LND Sweep Funds After Closing All Channels — Recovery Guide

When you close all channels or abandon a node, you need to sweep the on-chain funds back to a wallet. Here's the full procedure.

Check on-chain wallet balance

# Confirmed + unconfirmed balance
lncli walletbalance

# List all UTXOs
lncli listunspent | python3 -c "
import json, sys
d = json.load(sys.stdin)
utxos = d.get('utxos', [])
total = sum(int(u['amount_sat']) for u in utxos)
print(f'UTXOs: {len(utxos)}, Total: {total} sats')
for u in utxos:
    print(f"  {u['amount_sat']} sats @ {u['outpoint'][:30]}")
"

Wait for pending channel closes to settle

# Check for pending on-chain funds
lncli pendingchannels | python3 -c "
import json, sys
d = json.load(sys.stdin)
for ch in d.get('pending_force_closing_channels', []):
    maturity = ch.get('blocks_til_maturity', 0)
    amt = ch.get('limbo_balance', 0)
    print(f'Force-closing: {amt} sats, {maturity} blocks remaining (~{maturity*10} min)')
"

Send all funds to external wallet

# Send specific amount
lncli sendcoins --addr <YOUR_BITCOIN_ADDRESS> --amt <SATOSHIS>

# Send ALL on-chain funds (sweep everything)
lncli sendcoins --addr <YOUR_BITCOIN_ADDRESS> --sweepall

# With custom fee rate (sat/vbyte)
lncli sendcoins --addr <YOUR_BITCOIN_ADDRESS> --sweepall --sat_per_vbyte 5

Recover funds if LND wallet seed is lost (emergency)

# If you have the 24-word seed but lost the node:
# 1. Create fresh LND instance
# 2. Restore wallet from seed:
lncli create
# Choose: Restore from existing seed
# Enter your 24 words

# 3. After sync, recover channel funds:
lncli restorechanbackup --multi_file /path/to/channel.backup

# 4. Once channels close, sweep on-chain:
lncli sendcoins --addr <address> --sweepall

Check sweep transaction status

# List recent transactions
lncli listchaintxns | python3 -c "
import json, sys
d = json.load(sys.stdin)
for tx in sorted(d['transactions'], key=lambda x: -int(x.get('time_stamp',0)))[:5]:
    print(f"{tx.get('amount')} sats | {tx.get('num_confirmations')} confs | {tx.get('tx_hash')[:20]}")
"

Need help sweeping funds? $9

I guide you through safely closing channels, sweeping funds, and verifying everything landed in your wallet. USDT TRC-20.

→ Service page