This article will help you identify and troubleshoot an issue where Ledger Live stops processing a "send" transaction and stalls at step 4 of the sending process.
What is this error?
Ledger Live never completes a transaction sent from a Ledger account. Instead, the transaction stalls on Step 4 (Device) and Ledger Live displays a loading wheel that never stops spinning:
This error typically affects UTXO-based cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Zcash (ZEC), Digibyte (DGB), etc.
The error might be preceded by a "This transaction may take too long to verify..." warning which is displayed on Step 3 (Summary) of the Send process:
Why am I getting this error?
This error happens because the Ledger account you're trying to spend from contains too many coin fragments (also called Unspent Transaction Outputs or UTXOs for short).
UTXOs are created by transactions. Each deposit transaction into a Bitcoin/Litecoin/Zcash account will result in a single new UTXO being created and locked into that account. It’s important to note that the value of the deposit does not affect the number of UTXOs created. One deposit transaction to your account always results in a single UTXO being created.
Over time, however, a single Ledger account can accumulate a very large number of UTXOs.
This is usually not an issue because Ledger accounts can lock an unlimited number of UTXOs. However, in extreme cases, the number of UTXOs locked into an account is so large that a Ledger device won't be able to read all the UTXOs necessary to assemble a transaction. This will result in the transaction stalling in Ledger Live.
This issue typically affects cryptocurrency miners receiving frequent mining rewards directly into a Ledger account. Mining tends to create very large numbers of UTXOs which can result in the issue described above. This is why we strongly advise against receiving mining rewards directly into a Ledger account. More on this here.
What can I do to solve this issue?
- Try sending a smaller amount of coins. Ideally, you want to break the transaction into smaller transactions that your device can more easily manage.
- Use the Coin control feature in Ledger Live. Coin control gives you more flexibility by letting you choose which specific UTXOs you want to include in your transaction. You can learn more about using Coin control here.
Similarly, try breaking down your transaction into smaller chunks that include 1 or 2 UTXOs. - Are you a cryptocurrency miner? Please consult this article for additional tips.
- Still facing this issue? Reach out, we'll be happy to assist.