Testing Seed Phrase?

[BTCRick]

Hey Ya'll,
I'm new to this forum. I have a Trezor One cold wallet. I've started putting some BTC in it. It seems to be working fine. I've moved small amounts in and out with no issues, however I've never tested the seed phrase. Before I get too much BTC piled up in there it seems wise to make sure the seed phrase works. What are the ramifications to doing that? I'm afraid that if a make an error I'll be locked out and have a hassle, Any advice?

[Free Market Capitalist]

If you wrote down the seeds correctly, you don't have to worry about it, it is done carefully and by double and even triple checking each word you write down. But if you want to be sure you will have to reset Trezor and reinstall it.

Basically you will have to go to the settings to select the Wipe Device option and when everything is erased unplug the Trezor, reconnect it and start the process by selecting “recover wallet” instead of creating a new one.

The only bad thing that could happen to you is that you may have written down the seeds incorrectly, so you will lose the little you have in the wallet, but better that than realizing it in the future when you have accumulated much more.

[promise444c5]

Yeah it’s actually good to test a seed before you start stashing up your BTC so as to reduce any future drama on your funds…
Apart from full recovery suggested, you can do a “ Dry Run recovery “  to test your wallet as well, check it here  : https://trezor.io/learn/a/check-wallet-backup-on-model-one
I also helped looking for a video https://youtu.be/SzQ1BxcXr0s?si=YbKqqNgpAhUaKHdX, you can forward it to “3:52” for the dry run recovery , you can check the full recovery too if you want..
this should help as well..

[acroman08]

since Poker Player mentioned the possibility of making a mistake when writing it and you are worried about making a mistake, you can take a picture of your seed phrase and then print it so you have a physical copy, after that, you should delete the image just to be on the safer side from possible hacks or something.

[NeuroticFish]

since Poker Player mentioned the possibility of making a mistake when writing it and you are worried about making a mistake, you can take a picture of your seed phrase and then print it so you have a physical copy, after that, you should delete the image just to be on the safer side from possible hacks or something.

I would advise against this. One takes nowadays the pictures with the phone, which is constantly connected to the internet (i.e. security issue). Even more, many have it set up (knowingly or not!) that their pictures go to a cloud storage immediately after they're made (even worse security issue).

Poker Player's advice is the easiest and most useful one.

Another option would be a bit more complicated:
1. copy or print the first few addresses of the wallet (I do that from Electrum)
2. get an USB stick, write Tails OS onto it
3. boot from that USB into Tails without internet (and as default, without persistence), start Electrum from there, recover the wallet into Electrum from seed (check bip39)
4. compare the addresses from that Tails Electrum with what was written from the original wallet

[Rikafip]

you can take a picture of your seed phrase and then print it so you have a physical copy, after that, you should delete the image just to be on the safer side from possible hacks or something.

That's a very bad idea.

Your seed phrase shouldn't touch anything that has any connection to Intrnet whatsoever, and in your recommendation he would have to use two, (presumably) mobile phone and printer. Doesn't even mater if delete the pic later and you will never be 100% sure that someone else doesn't have the access to your seed phrase.

[acroman08]

since Poker Player mentioned the possibility of making a mistake when writing it and you are worried about making a mistake, you can take a picture of your seed phrase and then print it so you have a physical copy, after that, you should delete the image just to be on the safer side from possible hacks or something.

I would advise against this. One takes nowadays the pictures with the phone, which is constantly connected to the internet (i.e. security issue). Even more, many have it set up (knowingly or not!) that their pictures go to a cloud storage immediately after they're made (even worse security issue).

fair point, but he could also take the picture while not being connected to the internet(which I forgot to mention) so it won't be automatically uploaded to cloud storage and then print the image without being connected to the internet and then delete the image while not connected to the internet, though doing this there is still some risk since. but yeah, Poker Player suggestion was the easiest one but the suggestion I made was just in case OP is worried about making a mistake when writing the seed phrase.

[Lucius]

Hey Ya'll,
I'm new to this forum. I have a Trezor One cold wallet.
~snip~

Any crypto wallet that connects to the internet cannot be called a cold wallet. As far as I know, Trezor does not have a device that communicates exclusively via SD card or QR codes - which means that for most HW operations, you need to be online.

