I am starting this thread as I encountered a severe issue with my Bitcoin Wallet for Android. I mean
this wallet.
I have this wallet installed for a long time now (since December 2015) and I liked it a lot, as it was very user friendly and easy to use.
Unlike other wallets, which connect to synchronized nodes, this wallet is synchronizing itself with the blockchain. This is happening when the app is running but it can also happen while the app is closed. You can see the last parsed block from Network Settings menu. And, usually, even if it is not used for weeks / months, it synchronizes very fast with the blockchain (it parses all the blocks from a month within minutes).
However, after performing many transactions, I noticed that it started to slow down very much. For example, in March this year I restored the wallet after I reset my phone to factory settings and it took
3 weeks until the wallet fully synchronized with the blockchain. At same time, I noticed that it parsed the blocks from years ago very fast and, the more up to date it was becoming, the slower it was parsing recent blocks. Block parsing became so slow, that from all those 3 weeks, in last week it parsed the blocks from last 2 years ago, while in first two weeks it parsed blocks from 6 years!
I realized that all these happened because I had many transactions performed with this wallet. Or this seems to be the only explanation. A while ago I also restored this wallet on another phone, but from that wallet I made only a few transactions. In that case the restore (meaning the full sync with the blockchain) took a few hours, although it also had to parse years of blocks from the blockchain. Another aspect which made me sure that this is the reason for slow parsing of the blocks is the message which appears when you select to see a transaction which was sent to multiple recipients (e.g. a payment from a signature campaign). In this case, the wallet displays this message: "
This payment pays to many wallets besides yours, which makes the app slow down over time. If you can, try receiving payments which pay directly to you.".
I did not understand exactly why the wallet would slow down in case of multiple such payments but, since I did not encounter any problem for
8 years already, I believed that this may not happen or maybe it is an obsolete message, from a period earlier than a fix solved this possible problem but the message was not eliminated from the app.
My first mixed feelings appeared this year, when it took me almost a month until the wallet fully synched with the blockchain. However, after I finished that operation it was almost all the time up to date with latest Bitcoin blocks. In case it was not synched (if I did not use it for days) I noticed though that parsing was very slow. For example, last week it parsed 200 blocks in one hour or so. I also noticed that, sometime, while parsing the blocks, the peers shown at Network Monitor section (meaning the nodes it was connecting to, in order to synchronize) were disappearing for a while. In that while no other blocks were parsed. Then, after a few minutes a few peers were reappearing and the parsing continued. However, the slow down of parsing was not determined only just by the disappearance of the peers -- even when peers were shown, blocks were parsed at a very slow pace (one block at each 20-30 seconds or so).
And now I came to the point to face the worst possible problem: the wallet stopped synchronizing.During last 2-3 weeks I noticed that it was synching by itself (so without opening the app) once at ~3 days. Sunday, September 3rd, was last day when it tried to synchronize with the network. It parsed the blocks from a few days, but not all of them. Since then, when I open it I see this message: "
Synchronizing with the blockchain, XXX days behind". Now it shows that it is with 6 days behind.
In all these 6 days, each time I opened it, I did not see any peer anymore at Network Options. It simply does not find any peer anymore.
And the issue is not a general issue of the app, as on another phone the wallet is always up to date. So I realized that this problem could be generated by the multiple transactions I performed with this particular wallet, although this sounds ridiculous.
Needless to mention, because of this problem I am unable to send my coins anymore. If I'm trying to send a transaction, I see a message saying there is a replay in progress and the transaction can not be performed.
Seeing the situation lasts, I started looking for similar issues inside Bitcoin Wallet for Android board. With this occasion I also noticed that the board is used very incorrectly, containing many topics not related to this app, but to various Android wallet, which determined me start this thread:
Should some topics from "Bitcoin Wallet" board be moved to "Wallet software"?.
In any case, while "parsing" topics from Bitcoin Wallet for Android board (fortunately, the board is very small), I noticed a post made by the wallet developer, which intrigued me in part, but also convinced me that the ridiculous issue mentioned above is real:
I do not understand how a wallet can become "
too large". And, in any case, the link provided is not working.
Then I started looking for some ways of exporting the private keys of the wallet (it does not have an option in the menu to do it) and I found these posts:
[HOW-TO] Export seed and private keys from your Bitcoin Wallet for Android and
Re: I just downloaded a bitcoin android mobile wallet. Where is my private key?.
Obviously, you need to be a tech-savvy to be able to perform all those manual steps.
I also tried to add some trusted peers by myself, using some nodes listed
here. In this case the app says that it connected to the trusted peer(s) but still, no peer is shown at Network Monitor and no block parsing is done.
At same time, I emailed the developer, at the email stated on Google Play (
[email protected]). I sent the email on Monday but I received no reply yet. Not even the automatic reply which used to be automatically sent. I discussed with the developer(s) in the past and, when I was sending an email to that address, I used to receive instantly an automatic reply. Their official reply used to arrive after days, but they were replying. Now I did not receive even the automatic reply, nor an official sign from them. I also can not contact the developer through BitcoinTalk, as he
was last seen online 5 years ago.
I am still thinking about ways to retrieve the coins I have on this wallet but I feel I am at a dead point. I also thought about setting a trusted peer inside the wallet, but I do not know the information I need to add there. If anyone knows, any help would be much appreciated.
And, of course, if anyone encountered this problem or has any suggestion, it will be much appreciated!
I mention also that I have a very good Gigabit Internet connection and also a solid WiFi through a v6 router, so Internet / WiFi connection is
not an issue here (besides, all my other devices connected to WiFi / Internet work perfectly).
Topic is self-moderated for avoiding spam. 
