Ledger Nano Recovery Failed? Help needed

[robbyb]

Help! I recently got a new laptop and needed to redownload Ledger Live to access my funds. I had bought some BTC and ETH back in 2018 and had forgotten about them since. I redownloaded the ledger live software and put in my recovery phrase correctly but my ledger live portfolio is now empty. There are no accounts in my dashboard for either bitcoin or ethereum. Is it possible that I missed a step? I am just hoping the funds are not lost.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

[1714903999]

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[1714903999]

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[bitmover]

Help! I recently got a new laptop and needed to redownload Ledger Live to access my funds. I had bought some BTC and ETH back in 2018 and had forgotten about them since. I redownloaded the ledger live software and put in my recovery phrase correctly but my ledger live portfolio is now empty. There are no accounts in my dashboard for either bitcoin or ethereum. Is it possible that I missed a step? I am just hoping the funds are not lost.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

The recovery phrase should not be put in ledger live software, but in ledger device when you start it.
The recovery phrase is a list of 24 words.


Did you use a passphrase?
https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005214529-Advanced-passphrase-security?docs=true

A passphrase is basically a 25th word added to the recovery phrase and it should be inserted together with the recovery phrase when recovering your wallet.


Have you tried to use other software? You can try to use Electrum.org wallet, which is compatible with ledger device.

Do you have the address with balance? you can just insert ismine("address)" and it will return if you have the address in your wallet or not.

[mk4]

What bitmover said. This specific part makes me very antsy — hopefully you didn't actually enter in the recovery phrase by typing it out on Ledger Live, because if you did, you pretty much downloaded a fraudulent software masquerading as the legitimate Ledger Live software.

I redownloaded the ledger live software and put in my recovery phrase correctly but my ledger live portfolio is now empty.

[robbyb]

Help! I recently got a new laptop and needed to redownload Ledger Live to access my funds. I had bought some BTC and ETH back in 2018 and had forgotten about them since. I redownloaded the ledger live software and put in my recovery phrase correctly but my ledger live portfolio is now empty. There are no accounts in my dashboard for either bitcoin or ethereum. Is it possible that I missed a step? I am just hoping the funds are not lost.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

The recovery phrase should not be put in ledger live software, but in ledger device when you start it.
The recovery phrase is a list of 24 words.


Did you use a passphrase?
https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005214529-Advanced-passphrase-security?docs=true

A passphrase is basically a 25th word added to the recovery phrase and it should be inserted together with the recovery phrase when recovering your wallet.


Have you tried to use other software? You can try to use Electrum.org wallet, which is compatible with ledger device.

Do you have the address with balance? you can just insert ismine("address)" and it will return if you have the address in your wallet or not.

I put the recovery phrase in on the ledger device NOT on the software. But when I completed the process and went to the main portfolio page, it was blank. I then added new accounts for bitcoin and ethereum thinking that they would show the balance I had but they were both empty. I did not use a passphrase and I have not tried using electrum.org wallet yet. I'm hoping for a simple solution to a very stressful problem.

[mk4]

I put the recovery phrase in on the ledger device NOT on the software. But when I completed the process and went to the main portfolio page, it was blank. I then added new accounts for bitcoin and ethereum thinking that they would show the balance I had but they were both empty. I did not use a passphrase and I have not tried using electrum.org wallet yet. I'm hoping for a simple solution to a very stressful problem.

Good. Do it again, you might have entered it in a wrong order or something like that. Let's just hope you didn't make a mistake in the backup part.

Do you have a copy of any of your addresses by any chance? So we could at least verify if you actually got hacked or not.

[Pmalek]

When you install Ledger Live on a new computer for the first time, it's going to show you an empty portfolio. You need to to reinstall the correct crypto apps on the device (in your case ETH and BTC), add the accounts again, and let Ledger Live scan for those with a positive balance. Does LL display any history in the recent transactions tab?

Did you ever need to restore your wallet from seed on your old device that required you to enter your seed into your HW? If it worked in the past, then you know that you have the correct recovery phrase.

You need to ensure that you add the correct Bitcoin wallets. Are your coins on legacy, nested segwit, or native segwit addresses?
If you know some addresses that hold your coins, I would connect the hardware wallet to Electrum and see if those addresses pop up as yours the way bitmover explained it above. If they don't, you haven't entered the correct seed.

Do you have multiple copies of your seed phrase? If so, can you compare the words on both to ensure they are identical?
Have you ever created and written down a different seed that you are now recovering by mistake?   

[NeuroticFish]

You need to ensure that you add the correct Bitcoin wallets. Are your coins on legacy, nested segwit, or native segwit addresses?
If you know some addresses that hold your coins, I would connect the hardware wallet to Electrum and see if those addresses pop up as yours the way bitmover explained it above. If they don't, you haven't entered the correct seed.