The second important thing is to store your seed appropriately - meaning that it is not stored in an email, in the cloud, or on your computer as an unprotected text document. Additionally, you should have more than one backup, and if possible, each backup should be in a different geo location.

[JiiBs]

What are the ramifications to doing that? I'm afraid that if a make an error I'll be locked out and have a hassle, Any advice?

Who’s going to lock you out of your own wallet? Only you can log yourself out and you can’t go wrong with seed phrase if you copied it correctly in the first place. If you’re sure that you had the seed phrase copied correctly, then you’re good. There isn’t any need to be scared of the seed phrase working. It always does and I’ve done it a few times on my wallet over the course of last year.
Just be sure to keep it securing and privately not to fall to the hands of a third party. There isn’t anything like a logout even in the instance of putting in a wrong seed phrase.
The system just interprets it as none existence wallet and have nothing to redirect to as your wallet.

[Abu-Naim]

Hey Ya'll,
I'm new to this forum. I have a Trezor One cold wallet. I've started putting some BTC in it. It seems to be working fine. I've moved small amounts in and out with no issues, however I've never tested the seed phrase. Before I get too much BTC piled up in there it seems wise to make sure the seed phrase works. What are the ramifications to doing that? I'm afraid that if a make an error I'll be locked out and have a hassle, Any advice?

If you are very sure that you write down the correct seed phrase, I don’t think you should be worried about testing the seed phrase, all you need is to make sure you save the seed phrase in a reliable place where only you can get access to, and avoid sharing the seed phrase with untrusted individuals even if they are your family members because your seed phrase is your Bitcoin, if you lose them or if someone have access to them, they can move your Bitcoin anytime without you knowing.
If you insisted or see testing the seed phrase worth it, then I will advice you to use another open source wallet like electrum to test your seed phrase, and once you confirmed it, then you should take proper action on handling your seed phrase because it is very important. Not your keys, not your Bitcoin.

[Findingnemo]

fair point, but he could also take the picture while not being connected to the internet(which I forgot to mention) so it won't be automatically uploaded to cloud storage and then print the image without being connected to the internet and then delete the image while not connected to the internet,

Not being connected to internet is different from never being connected to the internet,

Smartphones are spyware, all the apps track everything so you never know what they capture while your mobile screen is on/off without even opening the camera app and deleting doesn't erase the data completely only the hard reset does.

So it should not be trusted unless the device is never connected to the internet and it will never ever will be.

[Saint-loup]

If you wrote down the seeds correctly, you don't have to worry about it, it is done carefully and by double and even triple checking each word you write down. But if you want to be sure you will have to reset Trezor and reinstall it.

Basically you will have to go to the settings to select the Wipe Device option and when everything is erased unplug the Trezor, reconnect it and start the process by selecting “recover wallet” instead of creating a new one.

The only bad thing that could happen to you is that you may have written down the seeds incorrectly, so you will lose the little you have in the wallet, but better that than realizing it in the future when you have accumulated much more.

To avoid that SatoshiLabs offers a special feature on Trezor Suite allowing to safely test your seed by simulating a recovery procedure as mentioned by promise444c5, but it seems to be a bit safer to use the Advanced Recovery mode actually because it allows to do the procedure without exposing any word of the seed in any way to the computer while the standard recovery mode expose more informations.

https://blog.trezor.io/test-your-seed-backup-dry-run-recovery-df9f2e9889

[PX-Z]

Yeah it’s actually good to test a seed before you start stashing up your BTC so as to reduce any future drama on your funds…

I wouldn't try that for a seed phrase came from hardware wallet coz it will serve zero sense and will defeat the purpose of that hardware wallet. Instead make a picture of the seed (just mentioned already) double check  the spelling and orders its barely 24 words for you to double/triple check. Having hardware wallets and funds on it takes responsibility in the first place.

[promise444c5]

I wouldn't try that for a seed phrase came from hardware wallet coz it will serve zero sense and will defeat the purpose of that hardware wallet. Instead make a picture of the seed (just mentioned already) double check  the spelling and orders its barely 24 words for you to double/triple check. Having hardware wallets and funds on it takes responsibility in the first place.

