⚠️ RBZL, the author of SiaSetup, has been banned by Sia's unreasonable project management due to our criticism of the Sia/Skynet projects.
We'd suggest that you read our criticism, which includes details on how the ban came about, and avoid the Sia and Skynet projects as a result. ⚠️

Sia-UI and Wallet FAQs

Common questions and answers about using the Sia client.


Looking for topics related to Renting, Hosting, or Skynet? We also have general information on Sia, Siacoins/Siafunds, a Wallet Setup Guide and a Guide to Buying Siacoins.

This page was last updated on March 4, 2021 with Sia version 1.5.0. Not all FAQ entries may have been updated, but we make an effort to look over each entry and make relevant changes with each update.


General Sia Usage

Sia takes forever to fully synchronize. Any way to speed it up?

Sia has to download the entire blockchain and build a consensus database in order to synchronize. This requires several gigabytes (as of March 2021, about 20 GB) of data to be downloaded, and frequent read/writes to your hard drive. Sia will synchronize much faster if your primary hard drive is a Soild-State Drive (SSD) and you have a fast internet connection. Sia can take several days to synchronize in certain cases. Some users have reported that disabling write caching may improve performance while synchronizing, though we haven't tested this.

We provide a download of the Sia consensus database, built nightly, which may help you speed up synchronization. You can check it out on our Consensus Download page. Note that with a new Sia installation, this option will still take several hours to build other data from the consensus, but it will be faster than synchronizing normally.

Should I back anything up to make sure I don't lose my wallet or other important data in Sia?

Yes! Glad you asked. The most important thing to save is your wallet seed. You're told to write it down when you create your wallet. If you lose your wallet seed, you can view it again by clicking on More > View Seed under the Wallet tab. If you no longer have access to the Sia installation where your wallet was set up, and you don't have your wallet seed, you're out of luck and your wallet (and Siacoin) is gone. There's no way to recover it without your wallet seed.

Another good thing to back up (outside of Sia) is your Sia-UI data directory, especially if you're renting or hosting. As a renter or host, you may lose stored data if you do not back up these files and you encounter an issue with your Sia installation or your computer! The location of this directory on various operating systems is provided in this FAQ topic. The main directories to back up are your renter or host directories if renting or hosting. More information on backing up relevant data can be found in this FAQ topic for renting, and this FAQ topic for hosting.

How do I completely close Sia-UI? Closing it only seems to minimize it to the system tray.

Sia stays open and leaves an icon in the system tray by the clock. Right-click on that icon and select Quit, and Sia will shut down completely. Prior to v1.4.0, there was a configuration option to disable closing the Sia-UI to the system tray, and close Sia completely when the window was closed, but this appears to have been removed.

If you're using siad and want to stop it gracefully, use siac stop. For more information on siad and siac, see this FAQ topic.

How do I start over with a fresh install of Sia?
Warning: Following these steps will wipe out your Sia wallet, as well as renting or hosting if you have them configured. Make sure you have your wallet seed written down and you're not renting or hosting (or you accept the loss of files, contracts or collateral) before continuing!

You may want to reset Sia to a clean state for some reason, such as if you're having a problem that other troubleshooting methods aren't fixing. To reset Sia to it's original, new, out-of-the-box state:

  1. Make sure Sia is closed completely by right clicking on the Sia icon in the system tray and selecting Quit.
  2. Delete the entire Sia-UI folder found in:
    • Linux: $HOME/.config
    • Mac: $HOME/Library/Application Support
    • Windows: %APPDATA% (or an uninstaller is located in C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Programs\Sia-UI)
  3. Before opening Sia again, consider downloading Sia from the Sia Downloads page again as well to make sure that you have the latest version and that your existing Sia application files haven't also become corrupt somehow.

When you open Sia, it will act like it's the first time you've opened it and will start to synchronize from the beginning again. You can then use your wallet seed to load your wallet into Sia again. If you want to speed up synchronization, consider using our Consensus Download to bootstrap the consensus file.

How do I upgrade to a new version of Sia?

Follow these easy steps:

  1. Close Sia completely by right clicking on the Sia icon in the system tray and selecting Quit.
  2. Download the latest version of Sia from the Sia Downloads page.
  3. Open the downloaded file, which will upgrade your Sia files and open the Sia-UI.

You can also upgrade via the Sia-UI under About > Check for Updates and downloading the update there, though sometimes this does not work properly.

Where are Sia's internal data files stored?

In the Sia-UI, you can click the About (i) icon at the top of the window, then Open Data Folder and you'll be taken to Sia's internal data files. Sia keeps internal files related to your specific installation in these locations:

  • Linux: $HOME/.config/Sia-UI/sia/
  • Mac: $HOME/Library/Application Support/Sia-UI/sia/
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Sia-UI\sia\

If backing up these files, you can skip the consensus folder if you'd like, as it takes up the most space (around 20 GB) and is what Sia downloads when it synchronizes. Sia can download it again if needed; the other files are unique to your installation, and your renter or host setup if applicable. Without them, you can lose access to your files or lose your storage contracts. It's a good idea to back them up regularly!

