Have You Made This Seed Phrase Mistake?

[Jegileman]

Repetition of a seed phrase is not what I have even come across before after creating a wallet and my mnemonic seedphrase is being given to me. I have never seen such thing before and I have not also heard anyone say something of such before that their seedphrase generated in that form with same seedphrase repeating itself twice. This is my first time hearing it and I’m a bit surprised. The pattern at which it followed each other is even more surprising, like why wasn’t it mixed up? But always confirm your seedphrase when putting it down somewhere. I am sure you didn’t confirm the numbers of seedphrase which caused you to make this costly mistake.

[BitMaxz]

Have you made a mistake such as this?

I had never made a similar mistake before. When I am doing a backup of my seed phrase, I do make two copies and make sure to rewrite them two times on the piece of paper before I safely hide them.
And I think, before you proceed on the wallet like in Electrum, it will ask again or verify the seed if you write it carefully, or you can try importing the seed again if you are going to get a similar wallet just to verify if you safely wrote them down.

That one missing word is easy to brute force; if you still had this seed, you could use the Finderouter tool to look for the missing word. Just provide the public key or an address of that wallet and add an asterisk under the missing word.

You can find the tool here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5214021.0

[hosemary]

This is my first time hearing it and I’m a bit surprised. The pattern at which it followed each other is even more surprising, like why wasn’t it mixed up?

There's nothing surprising here.

A 12 word BIP39 seed phrase actually represents a random number between 0 and 2¹²⁸ -1, and when you generate one, you can end up with any number in that range.
This means that there's nothing preventing a word from being repeated multiple times.

[Popkon6]

I am very careful about the seed phase of the wallet, I once kept my seed phase online in a new state and it got hacked from there, I corrected myself from that mistake. I write it in a paper diary and check it seven times from the side and compare each letter, I don't want to lose confidence in myself in any way.
Maybe because of my little problem, I may have a problem with my wealth in the future, due to which I collect the seed phase very carefully and write it in the diary. And I keep it very safe and I have informed my very close people so that even after my death, the seed phase of my wallet is not lost.

[AprilioMP]

It completely eluded me that a seed was repeated.

It could have been worse.

Have you made a mistake such as this?

Not so far. I always try to be thorough in everything I do. A seed phrase is crucial for a valuable asset like Bitcoin. If I were to make a mistake with my seed phrase, you can imagine what would happen to the future I’ve planned.

You’d be lucky if you could regain access to the device you’re using, but if not—and there’s no other way to access it—all you can do is sit and brood.

[Fiasem20]

I haven’t come across repeated words(seedphrase) whenever I’m creating a wallet.And I was curious when I read the Op’s content I had to carry out my own findings to figure out what the Op meant and when I did my findings I discovered that it is something that usually happens when creating an account in a wallet.But regardless of that,it’s crucial to cross check important data like seedphrase because your seedphrase is your recovery phrase so importantly it can help you recover your wallet when your device got stolen or missing.Above all nobody is above mistake,certain things happen for certain reasons if had written your seedphrase correctly you wouldn’t have discovered that a word can appear twice,so atleast your mistake have added knowledge you and the community.

[YellowSwap]

How did this happened because you will be asked to verify the seed phrases after the revealing page of your wallet when trying to create a new wallet address, you must have done something wrong or the wallet is crap.

Why don't you share the name of the bitcoin wallet? This is only possible if you use a second phone to take screenshot then deleted later or that wallet allow screenshots.

A good wallet shouldn't allow you to take screenshot and a good wallet must make sure that you reinsert the recovery seed as verification before funding the wallet.

[davis196]

I've had to use my seed phrase to recover my wallet only once(when I had to reinstall the Operating System on my laptop) and it worked fine.
AFAIK, almost all cold wallets have a built-in feature forcing the user to repeat the seed phrase right after the 12 words were created. This is to make sure you don't miss any of the words and you don't repeat words. So to answer your question, no I haven't made such mistake. There are other points of failure. I keep my see phrase on a piece of paper, so I might lose that piece of paper someday, or I might throw it away by mistake. You never know what is going to happen.

[uche6215]

Have you made a mistake such as this?

If you are saying you missed a word which was repeated and how did you complete your creating of the wallet because before you complete the setting up the wallet, you must write the seed phrase at somewhere and after writing, you click next to rewrite the seed phrase back to the wallet in the requested seed box so I don't how you skip that process and keep the seed in your paper until the second use. There must be a first use of the seed phrase in the time of creating the wallet.

I have created a similar thread but my case was different and clear. I was using the wallet and suddenly the seed phrase could not worked when I wanted to use it in another device and I created a thread in the wallet board and pmed some people to verify it for me and they did.

[bubilas]

Backing up your seed phrase may just be a normal routine, but a slight oversight could be costly, very costly. I once wrote down my seed phrases and put the paper safely away. Months later, my laptop had an issue and I tried using the seedphrase to recover my wallet but couldn't. All efforts to import the old wallet didn't work, so I decided to take a closer look at the seed phrases I wrote down. I was struck with horror when I counted them and they were eleven words instead of twelve.

