Troubleshooting

Organised by what you see on screen. Each entry gives the likely cause and the fix.

Strategies

Strategy shows "Paused — socket down" Cause: your tab is closed, in the background, or the live connection to Surge dropped. Fix: open the strategy page; it rejoins and resumes automatically. Check the socket pill in the header. Turn on Keep screen awake if the laptop was sleeping. See How non-custodial works.

Strategy shows "Paused — out of range" (grid) Cause: the price is outside your band plus buffer. Fix: once the price is back inside, reload the strategy page so the grid re-evaluates (a paused grid gets no price ticks and does not re-check on its own), or stop and clone with a new range. See Grid.

Strategy shows "Paused — reserve low" (grid) Cause: less than about 10–12 ADA of spare ADA in the strategy wallet for deposits and fees. Fix: fund the wallet, then reload the strategy page so it re-evaluates.

Strategy shows "Paused — circuit breaker" Cause (grid): more than 3 lines crossed in one tick or more than 5 in two minutes. Cause (rule-based): your failure policy paused the plan after 3 build failures. Fix: check the chart and the wallet, then click Resume.

Strategy shows "Paused — pool shallow" (grid) or "Paused — price feed stale" (rule-based) Cause: the reference pool fell under 5,000 ADA, or Surge's price feed is not live (a grid shows "pool shallow" for either). Fix: wait; the chart's LIVE/STALE badge shows feed health. A grid needs a strategy-page reload to re-evaluate; a rule-based plan re-checks every minute. See How prices are sourced.

Strategy says Running but never trades Cause: for arbitrage, nobody is connected or the required spread is not there — the Activity tab shows every skipped evaluation. For grid and rule-based, the per-wallet two-minute gap, the per-rung cooldown, an order still open on the wallet, or a level that no pool quotes at your size. For DCA, the tab was closed. Fix: read the strategy's Activity or Rungs/Levels tab; keep the tab open.

"Strategy muted" in the arbitrage Activity feed Cause: 3 consecutive build failures, almost always insufficient funds in Wallet A (or Wallet B in parallel mode). Fix: fund the wallet; the mute lifts after 10 minutes or on the next successful build.

Arbitrage strategy stopped by itself Cause: the daily loss limit or 3 consecutive losing round trips. Fix: review the trade log; set the status back to running from the strategy page if you want to continue.

Arbitrage opportunity stuck in "Partial" Cause: one leg filled and the other did not. Fix: cancel the parked leg if there is one (Cancel ready prompt), then use Force close to exit at market. See Sequential arbitrage and Parallel arbitrage.

Cadence orders show "skipped" Cause: they were more than 30 minutes past their scheduled time — with the tab closed no order is even sent for signing, or the schedule stalled behind a parked order. Fix: keep the tab open for the whole duration; cancel any parked order.

Cadence order "failed" and I got a "strategy stopped" email Cause: the order failed to build 5 times (typically funds not in the expected wallet). Note the strategy itself is not stopped — later orders continue. Fix: check wallet balances; funds may be in an earlier wallet of the ring.

"Cancel ready" prompt keeps appearing Cause: an order is parked on a non-refunding DEX and Surge has built the cancel for you. Fix: approve it. Until you do, that wallet fires nothing else.

Cannot archive a strategy Cause: it is still running, or an order is awaiting signature or open on chain. Fix: stop it, wait for open orders to fill or cancel them, then archive.

Deploy button disabled in the grid builder Cause: the preview lists blocking reasons (investment below minimum or above the depth ceiling, price outside the band, grid count above the pool cap, no wallet, acknowledgement unticked). Fix: address each listed reason.

Rule-based level rejected on save Cause: a price below 0.000001 ADA or a size that rounds to zero of the token's smallest unit. Fix: adjust the value; check the token's decimals are known.

Orders

Order stuck at "Open" Cause: the batcher has not filled it. Under 3 minutes is normal. After that, the diagnosis says whether it is still fillable or the price moved past your minimum. Fix: on Minswap wait for the auto-refund; elsewhere use Cancel & reclaim. See Cancelling stuck orders.

Order shows "Cancelled" but I didn't cancel Cause: the DEX refunded it because the price moved past your minimum (Minswap does this automatically). Your funds are back in the wallet minus the network fee.

Order shows "Dropped" Cause: the network never included the transaction in a block. Nothing was spent. Strategies rebuild; for a manual swap, try again.

