Skip to main content
Version: pre-release (v0.79)

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
info

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.

info

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.

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.
vegawallet import --wallet "MY_WALLET_NAME" --recovery-phrase-file "PATH_TO_MY_RECOVERY-PHRASE" --version 1

More guidance: Create a Wallet walkthrough - Step 3