Check Your Bitcoin Wallet/Seed Phrase Once A While to Know if Everything is Okay

[Creeper0]

It may be enough to check if your seed phrase is still there as you saved it after checking once. We don't really need to login to our wallet regularly.

But there's probably no harm in doing this, you can be independent here. You have to ensure the security of your wallet and you have to plan it yourself. If a security strategy doesn't harm your wallet or your funds, then you can be independent here. But I wouldn't recommend such unnecessary security strategies.

[Joy_learns_crypto]

Good advice. Sometimes I and many forget and neglect to check on our wallets, I mean not only to check our balance and do transaction but to check on our wallet based on if there is a security breach that we may not have seen.
After reading this I checked on my wallet as well as I can but I think it should be checked on more often, scammers can be patient letting their target feel that nothing is amiss so this routine can be important in catching sneaky scammers.

[hosemary]

But there's probably no harm in doing this, you can be independent here.

There may be.
You should always keep your private keys offline and every time you import your private keys (or your seed phrase) on an online device, you may decrease your security.

If you have a truly cold storage and you are the only person who has access to the private keys, there shouldn't be anything to worry about.
If you worry about security of your wallet for any reason, the best thing you can do is to go for a secure wallet. By checking your balance, you can only know whether your funds have been stolen or not and you don't achieve anything more.
What can you do when it's too late and you discover that your funds have been stolen?

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

There are lot of stories coming to our ears and eyes to see about people misplacing their seed phrase and lost their bitcoins forever. But if they were at least once a week or Month login to their wallets to check if everything is alright and also check the physical saved seed phrase is in good condition. And if they could not found the physical saved seed phrase, but they can login to the wallets, they can take the seed phrase again from the login wallet and keep it in a saved place. And don't automatically abandon your wallet because you have saved it in a good place or object.  Always login to your wallet or whatever place your store your coins to see if they are okay. We have read stories and heard people lost their bitcoins in a careless way or over confident that they are saved because the seed phrase is saved.
Avoid using Custodial wallets/exchanges to keep your bitcoins, because you are not the controller of the seed phrase and the exchange account. Use non custodial wallets. And always ask questions when you don't know what to do.  I don't know why people are still losing Bitcoin in the cold hands of custodial wallets/exchanges. Only seed Bitcoin to exchange when you want to sell and not to keep bitcoin there. Always remember the slogan: "Not your key, not your coins".

Not to input your seed phrase again but to check where you kept it. But to login your wallet to know if your coins are saved.

Logging into your wallet to check it's Seed Phrase is literally not necessary, because those Seed Phrases doesn't change with respect to time, but however, checking where you stored the physical Seed Phrase to know if it's still in good condition is very important and crucial, so as to ensure that it's either not damaged or lost. While secondly, it's also crucial that people store their physically written Bitcoin wallet Seed Phrase in different locations, so that if one gets lost or damaged, they could have the rest to rely. While thirdly, if you are financially bouyant enough and you have huge amount of Bitcoin in your wallet, you can just buy a separate mobile phone where you installed only your Bitcoin wallet and used solely for depositing and withdrawing, and after that should be kept offline and disconnected from Internet after used to avoid getting it corrupted with virus.

[CryptSafe]

This is a good idea because if you check your seed phrase once in a while, you could be able to detect any slight changes, possibly if there are any observations, such as a slight change in position or anything that could cast doubt on whether it was really the way and position you have kept it where it was. Sometimes funny things happen that someone might have likely seen it and is just watching your wallet, targeting you when you increase your investment to undo you. However, if you notice any changes in position, you could quickly transfer your assets and also change the location of your assets to another for your own safety.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

There are lot of stories coming to our ears and eyes to see about people misplacing their seed phrase and lost their bitcoins forever. But if they were at least once a week or Month login to their wallets to check if everything is alright and also check the physical saved seed phrase is in good condition. And if they could not found the physical saved seed phrase, but they can login to the wallets, they can take the seed phrase again from the login wallet and keep it in a saved place. And don't automatically abandon your wallet because you have saved it in a good place or object.  Always login to your wallet or whatever place your store your coins to see if they are okay. We have read stories and heard people lost their bitcoins in a careless way or over confident that they are saved because the seed phrase is saved.
Avoid using Custodial wallets/exchanges to keep your bitcoins, because you are not the controller of the seed phrase and the exchange account. Use non custodial wallets. And always ask questions when you don't know what to do.  I don't know why people are still losing Bitcoin in the cold hands of custodial wallets/exchanges. Only seed Bitcoin to exchange when you want to sell and not to keep bitcoin there. Always remember the slogan: "Not your key, not your coins".

Not to input your seed phrase again but to check where you kept it. But to login your wallet to know if your coins are saved.

