Guide · Backup & recovery
Backing up a Trezor wallet properly
Your funds live on the blockchain, not on the device. What you actually own is access — and access is a written-down secret plus a plan for keeping it safe. Here is how to do that part well.
Never type your recovery seed into a website or app
Your recovery seed is the master key to your funds. No genuine wallet app, website or support agent will ever ask you to enter it — if a page asks for it, leave immediately.
The five-minute version
Write the words by hand, in order, twice-checked. Store them offline in a place you can reach in five years. Make a second copy somewhere physically separate. Run the device's backup check. Never photograph them.
01
What the backup actually is
Not a file, not a password, not something the app stores for you.
A hardware wallet holds private keys, and those keys are encoded as a list of words — a recovery seed, usually 12, 20 or 24 of them. Type those words into any compatible device, in order, and the keys are reconstructed exactly. That is the entire recovery mechanism, and it is why the seed is the single most sensitive thing you own in this setup.
There is no reset, no support override and no administrator who can restore access without it. The app on your computer does not store it, the manufacturer does not keep a copy, and it is not attached to your identity in any way. If the words are gone, the funds remain publicly visible on the blockchain and permanently out of reach.
02
Single seed or Shamir backup
One secret in one place, or a threshold scheme spread across several.
| Standard seed | Shamir backup | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | One list of words restores the wallet on its own | The secret is split into several shares; a threshold of them — such as any 3 of 5 — restores it |
| Device support | Every Trezor model | Models that support the feature — check yours before you commit |
| Strength | Simple, hard to get wrong, easy to verify | No single location holds a full backup, so one theft or fire is survivable |
| Weakness | One copy is the whole wallet: whoever finds it takes everything | More pieces to manage, and you must not lose too many of them |
| Good for | Most people, especially anyone who wants to keep this simple | Larger balances, joint custody, or anyone who wants redundancy against a single event |
Whichever you choose, resist the urge to invent your own scheme. Splitting words by hand across two locations without a threshold system usually means discovering during a crisis that you do not know which half was where — or worse, losing one half to a house move.
03
Where to keep it
Durable, offline, findable by you, boring to everyone else.
- Handwriting on good paper is the baseline, and it is perfectly fine for many people. Store it flat so it does not crease into unreadability.
- A stamped or engraved metal plate survives fire, flood and time. Low cost, and the single best upgrade to a paper backup.
- A second copy in a physically separate location — a home safe, a bank deposit box, a trusted relative's house — covers fire and theft.
- A boring location beats a clever one. You need to find it in five years without reconstructing a riddle.
- A sealed, dated envelope in a safe you visit annually reminds you it exists, which matters more than people expect.
04
What never to do with a seed
Every item here has emptied wallets.
Never photograph it
Never type it into a computer
Never enter it online
Never read it aloud on a call
Never keep it next to the device
Never store it in a safety deposit box you cannot access
05
Test it before you need it
A backup you have never verified is an assumption.
Start with the device's own backup check: the hardware wallet asks you to confirm words from your seed and tells you whether your written copy matches. Do this the day you create the wallet, while the words are still fresh in your memory.
The stronger test, when you can arrange it, is a real restore: use a spare device, or wipe and restore the one you have after moving funds to a temporary safe place, and confirm that the same accounts and balances come back. It is uncomfortable the first time. It is also the only way to know that the words in the right order actually work — and you would much rather find out now than after a burglary.
Do it once, then relax
After a successful restore test, write the date on your backup envelope. That single line saves future you from wondering whether it was ever checked.
06
Restoring access on a new device
The same walkthrough you practised, in the situation you hoped never to be in.
- Install the app from the official page — the same bookmark, on a computer you trust.
- Connect the replacement device and choose the recovery option, not "create new wallet".
- Enter the words on the device itself, in the exact order you wrote them. Some models let you type them; others use the screen keyboard. Either way, they stay on the device.
- Set a new PIN. Your old one is irrelevant after a restore.
- Add the same accounts again and wait for balances to appear. This is derived from the blockchain, so it can take a moment.
- If you used a passphrase, restore that wallet with the passphrase exactly as written. Without it you will see only the empty standard wallet.
07
If the seed is compromised
Assume the worst, move quickly, and do not reuse the words.
If you typed your seed into a website, shared it, or believe it has been photographed or copied, treat that wallet as already stolen. Create a fresh wallet — new words, new device or the same one after a wipe — and move the funds to it. Do not reuse the old seed, and stop sending to the old addresses.
Move in one transaction where you can, accept a higher fee to get confirmed quickly, and keep an eye on the old addresses afterwards. If your balance is large enough to justify it, get help from someone competent in person rather than over a chat window.
Beware the rescue offer
People who have just lost wallet access are actively targeted by "recovery services". Real recovery is not a service anyone sells — if a legitimate path exists, it is in your own device and your own backup.
08
If the seed is lost
The honest answer, without false hope.
If the words are gone and the device is gone or wiped, the funds are unreachable. The blockchain does not know you lost them, and there is no authority to appeal to. Anyone offering to recover the wallet for a fee is either guessing at a partially remembered seed or stealing from you.
The only exception is a genuinely partial backup: if you have some of the words, it is technically possible to test combinations, but the cost and the very low success rate make it a last resort rather than a plan. This is why the backup test in the previous section exists.
09
Emergencies, inheritance and family access
The part most guides skip, and the reason a lot of crypto is permanently lost.
A backup that only you can find is also a backup that disappears when you do. Think about who needs access if you are incapacitated or worse, and design something that gives them a way without handing a stranger your wallet.
The usual approach: keep the seed offline as described, and leave written instructions — how to obtain the app from the official page, which device model it is, where the backup physically lives, and what to do with it — with a lawyer, in a will, or in a sealed envelope in a place your next of kin can actually reach. Never put the seed itself in a will or a document that leaves your control, and never email instructions that name the seed's location.
A share-based backup is a common answer here as well: one share in your own safe, others held separately, with the threshold written down so that the people who need to assemble them know how many are required.
Backups are half the job
The other half is the settings that decide what the app reveals about you. Fees, Tor, your own node and coin control all live one step further on.