Bitcoin Forum

I reformat my Cellphone and....

What to do when you forgot your recovery phrase? Any solutions? anyone can lend me a hand or rather an idea of what to do?

Iam really devastated I might lose my earned altcoin from my previous campaign

SOLVED (KIND A  ;D)

update:

Looking everywhere in my computer for months and in old stash or  papers here at home  and I don't know if I would be happy because my latest eth address I made in 2020 is still missing and I am still in a mission to go through my files and pieces of papers here at my house.

that latest 2020 eth has my latest earned altcoin from a previous campaign instead I found my supper old eth address that I created wag back 2017 or 2018 T__T that has 0 balance

I doubt anyone on this forum will be able to assist you in recovering your wallet, especially if you do not have your seed phrases. As far as I know, if you have kept most of the english words that have been given to you, I think there is still a chance on recovering it.

Or perhaps, maybe there is still a chance if you have the keystore/ json file

So.. why don't you have a written backup of your recovery phrase? That's like the #1 rule of cryptocurrencies: always have backups.

Anyway, you can use certain software to recover deleted files (DYOR).  You might be able to find a backup file on the app's folder.

I am sorry to tell you that if you have neither the private key nor the seed phrase, you will not be able to retrieve it.
This incident reminded me that I checked my backup again because the wallet has a lot of assets.

Has the MEW Android app been uninstalled from your phone? If uninstalled, you will need seed phrase, private key or QR code to recover your wallet. And if the MEW app is not uninstalled, scan the QR code of your wallet with the help of Metamask. Now your wallet will login to Metamask and from there you can find out the private key of your wallet through which you can use your wallet. However, you cannot recover seed phrase from Metamask.

Just still try to check if you can get the seed phrase, the best is to backup your seed phrase not online but offline, if it was offline, you will still be able to know the see phrase and use it for the easy recovery, if you do not know your seed phrase again, you will not be able to recover your MyEtherWallet, you need the seed phrase for the recovery.

There is a little chance to recover data from android even after complete wipe but it is going to be an expensive thing as far as I know.

Apart from this there is no other way, just take it as a lesson and never repeat such thing in future.

The very first thing you have to do after creating your wallet is to have a secured backup of your recovery phrase.

First of all it is your biggest mistake that you have not backed up your recovery phrase on offline modes or vaults which is advisable many times and secondly you have not backup on phone also to other locations?

What best you can do is not to use your mobile phone for certain time until you find solutions because whenever we delete the files they don't get deleted immediately but the phone marked the space as empty and you are not able to see those deleted files on your phone and when you download new data it gets filled on that space so avoid using your phone.The next step is to find deleted files on your phone and search for recycle bin or deleted files as some phones support this software in files manager or try to install android data recovery apps on your pc and use secured usb connection so that data don't get formatted in the process.

Visit this site to read in detail : How to recover data in Android (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.androidauthority.com/amp/android-data-recovery-1073751/)

Apps to recover data on iphone (https://geekflare.com/recover-iphone-ipad-data/amp/)

But you need to be very much careful as they might takes your to some shaddy or phissy recovery sites that might takes your recovery phrase from you and use them to your funds withdrawal as proper care needs to be taken in these online modes.Try your best and don't do such things in future if your get your funds back.

Let me include this if it is going to work. Did you have a backup on your Android device before the phone was formated? You can check your Android file manage, go to backup and check if you see anything like your seed phrase file. Next time, you can go to phone settings, click on backup and restore, you can back up any app content you want there, so in case you want to migrate to another Android phone, or in case of formated phone, you will be able to recover what you want. But, this is not an advise and not recommended.

The recommended way is to backup your seed phrase offline, like on laminated paper or paper, make it safe from attackers and damage, this is the best way to back up seed phrase.

Imagine that you bought someone else's used phone from another person. Before the sale, he reset all parameters to factory settings, that is, the phone was formatted. When you press the OK button, the phone warns that nothing else can be restored, right? If what you offer worked, then a lot of compromising information could be obtained from used phones.
I also think the OP realized a long time ago that he made a mistake, and he needs advice on how to recover the data, not advice on what should have been done before.
OP, it's better to try and regret afterward than just give up. What if there is a chance?
While I doubt he will recover, there are tons of tips on the internet to try.
https://www.gihosoft.com/android-recovery/how-to-format-android-phone.html

You need to find the recovery seed mate this is the only way to get your coins back, next time when you open a new wallet always write down recovery seed offline not screenshot on phone like a friend of mine did last year and lost everything

Rather unlikely to recover your wallet without the mnemonic, but if you’ve performed a factory reset, and have barely touched your phone since, some people claim that rooting your phone (careful with the warrantee though) and installing some "root recovery" app may provide a slim chance.

