mapOrphan overflow, removed 1 tx I'm trying to download the block chain and synchronize with the network (using Bitcoin-qt 0.8.6). I have a 2 year old wallet.dat file with a fractions worth of unconfirmed bitcoins.

After over a day downloading the blocks folder has stopped increasing in size and is at 13.4GB.

In the debug.log file the following messages are repeatedly shown.

stored orphan tx 8d724a...ad48cfb140 (mapsz 10001)
mapOrphan overflow, removed 1 tx


It will then add another orphan transaction and then remove another one from the pool. The pool stays at 1001.

Should this be happening?

The message in the client says it has processed 0 of 280295 (estimated) blocks of history and that I am 162 weeks behind.
First of all, backup your wallet in a couple of places...

If you are in linux, move your ~/.bitcoin to ~/.bitcoin_old, once you've done that start bitcoin-qt, wait another day for the whole blockchain to download. This time it should be working OK.
Replace the wallet in ~/.bitcoin with your wallet in ~/.bitcoin_old and resync.

Remember to have your wallet.dat saved before you do anything (I would have 2 or 3 copies in different places (usb, external HD, etc ...)