Topic: Need Help! Initial sync not progressing; BTC sent; warning message (Read 1049 times)

Thank you for your help deepceleron ; appreciated.

Thanks. It is Bitcoin-QT v.0.8.5-beta already.

I'll probably just try to securely move the BTC already sent to me to Multibit to avoid having to try re-syncing.

I suspect that you don't have the latest version of Bitcoin-Qt, and/or the blockchain you have already downloaded is corrupted or invalid.

The 'orphan' messages in your logs are normal for an out-of-sync Bitcoin, those are "live" transactions broadcast from other Bitcoin users, using funds that haven't been seen in the blockchain that you have downloaded yet.

The "current best" is the last block that your client has downloaded and recognized as valid. The 273050 "invalid chain" block is the most recent real block that was broadcast to your client when it was found; bitcoin doesn't know what to do with that because it doesn't have the required previous blocks.

The solution to your problem is going to be as I described above:

1. Get one of the linked 0.8.5 test builds that should solve the frequent OSX corruption problem in recent Bitcoin-Qt versions,
2. In the bitcoin data directory, remove the blockchain you've downloaded so far, by deleting the "blocks" and "chainstate" subdirectories,
3. Optional: for faster initialization, get the bootstrap.dat torrent and put this in your data directory before starting bitcoin (instructions: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/howto-jump-start-bitcoin-installation-download-time-with-blockchain-torrent-51456),
4. Start Bitcoin and patiently download blocks again.

I opened the debug.log and looked into it.
It is continuously adding new lines such as:

stored orphan tx 8769789a71e4ed1a7988ecc1d4e35af1cd312ab4ebe612aba18dfae7647e7627 (mapsz 1471)
stored orphan tx d499e1290eab6aeb560ccae5d87745bb95946be2e5a76582a29520611f737d9c (mapsz 1472)
Added 2 addresses from 182.129.89.142: 348 tried, 14015 new
stored orphan tx e13a8140847b1b695ec039fbfff5b648270bd5ecf46be2a3f9394cd8e34269f2 (mapsz 1473)
stored orphan tx b0057130f297431e7fab94ff4ce708878158c76542d1ccd029196a02b3503e7f (mapsz 1474)

And prior to that bottom flow, there is a record of the warning message:

received block 00000000000000059a79f3ca43ec398f5e47d36c4257aadf8de7711ce375c2bd
InvalidChainFound: invalid block=00000000000000059a79f3ca43ec398f5e47d36c4257aadf8de7711ce375c2bd  height=273050  log2_work=74.487248  date=2013-12-04 16:27:28
InvalidChainFound:  current best=000000000000006b466577ecb823f117f86f77ef22a8eefa78d138ecbda6e890  height=198855  log2_work=68.701384  date=2012-09-15 08:05:19
InvalidChainFound: Warning: Displayed transactions may not be correct! You may need to upgrade, or other nodes may need to upgrade.
ProcessBlock: ACCEPTED

Does that mean it's actually synchronizing even though there has been no sign of progress on the Overview page in over 24 hours?

Thank you. I found the debug.log file but did not know what to look for in terms of database corruption indication.

Synchronizing is still showing no further progress, almost 24 hrs of no signs of progress + warning message. .......

I don't know how to do what you're saying, or even if I should given I don't know what the source is of those.

Can I just get the BTC through some other wallet and avoid the synchronizing?

You are a good candidate to test the fix of a MacOS bug:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.3718821

Run this new build with the -reindex command line option.

You don't need your client to be updated (or even run at all) to "receive" your payment, only to spend it.

Please help! I look forward to your intelligent caring responses.
Here is the situation:
I'm trying to do the initial synchronizing of Bitcoin-QT, which hasn't progressed in 14 hours, and:
- Significant BTC has already been sent to an address generated by the wallet.
- My primary objective is to receive the BTC that was sent to me. If Multibit is a sufficiently secure/etc wallet alternative, I do not care about completing the sync process in order to use Bitcoin-QT ** - I just want to effectively receive the BTC that has already been sent.**

Here is the problem:

- For the past 14 hours, there has been NO progress in the synchronization (after some progress in the time proceeding that). (The # of blocks processed has stayed the same, but the estimate of total blocks fluctuates - what i mean is, where it says "Processed 'x' of 'y' (estimated) blocks of transaction history" - the 'x' (i.e. blocks actually processed) has stayed the same for 14 hrs, the 'y' of estimated total blocks has fluctuated (sometimes larger, sometimes smaller).)  - The golden arrow wheel on the bottom right is also not turning at all.
- Also the following warning message is at the top of the Overview page: "Warning: Displayed transactions may not be correct! You may need to upgrade, or other nodes may need to upgrade."

Background on this: the whole synchronization was started over 24 hours ago, but in the middle of night Bitcoin-QT crashed. (I think the warning message appeared after the program crashed & was restarted.) Whenever I restart Bitcoin-QT, it takes 5 minutes of rainbow-wheel loading on "verifying blocks" on initial bitcoin-version screen. 

(other info if relevant to resolving this: the machine is Mac, Snow Leopard; Bitcoin-QT v.0.8.5-beta
-- The progress bar shows about 1/8th complete. That has also not budged in 14 hours.
-- I did try this on a different and faster internet connection/network for about 5 hours with same result except the last bar on the right did not go green like on my regular internet connection.
-- I do have the original .dmg download file if that's of any help.
-- I have restarted both Bitcoin-QT and the computer a # of times.
-- When the progress was actually happening yesterday before the program crashed, the arrow-wheel was turning and there was no warning message.)

So basically the questions are:

- Is it actually synchronizing even though there have been NO signs of further progress for at least 14 hours & a Warning message has appeared?

- **What is the most effective - and secure - way for me to actually receive the BTC that were sent to me to this Bitcoin-QT wallet-generated address? Should I ditch trying to synchronize and try to receive them through something like Multibit? (Even if the initial sync ends up happening I will likely ditch Bitcoin-QT anyway for something like Multibit, as long as it is sufficiently secure.)**

Your help is appreciated! Neither the sender nor receiver of these bitcoins wants them to be lost due some sort of synchronizing malfunction, if that is what's going on.
I look forward to hearing from you, oh intelligent caring knowledgeable BTC users.