A seed phrase, also called a recovery phrase (MetaMask says Secret Recovery Phrase), is not a password for an app: it is the wallet itself. Every private key and address is calculated from its words, so you can restore the wallet in any compatible app or hardware device, even if the old phone is lost or broken. Enter the same words in the same order and the wallet finds your funds on the blockchain again. This guide covers the general steps for BIP39 wallets, the exact steps in popular wallets, what to check if the balance shows zero, and which phrases follow other rules. New to the topic? Start with what a seed phrase is and how it works.
The words are almost certainly English: of the ten official BIP39 lists, wallets nearly always use the English one, with 2048 words. If a handwritten word is hard to read, compare it with the BIP39 word list: in the English list the first four letters identify every word.
In a phone or desktop wallet, you type the phrase on that device's keyboard. On most hardware wallets you enter the words on the device itself, so they never pass through the computer, and you set the PIN there too. The official companion app then finds the accounts; for some coins you add them by hand.
Keep two things in mind. Restoring does not move a wallet, it adds one more way in: an old phone or device with the same phrase still controls the funds. And a hardware wallet does not make a phrase safe if that phrase was kept on a phone or typed into a computer before. For large amounts, create a new phrase on the device and move the funds to it.
Menu names change between app versions. The steps below follow each developer's own help pages and apps as of October 2026, linked in every section, and the table shows what each wallet accepts.
| Wallet | Type | Accepts | BIP39 passphrase |
|---|---|---|---|
| MetaMask | Extension, mobile | 12 to 24 words, English only | No |
| Trust Wallet | Mobile, extension | 12 or 24 words | Not documented |
| Phantom | Extension, mobile | 12 or 24 words | Not documented |
| Coinbase Wallet | Mobile, web, extension | 12 words | Not documented |
| Exodus | Desktop, mobile | 12 words | Not documented |
| Ledger | Hardware | 12, 18 or 24 words | Yes, set on the device |
| Trezor | Hardware | BIP39 12 or 24 words, SLIP-39 shares | Yes |
| Electrum | Desktop, Android | Electrum seeds, BIP39, SLIP-39 (desktop) | Yes |
| BlueWallet | Mobile | BIP39 | Yes |
| Sparrow | Desktop | BIP39 12 to 24 words, SLIP-39 shares | Yes |
If your wallet had a passphrase, restore it in a wallet that takes one: MetaMask has no passphrase field, and Trust Wallet, Phantom, Coinbase Wallet and Exodus do not document one, so they can only open the wallet that has no passphrase.
Steps from MetaMask's guide to restoring a wallet from the Secret Recovery Phrase, the same in the browser extension and the mobile app:
MetaMask accepts English phrases only and has no field for a BIP39 passphrase. For Ethereum and other EVM networks it uses one path, m/44'/60'/0'/0, so Ledger Wallet accounts after the first do not appear (importing from other wallets). Since October 2025, each account also holds a Solana address and a Bitcoin address, the latter Native SegWit only. With Backup and sync turned on, the default, account names and contacts come back, but accounts added with a private key or a JSON file and hardware wallet accounts do not: they need backups of their own. To add a second phrase to a MetaMask that already has a wallet, open the account selector and choose Add wallet → Import a wallet.
Steps from Trust Wallet's guide to restoring with a recovery phrase, in the mobile app:
Trust Wallet documents 12- and 24-word phrases. It restores every supported coin, but some tokens may have to be turned on again: balances below 0.01 are hidden by default, and custom tokens are added back by contract address (tokens missing after recovery). Wallets imported with a private key do not come back with the phrase. Trust Wallet's open-source wallet core derives Solana at m/44'/501'/0', while Phantom defaults to m/44'/501'/0'/0', so one phrase can show different Solana addresses in the two apps.
To restore a phrase as the main wallet, Phantom has to be on its welcome screen: if you are signed in, make sure the wallet already there is backed up, then reset or reinstall the app. To add a phrase next to an existing wallet instead, choose Add Account → Import Recovery Phrase from the profile menu. Steps from Phantom's guide to importing a wallet:
Phantom restores the accounts with on-chain activity, oldest first; add empty ones by hand. It scans several derivation paths: for Solana m/44'/501'/n'/0' by default, plus m/44'/501'/n' and the deprecated m/501'/n'/0/0 when those show activity; for EVM networks m/44'/60'/0'/0/n; for Bitcoin m/84'/0'/0'/0/n and m/86'/0'/0'/0/n. Other phrases or private keys you imported into Phantom do not come back with the main wallet. Phantom ended Sui support on September 24, 2026: Sui assets no longer show there, but they are still on the Sui chain and open in a Sui wallet with the same phrase.