How do I move Sia's internal data files (i.e. the consensus database) to another folder or drive?

There are two ways to relocate your Sia data folder. You may want to do this if your default OS drive isn't a solid state drive, or doesn't have about 20GB of free space to hold the consensus database. Keep in mind that if you move the data folder to a traditional hard drive, Sia will synchronize more slowly and may perform slowly in other ways.

To relocate the internal data folder:

  1. Open Sia at least once first if you haven't before. This will cause the internal data files to start generating, so you'll have something to move. If this is your first time opening Sia, you should also set up a new wallet or load your wallet seed. Follow the prompts until you get to the Dashboard.
  2. On the Dashboard, click the About icon (i) and click Open Data Folder. This will open your sia data folder - leave the folder open as we'll come back to it shortly. Alternatively, you can see this FAQ topic for the location of the data folder.
  3. Close Sia completely by right clicking on the tray icon and selecting Quit. You don't need to wait for Sia to finish synchronizing, but make sure Sia-UI closes completely before continuing.

From here, you've got two ways to proceed - you only need to choose one:

  1. Copy (do not move) the sia folder you opened earlier to the new location. For example, we could copy the folder to our D:\ drive so that the folder was now D:\sia. If you clicked Open Data Folder earlier, you may need to navigate up a level to move the entire sia folder instead of just moving the folder's contents. Don't delete anything in the old folder yet.
  2. Open Sia-UI and go to the Dashboard. If asked for a wallet password, it may be your seed or blank.
  3. On the Dashboard, click the Settings icon (cog) at the top of the Dashboard window, and change the Data Directory path to the path where you moved the sia folder, i.e. D:\sia. You can also change the Log Path to match. When you click Save, Sia-UI should restart and use your new sia folder location.
  4. You can now delete everything in the original sia folder (i.e. the one in %APPDATA% or $HOME), except for the config.json file and the sia folder itself. Do not delete the old sia folder completely, and do not delete the config.json file in the old sia folder.

The config.json file contains the Sia-UI settings, i.e. the data directory path we just changed, so Sia-UI still looks for this file in the old sia folder to know where to find the new sia folder after you moved it. Why the application was designed such that the settings allow you to change the data directory, but it keeps the configuration file in the default data directory which we just told it not to use instead of some other directory, who knows. You also need to leave all of the other files and folders in the parent Sia-UI folder (i.e. in %APPDATA% or $HOME).

  1. Copy the Sia-UI folder found within %APPDATA% or $HOME to the new location. For example, we could move the folder to our D:\ drive so that it was D:\Sia-UI. If you clicked Open Data Folder earlier, you may need to navigate up two levels to reach the Sia-UI folder. Make sure you move the entire folder and not just its contents. Note that unlike Method 1, we are moving the Sia-UI folder instead of just the sia folder within it.
  2. Delete the Sia-UI folder in the original internal data folder (i.e. the one in %APPDATA% or $HOME).
  3. Create a symbolic link to the new folder location (replacing "D:\Sia-UI" with the new location you moved the Sia-UI folder to, and including the quotes):
    • Windows: Open Command Prompt as an administrator and type mklink /D %APPDATA%\Sia-UI "D:\Sia-UI".
    • Mac: Open the Terminal and type ln -s "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Sia-UI" "D:\Sia-UI".
    • Linux: Open the Terminal and type ln -s "$HOME/.config/Sia-UI" "D:\Sia-UI".

When you open Sia, it should now use the data folder in the new location. Make sure you protect this folder (back it up and don't accidentally delete it or disconnect it if on an external drive), as it contains your wallet and renter/host data.

Where are siac and siad located when Sia-UI is installed? What are those, anyway?

The siac program is the command line interface for Sia, and siad is the Sia Daemon which is the background program that actually does all the work for Sia. If you installed Sia-UI, siac and siad are installed in an internal location. You can view this location in Sia-UI by clicking the Terminal (>) icon at the top of the window and looking at the output, which includes a path (i.e. near the bottom, with the path C:\[...]\siac.exe):

Opening the Sia-UI Terminal shows us where siac is.

The easiest way to use siad is to open the Sia-UI and leave it running in the background. You'll want to do this if you plan on using siac, as siac talks to the Sia Daemon while it's running and the Sia-UI will start the Sia Daemon up for us.

