Lightning Payment Failed — 5 Most Common Causes and Fixes

Payment failed with no clear reason? Here are the 5 most common causes and how to fix each one.

1. Insufficient local balance

lncli listchannels | python3 -c "import json,sys; cs=json.load(sys.stdin)['channels']; print(sum(int(c['local_balance']) for c in cs), 'sats available')"

2. Stale routing graph (most common)

# Check how old your graph is
lncli describegraph | python3 -c "
import json,sys,time
g=json.load(sys.stdin)
latest=max(int(e.get('last_update',0)) for e in g['edges'])
print(f'Graph age: {(int(time.time())-latest)//3600}h')
"

If graph age > 2h: lncli updatechanpolicy --base_fee_msat 1 --fee_rate 0.000001 --time_lock_delta 40 --chan_point ANY_CHANNEL_POINT

3. No route found — insufficient liquidity on path

Run: lncli queryroutes --dest PUBKEY --amt AMOUNT
If empty: you need more channels or larger channel capacity to the destination.

4. Channel offline / peer disconnected

lncli listchannels | python3 -c "import json,sys; [print(c['remote_pubkey'][:20],'OFFLINE') for c in json.load(sys.stdin)['channels'] if not c['active']]"

5. Invoice expired

Lightning invoices expire (default 1 hour). Ask the recipient to generate a new invoice.

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