🛠️ Troubleshooting Guide: Slow Transactions, Missing Balances & Syncing

If you're experiencing a delayed transaction or a balance that's not showing correctly, don't worry. These situations are usually temporary and can be resolved by understanding how blockchain transactions and non-custodial wallets work. This guide will walk you through the most common scenarios and their solutions.

⏳ Scenario 1: My On-Chain Transaction is Taking Longer Than Usual

Bitcoin on-chain transactions must be confirmed by the network. During times of high traffic (network congestion), these confirmations can take longer than the initial estimate.

• How to Check Status: Go to the "Main screen" screen and select "Full History". Tap on the pending transaction to view its status in the mempool (the waiting area for unconfirmed transactions) and get a better time estimate.

Understanding CPFP (Child Pays for Parent)

If you try to send funds immediately after receiving them (e.g., right after a swap from L-BTC to on-chain BTC), your new transaction might be delayed, even if you paid a high fee. This is likely a CPFP (Child Pays for Parent) transaction.

What is CPFP?
Imagine you received a package with insufficient postage (the "parent" transaction). To get it delivered, you send a new package (the "child" transaction) with extra postage to cover both. The postal service won't process your new package until the original one's fee is covered by the extra you just paid.

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Similarly, your new "child" transaction is paying a high enough fee to cover itself and its unconfirmed "parent," pushing both through for confirmation together. This process depends entirely on the parent transaction being picked up by miners.

👻 Scenario 2: My Balance Disappeared After a DeFi Swap

If your balance shows as zero immediately after starting a DeFi swap, this is normal and temporary.

• What's Happening: To perform a swap, your wallet sends your funds to a smart contract managed by an API provider. During this process, the funds have technically left your wallet, causing the balance to show as zero.
• How to Track: You can monitor the swap's progress on the main screen.
• Expected Time: Most swaps are completed within 1 hour. Once finalized, the new assets will be credited to your wallet, and your balance will update.

🔄 Scenario 3: My Wallet Isn't Syncing or Showing the Correct Balance

Your Satsails wallet is non-custodial, which means it reads your balance directly from the Bitcoin network via a service called a "node." If the connection to the node is weak or interrupted, your wallet may not display the most up-to-date information. A sync issue does not mean your funds are lost.

• Sync Status: The button on the main screen indicates the connection status. Yellow means it is trying to sync, and Red means an error has occurred.

Level 1: Basic Sync Fixes

1. Refresh: Tap the refresh icon at the top right corner.
2. Change Connection: Switch between your Wi-Fi and cellular (4G/5G) data. This is often the most effective way to establish a new, stable connection to the node.
3. Disable VPN: VPNs can interfere with the connection. Disable it and refresh the app.

Level 2: Change Your Bitcoin Node (Advanced)

If syncing issues persist, the node your wallet is connected to may be experiencing temporary instability. You can switch to a different one in the settings.

1. Go to the "Settings" menu.
2. Find the "Bitcoin Node" option.
3. Select a pre-configured alternative like the Bull Bitcoin node or the public Blockstream node.
4. For maximum sovereignty, you can also connect the app to your own personal Bitcoin node by entering its address.

Level 3: Verify Your Funds in Another Wallet (Ultimate Proof)

As the ultimate proof of self-custody, you can verify your balance by importing your 12-word recovery phrase into another compatible non-custodial wallet. This directly checks your addresses on the blockchain, independent of our app's connection.

• Recommended Wallets: Blockstream Green, SideSwap, or BlueWallet.

If you have tried all these steps and the issue persists, please contact our support team for personalized assistance.

Updated on: 28/09/2025