If you want to use siac, you can open a Command Prompt or Terminal window on your operating system and go to the location shown in the Sia-UI Terminal above. On Windows, we can open the Start menu and start typing Command Prompt, and open it from the list of results. Then, we can change directories to the one shown in the Terminal using cd [path], replacing [path] with the path shown in the Terminal. You can copy the path from the Terminal, and paste it by right clicking in the Command Prompt window - you may need to wrap your path in "quotes" if it contains any spaces:

Opening a Command Prompt window and changing the directory to our siac location.

Then, you can use siac commands by entering siac [command]. You can type siac help for a list of commands and what they do, and you can type help behind any subcommand to get more information and additional commands related to it, i.e. siac renter help.


Wallet

What do the different Transaction "Types" mean in the Sia wallet?

Sia-UI now labels different transactions with a "Type", which can be handy for determining what transactions are for. Here are the ones we're aware of and what they mean:

  • SIACOIN - a normal transaction where Siacoins were sent or received by a user.
  • SETUP - a transaction related to wallet defragmentation (see this FAQ topic for more info), or announcing a Sia host.
  • CONTRACT - a transaction related to Sia storage renting or hosting (i.e. establishing contracts, paying for storage and bandwidth, etc). Due to how contract spending, allowances, and collateral work, if renting or hosting you may receive a portion of these values back at the end of each contract.
  • REVISION and BLOCK - a transaction related to a contract revision between a renter and host, usually involving Siacoins being given to the host to pay for storage or returned to the renter because storage was unused.
What does the Transaction Status mean in the Sia wallet?

The transaction status indicates if the transaction has been processed into a block on the blockchain and considered complete and legitimate. A fractional status (0/6, 1/6, etc.) refers to the number of confirmations, or blocks, since the transaction was first included in a block. In cryptocurrencies, 6 confirmations are typically considered safe to prove that a transaction was legitimate. After 6 confirmations, the transaction status will change to a green checkmark to indicate it is confirmed. If you're receiving Siacoins from another party, you should wait for 6 confirmations and for the status to change to fully confirmed, especially if the transaction is related to exchange of goods or services outside of the Sia platform.

Sometimes the Sia-UI will show a negative transaction status of several hundred thousand blocks. This happens when Sia-UI is still loading the consensus database and hasn't caught up to the current block yet. Wait for Sia to finish synchronizing, and transaction status should appear normally.

For more basic information on how cryptocurrencies process transactions into blocks, see the overview on our Mining page.

How do I restore my Sia wallet from a seed?
On a new Sia installation:

When you open the Sia-UI for the first time, you'll have two options: "Create a new wallet" or "Load a wallet from a seed". Select the second option and enter your wallet seed. Your password will also be your wallet seed. If you choose to, you can set a new password after your wallet is imported and unlocked by clicking on More > Change Password at the top right of the Wallet page. Custom wallet passwords are only valid on each local Sia installation.

You can also load a seed via the Terminal or command line with the command wallet init-seed.


On an existing Sia installation with a wallet already in use:

You have two options to recover a wallet, depending on if you want to simply add the funds from your old wallet/seed to your current wallet or if you want to use the seed you're importing as your main wallet:

  • To transfer the funds from the old wallet seed to your current wallet, click the Terminal icon (>) at the top of the window, type wallet sweep and press enter, and then type the wallet seed for the old wallet and press enter. This is also known as sweeping the old wallet, and upon completion the old wallet will then have a 0 SC balance. You should not sweep an old wallet if you are using it for renting or hosting and want to move the contracts over from the old wallet - this will not work. Only funds are moved, not renting or hosting contracts.

    If you use this method, make sure you have your current wallet seed written down too, as this is where your Siacoins will be now. You can click More > View Seed at the top right of the Wallet page to see your current wallet seed again if you need it.

  • To load a wallet seed to use as your main wallet, click on the Terminal tab at the left of the Sia-UI and type wallet init-seed --force and press enter, then enter your wallet seed and press enter. This will replace the existing wallet in the Sia-UI with the wallet your seed is associated with, so make sure you have your existing wallet seed written down if it's not empty or if you plan to use it again in the future.

How do I force my Sia wallet to rescan the blockchain for transactions? (Wallet Re-initialization)

You may need to force your wallet to re-initialize in order to find a missing transaction that isn't included in your transaction list.

  1. Grab your wallet seed.
  2. Click on the Terminal (>) icon at the top of the Sia-UI (or use siac) and type wallet init-seed --force, then enter.
  3. Enter your wallet seed when prompted, then press enter.
  4. Click on the Wallet tab to view progress. If you're prompted for a wallet password, use your seed as well.

Your wallet will re-initialize and rescan the blockchain for your transactions. This should find any missing incoming transactions that were included in a block and successfully sent to you, but that didn't show up in your transaction list for some reason. The process can take a long time, depending on your computer hardware. The scan will continue even after the scan message disappears - see this FAQ topic for more information on how to check the wallet scan status if you've loaded your seed and you don't see a balance.

