Bitcoin Forum

Hi everyone,

I didnt store the 12 word phrase for coinbase wallet.
Coin base told me if I didn’t store the 12 words phrase there is no way i can login to my wallet.
 
Previously i was using thumbprint to login to the account but one day the app was uninstalled
When i installed it back, it asked for the 12 word phrases.

I am a father of 2 and i really need the money urgently.

Pls help

Unfortunately, sorry to say that but there is no way to recover your wallet without private key. This is not login/password to bank account that can be recovered every time (but bank has access to all you data). This is crypto. You are the only person who can access your wallet and priv key (12 words) are the only thing that allows you to do that.

I mean, Coinbase pretty much told you what would happen if you didn't have the backup. Sorry for your loss, and don't be careless next time especially knowing that we're talking about your hard-earned money here.

Sorry to say, i think you can not recover your wallet.
Several months ago I experienced this and finally I couldn't do anything about it.
This gave me the experience of always being careful when creating a new wallet.

Not your keys not your coin. The same thing apply to you. we cannot get your coin because we do not have the key for it but unfortunately it was not save. No way someone could get it for you because it is not easy to bypass security and get your coins. I do also have the idea that you are using a coinbase wallet not the coinbase exchange app. Meaning that the security feature of that wallet is high and definitely no one can access it for you.

You won't be able to get the wallet from coinbase, but maybe there's a way to roll back the removal process and bring the old wallet back. I'm not an expert in file recovery, but if you had a lot of money stored there it wouldn't hurt to ask mobile recovery store if they'd be able to do it. Some files are kept in cache and temporary folders, maybe some of those managed to survive, but it's important that you don't install any new software in place of the old one. It looks like you've already tried to reinstall the wallet.

You never made a backup? Are you completely sure about that? Look I can understand your frustration but you were told very clearly what you had to do and if you did not do it the exchange is not at fault here, there is a phrase that says that bitcoin allows you to be your own bank and it is no joke, you are your own bank which means that if something happens to your money you are directly responsible for it and it is up to you to try to protect it.


This is the only hope I see for your case OP, you will need to try to rollback your app to a previous state and if that fails then you can say good bye to that money.

How much money you have in store on that wallet? they have warned you to write it but you just ignored it.

Is there like a system restore feature on our mobile/smartphones? this suggestion somehow gives hope but there's one thing that I'm thinking. I hope that it's not the same attitude of those mobile store staffs that I've encountered that they are touching and copying files of their customers. And if one of their staff is aware of recovery phrases and does have a bad intention, if it's a successful recovery they may only say that it's unsuccessful and can't be recovered anymore.

 We should all learn and teach newcomer people that 'Not your keys,not your coins'  before first purchase crypto.

 Number 1 rule

That was careless. Once you create a wallet, and they tell you to back it up It's not a joke. It's a serious matter because as soon as you send money to those addresses, it simply means that your money is in your care. Coinbase has no control over it except just provide you a wallet app with which you can use to spend the money.

Those seed phrases or private keys you see are literary the key to spend your money. Lose any of them and you have lost your money forever. Refuse to back them up and this means you have refused to back up your money

Buddy, the OP issue have nothing to do with custodial and non custodial it completely consciousness cause even it your keys and you dont save the wallet seeds or private keys well the coins is also lost.
It sad the OP has to learn a pretty good lesson during the season of economic meltdown.

This was dumb-dumb but, like many others entering this space, you decided the rules don't apply to you and decided to do it your way. The current situation you find yourself in (without any funds) is testament to this.

For more information on SFYL, please read the "Your loss" playbook (http://qntra.net/2016/08/the-your-loss-playbook/) and next time take 2 minutes to write down your seed phrase. Thanks for playing!

Even knowing where and how it was stored - most likely (i'm 99% sure) it was encrypted. So even if OP will find it, he will not be able to get into it. Crypto wallets are meant to be safe and priv key is meant to be the only way to access it so in a situation in which OP will lost his phone no one without OP finger (thumbprint to login) will be able to get hands on OP's coins.

