How to restore your wallet using your Secret Recovery Phrase
You have your Secret Recovery Phrase written down, and ready to use.
You have a fresh install of MetaMask, or you've forgotten your password and need to restore your wallet.
If you have connected your Google or Apple account to MetaMask, you can access your MetaMask via Google or Apple. Simply follow the prompts to connect your Google or Apple account, enter your password, and access your MetaMask. Otherwise, you can restore your wallet using your Secret Recovery Phrase as shown in the steps below.
Before proceeding, make sure you have your Secret Recovery Phrase and any private keys (from hardware wallets or imported accounts) backed up.
If you have unintentionally reset your wallet, and need to recover an SRP that you previously used in MetaMask, you may still be able to. See this article for guidance.
- New Installation
- Existing Installation
Extension
- Whilst setting up a fresh install of MetaMask, click 'I have an existing wallet':
- Follow the prompts to enter your Secret Recovery Phrase. Enter each word in a separate box, making sure you type each word lower case, and without any spaces.
Mobile
- When you install MetaMask, click on the 'Import using Secret Recovery Phrase' button:
- Enter the entire phrase in one text field. Type all 12 words in the correct order, in lower case, and with one space between each word. Do not leave an extra space after the final word. Here's how it looks:
If you have an existing MetaMask install, we recommend importing a new SRP, rather than resetting your wallet entirely. Resetting your wallet will wipe all of your accounts and wallets from your device, and you will need to import your SRPs and private keys again to continue using those accounts.
If you absolutely must reset your wallet, check out our guide here.
Restoring multiple accounts
MetaMask will attempt to add all of your accounts from the same SRP where possible by checking your previous accounts in ascending order. Accounts are added if they have a non-zero balance of ETH on Ethereum mainnet. However, when it encounters an account with 0 ETH, this process ends, and any beyond that will not be added.
Accounts imported via private keys or from other SRPs will need to be manually re-added.
However, even if they aren't automatically added, you can easily get them back by re-adding accounts until you reach the one you're looking for. For each old account that you had in your original installation, you must add it by "creating" a new account.
If you do not see the addresses you are looking for, you either have the wrong Secret Recovery Phrase or have an external JSON or private key that you still need to reimport.
You might need to add your tokens after restoring.
Since restoring your wallet essentially means starting from scratch on that MetaMask instance (although, of course, leaving on-chain history completely unaltered), you will need to re-add tokens that aren't automatically detected.
To restore and view tokens, please see this guide.