How Often Do You Check Your Seed Phrase.

[leonair]

I understand that several thread has been created concerning the importance of keeping our seed phrase save but the question now is this, how often do you check your seed phrase?. My personal experience on why I think you should always check your seed phrase to ensure that it is in a good condition: recently I relocated to another place, when I was moving my things it never occurred to me that I had mistakenly removed my seed phrase from where it was kept not until I had spent more than five months before something struck my mind to check where my seed phrase was written but I couldn't find it there. I was lucky to have kept a duplicate of it somewhere else not just in my house else I would have  ended up losing my funds to some people who understands what seed phrase is all about.

It is not possible to understand if multiple people have accessed the same wallet using 1 seed phrase, but if you have not given your seed phrase to someone else, then no one can guess it or hack it to access your wallet.  So always store it in a good and safe place so that it is not accessible to others. A seed phrase is something that can be used to access a wallet without any authorization and control the funds of that wallet.  Remember not your key not your bitcoin.  So it is your responsibility to protect many seed phrases.

[tjtonmoy]

I have 4 backups of my phrase key and they are all secure and still in their place. I also moved to a new place a month ago but my first concern was my seed phrase. I have it on a piece of wood, on a piece of paper, on a hard drive on a PC and on a removal drive. These are the 4 things that I have backed up my seed phrase to. I have a plan to make a dogtag and print the whole seed as a QR code but there are no local manufacturers that I can trust. I will need a laser engraver and a fresh dogtag for that.

Anyway, I do check every now and then to make sure that my seed phrases are safe. I made a big mistake in my early days. I backed up my key on an online notepad platform and it got compromised. Never gonna do that mistake again LOL.

[philipma1957]

Back in the day when I frequently checked my seedphrase/private key  I accidentally changed a character unknowingly and when I tried to access my wallet I lost control of the wallet just like that..and ever since ,all I do is create wallet, back it up and try get into my account and if all goes smooth it's never again checking on the seedphrase to avoid messing up what I have.

yes when ever you check a seed it is possible to accidentally alter the seed.


say you have electrum wallet

12 word seed

plus an extra 13 word.

it is possible to screw up the 13th word and buy buy coins.

[Ever-young]

I can’t recall the last time I have checked on my back up phrase, I don’t have reason to do that yet, I always only remember to go check on it if I want to get something outside any of my wallet which I don’t have access to in my mobile gadget.

My phrase is saved in 3 different location and two among them is close to me which means when ever I want to check up on it I can always do that, I always don’t see need to always go and check up on it times without number as it could reduce the security of it, the more I often visits the location the more likely it can get exposed which is not good for something like that.

And another thing is that it’s in a place that’s lost secured in my apartment which, means I don’t have to worth’s about it being misplace or someone getting it out due to them looking for something or any of they as my space is being respected.

[Victorik]

I think writing your seed phrase on a sheet of paper is risky. Instead, get a note book or as diary and write them on it and keep somewhere you can easily access.

I guess writing your seed phrase on paper is kind of risky, but I don’t see any difference in writing seed phrase on paper, diary, and book, all is still paper and can be damaged at any moment, so it’s better we look for something better than a book that can’t easily be damaged. I do see people do recommend carving it on steel, which I see as a good idea because metals can’t easily be damaged compared to the book and diary that you just mentioned above.
 
Keeping your seed phrase in a place that can be easily accessible is the best, why do you have to hide it in a place that can’t be easily accessible? And just as I said, a diary or book is not still the best place to write your seed phrase, and you can write it in different places and hide the seed phrase in different places.

Write it on steel? Lol! I don't know how possible that can be, considering the fact that steel could be heavy and difficult to write on.
Anyway, my opinion though, wriring it on multiple places is my best bet. It has been working for me.
All I need do is keep it safe, far away from prying eyes.
Moreover, I have important documents that are on paper, they haven't been damaged, so this won't be an exemption.

[Mauser]

Lessons( 1) Do not keep your seed phrase in a particular place (2) Always check your seed phrase to be sure it is intact (3) Be sure you alone have access where your seed phrase is kept.

Conclusion: Knowing too well that keeping the seed phrase and other account related information of a user private are some ways to ensure adequate security, I think we need to do a constant check on our seed phrase so that we don't end up losing it.

I think it's a good idea to regularly check on our seed phrase and to make sure that there is no issue with it. Personally, I like to have to save copy just to be on the safe side and not risk losing access to my wallet. One copy I keep in a bank vault in my home town, it's a bit hard to visit there during office hours as I usually just go home for the holidays. I used a piece of paper and a good pen, leaving everything in an envelope and there shouldn't be any issue for the seed phrase to disappear. My main copy of my seed phrase I keep closer to myself and I can check regularly on its condition. The good thing about having all the important files in one place at the bank is in the case that something happens to me, my family has no issue finding my crypto wallet and can get access to it. If I ever make a enough money with my investment portfolios, I would love to install a high end safe at home to store all important information their instead of the bank. But for that I need to make enough returns to make it a good decision, otherwise the bank deposit box is much cheaper. 

