconfirmed transactions.

Then, you can resend the transaction with a higher fee.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Perhaps you could add information about enabling RBF: AFAIK "To be able to 'boost' the fee of transactions you have to set `Tools > Preferences > Fees > Enable Replace-by-Fee`."  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2017-02-22. Score: 1

You might want to ask ViaBTC.com to accelerate your transaction. If your transaction includes a minimum of 0.0001BTC/KB fee, you can submit your txid to the [Transaction Accelerator](https://www.viabtc.com/tools/txaccelerator/) so ViaBTC prioritize your transaction. The 100 submissions limit resets every full hour.


---

