# \`ipfs dht findprovs\` doesn't find local node for hash I just got

**URL:** <https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/ipfs-dht-findprovs-doesnt-find-local-node-for-hash-i-just-got/6128>\
**Category:** Kubo\
**Tags:** go-ipfs\
**Created:** [August 20, 2019, 8:01am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/ipfs-dht-findprovs-doesnt-find-local-node-for-hash-i-just-got/6128 "2019-08-20T08:01:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nickform](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/nickform/32/2980_2.png) [@nickform](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/nickform)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 8:01am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/ipfs-dht-findprovs-doesnt-find-local-node-for-hash-i-just-got/6128/1 "2019-08-20T08:01:35Z")

</div>

I successfully transferred my first directory via IPFS last night! 🎉

It was quite hard work in comparison to the demo video. I had to open ports on my router, manually tell node 1 to provide the block, manually tell node 2 to connect to node 1. The connection kept dropping so I had to manually re-establish it to get the different files in the folders and all my attempts to see my files via the gateway at `https://ipfs.io` timed out but I at least managed a transfer between two of my own machines and I can definitely see the potential here.

I can see GitHub issues open that look like they might account for most of the difficulties I encountered but there’s one thing I wanted to ask to improve my understanding. When I ran `ipfs dht findprovs <hash>` on node 1 for the directory added on node 1, it returned the id for node 1. So far so good. When I ran the same command on node 2 _after getting the resource on that node_, it did not find itself. My assumption was that, once a node has a block, it will then become a provider of that block automatically. Since that is empirically not the case, my question is under what circumstances do nodes become providers of blocks?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![postables](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/postables/32/2729_2.png) [@postables](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/postables)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/ipfs-dht-findprovs-doesnt-find-local-node-for-hash-i-just-got/6128/2 "2019-09-06T00:03:55Z")

</div>

The issue to this might be that you’re not waiting long enough for your node to announce to the network that its providing a block. In order to find your node via the `ipfs dht findprovs` command, your node first needs to announce to the network that it is providing this value. How often this happens really depends o how your node is configured.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nickform](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/nickform/32/2980_2.png) [@nickform](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/nickform)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 4:05pm UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/ipfs-dht-findprovs-doesnt-find-local-node-for-hash-i-just-got/6128/3 "2019-09-06T16:05:43Z")

</div>

Thanks for the reply. That makes sense.