[Nheer]

I understand that several thread has been created concerning the importance of keeping our seed phrase save but the question now is this, how often do you check your seed phrase?.

This is a really good question. The majority of people never even think to check their stored seed phrases, but it's crucial to make sure they're secure and undamaged by checking them on a regular basis. A whole lot of people don't even give remember they stored something somewhere and just assume it's safe there, sometimes even forgetting where they put them because it's been too long. Some even go months without checking it until they might need to use it. Since the seed phrase serves as a kind of entryway to our assets, we should make it a habit to check its security on a regular basis to make sure we don't lose them.

My personal experience on why I think you should always check your seed phrase to ensure that it is in a good condition: recently I relocated to another place, when I was moving my things it never occurred to me that I had mistakenly removed my seed phrase from where it was kept not until I had spent more than five months before something struck my mind to check where my seed phrase was written but I couldn't find it there. I was lucky to have kept a duplicate of it somewhere else not just in my house else I would have  ended up losing my funds to some people who understands what seed phrase is all about.

Like you, the majority of people tend to forget about things and only remember them when they are needed. If we continue to assume that things are safe, we will eventually forget where they are kept. Since the seed phrase is just as important as our assets, we must always remember to check it in the same way that we check the market price and direction. Crypto experts have always advised making duplicates and storing our keys and seed phrase in different locations in case of unforeseen circumstances or unexpected events, just as it happened with OP. This is the best practise. It's a blessing that you made duplicates and that your efforts paid off, else you would have lost everything otherwise.

( 1) Do not keep your seed phrase in a particular place

This forum has always given us the best security measures. I've read a lot of posts and opinions about different ways people store their keys and seed phrase, and I've come to the conclusion that creating duplicates and keeping backups is the most effective approach in case the original storage location is compromised. In case of an emergency, I would even suggest making up to three duplicates and keeping them in separate places. I think in order to avoid losing their assets, beginners would take a lesson from this post and create duplicates just like you did.

(2) Always check your seed phrase to be sure it is intact

This is the most important point of all. It is not sufficient to just keep your seed phrase in a safe place; are you certain that it is secure there? Even so, are you certain it's still there? Even though you may think that only you have access to the location, you never know what will happen to it. If you can have access there then anyone else can also enter the area knowingly or unknowingly and tamper with it. For this reason, it is wise to make it a habit to routinely verify that your seed phrase remains intact.

Assuming, for instance, that you created duplicates and kept them in various places, someone unintentionally tampered with one, and then you relocated shortly after, you lost access to the original. You then attempted to find the duplicate copy but discovered it was missing. In this scenario, what would you do? This indicates that because you haven't been checking your seed phrase frequently, you have lost your assets. It is for this reason that it is crucial to frequently check your seed phrase.

[blckhawk]

It is the same for me, I don't check it often, I can not even remember the last time that I have checked my seed phrase, it is safely stored already in a piece of paper on my favorite book and I have all the necessary information written on it so I know the purpose of that piece of paper in case I forgot what those series of words are about. I do not really understand the reason for constant checking of the seed phrase, will it suddenly change the next time because I did not check on it regularly? Of course it will not happen so there is no point as to why I should do that.

[GbitG]

lol I just keep screen of seed in my gallery xd. But it need to know 2 passwords to get access to my gallery

You keep a screenshot of your seed phrase in your gallery, i don't care how many passwords it would take to get to to your gallery, it is trivial for your seed phrase to be compromised in this way, there is a reason why good wallet softwares don't allow you to screenshot your seed phrase, because it is a stupid thing to do. Back up your seed phrase on paper and keep it in more than one location, you cannot keep your seed phrase in your gallery in a mobile device that goes almost everywhere with you, it is only a matter of time before your screw up.

That's the key point. Bro, that's the key point.

Obviously, this is the stupidest thing to do: take a screenshot of the seed phrase. Because no Android or iOS device gives you this guarantee that your data will not be accessible to Google, this means that you have Gmail on your phone, and all Google products are connected, like Google Drive. When hackers hack your Gmail by fishing link, they can easily access your photo, screenshot, and data. And no matter how many pass codes and security gates you use, a hacker can easily hack you, and when he gets hold of the seed phrase, he can obviously steal your funds.

Fortunately, I also have his witness, who also had a similar incident. And his million-dollar crypto assets were stolen.
So the meaning of the saying is that you shouldn't take a screenshot of your seed phrase. Be careful with your seed phrase, and don't keep it on your phone. While only printing or write it down on paper in a safe place. Only then will it be safe.

