Check your wallet backup

Your passcode is not your backup

A wallet app usually has two different secrets. The passcode (or Face ID) unlocks the app on this one phone. The recovery words, 12 or 24 ordinary words (BIP 39), can rebuild the whole wallet on a new phone.

If your phone is lost, broken or stolen, the passcode can't bring your bitcoin back. The recovery words can. So the words are the thing to write down.

Find your recovery words

1. Open your wallet app.
2. Go to its Settings (often a gear icon or your profile).
3. Look for words like Backup, Back up wallet, Recovery phrase, Secret phrase or Show seed.
4. Make sure nobody can see your screen, and no camera is pointed at you.
5. Many phone wallets show the words after you enter the app's passcode or use Face ID.

Can't find it? Look up the app's own help pages. Type the developer's website address yourself rather than searching, and never follow a link someone sends you.

Write them on paper

• Write every word in order, numbered 1 to 12 (or 1 to 24), in clear block letters.
• Read them back against the screen, slowly, one more time.
• No photos, no screenshots, no notes app, no email, no cloud.
• Keep the paper somewhere private and dry, away from the phone. Later you can copy it to metal (Seed phrase backup).

Check that they work

• If the app has a Verify backup or Check recovery phrase step, use it. It asks you to pick or type some of the words to prove your paper copy is right.
• The strongest check is a test restore: rebuild the wallet from your paper copy and confirm the same balance and receive address appear. Do it only after your paper copy is checked, and while the amount is small.
• With a phone wallet, its words already live on that phone. Typing them back into the same official app is part of a test restore. Never type them into a website, a different app someone points you to, or a message.

Using a hardware wallet? Its recovery words should never go into a phone or computer at all. Check them on the device itself (Module 12: verify your backup).

What your iPhone saves, and what it doesn't

Apple says iCloud Keychain saves and autofills things like app and website usernames and passwords, passkeys, credit card details and Wi-Fi passwords (Apple: Set up iCloud Keychain).

If you ever let your iPhone save a password for your wallet app, you can look it up there. In iOS 18 or later, open the Passwords app and unlock it with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. In iOS 17 or earlier, go to Settings, then Passwords (Apple: Find saved passwords and passkeys).

That saved passcode only opens the app. It is not your recovery words. Apple's Passwords app also lets you add notes to an account (Apple: View your passwords), but don't put your recovery words there, or anywhere that syncs online.

If you can't find the words

• The app still opens and shows your bitcoin: you're fine for now. Create a brand-new wallet, write its words on paper, check them, then send your bitcoin from the old wallet to the new one with a small test first.
• The app won't open: contact the wallet's maker through the website you type yourself. Never pay a "recovery service" or give anyone your words. No real support agent needs them (Common scams).