Note: If your transaction never appeared on Etherscan at all, you likely have a wallet connection issue. See Wallet Connection Troubleshooting instead.
First: Check if your transaction is still pending
The most common reason a transaction seems "stuck" is that it simply hasn't confirmed yet. Ethereum transactions can take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes depending on network congestion and your gas settings.
To check your transaction status:
Open your wallet and find the transaction
Click on the transaction to view details
Copy the transaction hash
Paste the hash into Etherscan
If Etherscan shows your transaction as "Pending," it was broadcast successfully and is waiting to be confirmed.
Speed up a pending transaction
If your transaction is pending on Etherscan but confirming slowly, you can speed it up by increasing the gas fee.
To speed up a transaction in MetaMask:
Open MetaMask
Find the pending transaction under Activity
Click the transaction
Select Speed up
Choose a higher gas fee
Confirm the replacement transaction
Important: Do not speed up commit transactions during ENS registration. The commit transaction (Step 1 of registration) uses a hash stored in your browser. If you speed up or replace this transaction, the ENS App loses track of the new hash and your registration will get stuck on "Almost there." See Registration Troubleshooting
Transaction pending for a long time
If your transaction has been pending on Etherscan for an extended period (more than 10–15 minutes), it likely has a gas fee that's too low for current network conditions.
Your options:
Speed up the transaction (see above)—this replaces it with a higher gas fee
[ Important: Do not speed up commit transactions during ENS registration. If you speed up or replace this transaction, the ENS App loses track of the new hash and your registration will get stuck ]
Wait—the transaction may eventually confirm when network congestion decreases
Cancel the transaction—you can replace the pending transaction with a zero-value transaction to yourself using the same nonce
Note: Cancelling a transaction still costs gas, and the original transaction's gas is not refunded.
Transaction not found on Etherscan
If your transaction doesn't appear on Etherscan at all, it was never broadcast to the blockchain. This typically indicates a wallet connection issue rather than a transaction issue.
Common causes include:
MetaMask Smart Transactions intercepting the transaction
A dropped connection between MetaMask and a hardware wallet
The wallet failing to actually submit the transaction
Registration stuck on "Almost there"
If you're registering a name and the ENS App is stuck on "Almost there" after your commit transaction completed onchain:
Cause: The ENS App lost track of your commit transaction. This usually happens if you sped up or replaced the commit transaction, very tight ad blockers, oother extensions getting in the way, or if you cleared your browser cache before completing registration.
Fix: Use a different browser, then restart the registration from the beginning. You'll need to pay gas fees for a new commit transaction.