Since its launch in 2009, BTC has emerged as the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, and wallets for all cryptocurrencies have over 81 million users globally on Blockchain.com alone. Thus, it’s not surprising that many crypto investors are looking for ways to recover their Bitcoin wallet. Fortunately, a few methods can be used to restore lost or forgotten Bitcoin wallets. In this guide, we will outline the different techniques that can be used to help you get your Bitcoin wallet back. Do note that Bitcoin developers cannot access or control your private keys or any transactions you make. Also, they cannot restore your wallet for you since blockchain is decentralized.
However, you can go through the following methods to recover your Bitcoin wallet using a cloud backup or a 12-word recovery phrase. Make sure you’ve saved your wallet. It’s important to make a backup since Bitcoin.com or Blockchain.com has no access to users’ wallets and can’t help them recover them if they haven’t backed up theirs. With that said, let’s begin.
Note. Numerous wallets can hold BTC, including physical devices. We’ll go over the procedure for one platform, Bitcoin.com.
1. Recover Bitcoin Wallet through a Cloud backup
Users now have a new level of security with Bitcoin’s new cloud backup option:
- Visit Bitcoin.com.
- Log in using your Google email address and cloud backup password that you created.
- Once you do, check the bottom right corner of the app, then go to the Settings page and select Security center. The other way is to access the backup via the Google account you used to create your cloud backup. Simply log in to the Google account you used to back up your files and input the password you used when creating your cloud backup.
This is also possible with the iCloud backup, and, unsurprisingly, both methods require you to have created a Bitcoin.com cloud backup ahead of time.
2. Restoring Wallet with Bitcoins via a 12-word Recovery Phrase
If you recorded your 12-word recovery phrase when you first downloaded the Bitcoin.com Wallet app, you could always recover your old/lost wallets by using that phrase. Unless you combined your BTC and BCH wallets from the same backup word, you’d need to repair each separately. However, if you don’t know the 12-word backup phrase, there is no method to retrieve your wallet or its contents if anything goes wrong with the device on which it is stored. Here’s how this works:
- To access your account, open the Bitcoin.com wallet and tap on the “+” sign to the right of your bitcoin wallet address.
- Proceed to “Import wallet.”
- Type your 12-word backup phrase and choose the coin, BTC or BCH, for the wallet you need to import.
- Once you enter all 12 words correctly, you can tap on “Import.”
- If you followed the instructions mentioned, your Bitcoin.com wallet should be restored. (Repeat the above steps to recover any sub-wallets).
When setting up your password, remember that all the words must be lowercase with a single space between them and no space after the conclusion word. If your wallet is encrypted, you cannot use the “Import” option to recover it. If using “Import” results in an error, see if these steps work instead:
- Go to your BCH wallet.
- Head to Settings (cogwheel icon) → More Options → Wallet Addresses.
- Now, tap the ‘Unused Addresses’ 20 times until it shows you the message “Empty addresses limit reached.”
- Finally, tap on ‘Scan addresses for funds’.
3. Restore Bitcoin Wallet via the Exported Wallet.data File
Make sure that you are using the same password for your wallet as you did when creating the backup. You can manually recover the Bitcoin.com folder on your device’s file manager by looking for it in the file manager. There should be a wallet.data file in there. Open up the document, and then type the master password you’ve configured within the app. Get hold of all the recovery phrases. If the file doesn’t appear on the device, you can look for it alternatively in your email. Log into your email account, which you used to create your BTC account, and look for the file sent to your inbox by the Bitcoin.com support team.
Note: If you haven’t previously backed up your wallet, the recovery passwords will not be shown in the file manager.
In case nothing seems to work out, you can send the support team a message by going to the chat icon in the lower right corner of the app or via email at [email protected].
4. Use a Wallet Recovery Service to Recover Bitcoin Wallet
If you cannot recover your wallet using a backup file or seed phrase, you can try using a wallet recovery service. There are a few different providers that offer this type of service, but they all work similarly. To employ a wallet recovery service, you will need to provide them with your public address and other information about your wallet. Once you have done this, the service will use its private key database to find a match for your wallet.
If they are successful, they can provide you with a new private key that can be used to recover your wallet. Keep in mind that most wallet recovery services will charge a fee for their service. This fee is usually a percentage of the funds in your wallet, so make sure you understand the fee beforehand.
