Restore a wallet
There are some situations in which you'll need to restore a wallet you previously created in order to access your keys:
- If you're on a new computer, or restored your machine
- If you deleted the wallet app
- If you are updating from release 0.9.0, (including 0.9.0-preN) or older
You can see a list of available commands by running ./vegawallet -h
on MacOS and Linux, or vegawallet -h
on Windows. Help is also available for every command, for example: vegawallet import -h
will provide information about the import
command.
Restore a wallet
Use your recovery phrase to restore a wallet with the import
command. If you were not provided with a recovery phrase or have lost it, you will need to create a new wallet and generate new keys. Use the command below to import the plain-text file with your recovery phrase in it.
You can use your previous wallet name or choose a new one. You'll also need to choose a passphrase.
Because keys are generated in a deterministic way, when you restore your wallet, the first key from your previous wallet will be restored too. Other keys can be restored using vegawallet key generate
.
- Windows
- MacOS
- Linux
vegawallet import --wallet "MY_WALLET_NAME" --recovery-phrase-file "PATH_TO_MY_RECOVERY-PHRASE"
./vegawallet import --wallet "MY_WALLET_NAME" --recovery-phrase-file "PATH_TO_MY_RECOVERY_PHRASE"
./vegawallet import --wallet "MY_WALLET_NAME" --recovery-phrase-file "PATH_TO_MY_RECOVERY_PHRASE"
It will then prompt you to input a passphrase, and then confirm that passphrase.
Once you've imported your wallet, you can carry on with running it and interacting with the network.
Common errors
I restored my wallet but the generated keys are different
- Make sure you used the right recovery phrase for that wallet. If your recovery phrase is incorrect, it will either fail or you will end up creating a new wallet with new keys.
- If you have access to the previous wallet, use the command
vegawallet describe --wallet "MY_WALLET_NAME"
to see what key derivation version your wallet uses: 1 or 2. - If your wallet is key derivation version 1, restore it using the
--version
flag. See the instructions below. - If your wallet is key derivation version 2, you can restore without the
--version
flag.
- Windows
- MacOS
- Linux
vegawallet import --wallet "MY_WALLET_NAME" --recovery-phrase-file "PATH_TO_MY_RECOVERY-PHRASE" --version 1
./vegawallet import --wallet "YOUR_WALLET_NAME" --recovery-phrase-file "PATH_TO_MY_RECOVERY_PHRASE" --version 1
./vegawallet import --wallet "YOUR_WALLET_NAME" --recovery-phrase-file "PATH_TO_MY_RECOVERY_PHRASE" --version 1
More guidance: Create a Wallet walkthrough - Step 3