I advise the same. Get electrum (from electrum.org) and try to see what addresses (and funds) you get for the bitcoin part. Why Electrum? Because you can ask here for options related to the derivation path to use. And because ledger live sometimes simply has bugs/errors.

I think that the problem may be simple and one of the two:
* either you had legacy (1...) type addresses and now you've got SegWit (bc1..) ones
* either you had multiple accounts and now the wrong one is recovered

Best would be if you know at least one old good address.


I really hope that you have written down the correct seed...

[Pmalek]

And before I forget, don't enter your seed into the Electrum wallet. You don't need to do that to par the two together. Just click on create new wallet > use a hardware wallet. Your Ledger device must have the correct seed entered into it at this point and you need to have the Bitcoin app installed on your HW. Electrum should give you an option to scan standard derivation paths when searching for funds. If you run into any obstacles, let us know.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I put the recovery phrase in on the ledger device NOT on the software.

Why did you have to reenter the seed phrase at all? You said you got a new laptop - that has nothing to do with your hardware wallet. You should have just connected your hardware wallet to your new computer without having to do anything with your seed phrase. Are you certain you have imported correct seed phrase? Have you only ever had one seed phrase, or do you have multiple for different wallets?

Do you still have your old laptop? Can you still open Ledger Live there and see your accounts?

[Pmalek]

Why did you have to reenter the seed phrase at all? You said you got a new laptop - that has nothing to do with your hardware wallet. You should have just connected your hardware wallet to your new computer without having to do anything with your seed phrase.

In his opening post, robbyb said that he hasn't used his hardware wallet since 2018, so it's possible that the wallet reset itself to factory settings. He might have also upgraded his firmware and/or the crypto apps that triggered a reset.

When we are on the subject of firmware versions.
@robbyb When was the last time you upgraded yours? It shouldn't be a reason why LL is not recovering the correct wallets (assuming the correct seed has been used), but a lot has happened since 2018, including various vulnerabilities, bug fixes, stability upgrades, etc. You should update your in the correct order as well.   

[lujoltc]

You do not own your private key or 12/18/24 recovery phrase: I am afraid you do not own your crypto anymore.
It is not a suprise, as reserachers showed that 20% or more of BTCs are lost because ppl may not know about it (

[Pmalek]

You do not own your private key or 12/18/24 recovery phrase: I am afraid you do not own your crypto anymore.

OP wrote in his second post that he recovered his wallet with the recovery phrase, but after LL performed the necessary scans, it didn't find any of his accounts. He might have made a mistake when writing down some of his seed words which resulted in the recovery of an empty wallet or he is using a completely different recovery phrase that never held any funds in the first place. Another possibility is that he downloaded a fake Ledger Live app, or that he forgot that his original seed was extended with a passphrase. Since OP never came back after his last post on the forum, we will never know how this ended and if he regained access to his crypto.

[lujoltc]

You do not own your private key or 12/18/24 recovery phrase: I am afraid you do not own your crypto anymore.

OP wrote in his second post that he recovered his wallet with the recovery phrase, but after LL performed the necessary scans, it didn't find any of his accounts. He might have made a mistake when writing down some of his seed words which resulted in the recovery of an empty wallet or he is using a completely different recovery phrase that never held any funds in the first place. Another possibility is that he downloaded a fake Ledger Live app, or that he forgot that his original seed was extended with a passphrase. Since OP never came back after his last post on the forum, we will never know how this ended and if he regained access to his crypto.

Is there any Fake Ledger Live app that can work with the hardware wallet? If so, can you send me a link of which to have a look at?

[bitmover]

Is there any Fake Ledger Live app that can work with the hardware wallet? If so, can you send me a link of which to have a look at?

No one should be sharing fake software links , as it may increase visitors and website authority in searches.

anyway, that doesn't look like to be the case here.

[Pmalek]

Is there any Fake Ledger Live app that can work with the hardware wallet? If so, can you send me a link of which to have a look at?

I don't know of any fake websites or apps, but I am sure there are some that were created to get you to import your seed phrase and hand over your coins to scammers. They can't connect to Ledger servers or establish a connection with a genuine Ledger device. But if someone gets tricked and inserts their seed, they don't even have to.

Not that long ago, some people received fake Ledger devices and were instructed by the manual that came in the boxes to install and use a fake software.

[m2017]

Judging by the fact that OP has not appeared online since the publication of his last post, he still managed to restore access to he's portfolio using recovery phrase. Indirectly, this confirms that he doesn't ask questions. robbyb, I'm right? You could let us know that you were able to do so and have access to your funds.