Please forgive my naive question, how is this possible cause what I read is that once the private keys or seed phrase are lost the fund are gone forever?

it depends on what "gone" means.
imagine if you have a piece of paper that has something written on it, if it were burnt and you have the ashes then it is truly gone and there is nothing you can do about it. but if it were slightly damaged and part of it was wiped there is still some hope.
same is true about digital storage. if the HDD, SDD, SD card,... wasn't wiped clean or the file were overwritten there could be ways to recover it. although it is very challenging.

Did you backed-up your wallet/backup-phrase using the "Back up on Google Drive" option?
If you did, all you have to do is have that Google account on your phone; in Coinbase wallet, select "Restore from Google Drive" during wallet restore
and select that account if prompted (plus your Coinbase wallet's backup password that you've set).

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do.

Uninstalling the application seems to have deleted the wallet file resulting in a fresh wallet instance therefore requiring you to enter the mnemonic code.

If you don't have access to the mnemonic code, you won't get access to your coins anymore.




He was using the wallet application from coinbase, which itself is just a non-custodial mobile wallet.
OP was in full control over the keys.

I'm not a technician, but I know a guy who filmed the police doing something illegal and was caught. Long story short, they threatened him, took away his phone and deleted the video. He went to a phone repair shop and they were able to recover the deleted files that even included the conversation between one of the policemen who were trying to figure out how to delete the video. That said, android phones usually don't completely delete photos and videos, just move them and mark for deletion that happens later when storage space decreases.
It's possible the wallet file was moved and marked for deletion that happened when the new version was installed and the same, but empty files were downloaded once again.
I always advise against using a mobile wallet as your only one because phones are so fragile. They break easily, get stolen and left in stores, restaurants, pubs all the time. You don't want to keep 10k USD on a piece of glass.

I asked the question. I am not used to mobile wallet cause i don't like it cause it seems vulnerable to attack to me but ETFbitcoin said the OP could still get back the wallet seeds he didn't save or write down through his phone storage. How is that possible when he doesn't remember or write down any word in the wallet seeds.

Because, if you read the whole thread, he is talking about file recovery.
The seed was stored in the mobile before it got deleted. A recovery does have a very slim chance of recovering that piece of information.

But since we are talking about mobiles (which means: flash memory), the whole tasks instantly got way more complicated than when dealing with HDD's. The chances are extremely slim.

That's really crucial when it comes to mobile devices, per experience with previous mistakes on failure of having no back-up on my wallet tends to become my worst nightmare. If we store our files on hdd or flash memory we can't rely only on that, cloud storage can also be a good alternative if you agree on my opinion.

No that's a terrible idea. Why in your right mind would you store your seed phrase in cloud storage where someone could hack your account and grab the file?

You're supposed to write it down on paper so you don't have to rely on technology working for you to have access to your seed phrase.

You can never rely on a third party to safely store your sensitive information for you, no matter what the company tells you. For instance my Yahoo account with its ridiculously strong password was easily hacked because their system had absolutely no security! They basically let the hacker in. Imagine if I had stored anything important in there...

Perhaps, it made me realize I will soon remove my seed phrases stored in my one drive account and I felt not safe there already. Sooner I will be printing out my wallet phrases on hard copy and make a compilation out of it. Solid state drive also a good back-up in parallel with paper prints.

It would be better if you'd regard this mnemonic code as compromised.
The best would be to create a new seed and move all of your funds to your new wallet.

You can never know how many backups of your data have been created. You definitely shouldn't use this seed anymore.

Unless you are using a permanently airgapped computer connected to a dumb printer, then this is not a safe method either. Simply using your usual every day computer and printer to do this will still expose your seed phrase to the internet, to any malware on your computer or printer, will save the file on your hard drive and in your printer memory, and so on. There is a good reason that all good wallets tell you to write your seed phrase down by hand, not print it out.

All electronic storage has a lifespan, and SSDs are no different. This is especially true if you are using the SSD on a daily basis, and if you are, then it is likely in an internet enabled device and so again not safe.

You are overcomplicating things. Just generate a new seed phrase and write it down with pen and paper.