Metamask is one of the biggest wallets with more than 1 million users worldwide. A lot of people appreciate the simple design for the mobile app or web extension that allows for easy transactions and a mostly smooth user experience. However from time to time users encounter a variety of errors, which can be really frustrating.
Just today I encountered multiple problems when swapping tokens. As these problems often involve a lot of money at stake, it is especially stressful to deal with them. In this article I collected the most common errors that you can encounter when using MetaMask and how to fix them.
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any funds you might lose in the process of fixing any of the following issues.
Error #1
“MetaMask encountered an error due to reaching a storage limit. The local data has been corrupted. Please reinstall MetaMask and restore with your seed phrase.”
This is a common issue when using the mobile app, that MetaMasks developers are still working on to solve. Users that experience this error often hold a large variety of coins and/or NFTs.
Solution
As stated in the error message, the wallet has to be reinstalled.
Before you delete MetaMask it is recommended that you make a copy of your state logs and send them to MetaMask support to help them troubleshoot the cause.
Make sure you have your 12-word recovery phrase
Reinstall the MetaMask wallet app
Click on “Reset wallet”
Tap on “I understand, continue”
Type “delete”
Confirm the deletion.
After reinstalling and resetting the mobile wallet you can either sync it back with the MetaMask web extension or recover your wallet using the secret recovery phrase.
If you are using your recovery phrase, it is possible that you need to add your tokens back in manually:
Click on Add tokens
Search for Tokens or add a custom token
If you want to add a custom token go to Etherscan, search for your token and copy paste the contract address into MetaMask.
Error #2
“No quotes available. Try adjusting the amount or slippage settings and try again.”
This issue occurs while trying to swap between tokens. The way it happens is MetaMask searching different decentralized exchanges (Uniswap, SushiSwap, …) but not finding sufficient liquidity on any of them. This liquidity is required to lower the price impact a token swap has on the coin. Therefore it is a temporary problem until enough liquidity can be provided.
Solution
The easiest solution is to try again periodically until more liquidity is available. Sometimes it also helps to increase the slippage percentage. If you don’t want to wait you can also directly swap your tokens on a decentralized exchange:
Go to an Exchange like Uniswap https://app.uniswap.org/#/swap
Connect MetaMask
Choose the tokens and the amount you want to swap.
Click on Swap
Error #3
“Insufficient funds” / The confirm button is greyed out
In this case the amount of token you have in your wallet is not sufficient to complete the transaction. For Ethereum transactions gas fees have to be paid with ETH that can reach up to a couple of hundred dollars.
Solution
Check out gas price trackers like ETH Gas Station and complete the transaction at a later point in time, if prices are spiking. Alternatively you have to send more Ether to your wallet or buy some directly in MetaMask:
Click on Buy
Select a provider
Follow the steps to complete the transaction
Error #4
“Out of gas”
If you want to learn more about how gas works, check out my gas fee guide for OpenSea. In general out of gas means that the amount of gas you paid for your transaction was not sufficient for the transaction to come through the whole network.
Solution
The only way to fix this problem is to try again and increase your gas limit. For beginners it makes sense to go for the gas price MetaMask suggests and not enable advanced gas controls. The gas fee you paid for the failed transaction is unfortunately lost in the process.
Error #5
Tokens disappearing after sending them OUT of MetaMask
When sending tokens to a different wallet address, the tokens are withdrawn from MetaMask but don’t appear in the other wallet.
Solutions
Check your transaction on a block explorer:
Open MetaMask and click on Activity
Select the transaction and click on Open on Etherscan
Alternatively copy the transaction ID (txid) and search for it on a different block explorer
If your status is marked as “pending” you can try to cancel it or speed up the transaction:
Go to MetaMask
Click on Activity
Look for your transaction and click on “Speed up” or “Cancel”
Speeding up the transaction will resubmit it with higher gas fees which should process the transaction faster than before. For a more indepth article on Speeding up or canceling transactions refer to this article on the MetaMasks Support Site.
If your transaction is marked as successful on Etherscan but still doesn't appear in your other wallet, try to contact the customer support of that wallet.
Error #6
Tokens disappearing after sending them INTO MetaMask
Similar to the last error, tokens may also not show up after sending them from a different wallet into MetaMask. This can also have different reasons.
Check Etherscan as described in Error #5
Check whether you added the correct RPC network or custom token for your transaction
Confirm that you have the correct account selected (You can switch between networks on the top of the MetaMask web extension)
If you followed all these steps, the transaction is marked as “successful” on Etherscan and still doesn’t show up, submit a Support ticket to MetaMask https://metamask.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Didn’t fix your error?
If you have any unopened questions or encountered an error I didn’t address in this article, feel free to comment or message me directly. I will try and update the article whenever needed.