Abstraction of chloride anion from Au(I) complexes such as JohnPhosAuCl in noncoordinating solvents with 1 equiv of a silver salt, or even larger amounts, leads to the formation of chloride-bridged dinuclear gold(I) complexes, irrespective of the counteranion, which are substantially less reactive as catalysts. This incomplete removal of chloride ligand could lead to false negative results when using the in situ generation of the gold(I) active species by silver-promoted chloride abstraction.