Recovering a Wallet on a New Device, Correctly
Six steps to restore access, and the three mistakes that turn a recovery into a loss.
Gabriel Mas ·
Recovery means rebuilding a wallet from its recovery phrase on new hardware or new software. Done correctly it is routine.
Step 1: get the software from the right place
Download from the manufacturer’s own site, typed into the address bar rather than reached through a search result. Fake wallet software exists specifically to capture recovery phrases.
Verify the download signature where the manufacturer publishes one.
Step 2: choose restore, not create
The setup flow offers both. Create generates a new wallet and will not show your funds.
People who choose create by mistake conclude their funds are gone. They are not; the wrong wallet was opened.
Step 3: enter the words on the device
On a hardware wallet, the words go in on the device itself. On a software wallet, into the application.
Never into a web page. No legitimate recovery happens in a browser form, and every request to do so is theft.
Step 4: match the derivation path if the balance is missing
If the wallet restores and shows zero, the phrase is probably right and the path is probably different. Wallets use different defaults and most offer a setting to change it.
Try the alternatives before concluding anything. This is the most common false alarm in recovery.
Step 5: check the right network
A wallet restored on one network will not show balances held on another. Switch networks in the application before worrying.
Step 6: move the funds if the phrase was ever exposed
If the recovery was necessary because the phrase might have been seen by someone, the wallet is no longer private. Generate a new wallet and move everything to it.
A compromised phrase does not become safe again by being used carefully.
The three mistakes
Typing the phrase into a browser. Choosing create instead of restore and panicking. Assuming a zero balance means loss rather than a wrong setting.
The practice run
Do all of this once, deliberately, on a wallet holding a trivial amount, before you need it. Exchanges that let you practise with a small amount first make the funding side of that rehearsal cheap.
Keep a small balance at Collect & Exchange or elsewhere while you learn, so a failed recovery is an inconvenience rather than a disaster, and use a platform where each step tells you what happens next for anything you are not ready to hold yourself.