monero-GUI-guide VS onion-monero-blockchain-explorer

Here's a (now slightly out of date) general guide for the GUI, if you haven't seen it: https://github.com/monero-ecosystem/monero-GUI-guide/blob/master/monero-GUI-guide.md

If you're new, the Monero GUI guide is a good resource.

well I kind of followed the docs (https://github.com/monero-ecosystem/monero-GUI-guide/blob/master/monero-GUI-guide.md) which advise for a total download for privacy and not to connect to weird remote nodes so :

I didn't see a setting for that here: https://github.com/monero-ecosystem/monero-GUI-guide/blob/master/monero-GUI-guide.md

do you have a txid that displays data after entering it into xmrchain.net , the monero network is fine

im assuming simple mode , and the node you are connected to is just 'bad'. Have you confirmed that you can type the txid into a monero block explorer like xmrchain.net

Number 1 resource on the xmr blockchain: https://xmrchain.net/

While Monero does get bigger updates from time to time, most questions are really simple. Along the lines of "i sent coins to my wallet but they dont show up" and the answer is usualy "is your wallet fully synced? is it the same blockheight as shown on xmrchain.net? if not, connect to a different node / update your node to the newest release if you run one".

My wallet is synced and I've tried several different nodes. I checked on xmrchain.net and the transaction was confirmed. I've received funds through this wallet several times before without issues. What am I missing here? I'm using the monero gui wallet.

Browse transactions in a block explorer and take note of the timestamp and age of the outputs included in the ring, https://xmrchain.net/

https://github.com/moneroexamples/onion-monero-blockchain-explorer can be run through docker.

Does this mean xmrchain.net will be down permanently, or is there still some chance to get it back online?

Under "transactions" click on the tx to unroll it and there's a field called "Transaction ID". Copy/paste the Txid on https://xmrchain.net/ and see if it's in a block. If it isn't the tx probably wasn't broadcasted properly, try the flush_txpool command.