If you need further assistance finding a missing transaction, see the Transaction Troubleshooting topic below.

I think my Sia wallet or seed has been compromised. What should I do?

You should create a new wallet and seed, and transfer all funds over to it. Note that if you're renting or hosting, this will likely ruin all your contracts and lose all data, but if your wallet seed is compromised there's not much you can do to avoid it unless you want to risk all your funds being stolen. If you're a renter, you may want to download your files from Sia first if you don't have local copies, so that you can upload them again after switching wallets if your contracts don't carry over.

Warning: If you believe your computer has been compromised (i.e. due to a virus, downloading a fake wallet, etc), you should not perform these steps on the same computer. Use a different computer which has not been compromised, or wipe your computer completely and reinstall a fresh copy of your operating system from scratch first to ensure you have a clean start and the vulnerability doesn't still exist - otherwise it may just compromise your wallet again. Make sure you have your wallet seed written down first (step 1 below) before reinstalling your operating system.

To transfer your funds to a new wallet:

  1. Make sure you have your old wallet seed. If not, get it from Wallet > More > View Seed.
  2. Click on the Terminal (>) icon at the top of the Sia-UI (or use siac) and type wallet init --force, then enter. This will create a new wallet for you and replace your old one.
  3. Write down the new wallet seed that is printed out. Note that in the Terminal, formatting may be funny and words may be broken.
  4. Type wallet sweep, then enter your old seed when prompted. This will move all funds from your old wallet to your new wallet.
  5. Click on the Wallet tab to verify everything was transferred. If you're prompted for a wallet password, use your seed as well.

Your new wallet may trigger a rescan of the blockchain for transactions, during which time the Sia-UI may say it's scanning the blockchain. The process can take 20 minutes or more, depending on your computer hardware. Your new wallet should contain your Siacoins, and your old seed will be empty - save the new wallet seed, as it is now your main wallet.

If Siacoins Have Already Been Stolen

If your wallet or wallet seed is compromised and Siacoins have already been taken from your wallet, you're likely out of luck. Transactions can't be reversed, and likely can't be traced to a real person. You'll still want to create a new wallet and use that instead, because if someone has your seed and stole your wallet funds once, they can do it again if you continue to use the same wallet. Make sure you take steps to protect your new seed - don't store it digitally, and keep your wallet locked when not in use. If you can't lock your wallet because you're a renter or host, password protect your computer and keep it locked, and control physical access to your computer.

Why do I see one or more 0.088 SC, 0.09 SC, or "Setup" transactions taken out of my Sia wallet?

Your wallet is a collection of several receiving addresses, especially when renting or hosting - many addresses are created automatically to facilitate contract payments. Sia occasionally consolidates and combines balances on these addresses in the background in order to make future transactions more efficient. To do so, each consolidation requires a transaction on the network. The small "setup" transactions you see are the network fees for sending these transactions, just like the small transaction fee when you send any amount of Siacoin, and are nothing to be concerned about. Unfortunately, they also can't be avoided when using the official Sia-UI.

Transactions related to announcing a host on the Sia network are also categorized as "Setup" transactions, and are usually 0.018 or 0.02 SC.


Exchanges

The following information is not investment advice, and is SiaSetup's opinion only. You are responsible for understanding the risks of any investment, and should consult with an appropriately qualified financial advisor if you have questions on investments, investment risks or investment strategies.

Is Sia working on getting into any new exchanges? Won't this help the price increase?

Sia/Siacoin is already on several exchanges such as Binance, Bittrex, Poloniex, and many other smaller exchanges. Certain exchanges are sometimes requested, but the Sia team has so far been unable to reach an agreement to be listed on these exchanges that doesn't involve an exorbitant listing fee. Considering the Sia project is still in development, getting listed on new exchanges has not been a huge priority.

Because Sia is a utility token (it is exchanged for services on the network, i.e. storage via renting and hosting), the price of the coin is intended to remain stable. Listing the coin on a new exchange may result in a temporary increase in price, but this is almost always temporary and short-term. In the long term, it is more beneficial for the Sia product and users of Sia for the coin price to remain fairly consistent. Exchange prices are generally fueled by speculation anyway - cryptocurrency coins often increase and decrease in value for no real reason, or in relation to another coin like Bitcoin. There are hundreds of other coins and projects that are better suited to price speculation - Sia is probably one of the worst projects around in regards to expecting high returns.

Why did my preferred exchange disable Siacoin deposits/withdrawls? Is the Sia team aware? When is it going to be fixed?

Exchanges are a unique use case for the Sia wallet because they handle millions of transactions. Sometimes new issues with the Sia software are discovered based on the heavy usage of exchanges, which can cause an exchange to stop all Siacoin transactions if things aren't working properly.

