Finding out that your seed phrase is missing is frightening. What happens next depends on one question: can you still open the wallet? Take a breath, and work through this in order. This guide belongs to our section on what a recovery phrase is.
- Do not wait: you have one copy left
- Create a new wallet with a new phrase
- Back up the new phrase and test it
- Move your funds across
Your funds can be saved
- Search for any written backup
- Check old devices and backups you own
- Ignore anyone offering to recover it
- If nothing turns up, funds are out of reach
Nobody can reset it
First, check what you really lost
Your wallet and your phrase are separate things. Your funds live on the blockchain, and your phrase is the master backup of the keys that control them. Losing the phrase does not lose the funds, as long as the wallet still holds the keys.
| Your situation | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Lost the phrase, wallet still opens | Funds are safe but have no backup | Move them to a new wallet now |
| Lost the wallet, still have the phrase | Funds are safe | Restore the phrase on a new wallet |
| Lost the phrase and the wallet | No way in unless a copy turns up | Search carefully, ignore recovery offers |
| Phrase may have been seen or stolen | This is an emergency | Move your funds immediately |
If your wallet still opens
You are in a good position, but the clock is running. A broken phone or failed device would leave you with nothing. Do this today:
- Set up a new wallet, on a device you trust. It will give you a new phrase.
- Write the new phrase down properly and check it.
- Send a small test amount from your old wallet to the new one.
- Once that arrives, send the rest.
- Stop using the old wallet.
Do not hunt through your old wallet's settings for a "show phrase" option on an internet-connected computer if you can avoid it. Moving to a new wallet is the cleaner fix, because you can be sure nobody else has that phrase.
If the wallet is gone too
Search before you give up. Look in the places a careful past self might have used:
- Inside old notebooks, folders and safes.
- With a trusted family member or lawyer.
- In encrypted backups of old phones and computers you own, if your wallet app supported them.
If you find nothing, the honest answer is that the funds are out of reach. This is the hardest part of self-custody: nobody can override the maths, however good your proof of ownership is. Wallet makers do not keep copies, and blockchains have no reset function.
If you have part of the phrase
The phrase has a built-in checksum and uses a known word list. In some cases, one or two missing words can be worked out by testing possibilities. With more words missing, the task quickly becomes impossible.
This is risky. Anyone who sees your partial phrase, including a website or a tool that phones home, may be able to finish the job and take your funds. Do not paste words into a website. Take your time, and get help only from someone you know and trust in person.
How to make sure this never happens again
A lost phrase is almost always a backup problem. For any wallet holding money you care about:
- Keep at least one written copy away from the device.
- Consider a second copy in another place, so one fire cannot take both.
- Test that your backup works before you depend on it.
- Tell someone you trust that a backup exists, without showing them the words.
Start with how to back up a seed phrase.