How to restore your MetaMask wallet from Secret Recovery Phrase
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Use this article if:
- You have your Secret Recovery Phrase
- You want to import that Secret Recovery Phrase/wallet into MetaMask
Importing a Secret Recovery Phrase into MetaMask will REMOVE all existing user data from MetaMask. In other words, if you are using one SRP in MetaMask, and you import another one, all data relating to the first SRP will no longer be accessible through the application.
Before proceeding, make sure you have your Secret Recovery Phrase and any private keys (from hardware wallets or imported accounts) backed up, and your accounts will be safe.
If you have unintentionally done this, 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 'Import 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:
For an existing MetaMask install, you will need to reset your wallet to access the button that enables you to restore from a Secret Recovery Phrase.
What about restoring multiple accounts?
If you have multiple accounts created under one Secret Recovery Phrase, they will only be automatically restored in certain circumstances. Please note this does not apply to imported accounts or hardware wallets, which must always be manually re-added.
MetaMask will attempt to add your additional accounts where possible (assuming they were not imported) 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.
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 will 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.
To restore and view tokens, please see this guide.