Step-by-Step Guide: How to Reclaim SOL Rent

The process of recovering locked rent consists of three main stages. Proper execution of each stage ensures security and maximum efficiency.

Stage 1: Wallet Scanning (Scan)

This is a diagnostic stage that doesn't require wallet connection and is completely safe.

What you'll need:

• Your wallet's public address (starts with characters like 7Np41... or DYw8j...)
• Stable internet connection

How to get your address:

In Phantom: Click wallet name at top → "Copy" icon next to address

In Solflare: Click on SOL balance → address displays below balance

In Backpack: Open profile → "Receive" → copy address

Scanning process:

• Open rent recovery tool in browser
• Paste address in search field
• Click "Scan" or "Analyze"
• Wait 5-15 seconds (depends on number of accounts)

What happens technically:

The tool sends requests to Solana RPC nodes:

• getTokenAccountsByOwner - retrieves list of all token accounts
• getAccountInfo - checks balance and size of each account
• getProgramAccounts - searches for PDA accounts where you're the Rent Payer

What you'll see in results:

Total Empty Accounts - number of empty accounts (token balance = 0)

Total Rent Locked - total amount of locked SOL

Net Profit - amount to receive after deducting service fees

Account Types Breakdown:

• SPL Token accounts: X items
• Token-2022 accounts: Y items
• Legacy NFT accounts: Z items
• PDA accounts: N items

Stage 2: Review and Selection

At this stage, you control which accounts will be closed.

Automatic filtering:

Quality tools hide dangerous categories by default:

• ❌ LP Tokens (Liquidity Provider tokens) - closing = losing DeFi investments
• ❌ Governance Tokens with active staking
• ❌ Frozen Accounts - technically impossible to close
• ❌ Compressed NFT - no rent to recover
• ✅ Only safe empty accounts are shown

Manual verification before closing:

For each token in the list, check:

Token name: Make sure it's actually junk and not something valuable with temporarily zero balance

Verification links: Good tools provide buttons:

• "View on Solscan" - opens detailed account information
• "Check RugCheck" - shows token contract safety

Account status:

• 🟢 Green (Safe) - can close
• 🔵 Blue (Frozen) - automatically excluded
• 🟡 Yellow (Warning) - requires manual review

Example dangerous situation:

You see a "RAY-SOL LP" token with 0 balance. This doesn't mean the position is closed - perhaps you just withdrew funds to one asset. Closing such an account may cause problems when trying to return to the liquidity pool.

Stage 3: Receiving Funds (Claim)

Final stage requiring wallet connection and transaction signature.

Pre-check:

Make sure you have at least 0.005-0.01 SOL on your main balance for gas payment. Without this, the transaction won't send.

Wallet connection:

• Click "Connect Wallet" or "Claim Rent" button
• Select your wallet from list (Phantom/Solflare/Backpack)
• Confirm connection in wallet popup

Important: Legitimate services DO NOT request:

• ❌ Seed phrase (12/24 words)
• ❌ Private key
• ❌ "Sign Message" for "verification"

Transaction confirmation:

After clicking "Claim", a wallet window opens with transaction preview. Must check:

✅ Balance Changes:

+ 0.0453 SOL (rent recovery) - 0.000005 SOL (network fee) Net: +0.044995 SOL

✅ Instructions:

• "Burn Token" × N (for accounts with dust)
• "Close Account" × M
• "Transfer" × 1-2 (rent distribution)

❌ Signs of scam:

• Large SOL deduction (red numbers)
• Instructions like "Set Authority" or "Approve Delegate"
• Transfer to unknown address without "Close Account" mention

Execution time:

After confirmation:

• Transaction sent to network (~1 second)
• Included in block (~400 milliseconds)
• Confirmed by validators (~1-2 seconds)

Total time: 2-5 seconds from confirmation to SOL credited to balance.

Result verification:

Refresh your wallet balance. You should see an increase by the Net Profit amount shown in the interface. You can additionally check the transaction in Solscan by copying its signature from the wallet.

Spam tokens require special handling due to potential dangers in their contracts.

