Why Backing Up Your Seed Phrase is Important

[robelneo]

This should be a lesson for all of us to not take wallet security too lightly. Apps can crash for one or two reasons. But the most important thing is to back up your seed phrase. So, if the app crashes, we don't need to panic because we still have a backup that can be imported into another wallet app.

Anyone not backing up their seed phrase is either ignorant, has just learned Bitcoin yesterday, or is just being careless. We are our bank, and even if the possibility of losing your application is remote, it's still possible.
Small or big amount, or even if there are no coins in the app, once we use or set up a wallet, backing up is the next important thing to do, and not only backing it up but also taking good care of the backup.

[Dex_master25]

This should be a lesson for all of us to not take wallet security too lightly. Apps can crash for one or two reasons. But the most important thing is to back up your seed phrase. So, if the app crashes, we don't need to panic because we still have a backup that can be imported into another wallet app.

Anyone not backing up their seed phrase is either ignorant, has just learned Bitcoin yesterday, or is just being careless. We are our bank, and even if the possibility of losing your application is remote, it's still possible.
Small or big amount, or even if there are no coins in the app, once we use or set up a wallet, backing up is the next important thing to do, and not only backing it up but also taking good care of the backup.

I used to think that backing up seed phrases is quite a dangerous thing to do in cases of hacks or scams or phishing attack that could gain access to our device without our knowledge.  Am sure I know better now but securing it is a responsibility on its own.

[suzanne5223]

I believe some newbies in the crypto space are lucky because backing up a crypto wallet is something i learn the hard way years ago (around the year 2017) when I participated in a signature campaign where we were paid BTC with the project token.
From the beginning, the project wasn't worth much, but when the market ATH started, it reached $1 per coin, and when I checked my phone, the wallet kept crashing, just like what the OP experienced.
I couldn't reinstall the wallet cause i dont backup the wallet.

This is just a quick story about how I nearly lost my Bitcoin yesterday because my BlueWallet app crashed and wouldn't open.

So, I'm using an iPhone, and the memory is already very low, with only 1 GB left of its 128 GB. Since I only use my iPhone for storing photos and Bitcoin, I didn't bother clearing it.

Despite you backing up your Bitcoin wallet seed phrase. It is not advisable to have many activities going on the devices you use for your Bitcoin wallet. Although the mobile wallet may be for urgent payment purposes, but it is good to be more careful.

[sheenshane]

The same scenario happened to me.
Last week, my PC stopped working, and I didn't know why.  It suddenly died and had no power.
I installed my Electrum wallet on that PC in 2019, and I remembered I had kept my seed phrase on a USB somewhere in my drawer, so I wasn't worried when the PC failed and started searching that day.  Luckily, I found it and recovered my wallet on my laptop.

So always back up your wallet and all important credentials. (seed phrase and pass phrase)
OP was lucky to recover by reinstalling the app because the wallet file might still be there, but if they wait too long before acting, the wallet might not be recoverable anymore.

[Charles-Tim]

I used to think that backing up seed phrases is quite a dangerous thing to do in cases of hacks or scams or phishing attack that could gain access to our device without our knowledge.  Am sure I know better now but securing it is a responsibility on its own.

I think you still do not know much about this, people are posting about seed phrase backup but you thought it is dangerous thing to do in cases of hacks or scams or phishing attack that could gain access to yout device without our knowledge. I hope you are not referring to online backup or backup of the seed phrase on your device?

Backup your seed phrase offline, you can backup the seed phrase on paper and you can have three copies and they should be in different locations. If you want resistant to heat and water backup, you can get a steel washer and stamper for the words stamping on the washer.

[MusaMohamed]

I think you still do not know much about this, people are posting about seed phrase backup but you thought it is dangerous thing to do in cases of hacks or scams or phishing attack that could gain access to yout device without our knowledge. I hope you are not referring to online backup or backup of the seed phrase on your device?

Backup your seed phrase offline, you can backup the seed phrase on paper and you can have three copies and they should be in different locations. If you want resistant to heat and water backup, you can get a steel washer and stamper for the words stamping on the washer.

Wallet backups, seed phrase backups are recommended to be offline. It's very dangerous to make wallet backups online but some people don't understand this risk and they're careless enough to store their wallet seed phrase online, in messenger applications, emails, cloud storage for example.

Their accounts can be hacked, compromised and information of their wallet seed phrase will be stolen too.