And at the end, @Z-tight brother gave you a better example and explained that if the screen shot was good or safe, then why TopWallet doesn't allow you to take a screenshot? It means that it is an unsafe method. Hopefully, some minds will be opened.

[LDL]

I generally do not try to check my seed phrase as it requires me to load it up somewhere and be connected to the internet. It poses some risks, although I'm certain that my devices are not compromised in any way. I would recommend doing this on hot wallets, but on wallets that are intended to be cold storages, you shouldn't be doing these checks at all because you should have secured everything the first time.

At least once a week I check the 12 words Seedphases in my Electrum wallet, login to the wallet and check my weekly payments. Although I have logged into my security seedphase wallet for a long time and check the balance weekly by just logging in with the password. Repeatedly logging in with Security Seedphase has ricks, that's why I have logged in with Seedphase.
I have saved the Seedphases of my wallet in Google Drive with a strong password. That's why I don't access my google drive frequently because if someone steals access to my google drive then there is a possibility of hacking bitcoins from my wallet. That's why I check my Seedphase after a long time.

[Renampun]

Since there has been more and more news about people who lost their bitcoin wallet seed phrases because they were hacked - their devices were stolen - their devices were damaged, so I store mine in many wallets, currently I use 4 different wallets (safepal, trust wallet, bluewallet, unstopabble) well I installed each of my wallets on several devices, when one of my devices has a problem then I will go to one of my wallets (another device) and see my seed phrase there, usually just use the password and everything is done, I don't know I don't know if people use my method, but we have to maintain our bitcoin wallet seed phrase as well as possible.

[Minecache]

I generally do not try to check my seed phrase as it requires me to load it up somewhere and be connected to the internet. It poses some risks, although I'm certain that my devices are not compromised in any way. I would recommend doing this on hot wallets, but on wallets that are intended to be cold storages, you shouldn't be doing these checks at all because you should have secured everything the first time.

At least once a week I check the 12 words Seedphases in my Electrum wallet, login to the wallet and check my weekly payments. Although I have logged into my security seedphase wallet for a long time and check the balance weekly by just logging in with the password. Repeatedly logging in with Security Seedphase has ricks, that's why I have logged in with Seedphase.
I have saved the Seedphases of my wallet in Google Drive with a strong password. That's why I don't access my google drive frequently because if someone steals access to my google drive then there is a possibility of hacking bitcoins from my wallet. That's why I check my Seedphase after a long time.

Checking your seed phrases periodically is a good thing, but it's a bad idea if you're storing your seed phrases on Google Drive. Basically, online storage is very risky, so using a strong password doesn't guarantee you anything. One more thing, whether you regularly access google drive or not does not guarantee that your seeds are safe. Because don't forget that your GGdrive is already linked to your online gmail account. Once your gmail is hacked, you will lose all access and data to your google resources. I strongly oppose the idea of storing your seed phrases on an online storage platform.

[BitcoinTurk]

I understand that several thread has been created concerning the importance of keeping our seed phrase save but the question now is this, how often do you check your seed phrase?

I almost never check it because when I create a cryptocurrency wallet I save the seed phrase in several different places and in my notebook. Although I am someone who rarely checks the seed phrases because they never change, I make sure to check my backup files at regular intervals because I have a wallet with a balance in it that I have lost access to before. Yes, this is a bad situation but I had such an experience with the inexperience of the period when I first started to be interested in cryptocurrencies. For this reason, nowadays I want to at least check my file backups and notebook regularly to make sure that I have nothing missing.

[Mr.right85]

It is the same for me, I don't check it often, I can not even remember the last time that I have checked my seed phrase, it is safely stored already in a piece of paper on my favorite book and I have all the necessary information written on it so I know the purpose of that piece of paper in case I forgot what those series of words are about.

I don’t even know that to be a thing and wouldn’t even want to practice it.
Why the hell will I need to check my seed phrase or private key often? What do I expect to see differently other than a bunch of phrase steering right back at me each time.

Well, I’ve had to import my wallet a few times over the course of a year with utmost necessity and that have got to do with, having my wallet on a device of interest. Other than that, nope! I feel more secure in not having to go back yo it every now and then, I just know that it’s placed in a safe place and space and don’t have anyone yo tamper it so, it’s cool not having to create attention or cause reasons that would necessitate a transfer. Can’t be doing that from time to time, I might mess things up in the process and that ain’t allowed in this business.

[Charmekkd]

I personally also very rarely check wallet phrases. But even so, I'm sure the wallet phrase I have is still safe. Because I have laminated the book where I wrote the wallet sentence and it will be safer from termites which will damage the paper. So I'm not too worried, because apart from that I also have a special safe to store the wallet phrase. What is certain is that I will not forget where I saved the wallet phrase.