Identifying Spam

Obvious signs:

Name with URL: "Visit-claimrewards.com" or "Free-10k-USDT"

Suspicious icon: Logos of popular projects but with typos

Zero liquidity: If you try to find on DEX - token doesn't exist in pools

Mass distribution: Searching token address in Solscan shows thousands of holders with identical balances

Non-obvious cases:

Some spam tokens disguise themselves as legitimate:

Fake USDC: Ticker "USDC" but different contract address

Fake airdrops: "Jito Airdrop Round 2" - real Jito didn't conduct this

Old projects: Tokens from dead 2021-2022 projects

Verification Process Before Burning

Step 1: Check via RugCheck

Modern cleanup tools integrate a RugCheck button for each token.

What to look for in the report:

🟢 Low Risk: Mint Authority disabled, Freeze Authority disabled, top-10 holders own <30%

🟡 Medium Risk: Mint Authority active (creator can print tokens), but Freeze disabled

🔴 High Risk: Freeze Authority active - creator can freeze your balance anytime

🔴 Critical: Multiple red flags + suspicious token distribution

Step 2: Check via Solscan

Open token address in Solscan and examine:

Holders: If 90%+ have identical round amounts (100.00, 1000.00) - mass distribution

Transfers: Look at recent transactions. If you see thousands of sends from one address - spam confirmed

Metadata: Click "Token Metadata". If the uri field contains suspicious link - don't click it

Safe Burning Rules

Rule 1: Never try to sell spam

Even if a DEX shows a price, it's a trap. When attempting to swap:

• Contract may request dangerous permissions
• You may sign a transaction that drains your wallet
• "Price" is usually fake - liquidity created by scammers

Rule 2: Use only verified burn tools

• ❌ Don't manually send tokens to address 1nc1nerator...
• ✅ Use tools with Burn + Close function

Rule 3: Burn in batches, but no more than 10-15 at once

Too large batches may exceed compute limits and cause transaction failure.

Rule 4: Skip Frozen tokens

If token is marked as Frozen:

• Burn transaction won't go through
• You'll waste gas
• Rent will remain locked forever

Good tools automatically exclude such tokens from selection.

Selecting Tokens for Burning

In cleanup tool interface, there are usually two modes:

Burn All Spam:

• Automatically selects all verified spam tokens
• Excludes frozen and LP tokens
• Recommended for most users

Manual Selection:

• You check tokens manually
• Full control but time-consuming
• Suitable for experienced users

Practical tip:

If you have 50+ spam tokens, use combined approach:

• First "Burn All Spam" for obvious junk
• Then manually check remaining tokens
• Close empty accounts with separate transaction

The simplest and safest scenario - closing accounts where balance is already completely zeroed.

When Accounts Become Empty

Scenario 1: You sold all tokens via DEX

Swap usually doesn't close account automatically. After sale:

• Token balance = 0
• Account remains open
• Rent continues to be locked

Scenario 2: You transferred all tokens to another wallet

"Send Max" button in most wallets:

• ✅ Sends entire token balance
• ❌ Doesn't close sender's account

Scenario 3: Project conducted buyback

Some projects do automatic token buyback from holders:

• Balance is zeroed
• Account remains with user
• Thousands of people have empty accounts of this token

Empty Account Closing Process

Advantage: No Burn instruction needed, only CloseAccount.

Step 1: Filtering

Tools with "Empty Accounts Only" function show:

• Only accounts with balance = 0
• Without frozen tokens
• Without LP and governance

Step 2: Bulk Closing

Since there's no need to burn tokens, more accounts can be closed per transaction:

• Up to 25 empty SPL accounts
• Up to 20 empty Token-2022

Step 3: Instant Return

Rent returns immediately after transaction confirmation. Check balance - it should increase by the exact amount shown in preview.

Handling "Dust"

Sometimes an account looks empty but contains microscopic remnants.

What is dust:

Balances like:

• 0.000000001 tokens
• 0.00000000000001 tokens (rounding error level)

Why this happens:

Protocol fees: Some tokens (especially Token-2022 with Transfer Fee) charge micro-fees on each transfer

Rounding errors: When dividing large numbers in smart contracts

DEX bugs: Old swap protocol versions sometimes left dust

Solution:

Quality cleanup tools automatically:

• Detect dust through amount > 0 check
• Add Burn instruction before CloseAccount
• Execute both operations atomically

You won't notice the difference - the process looks the same as closing a clean empty account.