Coinbase Wallet is Coinbase's self-custody app. It was called the Base app from 2025 until it took back the Coinbase Wallet name in 2026, and some help pages still use the Base name. An account on the Coinbase exchange has no seed phrase. Steps from Coinbase's help on recovering access to the wallet and managing wallets:
Coinbase documents 12-word phrases only. The app imports every wallet linked to the phrase, up to 10. Some networks are no longer shown, among them Dogecoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, XRP, Stellar and any custom network: the funds stay at the same addresses, and Coinbase suggests importing the phrase into a wallet that supports them (unsupported assets). A cloud backup in iCloud or Google Drive is an encrypted copy of the phrase, locked with a password you chose: if the password is lost, so is that backup, which is why the written phrase still matters. Smart wallets are recovered with a passkey, not a phrase.
Exodus calls its phrase the 12-word secret key, and its phrases always have 12 words. Steps from Exodus's guide to restoring from the secret key:
Restoring overwrites the wallet currently in Exodus, so back that one up first; the desktop app keeps an overwritten wallet's data for 90 days. A 12-word phrase from another wallet shows its funds in Exodus only where the derivation paths match, and it documents no import for 24-word phrases apart from Hedera accounts, so a 24-word Ledger phrase needs a different wallet. For Bitcoin it uses m/84'/0'/0'/0/0 (SegWit), m/44'/0'/0'/0/0 (Legacy) and m/86'/0'/0'/0/0 (Taproot), and for Ethereum and other EVM networks m/44'/60'/0'/0/0 (derivation paths in Exodus). The Exodus Web3 Wallet browser extension reached the end of support on October 1, 2026.
A Ledger takes the words on the device itself: Ledger tells you never to type the phrase into a computer, a phone, a website or its own app. Steps from Ledger's guide to restoring from a Secret Recovery Phrase:
Ledger devices create only 24-word phrases. The 12- and 18-word options exist for phrases from other wallets, which Ledger does not recommend, and it warns against loading a phrase that may already be exposed, and against loading a MetaMask phrase onto a Ledger at all. If you used a passphrase, set it again in the device settings after the restore. To check a written phrase without resetting anything, install the Recovery Check app from My Ledger in Ledger Wallet. Three wrong PINs in a row reset a Ledger, so the paper backup is what you rely on.
A Trezor that already holds a wallet has to be wiped before it can load a different backup; Trezor Suite, the desktop, web and mobile app, guides you through the rest. Steps from Trezor's recovery guides for the Safe 5 and the Model One:
A Trezor restores BIP39 phrases and SLIP-39 backups. The Safe 5, Safe 7 and the Safe 3 since June 2024 create a 20-word SLIP-39 backup by default, which only a SLIP-39 wallet can restore. A 24-word phrase from another wallet can be loaded, but Trezor recommends creating a new wallet and sending the funds to it instead. For a passphrase, turn on Use Passphrase wallets under Settings → Device, then open a passphrase wallet from the wallet list; Trezor offers to take the passphrase on the device so it never touches the computer. To test a backup without wiping anything, use Check backup under Settings → Device: the device compares the words with its stored backup and changes nothing.
Electrum restores its own seeds, BIP39 phrases and, on the desktop, SLIP-39 shares. Its default seed type is Electrum, so it accepts a BIP39 phrase only after you switch the type. Steps for Electrum 4.8 on the desktop, from its seed documentation and the wizard in its source code:
There is no Taproot script type in this step, so a BIP86 wallet from BlueWallet or Sparrow does not restore in Electrum. Electrum scans 20 receiving addresses by default; to look further, run wallet.change_gap_limit(50) in the Console tab, which you can turn on in the View menu. The Android app follows the same steps, but its seed types are Electrum and BIP39 only.
BlueWallet, a mobile Bitcoin wallet, finds the address type for you. Steps from its guide to importing a wallet:
By default, BlueWallet checks the first account on the BIP44, BIP49, BIP84 and BIP86 (Taproot) paths, and it treats a path as used only if its first receiving address has history. If your wallet still does not appear, tap Use custom derivation path on the discovery screen (custom derivation).