[Jon_Hodl]

If you have your seed phrase stamped into metal (stainless steel or titanium) then you can be sure that it is protected from all physical harm and will last a lifetime.

Once you know that your seed phrase is basically indestructible, you need to focus on hiding it in a safe place. There's not much need to constantly check on it unless you need to use that wallet often. You should probably use a tier'd system for all of your bitcoin so you can set aside some of your stack for well into the future where you don't need to check on your seed phrase all the time.

Here's a good system for managing your seed phrase. Each tier can be used to send bitcoin to the next tier as needed.   
Long-Term Savings: Seed phrase punched into metal and use an air-gapped hardware wallet (with passphrase or multisig) for signing and broadcasting transactions.
Mid-Term Savings: Seep phrase punched into steel and use a hardware wallet that you might decide to plug into a computer to sign and broadcast transactions.
Short-Term Savings: Bitcoin kept on a hot wallet that is sent to lightning wallet for daily spending.
Spending: Lightning wallet for daily spending online and out in the real world.

[Ndabagi01]

Lessons( 1) Do not keep your seed phrase in a particular place (2) Always check your seed phrase to be sure it is intact (3) Be sure you alone have access where your seed phrase is kept.

The significance of all of this is that seed phrase is a very important and valuable resource that you require in order to keep your account safe and secure from hackers. Many of them who are familiar with bitcoin and the seed phrase can easily infiltrate it and steal funds from it. You must always keep an eye out to ensure that your personal information is not exposed online, as this is the simplest way to attack you. But if you don't mind, you can always check on this oo yea his in every matter because they own the key to it clinic everywhere.

[DabsPoorVersion]

Lessons( 1) Do not keep your seed phrase in a particular place (2) Always check your seed phrase to be sure it is intact (3) Be sure you alone have access where your seed phrase is kept.

The significance of all of this is that seed phrase is a very important and valuable resource that you require in order to keep your account safe and secure from hackers. Many of them who are familiar with bitcoin and the seed phrase can easily infiltrate it and steal funds from it. You must always keep an eye out to ensure that your personal information is not exposed online, as this is the simplest way to attack you. But if you don't mind, you can always check on this oo yea his in every matter because they own the key to it clinic everywhere.

This is the main reason why it is being advised that everyone with Bitcoin holdings to use a hardware wallet especially if you are aiming for a long-term holding. Hardware wallets are a good way to hold your crypto as it is more secure than software wallets. With using a hardware wallet, it is not required to regularly check your wallet or getting worried of being a victim of hacking. As long as you keep the important information of your hardware wallet.

[ancafe]

I personally also very rarely check wallet phrases. But even so, I'm sure the wallet phrase I have is still safe. Because I have laminated the book where I wrote the wallet sentence and it will be safer from termites which will damage the paper. So I'm not too worried, because apart from that I also have a special safe to store the wallet phrase. What is certain is that I will not forget where I saved the wallet phrase.

Can checking on a scale guarantee the security of our wallets? The level of security is not seen in the extent to which people often check, but rather how someone can store the seed phrase in a safe place. The phrase functions to recover it and that means the phrase must be stored in a much safer place that no one can reach. To be honest I very rarely check seed phrases because I think from the start I have them stored safely so there is no need to check at scale.

Some wallets don't even give a prompt when you capture the screen and we are required to write the seed phrase as a small security measure. That's why regarding security, we have our own role in protecting it and when we ignore it, we ourselves will be harmed.

[pawanjain]

I understand that several thread has been created concerning the importance of keeping our seed phrase save but the question now is this, how often do you check your seed phrase?. My personal experience on why I think you should always check your seed phrase to ensure that it is in a good condition: recently I relocated to another place, when I was moving my things it never occurred to me that I had mistakenly removed my seed phrase from where it was kept not until I had spent more than five months before something struck my mind to check where my seed phrase was written but I couldn't find it there. I was lucky to have kept a duplicate of it somewhere else not just in my house else I would have  ended up losing my funds to some people who understands what seed phrase is all about.

Lessons( 1) Do not keep your seed phrase in a particular place (2) Always check your seed phrase to be sure it is intact (3) Be sure you alone have access where your seed phrase is kept.

Conclusion: Knowing too well that keeping the seed phrase and other account related information of a user private are some ways to ensure adequate security, I think we need to do a constant check on our seed phrase so that we don't end up losing it.

I stand to be corrected if there are things that were not listed as this thread is based on personal encounter and observation.

I thought people would be doing that already but I guess I was wrong. It's good that you have pointed it out.
People should really verify that their seed phrase are in the same condition as it was before.
Multiple backups in different locations is utmost necessary to make sure you still have the access to your funds.