If you have 3-5 wallets (main, trading, cold storage), you can optimize the process.

Bulk Scanning

Advanced tools allow entering multiple addresses simultaneously:

Input format:

7Np41oeYqPrq...xYZ DYw8jCTfwHN...ABC 5goK9FMp2bX...DEF

Separators: comma, space, or new line.

What you'll get:

Summary report:

Wallet 1: 45 accounts, 0.95 SOL return Wallet 2: 12 accounts, 0.28 SOL return Wallet 3: 103 accounts, 3.42 SOL return Total: 4.65 SOL

Sequential Connection

You cannot connect multiple wallets simultaneously in one browser session. Strategy:

Option A: Sequential claim

• Connect Wallet 1 → Claim → Disconnect
• Connect Wallet 2 → Claim → Disconnect
• And so on

Option B: Different browser tabs

• Open 3 tabs of cleanup tool
• In each tab connect different wallet
• Execute claim in parallel

Option C: Different browsers

• Chrome → Wallet 1
• Firefox → Wallet 2
• Brave → Wallet 3

Centralized Return

If you want to collect all returned SOL in one wallet:

Method 1: Change recipient address

Some advanced tools allow specifying:

• Source wallet (where accounts close from)
• Destination wallet (where rent goes)

Method 2: Manual transfer after return

Simpler but requires additional transactions:

• Return rent to each wallet normally
• Manually transfer SOL to main wallet

Downside: loss of ~0.000005 SOL in fees per transfer.

Even with correct execution, technical problems may arise.

Error: "Transaction Expired"

What happened: Transaction wasn't included in a block within allocated time (~60-90 seconds) and was automatically dropped by network.

Causes:

• Network congested (e.g., popular NFT mint)
• Your Priority Fee too low
• RPC node temporarily unavailable

Solution:

• Wait 2-3 minutes
• Retry
• If problem persists - increase Priority Fee in wallet settings (usually Low/Medium/High slider)

Important: Your funds are safe. Expired transaction doesn't deduct gas or rent.

Error: "Insufficient SOL for transaction"

What happened: Insufficient SOL on balance for network fee payment.

Typical situation: You withdrew all SOL, forgetting to leave for gas. Now wallet is "locked" - can't even return rent without topping up.

Solution:

• Top up wallet with minimum 0.01 SOL from exchange or another wallet
• After top-up, retry claim
• Returned rent will cover top-up costs

Tip: Always keep "emergency reserve" of 0.02-0.05 SOL on active wallets.

Error: "Account has non-zero balance"

What happened: Tool tried to close account but non-zero token balance found.

Causes:

• Balance was 0 at scan time, but between scan and claim someone sent you tokens
• Dust balance wasn't accounted for when forming transaction
• Tool bug

Solution:

• Re-run scan - data will update
• If problem with specific token - exclude it manually from selection
• Use "Burn + Close" function instead of just "Close"

Error: "Account frozen by token authority"

What happened: Token creator activated Freeze Authority and blocked all token operations.

Manifestation: You cannot:

• Sell token
• Transfer it
• Burn it
• Close account

Solution: Technically - no solution. This is a Solana protocol limitation. Frozen account will remain in your wallet forever.

Consolation: Rent for one such account (~0.002 SOL) is insignificant loss compared to dozens of other accounts you can close.

Problem: Transaction Passed But Rent Not Returned

What to check:

Step 1: Refresh wallet balance (sometimes UI doesn't auto-update)

Step 2: Check transaction in Solscan:

• Copy Signature from wallet history
• Paste in search on solscan.io
• Study "SOL Balance Change" section

Step 3: Check recipient address:

• In transaction details find Transfer instruction
• Make sure rent came to your wallet, not another address

If rent went elsewhere:

You may have accidentally used a scam site. Check:

• Site URL (might be phishing copy)
• Return to original service and repeat process