Sparrow, a desktop Bitcoin wallet, asks for the script type before the words. Steps for Sparrow 2.5, the current version:
Not sure of the script type? File → Import Wallet with the mnemonic option can discover it while online. Sparrow refuses Electrum seeds, telling you to import the Electrum wallet file instead, and restores SLIP-39 backups through Mnemonic Shares (SLIP39). The gap limit, 20 by default, is under Settings → Advanced (Sparrow FAQ).
If the words are right, the funds are most likely still there: the wallet has opened a different branch of the same key tree, or it is looking at the wrong network. Look up an old address in a block explorer. If it still holds a balance, the problem is in the wallet's settings. Check these in order.
The same words give different addresses on different derivation paths. Bitcoin has four standards: BIP44 (addresses that start with 1), BIP49 (3), BIP84 (bc1q) and BIP86 (Taproot, bc1p), and a wallet that does not support yours will not find those coins. Restore with the address type you see in your old records. Derivation paths explained shows how the paths work, and the seed phrase to private key converter shows how one test phrase gives different addresses.
Under BIP44, a wallet checks accounts in order and stops at the first account without transactions. Ethereum apps also number accounts differently: the second account in MetaMask and the second account in Ledger Wallet sit on different paths. If the funds were not in the first account, add the next ones by hand.
Any passphrase, even one with a typo or an extra space, opens its own valid but empty wallet, and you see no error. Try every variant you might have used, and try no passphrase at all.
On Ethereum and compatible networks, such as BNB Smart Chain, Polygon and Arbitrum, your address is the same, but each network has its own balance, and the wallet shows only the networks it has turned on. Some tokens have to be added by hand. USDT on TRON sits on a separate address that starts with T, and the wallet shows it only if it supports TRON. Apps also drop networks: Coinbase Wallet no longer shows Dogecoin or Litecoin, and Phantom no longer shows Sui. The coins are still on their chains, and a wallet that supports the network shows them with the same phrase.
BIP44 tells wallets to stop scanning after 20 unused addresses in a row, the gap limit. If you created many receiving addresses and only some of them were paid, part of the funds can lie beyond that limit. Some wallets, such as Electrum, let you raise it.
Not every phrase made of English words is a BIP39 phrase. These formats restore only in wallets that support them:
| Format | Words | How to recognize it | Where to restore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electrum | Usually 12 | Created in Electrum; words from the same English list, but no BIP39 checksum | Electrum, as an Electrum seed |
| SLIP-39 (Shamir) | 20 or 33 | Its own list of 1024 words; all shares of one backup start with the same two words | Trezor, or a wallet with SLIP-39 support such as Electrum |
| TON | 24 | Words from the BIP39 list, but its own check and its own key derivation | A TON wallet |
| Monero | 25 (sometimes 13 or 16) | The classic phrase uses its own list of 1626 words | A Monero wallet |
Since version 2.0, Electrum creates phrases in its own versioned format rather than BIP39, and BIP39 wallets usually reject them. Newer Trezor models create 20-word SLIP-39 backups by default (see Trezor above), which an ordinary BIP39 wallet cannot restore. A BIP39 wallet rejects a classic 24-word TON phrase or opens an empty wallet from it; for new wallets, TON's documentation recommends a 12-word BIP39 phrase. See the guides to the TON seed phrase format and the Monero seed phrase for those coins.
Only if another backup survives, such as a wallet file with its password, or the private keys. The developers of non-custodial wallets do not store your phrase and cannot recover it. If the wallet is still open on an old device and the app can show the phrase, write it down now. If your funds were on an exchange, you never had a seed phrase: the exchange restores access to the account. Our guide on where to look for lost wallet backups lists the places to search.
First make sure it is a BIP39 phrase at all (see the table above). If it is, look for a typo, a similar word or two swapped words: our guide on how to fix seed phrase errors walks through each case.
Yes, if both support BIP39 and the networks you need. The derivation path may differ: choose the same address type in the new app or add the accounts you need, and if it cannot do that, use a wallet that supports the right path.
No. The old phone or device keeps full access with the same phrase. To cut it off, reset or wipe that device, and if you think someone else may have the phrase, move the funds to a wallet with a new one.
While the new wallet is still empty, delete it from the app and restore it from your written copy: if it shows the same first address, the words are right. Hardware wallets can check a backup without wiping anything: Trezor has Check backup in Trezor Suite, and Ledger has the Recovery Check app. You can rehearse the whole process with a test phrase from the seed phrase generator, as long as you never send funds to it.