Terrible Backup Schemes

Let's begin by going through some common forms of backing up seed phrases that are incontrovertibly prone to failure.

Storing your (unencrypted) seed phrase in any online service. This includes:

Taking a photo of your seed phrase.
Any note taking apps that get synced to the cloud.
Services that sync files from your phone / laptop to the cloud.

[Olatundespo]

Many folk make this mistake. They add assets to the wallet without taking a seed phrase backup and lose their assets due to device malfunction. The problem that occurred on your device is probably related to the upgrade. If the auto upgrade option is not enabled by restarting the phone and connecting to the internet, you should enable it. After the auto upgrade you can see every apps including the wallet active.

You need to be serious about taking a seed phrase backup because it is closely related to your assets and you need to write it down in multiple places as soon as you activate the wallet. You are lucky that you were finally able to re-sync BlueWallet and recover your assets.

[EarnOnVictor]

This should be a lesson for all of us to not take wallet security too lightly. Apps can crash for one or two reasons. But the most important thing is to back up your seed phrase. So, if the app crashes, we don't need to panic because we still have a backup that can be imported into another wallet app.

This is a lesson that even the person who started crypto today should know. But at times, people get too relaxed/careless. I fault you in two ways:
1. How on earth would you not have the backup? You shouldn't even have one, have at least two. Unless the money there is too little for you, and means nothing.

2. You shouldn't keep your phone's memory that low, anything can happen. I wonder how you enjoy the iPhone with the memory that low. Backup your media elsewhere.

[satscraper]

This should be a lesson for all of us to not take wallet security too lightly. Apps can crash for one or two reasons. But the most important thing is to back up your seed phrase. So, if the app crashes, we don't need to panic because we still have a backup that can be imported into another wallet app.

This raises the question of why, after being on the forum for around five years, you still refrained from backing up the seed of your wallet until the day it finally crashed.

Many people post literally every second about how essential it is to do this first thing in the morning after installing any wallet.

I got the impression that you have the deaf ear to what others say ^sorry.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

This raises the question of why, after being on the forum for around five years, you still refrained from backing up the seed of your wallet until the day it finally crashed.

Many people post literally every second about how essential it is to do this first thing in the morning after installing any wallet.

I got the impression that you have the deaf ear to what others say ^sorry.

Two topics and other resources for OP to learn about wallet backups, with recommendations on DOs and DON'Ts. Hopefully, this time after his personal technical accident with his wallet, he will pay more attention on learning and practicing this vital steps for his wallets and backups.

How to back up a seed phrase?
21 tips for securing your bitcoin.
Bitcoin security guide.
Securing your wallet.

[_act_]

This raises the question of why, after being on the forum for around five years, you still refrained from backing up the seed of your wallet until the day it finally crashed.

I have a friend on this forum, he has a bitcoin wallet on his iPhone. One day, the phone was stolen from him and he called me and asked about what he can do without backing up you seed phrase. He was on their forum before me, we have discussed about this before several times on this forum and I have seen his post before about it. I am still wondering why people post something but they are not following the advise they are giving to others. He lost the money on it and he also lost the phone. It was not a good thing, but people should not take things with negligence. This is the reason some people know the bad consequence of something but they still prefer not to avoid it.

[satscraper]

This raises the question of why, after being on the forum for around five years, you still refrained from backing up the seed of your wallet until the day it finally crashed.

I have a friend on this forum, he has a bitcoin wallet on his iPhone. One day, the phone was stolen from him and he called me and asked about what he can do without backing up you seed phrase. He was on their forum before me, we have discussed about this before several times on this forum and I have seen his post before about it. I am still wondering why people post something but they are not following the advise they are giving to others. He lost the money on it and he also lost the phone. It was not a good thing, but people should not take things with negligence. This is the reason some people know the bad consequence of something but they still prefer not to avoid it.

Probably such behavior is common among people who prefer to teach others rather than be taught themselves. I strongly believe that anyone who tends to give advice should follow that advice first and explore every corner of it.

I encounter posts quite often from users who haven’t even touched the subject ^{they make it obvious by what they write} yet despite this, they rush to advise others.