The Sia development team is usually aware of these issues, and works to fix them. However, some exchanges are both difficult to communicate with, and elect to not use any Sia version that isn't a full release (i.e. release candidate versions that may have fixed the issue, but are still being tested). For this reason, resolution of exchange issues often takes several weeks or more. There isn't much you can do except wait for a fix to be completed and accepted/implemented by the exchange.


Common Issues

I didn't set a password and Sia-UI is asking me for one, or my password isn't working.

Try using your wallet seed as the password. Sometimes if you upgrade Sia, the wallet password reverts to default, which is the wallet seed. The password may also be blank. Sometimes a correct password needs to be entered multiple times. If you're importing your wallet seed into a new Sia instance or installation and you previously set a custom password, that password was only effective on the old installation.

I loaded a wallet seed into Sia-UI and my wallet shows as empty after the scan, but it should have some Siacoins.

The Sia-UI v1.4.x and v1.5.x doesn't properly show wallet sync progress. Your wallet will still be scanning for transactions after the initial scan finishes. Your wallet also won't show your transactions if Sia-UI isn't fully synced (i.e. it doesn't say "Synced" in the upper right corner). The following should work to see your wallet balance and transactions:

  1. Make sure Sia-UI shows as fully synced in the upper right corner. If it doesn't, wait for it to sync, or consider bootstrapping the consensus to make it sync faster.
  2. Click on the Terminal (>) icon at the top of Sia-UI, type wallet and hit enter. A number for wallet height will appear. If this height is lower than the synced blockchain height (visible by holding your mouse over "Synced" in the upper right corner of Sia-UI), your wallet is still scanning. You may not see your wallet balance or transactions until your wallet height reaches the synced height. This may take an hour or more - you can run wallet repeatedly in the Terminal to monitor progress.
  3. If the synced height and the wallet command height show the same number, double check that it's the current block height as shown on SiaStats. If not, your Sia-UI isn't fully synced. If it doesn't sync further, you need to follow the instructions in this FAQ topic to reset your consensus database and re-sync.
  4. If your wallet and synced height match, and match the current block height on SiaStats, you need to re-init your wallet to have it scan again by following the instructions in this FAQ topic. It may take another hour or more for your wallet to finish scanning.

If you've followed the steps above and you still have no wallet balance, and you're sure you didn't spend the Siacoins in this wallet or sweep it to another wallet, you can ask for help using some of the resources in our External Links, such as the Sia Discord Server or the official Sia support channels.

I sent Siacoins somewhere (my wallet, an exchange, etc) and they're not showing up. (Transaction Troubleshooting)

If you've sent or are expecting to receive Siacoins and they're not showing up in the destination wallet, follow these steps to troubleshoot. Please follow along carefully and follow all steps, and your transaction issue will almost certainly be resolved.

For All Situations:
  1. Check that your Sia version is v1.3.7+ (in the About tab or (i) icon), and that Sia is synchronized and shows the same block number seen on SiaStats.info.
    • A hard fork at block 179,000 in October 2018 split the Sia network into two chains, one on v1.3.7+ (the new and current Sia chain), and one v1.3.5 and below (now called "SiaClassic"). Most exchanges and mining pools have upgraded to the new and current chain. More information on the different Sia forks can be found on the Forks page.
    • If you haven't used Sia in a long time and haven't upgraded to v1.3.7 or higher, you may have sent coins on the "old" chain, or can't see your coins on the "new" chain if you're trying to receive coins. Don't worry - if this is the case, your coins on the "new" chain will still be in your wallet after you upgrade your Sia-UI client. See this FAQ topic for instructions on how to upgrade Sia-UI, then try resending your coins or see if you received them in the new version.
    • If you sent coins in Sia-UI v1.3.5 or less, or your block height doesn't match the one shown on SiaStats, see this FAQ topic for instructions on troubleshooting.
  2. Make sure you sent your Siacoins to the correct address. If not, there's your problem!
    • If you sent them to a wrong address related to an exchange, contact the exchange to see about the possibility of retrieving the coins. They may have a way to gain access to the address you sent them to, especially if it was an old address for the exchange that was accidentally re-used.
    • If you sent them to a wrong address anywhere else (in other words, a random unknown address) and the transaction is confirmed, you're probably out of luck. The coins went to wherever they went, possibly to an address that has no wallet associated and never will. Unless the owner of the wallet (if one exists) noticed the transaction and decided to return it, your coins are as good as gone.
  3. Look up the transaction by searching for the transaction ID in a Block Explorer, such as the SiaStats Navigator.
    • If the transaction doesn't appear, it hasn't been finalized on the network yet. Wait 20-30 minutes and check again.
    • If the transaction appears, has a block number and confirmations, it's on the network and has been successfully received, which is good.
    • If you're sending from an exchange and have no transaction ID, you can't check whether or not the transaction was sent. Contact the exchange if you don't receive a transaction ID.