If you will have to keep checking the location that you kept your seed phrase to ensure that it's still there, then it simply means that you did not keep it in a safe, secure and private place, and this already is a huge risk cus if any one else find the seed phrase and understand what it is, then your coins are gone.

And as a matter of fact, seed phrase don't change, they don't stop being the same words they were when the wallet was newly created, so I see no need checking and logging in on wallet simply to ensure every thing is OK, of course everything will always be OK as long as you did everything right from the beginning.. Accessing your seed phrase and using it to log in into wallet is another risk, because in the process of constantly doing this, one may end up exposing the seed phrase..

What happened to buying bitcoin, withdrawing them off the exchange and sending them into a private wallet and forgetting it there for atleast 4 to 5 years.?

[Stalker22]

Good advice.
~

No, its really not.  You dont need to "periodically check" your seed phrase, in fact, it is extremely risky to do so as you are exposing the seed phrase to potential hacks every time you check it. 

Once you verify your seed phrase when you write it down originally, it will never change.  There is zero point in looking at it weekly/monthly since you are just creating more opportunities for bad people to see your seed phrase.  Seed phrases are a backup for deep storage, not for a regularly use to log in.

If you are so paranoid that you want to "check" if your wallet still exists, you can simply go onto a blockchain explorer to see what your public address is.  Entering your seed phrase into any device just to check to see if it "is still good" is how you will get hacked.

[Joy_learns_crypto]

Good advice.
~

No, its really not.  You dont need to "periodically check" your seed phrase, in fact, it is extremely risky to do so as you are exposing the seed phrase to potential hacks every time you check it. 

Once you verify your seed phrase when you write it down originally, it will never change.  There is zero point in looking at it weekly/monthly since you are just creating more opportunities for bad people to see your seed phrase.  Seed phrases are a backup for deep storage, not for a regularly use to log in.

If you are so paranoid that you want to "check" if your wallet still exists, you can simply go onto a blockchain explorer to see what your public address is.  Entering your seed phrase into any device just to check to see if it "is still good" is how you will get hacked.

I did not mean seed phase, I meant checking your wallet,  I don’t think you should be checking your seed phrase periodically.
You seed phase is fixed and what is important for you to do with your seed phrase is to keep it safe and avoid letting it get disclosed to anyone.
I am more interested in checking your wallet frequently especially when you are a long term holder and don’t want to be tempted by checking your wallet, you need to know if their have been any active on the wallet that isn’t your doing.

[Onyeeze]

There are good reasons to be checking the place where the seed phrase is kept and to ensure they are still there. This can be done quarterly or twice per year and not weekly or monthly like you suggested. I don't also agree to performing regular opinions to the wallet, that can expose your wallet to security risk. When backing up the wallet, the login process is enough that everything is fine for me and not regular login which can lead to some form of risk.

The only good reason to be checking your seed phrase were it's being kept, is to be sure if the seed phrase is intact or not intact, if were your seed phrase is kept is good, you dont need to bother yourself about your seed phrase, but if you know that you dont trust your family people or you wife, it's when it will advice you to check your seed phrase often, because without a your seed phrase nobody can enters into your wallet and invade it or withdraw any coin you have saved, coin doesn't disappear in a wallet without someone knowing the seed phrase

[Findingnemo]

Checking whether the seed is securely stored is good but trying to import the wallet evey week is just increasing the exposure of getting it hacked, I won't suggest doing that but it can be good to check on a completely airgapped device once a year because 1 year is enough time to remember them before it is going on complete lost. Also it is always advisable to have multiple wallet backups, if in case one is destroyed, because of the point to avoid a single point of failure.

[Stalker22]

I did not mean seed phase, I meant checking your wallet,  I don’t think you should be checking your seed phrase periodically.
You seed phase is fixed and what is important for you to do with your seed phrase is to keep it safe and avoid letting it get disclosed to anyone.
I am more interested in checking your wallet frequently especially when you are a long term holder and don’t want to be tempted by checking your wallet, you need to know if their have been any active on the wallet that isn’t your doing.

In that case, it is best to use a watch-only type wallet.  This is the simplest way to keep an eye on your funds without any of the risk.

Since you are a long-term holder, you can see if anything moved, without the temptation of actually being able to trade or sell on a whim.

[hosemary]

I won't suggest doing that but it can be good to check on a completely airgapped device once a year because 1 year is enough time to remember them before it is going on complete lost.

Why would you need to import your wallet into an air-gapped device if the purpose is only to check the balance?
You can simply save your master public key (or your addresses) somewhere and create a watch-only wallet using that to check your balance and transactions.

[Z-tight]

This is a good idea because if you check your seed phrase once in a while, you could be able to detect any slight changes, possibly if there are any observations, such as a slight change in position or anything that could cast doubt on whether it was really the way and position you have kept it where it was.

