Arweave Troubleshooting

Common issues with permanent archival on Arweave.

Upload failed: Transaction rejected

Arweave nodes can reject transactions for several reasons:

Insufficient balance — your wallet doesn't have enough AR to cover data + miner reward
Data too large for single transaction — transactions above ~12 MB may be rejected by some nodes
Wallet key format error — the JWK file is malformed or from a different chain

Diagnose

# Check your wallet balance
arweave-js:
  const arweave = Arweave.init({ host: 'arweave.net', port: 443, protocol: 'https' });
  const balance = await arweave.wallets.getBalance(address);
  console.log(arweave.ar.winstonToAr(balance), 'AR');

# With arkb, check balance before upload
arkb balance --wallet ./wallet.json

# For large files, use Irys (formerly Bundlr) which handles chunking:
irys upload large-file.mp3 -h https://node1.irys.xyz -t arweave -w ./wallet.json

Insufficient funds / need AR tokens

Arweave storage costs are very low but not zero. Current pricing is roughly ~$1–5 per GB stored permanently.

Ways to get AR tokens:

Buy on exchanges: AR is on Binance, Crypto.com, Gate.io, KuCoin. Transfer to your ArConnect wallet.
Use Irys to pay with ETH/SOL: Irys lets you pay for Arweave storage with other tokens, no AR needed.
ArDrive Turbo Credits: Pay with a credit card via ArDrive for storage credits.

Pay with ETH via Irys

# Fund your Irys balance with ETH
irys fund 10000000000000000 -h https://node1.irys.xyz -t ethereum -w your_eth_private_key
# (that's 0.01 ETH in wei — enough for ~200 MB)

# Check your funded balance
irys balance YOUR_ETH_ADDRESS -h https://node1.irys.xyz -t ethereum

Transaction pending / stuck for hours

Arweave confirmations take time. A transaction is not final until it is mined into a block and receives sufficient confirmations.

Normal wait time: 5–30 minutes for the first confirmation
Full confirmation: ~50 blocks (~100 minutes) for finality
Network congestion: Can increase wait times significantly

Check transaction status

# Check status via gateway
curl https://arweave.net/tx/YOUR_TRANSACTION_ID/status

# Response statuses:
# "pending" — in the mempool, waiting to be mined
# 200 with JSON — confirmed, includes block height
# 404 — not found (may have been dropped)

# Check on ViewBlock explorer:
# https://viewblock.io/arweave/tx/YOUR_TRANSACTION_ID

If stuck "pending" for over 2 hours, the transaction may have been dropped. Try re-uploading — you won't be charged for a dropped transaction.

ArConnect wallet not connecting

ArConnect is the main browser wallet for Arweave:

ArConnect troubleshooting

# 1. Make sure the extension is installed and unlocked
#    Check: chrome://extensions (or about:addons in Firefox)

# 2. Check if the site has permission
#    Click ArConnect icon → Settings → Apps → check permissions

# 3. Try disconnecting and reconnecting
#    ArConnect icon → Connected Apps → Remove → Reconnect

# 4. If ArConnect API isn't detected in your dApp:
if (!window.arweaveWallet) {
  console.log('ArConnect not detected');
  // Wait for the extension to inject (it can be slow)
  window.addEventListener('arweaveWalletLoaded', () => {
    console.log('ArConnect is now available');
  });
}

Common fix: Disable other wallet extensions that might conflict (MetaMask, Phantom). Some extensions override the same browser APIs.

arkb deploy fails or shows errors

Common arkb errors and fixes

# Error: "Not enough funds"
# Fix: Check your balance and fund the wallet
arkb balance --wallet ./wallet.json

# Error: "ENOENT: no such file or directory"
# Fix: Make sure you're in the correct directory
# arkb deploy expects a folder path
arkb deploy ./out --wallet ./wallet.json

# Error: "Invalid key file"
# Fix: The wallet file must be a valid Arweave JWK JSON
# Generate a new one if needed:
arweave-js: const key = await arweave.wallets.generate();

# Error: timeout / network errors
# Fix: Try a different gateway
arkb deploy ./out --wallet ./wallet.json --gateway https://arweave.net

# Error: "Transaction already exists"  
# This is harmless — arkb skips files that are already uploaded
# It uses content-addressing, so identical files are deduplicated

Uploaded content not visible on gateways

After uploading, content may not be immediately available on all gateways:

Wait for confirmation. Gateways won't serve unconfirmed data. Allow 10–30 minutes.
Try alternate gateways. Different gateways may sync at different speeds.
Cache issues. Browsers and CDNs can cache 404 responses.

Check multiple gateways

TX_ID="your_transaction_id_here"

# Try these gateways:
curl -I "https://arweave.net/$TX_ID"
curl -I "https://ar-io.dev/$TX_ID"
curl -I "https://g8way.io/$TX_ID"

# For manifest-based deploys, access via:
# https://arweave.net/MANIFEST_TX_ID/index.html
# https://arweave.net/MANIFEST_TX_ID/path/to/file.css

Manifest deploy: pages return 404

When deploying a full site with arkb, it creates a manifest that maps paths to transaction IDs. If individual pages 404:

The manifest index might not point to index.html — check your deploy command
Client-side routing won't work — Arweave serves static files, not an SPA
Relative paths may break if assets reference / as root

Deploy with correct index

# Make sure to set the index file
arkb deploy ./out --wallet ./wallet.json --index index.html

# For Next.js static export, the output structure should be:
# out/
#   index.html
#   about/index.html
#   episodes/index.html
#   ...
# Each route needs its own index.html (Next.js does this with output: 'export')

# Verify the manifest after deploy:
curl https://arweave.net/MANIFEST_TX_ID | jq .

High storage costs for audio files

Audio files are large and Arweave charges per byte. Strategies to reduce cost:

Compress audio: Use Opus or AAC instead of MP3. Opus at 64kbps is excellent quality and ~50% smaller.
Archive selectively: Archive the most important episodes first. Site HTML/CSS is tiny by comparison.
Use Irys bundling: Bundled transactions are cheaper than base-layer Arweave transactions.
Community funding: Split the cost among multiple supporters — each archives different episodes.

Cost estimation

# Rough cost estimation for Arweave:
# Current rate: ~5 AR per GB (check https://ar-fees.arweave.dev)
# 1 AR ≈ $5-30 USD (varies with market)
#
# Typical podcast episode (MP3, 45 min): ~40-60 MB
# Typical podcast episode (Opus, 45 min): ~20-30 MB
# Full website HTML/CSS/JS: ~5-10 MB
#
# Cost for one episode: ~0.3-0.5 AR
# Cost for full site: ~0.05 AR

Arweave Setup Guide

Full archival walkthrough →

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