From here, continue to the appropriate section below to further troubleshoot why your transaction hasn't been sent or why you can't see it:

Sending To a Local Sia Wallet (Sia-UI, Sia Daemon, etc):

Did your transaction show up in the Block Explorer in Step 3 above?

  • Yes: You have received your coins, but they're just not showing up in your wallet for some reason. Check the following items.
    1. Make sure that your wallet is fully synchronized. Transactions may not show in the transaction list of a receiving wallet that isn't fully synchronized.
    2. Make sure your wallet isn't stuck on block 139885 (see this FAQ topic if so).
    3. If the above two items are ok, and the transaction isn't showing in your wallet's transaction list, you'll need to reinitialize your wallet to force a rescan of the blockchain to find the missing transaction. See this FAQ topic for instructions.
  • No: Your coins haven't been included in a block yet. Wait for 1-2 blocks to occur (usually about 20 minutes), and check the Block Explorer again. If your transaction still isn't appearing, look at the appropriate "Sending From" section tab above (or contact the sending party) to troubleshoot why.
Sending From a Local Sia Wallet (Sia-UI, Sia Daemon, etc):

Did your transaction show up in the Block Explorer in Step 3 above?

  • Yes: You have successfully sent your coins. The transaction should say it's confirmed (a status of a green checkmark after about an hour) in your wallet. The problem is on the receiving end. See the appropriate "Sending To" section tab above (or refer the receiving party to it) to troubleshoot why.
  • No: Your coins haven't been sent or included in a block yet. Follow these steps:
    1. Make sure that your wallet is fully synchronized. You cannot send coins until your wallet is synchronized.
    2. Make sure your wallet isn't stuck on block 139885 (see this FAQ topic if so).
    3. If the transaction status is not confirmed in your wallet (i.e. a small bubble under your balance is shown with an unconfirmed amount), wait for 1-2 blocks to occur (usually about 20 minutes) and see if the transaction appears in the transaction list.
Sending To An Exchange:

Did your transaction show up in the Block Explorer in Step 3 above?

  • Yes: The exchange has received your coins. Exchanges usually require 6 confirmations, sometimes more, before they'll show your coins in your exchange balance. The number of confirmations can be seen in the Block Explorer. 6 confirmations typically takes an hour, but can take longer (and if they require more confirmations, it may take a few hours). If you still don't see your coins after several hours and after your exchange's policy for confirmations, you'll need to contact your exchange with your transaction ID for assistance.
  • No: Your coins haven't been included in a block yet. Wait for 1-2 blocks to occur (usually about 20 minutes), and check the Block Explorer again. If your transaction still isn't appearing, look at the appropriate "Sending From" section tab above to troubleshoot why.
Sending From An Exchange:

Did your transaction show up in the Block Explorer in Step 3 above?

  • Yes: The exchange has successfully sent your coins. The problem is on the receiving end. See the appropriate "Sending To" section tab above to troubleshoot why.
  • No: Your coins haven't been included in a block yet, which means the exchange hasn't actually sent them on the Sia network. Exchanges can take longer than usual to send coins - we'd suggest waiting at least an hour, if not two, and then check the Block Explorer again. If you still don't see your transaction, you'll need to contact your exchange with your transaction ID for assistance.

If the above steps don't help your solve your transaction issue, try some of the support resources in our External Links section.

Sia says "Loading may take a while" or "Not done loading the modules" for a long time.

"It may take longer than expected to finish the loading all the modules".

If you recently updated Sia, some changes can take a while to process depending on how old your previous Sia version was. Just like with synchronization, these processes take longer on a traditional hard drive, and can sometimes take hours.

If you deleted files during troubleshooting or bootstrapped a consensus database, Sia may have to go through and rebuild other information related to renting or hosting block-by-block, even if you don't rent or host. Even on a fast computer with a SSD, this can take several hours. As long as you see the update message and no other error, Sia is making progress and you should let it continue until it's finished.

If the message does not disappear and you want to reset your Sia installation to start over, see this FAQ topic for instructions on starting over with a fresh install. Make sure you have your wallet seed backed up before resetting. If you're a Sia renter or host, it may be better to wait for the message to disappear to ensure you don't lose any data related to renting or hosting.

I'm getting a different error when I open the Sia-UI, and Sia won't load.

There is a very comprehensive Sia Troubleshooting Thread from tbenz9 with many common errors and resolutions that you may also wish to look into.

There are a few things you can try, in order from least to most drastic:

  1. Try closing Sia and opening it again. Close it completely by right clicking on the Sia icon in the system tray and selecting Quit. You can also try restarting your computer. Easy things first!
  2. Make sure you're running the latest version of Sia. Check the Sia Downloads page to see if there's a newer version. It might not hurt to re-download Sia anyway to make sure one of your Sia files didn't somehow become corrupted. After that's done, open Sia and see if things are working. Sia may say that it'll take a while to upgrade or finish loading - let it do what it needs to do.