[LUSUBY]

Here are the most secure and discreet options for an external backup:

1. Bank Safe
2. House of a Most Trusted Family Member
3. Secondary Private Property (Country House)

[Ishicryptic]

Backing up seed phrase is one of the first lessons that I learnt on this forum and I cannot make a mistake of not writing my seed phrase and hiding it in different locations anything I create a new wallet. I know that if I loss my seed phrase and anything happens to the device where I opened the wallet either crash, lost or stolen my coins is gone forever. Seed phrase is the biggest responsibility of none custodial wallets, it is privacy to the core and if you cannot get a copy of it when your wallet device is compromised to import it when you create your wallet in another device then you cannot blame anybody for your lose except yourself. Every newbies should take note of this warning so they won't be victims of their ignorance.

[noorman0]

Given the OP's experience, the better suggestion is not the need to back up the seed phrase, but the need to do that immediately after the wallet is created. Sometimes we don't really pay attention to the health of our devices, especially if we use several devices for activities.

Here are the most secure and discreet options for an external backup:

1. Bank Safe
2. House of a Most Trusted Family Member
3. Secondary Private Property (Country House)

There is no universal standard for location, most suggestions only address what medium the key backup is written to. What is clear, the private key is data  that should not be leaked.

[retreat]

A hero member of Bitcointalk lost Bitcoin because he failed to back up his seed phrase, which means you did not even learn the basics of what we are doing here. I will not call that carelessness because you can't know the consequences or losing your seed phrase and still allow yourself to lose it. I don't even know if I should feel sorry for you or not because you have been around this space, read read about how people lost Bitcoin and still go ahead to ignore. Well, your losss is an important lesson for others that no matter how confident you might be, the moment you ignore doing the right thing, there is a heavy price to pay.

Sometimes people are so quick to spout bullshit rather than understand the content of a post. It has nothing to do with how many years I've been on this forum - even professionals make the funniest mistakes. I have several wallets, and that one was originally just a wallet I set aside for my pocket money, and it had maybe $100 in it, not a huge amount, so if it were lost, that would be it. And for that reason, I took it lightly and kept putting off backing up the seed phrase for that wallet - which actually cannot be justified either. And read again, I didn't lose the Bitcoin and managed to recover it smh.

[dansus021]

A lot of user often think the app is the wallet. It’s not. The app is just a window. Your Bitcoin/other crypto lives on the blockchain.

The Seed Phrase (those 12 or 24 words) is the only key that opens that window. If you have your seed phrase, you can throw your iPhone River  , buy a new one, and your money will be right there as soon as you type those words into any wallet app that is why Backing Up Your Seed Phrase is Important

[SeriouslyGiveaway]

A lot of user often think the app is the wallet. It’s not. The app is just a window. Your Bitcoin/other crypto lives on the blockchain.

The Seed Phrase (those 12 or 24 words) is the only key that opens that window. If you have your seed phrase, you can throw your iPhone River  , buy a new one, and your money will be right there as soon as you type those words into any wallet app that is why Backing Up Your Seed Phrase is Important

Bitcoin can be stored offline, airgapped and the original device where the wallet was generated is not too important for accessing your bitcoin. The condition is making your wallet backups (multiple backups, not only one), and be able to import your wallet, recover it on other devices whenever you want or need to do that even if the original wallet, device were broken and you no longer are able to access your wallet with original wallet and device.

The mandatory condition is backing up your wallet rightly, test the backups before funding it with bitcoins.

[Hewlet]

This should be a lesson for all of us to not take wallet security too lightly. Apps can crash for one or two reasons. But the most important thing is to back up your seed phrase. So, if the app crashes, we don't need to panic because we still have a backup that can be imported into another wallet app.

Even without a crash, there are a lot of things that can happen to your device which can lead to you not getting access to asset. The only way out of such situation is that you can easily login to app via another device because your seed phrase is intact.

While backing up your seed phrase, you have to ensure that you're doing so at the right place on not a place that can be easily compromised. As much as it's necessary to back up toke seed phrase, it's even more neccesary that we keep it in a safe and secure location.

[satscraper]

and it had maybe $100 in it, not a huge amount, so if it were lost, that would be it. And for that reason, I took it lightly and kept putting off backing up the seed phrase for that wallet - which actually cannot be justified either. And read again, I didn't lose the Bitcoin and managed to recover it smh.

The small wallet balance is a poor excuse for not saving SEED phrase. It must be backed up immediately after creating the wallet ^{unless the wallet is seedless}. Some wallets displaySEED phrase only once during initialization, meaning that after that moment it will never appear on the screen again.

Stories like yours show that users often prefer to talk about security rather than follow the basic rules that actually keep their funds safe.