It's actually  good to test( if a user isn't sure of his/her seed phrase) but safe measures must be taken to doing that and trezor did mention how users can do that in one of their blog ,  I did mention it in my comment as well , since it is an hardware wallet  most of it's  activities will always be a need to connect with Internet, unless if possible to  sign  transaction made from a view only wallet containing the xpub key without having to connect to Internet, since  the raw transaction can be broadcasted separately...
Making picture of a seed is not a good idea though , but checking and confirming the words( written probably on a paper / any offline means) multiple times while setting it up isn't bad , although there's still need to test it but so far you trust what you've written down then you're good to go.

[khaled0111]

I wouldn't try that for a seed phrase came from hardware wallet coz it will serve zero sense and will defeat the purpose of that hardware wallet. Instead make a picture of the seed (just mentioned already) double check  the spelling and orders its barely 24 words for you to double/triple check. Having hardware wallets and funds on it takes responsibility in the first place.

It’s imperative to double o even triple chec the seed words after you write them down but some people are very skeptical (you can’t blame them, honstly) and they need to verify that that seed actually belongs to the wallet they are using. They may alo want to veriy that the hardware wallet is genuine and/or is functioning properly.
In this case, they will need to use a third party tool to re-generate the wallet and see if it ayches the one on their hw wallet.
The safest way to do this is by following NeuroticFish’s suggestion or by using iancoleman on an air-gapped device.

[Zaguru12]

If you are very sure that you write down the correct seed phrase, I don’t think you should be worried about testing the seed phrase, all you need is to make sure you save the seed phrase in a reliable place where only you can get access to, and avoid sharing the seed phrase with untrusted individuals even if they are your family members because your seed phrase is your Bitcoin, if you lose them or if someone have access to them, they can move your Bitcoin anytime without you knowing.
If you insisted or see testing the seed phrase worth it, then I will advice you to use another open source wallet like electrum to test your seed phrase, and once you confirmed it, then you should take proper action on handling your seed phrase because it is very important. Not your keys, not your Bitcoin.

In as much as there is need to actually double check your seed phrase but simply cross checking it from the hardware device and the paper it was written can be a good way. The only need to test the wallet by sending and receiving I think is a wallet been setup with unique scripts like the multi sig wallet or time lock wallet just to make sure the wallet scripts is right. But importing the wallet seed phrase into electrum wallet will expose it to the internet except the electrum wallet is on an airgapped device.

[nakamura12]

Testing the seed phrase first if it will import the same wallet where the wallet addresses are what is shown when it was created before storing bitcoin in it. Writing your seed phrase will result in having a backup in case you lost the device or wanted to import the wallet in different wallet provider like electrum wallet. You may use it right away while you still have access with it but you shouldn't keep the btc in that wallet for too long if you don't have backup. It is more like a temporary wallet rathen than main use.

I would advise against this. One takes nowadays the pictures with the phone, which is constantly connected to the internet (i.e. security issue). Even more, many have it set up (knowingly or not!) that their pictures go to a cloud storage immediately after they're made (even worse security issue).

This won't happen if you won't use mobile phone but it's much safer if people will use usb with tail OS in it.

[batang_bitcoin]

Like what everyone has mentioned, the best way of testing it by simply writing it down on the sheet that's provided to you by trezor or if you have some notes there that you can keep or later on just tear it down into pieces so that there won't be any copy anymore that you have used for testing. And of course, it's a different copy you have for your back up. As you check with some tools, always VERIFY first!

ioncoleman

Shouldn't it be iancoleman?

[nelson4lov]

Putting your trezor seed phrase on any wallet software other than the official one in a bid to "test" the seed phrase will only increase the possibility of an attack on your wallet. It's a hardware wallet for a reason in that you don't have to input seed anywhere to test it out.

Just write it out and store securely. As long as Quatum computing doesn't make the algorithm that powers seed phrases obsolete, you're good to go.

[Knight Hider]

Testing: buy a 2nd Trezor, enter your seed, restore your wallet.