For the following tasks, you'll need to open your Sia-UI data folder. Click About (i) > Open Data Folder, or see this FAQ topic for the location of the data folder.

  1. If you have a previous backup of your Sia internal data folder, close Sia and try reverting to a recent version of that. It's likely that something became corrupted, especially if Sia didn't shut down correctly. If you rent or host, this may affect your contracts, so also back up the current Sia data folder before you replace it, even if it seems to be broken.
  2. You may have to remove some of Sia's files so that it can rebuild them. Close Sia, back up these files before removing any of them, and make sure you have your wallet seed written down! If you remove the wrong files and don't have a backup, it'll be like starting from scratch. If you don't have your wallet seed and you mess something up, you'll lose access to your wallet. You've been warned!

    Start by checking Sia's log files for clues on what might be going wrong. Look at \Sia-UI\sia\siad-output.txt, and then the text files in each directory. They might mention problems with a particular subfolder, like \consensus or \host. If you see an error, try removing the appropriate folder, or taking whatever other action might be necessary if the error is specific. Be advised that if you're a renter or host and you remove the corresponding directories, it may also remove your renter or host contracts. Sia may be able to rebuild them, but if not, restore them from the backup copy you were told to make before messing with these files. You did make a backup, right?

  3. Worst case, if you're not a host or renter, you can start with a fresh install of Sia, and Sia will behave as if it's brand new the next time you open it. With your wallet seed, you can then recover your wallet and your Siacoins.

If Sia still isn't loading after all of that, or if you're a renter or host concerned about losing your files or contracts, you might consider asking for help in one of the communities listed in our External Links, like Reddit or Discord.

Sia is being very resource-intensive (high RAM use, causing computer to freeze or stutter, etc).

Sia tends to be particularly intensive while synchronizing the consensus database, and your computer may lag or stutter a bit while this happens. Sia also does not currently run well on computers with low RAM. Once Sia is synchronized, resource use should decrease. When you first open Sia, try closing all other programs and letting Sia fully synchronize before you do anything else. Unfortunately, there is no real solution to Sia's resource usage as it synchronizes, and the process must be waited out.

Note that the issues below are likely no longer current issues, and most of them addressed problems in the Sia v1.3 series. They are kept online just in case, and have been updated with instructions for Sia v1.4.0+ in the event you still encounter them. In most cases, upgrading to the latest version of Sia will fix any of these issues.

Sia says the current block is 139885, is not synchronizing further, and new transactions aren't confirming.

This is a known issue related to a hard fork that happened to fix a mining difficulty issue some time ago. You'll see this happen if you're running a very old version of Sia, or sometimes if you just upgraded from an old version to the current version. To fix it:

  1. Navigate to Sia's internal data folders (see this FAQ topic if needed, or click "Show Sia Data" or "Open Data Folder" in the About section of Sia-UI).
  2. Close Sia completely by right clicking on the Sia icon in the system tray and selecting Quit.
  3. Update to the latest version of Sia if you haven't yet (see this FAQ topic if needed).
  4. Delete \Sia-UI\sia\consensus\consensus.db in the internal data folder you opened earlier.
  5. Open Sia and let it fully synchronize.

Sia should then synchronize beyond block 139885 and your transactions will be up to date. If you want to speed up synchronization, consider using our Consensus Download to bootstrap the consensus file.

My block height doesn't match the current Sia network after the fork at block 179,000, or transactions aren't going through. (Post-Fork Reset)

The Sia network forked on block 179,000 (October 31, 2018) and split into two chains - v1.3.7+, which is the new chain and the current Sia network, and v1.3.5 and lower, which is the old chain (a dead chain referred to as "SiaClassic" - more info on the different forks can be found on our Forks page). You can encounter problems sending or receiving transactions after the fork block if you didn't upgrade your Sia installation before it synced through block 179,000. Most exchanges and mining pools have updated to the new chain and the current version of Sia, so you may not see transactions go through as expected if you're stuck on the old chain.

To check which chain/fork you're currently on:
  • Check your Sia version (in the Sia-UI, click the About tab or (i) icon) - if it's v1.3.5 or less, you're on the old chain and need to upgrade.
  • Let Sia fully synchronize, and then check your block height and compare it to the latest block on SiaStats.info. If your block height isn't the same, you're on the old chain, even if you're running v1.3.7+.
To reset your Sia-UI to use the new chain:
  1. Navigate to Sia's internal data folders (see this FAQ topic if needed, or click "Show Sia Data" or "Open Data Folder" in the About section of Sia-UI).
  2. Close Sia completely by right clicking on the Sia icon in the system tray and selecting Quit.
  3. Upgrade to the latest version of Sia if you haven't yet (see this FAQ topic if needed).
  4. Delete \Sia-UI\sia\consensus\consensus.db and \Sia-UI\sia\transactionpool\transactionpool.dbin the internal data folder you opened earlier.
  5. Open Sia and let it fully synchronize.