If you backed up your seed phrase correctly and in the right order, how is it possible for that to change, lol, that's surely not possible. And if you meant if your seed phrase has moved from the position you stored it, then it means you backed it up in an unsafe environment and your funds would already be gone before you discover it.

Sometimes funny things happen that someone might have likely seen it and is just watching your wallet, targeting you when you increase your investment to undo you.

If your seed phrase is exposed, your funds would be stolen, it is as simple as that. It is much smarter to be concerned about storing your seed phrase in a safe environment.

[Publictalk792]

Technical forgetting is very dangerous mistake by many people who lose their Bitcoin by thinking that their seed phrase will stay forever without any checkup, as they have to check their seed phrase. This active check is important since in case you find out that your real backup is missing and you are still signed in, you can save your coins to new safe place with your final chance getting to it before being forever locked out. As well, you should not keep your Bitcoin on trading sites, because as long as you do not have the keys yourself, you do not really have coins. You keep your wealth safe during all troubles around the world, because you can use your own plug-in wallet and be careful in checking your own backups, to keep yourself safe against both hackers and your own lack of memory.

[X-ray]

You don't need to do this if you stored your seed phrases in at least 4 different places, lock it up and document the location or even better if you put them in familiar place but pretty secure.

I mean, no harm in checking every once in a while but seems like a chore to me if you need to recheck it every a month or so, sometime you just gotta travel somewhere else and don't have the luxury to recheck.

[Outhue]

Checking once in a while could have been a good idea if creation of new wallet doesn't have confirmation, after creating new wallets you are to reinsert the words, this is a recommendation from the wallet itself, you won't pass that confirmation screen if you don't insert the phrases for confirmation.

This process have neutralise the possibility of writing down the wrong phrases or ending up with bad phrases, you don't have to always log into the wallet to confirm every month or two, it's also not a good idea to always insert your recovery seed every now and then, human errors is still a very possible thing with crypto wallets.

[SeriouslyGiveaway]

Checking once in a while could have been a good idea if creation of new wallet doesn't have confirmation

Creation of a new wallet does not have confirmation, I am sorry but what you are writing and implying about?

Creating a wallet, for example non custodial wallet, can be and should be done offline on your own device, and there is no confirmation at all. It's just you need to type the wallet mnemonic seed, then wallet password accurately to create that wallet and use it. These steps are for making sure that you already back up your wallet and and possibly wallet password accurately.

What does "Checking once in a while could have been a good idea if creation of new wallet doesn't have confirmation" mean?

Because if you can not create your wallet, what is available for checking once in a while?

[Smartprofit]

Each forum member has their own system for storing their seed. 🙋

If you've written down your seed correctly and stored it securely, then in my opinion you have nothing to worry about. Checking your seed frequently, in my opinion, only increases the likelihood of it being compromised. After all, we live in a world with video cameras everywhere.

By the way, in the old version of the Monerujo wallet (a cryptocurrency wallet for storing Monero), a warning message always appeared before entering the seed: "Check if someone is standing behind you!" A very reasonable warning, in my opinion.🕴️

Of course, if you own Bitcoin, you should be paranoid... However, you should be reasonable and adequately paranoid! Constantly checking your cryptocurrency wallet reduces your security, not increases it!🧖

[Peanutswar]

I do not recommend to make a re-login with your seed phrase in every month basis because at the first place you have the access with your account already all you need is to have a multiple backup with your seed phrase which is you are the only one knows where did you put it and to check if the hardcopy are still in good condition this will prevent to have a natural desasters and occurance than using your seed phrase again and again we dont know that your device is already compromised and the hacker just waiting for the right time you will show up your seed and at the same time is if you are using a hardware wallet checking the condition too because you dont know if there is any damage at all this will just prevention for your assets.

[so98nn]

I would say simply not. You don't need to check "once a while"...
if your seed/phrases has been tested one time (how it should be initially) what should be the sense to test every...week/or month? it could change something?
the same tested words would stop to recover an address? ... imagine people using many address/chains/channel payments... no one could this to (and has not sense... coins are make to be stored not to be verified "once on a while").
login to wallet? you can just sign an offline message and see if everything is working fine. nothing more nothing less.
I would avoid to use any key/seed in online machine for "verifying" whatever it is still working.

I get it what OP said actually because I am the victim of this long ago. I also published a topic about it here and many fellow members tried to help me out with the tools from github to recover it. Actually I lost the wallet on Ledger. I got the phrases but there was some issue with the wallet opening.

I guess there was some mistake with the phrase OR wallet I dont know but I opened it after three long years. I really thought my BTC and ETH are safe in it but I lost it all. Till date the memory is fresh. I got the device but due to stupid mistake I am not able to access the funds.

All I can do is, input the address on block explorer and see my funds sitting right there just as it is.