Order shows "Unknown" Cause: Surge could not identify the order inside the transaction, so it cannot track the fill. Fix: check the transaction on Cardanoscan.

Cancel fails with "already spent" or "bad inputs" Cause: the batcher filled or refunded the order between your click and the broadcast. Fix: none needed; refresh the trade log.

Cancel fails with "not owned" Cause: the order was placed by a wallet whose key is not in this browser. Fix: reconnect that wallet from its key file.

Cancel on Splash asks for collateral Cause: no plain-ADA coin of at least 5 ADA in the wallet. Fix: send 5 ADA to the wallet in its own transfer, then retry.

"Invalid or expired trade identifier" when submitting Cause: more than 5 minutes passed between building and signing. Fix: rebuild and sign promptly.

"Wallet is too fragmented for a split" Cause: a split swap needs the whole amount plus fees in a single coin. Fix: send the wallet's full balance to its own address once to consolidate, then retry.

"Insufficient funds" when building Cause: the wallet cannot cover the amount plus deposit, batcher fee and network fee, or its ADA is tied up holding tokens. Fix: fund the wallet; check the Required balance panel.

Wallets and signing

Wallet not listed in the connect dialog Cause: extension locked, disabled for this site, not yet loaded, or not a supported wallet (Nami is not). Fix: unlock it, reload the page, see Supported wallets.

"Network mismatch" on connect Cause: the wallet is on a different Cardano network than Surge. Fix: switch the wallet, or switch Surge via the header selector.

Wallet disconnected by itself Cause: you changed the network inside the extension, or your session expired or was revoked. Fix: reconnect and sign in.

Strategy wallet shows "Not connected" Cause: this browser does not have the wallet's key. Fix: Reconnect from key file on the wallet detail page.

Strategy wallet shows "Not backed up" Cause: the key exists here but the wallet is not registered with Surge. Fix: click Back up to register it, and download its key file.

Signing Approval window keeps popping up Cause: Automate signing has been turned off (it is on by default, and resets when you disconnect your wallet). Fix: approve each trade, or turn it back on in Settings → General. See Signing and approvals.

Transaction refused by the guard Cause: it would spend more than the strategy's cap, move an undeclared token, or lacks change. Fix: this is a safety stop; check the strategy configuration and report it if it recurs.

Funds are in a different strategy wallet than expected (Cadence) Cause: wallet rotation — each order's proceeds go to the next wallet in the ring. Fix: consolidate with Send or Sweep after the schedule completes.

Fees and P&L

Fee looks wrong — Surge fee shows 0.978 ADA on a small order Cause: the recorded and previewed Surge fee has a 0.978 ADA minimum; on chain you pay 0.2% with no minimum. Fix: nothing; see The Surge fee and its minimum.

I hold SURGE but pay the full fee Cause: you are not subscribed to staking, or the six-hourly snapshot has not run yet. Fix: subscribe on the Staking page and wait for the next snapshot. See Tiers and discounts.

"Fees paid" and P&L don't reconcile Cause: fees paid includes pool fees; realized P&L does not (they are inside the fill price). See Profit and loss.

P&L shows blank or "unmeasured" Cause: no completed round trip could be measured, or the strategy type has no P&L in the totals (DCA has none; Cadence shows a cash-flow figure on its own page only). This is deliberate — Surge does not guess.

Staking claim refused Cause: claimable rewards minus the network fee are below 0.978 ADA, or a previous claim is still queued/claiming. Fix: wait for another epoch or for the queue to clear.

APR shows 2.5% Cause: 2.5% is the display floor and also what is shown when the figure cannot be computed. Treat it as "not enough data".

Account and app

Sent back to the login page mid-session Cause: beta approval missing (redeem a code), session revoked, or network switched. Fix: sign in again.

"Session expired" Cause: the refresh token could not be renewed. Fix: sign in again.

Everything disappeared after "Clear all data" Cause: that action erases this browser's Surge storage, so strategy wallets are no longer usable here. Fix: import your wallet export. Strategies and history on Surge's servers are unaffected.

App shows "desktop only" Cause: the window is narrower than 768 pixels. Fix: use a wider window or a desktop browser.

Portfolio total ignores a token Cause: the token's decimals are unknown ("No decimals" badge) or its price is unavailable/stale. Fix: none from your side; the value is omitted rather than guessed.

Portfolio "Export CSV" does nothing Known limitation in the current build; use the Activity page export.