Sia should then synchronize to the current block on the new chain/fork, and you will be on the new chain. If you want to speed up synchronization, consider using our Consensus Download to bootstrap the consensus file.

What if I sent coins on the old chain before I figured this out?

If you sent coins in Sia v1.3.5 or lower after block 179,000 and/or after October 31, 2018, you were sending SiaClassic coins and not your actual Siacoins. You may have also sent SiaClassic coins instead of Siacoins if you had updated to v1.3.7+ but your block height wasn't the same as the current block height. The good news is that once you update to the latest Sia version and reset your consensus as described above, you should still have your Siacoins intact because they were never sent on the new chain. The bad news is that you sent SiaClassic coins somewhere, possibly to an exchange that doesn't support SiaClassic, and those coins may be gone. Check with the exchange or the person you sent the coins to and ask them if they plan to support SiaClassic or if they have a way of retrieving those coins for you if you're worried about getting them back, though SiaClassic coins are effectively useless at this point.

What if I tried to receive coins before I figured this out?

If you were sending coins from an exchange to your wallet, most exchanges are now on the latest version of Sia - so once you follow the steps above to upgrade your Sia-UI and get on the new chain, you should see your coins appear in your wallet. If the sender of the coins was on v1.3.5 or lower, you would have seen the coins appear while you were on the old chain. You can always download Sia v1.3.5 again at a later time to see your old/"SiaClassic" balance if needed, though note that you can't run both v1.3.5 or lower and v1.3.7+ together on the same machine without special configuration.

Sia says "API Authentication Failed" when trying to perform an action.

An API password was implemented in Sia v1.3.5+ which requires a randomly-generated password to be used to access API functions. More documentation can be found in the API documentation.

If you receive this error in the Sia-UI:

This error shouldn't normally be seen when using the Sia-UI. If you do see this error, you likely upgraded from an older version of Sia and left some old files in place somewhere. Click on the About (i) icon in the Sia-UI and make sure the two version numbers match. If they don't, you have remnants of an old installation left over. Start over with a clean install of Sia (see this FAQ topic for help), and re-download the latest one from the Sia Downloads page.

If you receive this error using the API directly:

API authentication is enabled for the Sia daemon by default - see the API authentication documentation for more information. An API password is generated by the daemon and is stored in a file - you can view the password using utils display-api-password in the Sia-UI Terminal or siac. The location of file is with the API password is:

  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Sia\apipassword
  • Mac: $HOME/Library/Application Support/Sia/apipassword
  • Linux: $HOME/.sia/apipassword

You can change the password in this file to your own, use the generated password from the file, set a password in an environment variable called SIA_API_PASSWORD, or disable API authentication entirely by passing --authenticate-api=false to the Sia daemon when starting it. You can also set a temporary API password using the --temp-password flag when starting the Sia daemon.

Sia says "Consensus change series appears to be inconsistent - we are applying the wrong block." and won't load.

This error is usually caused by a corrupt file, most of the time in either the transaction pool or consensus. You may also see this error after upgrading Sia to a new version. To fix:

  1. Close Sia completely by right clicking on the Sia icon in the system tray and selecting Quit.
  2. Navigate to Sia's internal data files (click About (i) > Open Data Folder, or see this FAQ topic for the location if needed).
  3. Delete the transactionpool folder and open Sia again.
  4. If you still see the error, close Sia, go back to the internal data files and delete the transactionpool and consensus folders, and open Sia again. This will require Sia to re-synchronize, but it is necessary to fix the issue. If you want to speed up synchronization, consider using our Consensus Download to bootstrap the consensus file.

If you still see the error, something else is likely corrupt, and it's best to start with a fresh install of Sia.

Sia says "Unable to fund transaction: wallet has coins spent in incomplete transactions - not enough remaining coins" when trying to send Siacoins.

First, make sure you're fully synchronized. Check the block number that Sia says it's synchronized to.

If the block number is 139885:

Sia is stuck on that specific block due to a hard fork that occurred some time ago to fix a mining difficulty issue. See this FAQ topic and follow the instructions there.

If the block number is higher than 139885:

Wait until you see the block number increase by a block or two (usually about 20-30 minutes), make sure all your transactions show as confirmed, and try again. This issue is usually temporary, and can happen if you try to send coins multiple times within a few minutes (more information on why can be found here). If you still have the issue, follow the steps above for Sia being stuck on block 139885 - even though you're not stuck on this block, the solution at this point is the same.

Don't see your question answered? Let us know and we'll see if we can add it to the FAQ.