How can I fix hardware wallet signing issues?

Prevent signing failures by managing your UTXOs.

Hardware wallet signing failures can be caused by a technical limitation of your hardware wallet. Factors such as the number of UTXOs in your vault and their signing mass can cause problems for your hardware wallet. You may receive an error message, your hardware wallet may appear to freeze, or it may time out and lock after several minutes. The steps in this article will help prevent most issues.

You can check the number of UTXOs in your vault by clicking View details on your vault page.

How to fix an immediate signing failure:

1. Be patient and wait.

As discussed in a previous article, signing can take much longer than expected. The best thing to do is wait. Even if it looks like your hardware wallet isn’t doing anything (most common with Ledgers), it may be working hard behind the scenes. Most transactions will be signed in under 10 minutes, but sometimes they take longer.

2. Remove the “timeout” features on your hardware wallet.

If the hardware wallet signature takes too long, your hardware may automatically timeout or lock itself, stopping the process. You can disable this feature.

Trezor:

Disable auto-lock (All Trezor Models)

1. Plug in your Trezor to your computer.
2. Open Trezor Suite and click Settings (the gear icon) in the upper-right corner. 
3. Select Device and scroll down to Auto-lock time. 
4. Set it to 1 hour.
   
   

Ledger:

Disable PIN lock and screen saver (All Ledger models).

1. Plug in your Ledger and unlock it with your PIN.
2. Hold both buttons down for a few seconds to access the Control Center.
3. Select Settings and Security.
4. Choose PIN lock and press No PIN lock.
5. Next, choose Screen Saver and select No Screen Saver.
   
   

Disable Auto power off (Ledger Nano X only).

1. Plug in your Ledger and unlock it with your PIN.
2. Hold both buttons down for a few seconds to access the Control Center.
3. Navigate to Settings and General.
4. Choose Battery Saver.
5. Press Never power off.
6. When finished, select Power off in the Control Center menu to power off the Ledger.

3. Perform partial spends rather than one full withdrawal.

Breaking your transaction into a few smaller transactions will include fewer UTXOs in each transaction. Your hardware wallet will have an easier time signing each transaction.

How to manage your UTXOs and prevent future issues:

1. Make consolidation transactions as needed.

Consolidation transactions combine all of your UTXOs into one single UTXO, making it easier to sign transactions. We recommend doing this when bitcoin network fees are low and before you accumulate many of UTXOs. You can follow our separate guide on how to perform a consolidation transaction.

2. Avoid using F2Pool and ViaBTC mining pools.

These pools are known to generate significantly higher signing mass than other pools. These UTXOs will take substantially longer for your hardware wallet to sign. Consider switching to a different pool.

3. Decrease the frequency of automated deposits to your vault.

Mining pools typically let you set automated withdrawal thresholds where they send your payouts directly to your vault. We recommend decreasing the frequency of these payouts by setting a higher threshold. This will dramatically reduce the number of UTXOs in your vault.

For example, a daily deposit from a miner will produce about 30 UTXOs in a month, but a weekly deposit would only be 4-5 UTXOs in a month. Adjust your threshold according to your business needs.

Exchanges with dollar-cost-averaging features (DCA) often also offer automatic withdrawals. We recommend that our clients set an appropriately high withdrawal threshold to avoid daily deposits.