If you do try something along this line, bear in mind that the actual root recovery app is not necessarily something to trust too much. You need to be sure nothing valuable is on the phone before attempting to use it, and if you do manage to restore something, likely you better back it up and start afresh again after using the root recovery app.


See for example (3 years old though):
https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-undo-factory-reset-on-Android-phone

If I'm not mistaken, there are a couple of alternative ways to access your myetherwallet. The first option, you can access it by using Keystore/JSON File. A Keystore file is basically an encrypted version of your private key. You'll download it the first time you made a wallet on MEW. The second option is the Mnemonic phrase which is those specific, separated, and organized words that you can use to access your wallet. The third option is the private key which is consists of 64 randomized characters. Did you make your MEW on a PC or mobile phone?. If on PC, then there is still a chance that you saved Keystore/JSON unintentionally. So, you can try to check this one by doing a full search on your PC for the "UTC" file and probably the file will show up. Please try to remember whether you keep your phrase or private key somewhere else. I hope there are still things you can do to access your wallet soon.

I actually did once before and trying to find everything like the Phrase and the key file, in my computer but I cant its been 2 days for me

Okay. I will try a "software to recover deleted files (DYOR)", thanks
-------------------------------------


And I will try every suggestion you all replied thanks to all

Sorry for my naiveness but keeping private keys or Keystore/JSON files on a computer is not a good idea and you should have saved it on a flash drive and physical materials like paper.
With your rank, I will advise you to look through all notes and files you saved during the time you created the wallet cause there may be a chance that you saved the wallet private information without realizing it

I've heard from experts before that files deleted from phone memories or memory cards are not really gone, there are ways to get them back with the right softwares, I suggest you do research on this yourself you might be able to recover your deleted files this way, good luck

Doing a data recovery on your phone might not work if you have used your phone again after doing a reformat but if you didn't use your phone after reformat then you have a chance to recover the data of your wallet. Did you make a back up of your mnemonic phrase on your phone?. If not then it's impossible to recover your wallet. Next time, you should always make a back up.

I think there is no other way to recover your account without any phrases or json, login access for wallet is very sensitive so you have to save it carefully before you lose everything, I also keep every private key of every created wallet.

Before doing something on your phone you need to secure first your private key or your seed phrase/ or you can send it to your email/Yahoo to be secured because it is very helpful to you to recover your wallet.

You should never do that and never encourage others to do it. Storing your private keys/seeds online (emails, cloud storage...) isn't any different from storing your coins on exchanges/web wallets, actually, it's even worse.
The best way to keep your pk/seeds safe is either by storing them digitally on an air-gapped device or physically by simply writing it down on a piece of paper and hide it in a safe place.

We know of some services which give you metallic wallets that can be used to store mnemonics or private keys and keep them at your home or use some safe place to store them. Mnemonics could also be stored on an offline computer which you are not going to connect to internet because chances of vulnerability will become zero if the PC remains out of internet connection, using Linux for security is best while storing such important information.

Exactly, because everything online can be hackable and email accounts are prone to compromise by hackers, so it's not advisable to store your seed phrase and password there.  But instead, store it offline that is safe from any disaster that possibly comes.

Regarding the OP problem, I think there's nothing we can do if OP didn't back up the seed phrase, reformat means it will clean up all files on your phone especially if that is a hard reset of your phone, it wiped it all and nothing left aside from factory default.  We should be responsible for keeping our wallet credentials and treat this as valuable stuff, digital currency is very crucial to hold and any time it can be lost.

Obviously he cant since the only way is to use those unlockers. Without that Im afraid OP can kiss goodbye tot he fund he have on his mew.

I think software can deduced this however Im pretty sure he gonna need the help of an expert or buy a software available to do this. Im thinking its quite expensive with this purpose.

---

So next time OP always do back up or at least write it on a piece of paper.

Oww sorry for my suggestion i think it is okay to save your seed phrase to your email or Yahoo but you can delete it after recovering your wallet. To secure your seeds.