I wondered how I missed a word, a seed.

Days later after fixing my laptop, I accessed the wallet and quickly checked up the seed phrase. The issue was that I misses a word that was consecutively repeated. It was like:

milk honey truffles anger woman kings seed seed bananas oranges action event


It completely eluded me that a seed was repeated.

It could have been worse.

Have you made a mistake such as this?

No, I've never made such mistakes because I'm very careful about them. I think all Bitcoiners fall into one of two categories: some keep their seed phrase online, while others write it down on a notebook. But I don't like the idea of someone finding the notebook, and then all your hard work accumulating Bitcoins would be for nothing. After all, anyone could enter the seed phrase, and you'd no longer own your crypto. I once thought it would be cool not to write down the last word of the seed phrase anywhere. Instead, I'd memorize it. Like the word "Play," for example. I think that's something you'll never forget.

[m2017]

Backing up your seed phrase may just be a normal routine, but a slight oversight could be costly, very costly.

Can cost you all your savings.

I once wrote down my seed phrases and put the paper safely away.

Paper? Not the most secure way to store seed phrase.

Also, some people hide it so well that they might never find it themselves.

Months later, my laptop had an issue and I tried using the seedphrase to recover my wallet but couldn't. All efforts to import the old wallet didn't work, so I decided to take a closer look at the seed phrases I wrote down. I was struck with horror when I counted them and they were eleven words instead of twelve.

Therefore, it was necessary to make 2 (or even 3) copies of the seed phrase backup.

I wondered how I missed a word, a seed.

You should have checked it carefully after you wrote down seed phrase on paper.

Days later after fixing my laptop, I accessed the wallet and quickly checked up the seed phrase.

That is, if the HDD were to fail completely (the SSD is technically irreparable), you would lose access to your wallet forever.

You could also back up your OS image (or save backup copies of your wallet).

The issue was that I misses a word that was consecutively repeated. It was like:

milk honey truffles anger woman kings seed seed bananas oranges action event

In fact, if one word were "lost", it would be possible to regain access to the wallet (using appropriate services). However, duplicate words would likely complicate the process, given that these words could occupy any ordinal position.

Have you made a mistake such as this?

I hope not. Otherwise, it would be a disaster.

[Luzin]

milk honey truffles anger woman kings seed seed bananas oranges action event


It completely eluded me that a seed was repeated.

A few times I've created wallet addresses, but I've never come across a seed that repeats exactly like yours. Is it possible for someone to have the same seed as you? I don't think so. But I have missed some seeds a few times when opening my wallet. It's definitely my own negligence. I wasn't focused enough when writing down the seed, so only 11 seeds were recorded. But I also sometimes forget what type of wallet I made, for example, Electrum has several types like Standard wallet, 2FA, or Multisig Wallet.

[coinrifft]

Double check everything what you write as your seed phrase. Or you might want to check it from time to time if it is the correct seed phrase before putting huge amount of BTC in it.

And there are good ways to store your seed phrase like in metal. There were even DIY method to do it,    
Securing Your Seed Phrase with Washers.

[hd49728]

Double check everything what you write as your seed phrase. Or you might want to check it from time to time if it is the correct seed phrase before putting huge amount of BTC in it.

And there are good ways to store your seed phrase like in metal. There were even DIY method to do it,    
Securing Your Seed Phrase with Washers.

Double checks or more checking times when you write down a wallet seed phrase is good, but not enough. There is another step, that is important, practice of using your backup to recover that wallet, compare the original wallet and a recovered one to see whether they're the same.

More DOs and DON'Ts with wallet backups in this following article from Jameson Lopp, and more topics.
How to back up a seed phrase.
Crypto Security - Additional Protection For Your Seed/Private Keys.
Protect yourself from fake wallet software (guide).
[GUIDE] How to Create a Strong/Secure Password.

It's not only for offline, airgap backups but for digital wallet files you have, you must secure them well and that means you must use strong passwords for your wallet files.

[standardnepo]

Yes, I did. I didn’t know the same word could come up twice. I had to check everything again, and I was pretty stressed because it was my first time using a cold wallet and sending crypto from an exchange to it.

My 7th and 8th words are the same, and it’s not exactly fun to think you’re missing a word when you’re trying a cold wallet for the first time Anyway, after checking the seed phrase again, I noticed the repeated words, and now everything is safe.

[Glen Hoddle]

It is most important to be very careful about the wallet, remember that this is where your future will be deposited, i.e. the amount of Bitcoin you will deposit depends on your seed phase collection.
So every person should pay serious attention to the wallet, a small mistake here is enough to lose your Bitcoin and it will never be possible to recover it. So give importance to the wallet and build your future beautifully.

[uchegod-21]

Have you made a mistake such as this?

No, I have not made this kind of mistake before. How is it even possible for me to make this kind of mistake when I will be required to re-enter my seed phrase to confirm that it is correct? Even if the seed phrase contains the same words, the words still need to be confirmed to ensure they are the exact 12 or 24 words, as the case may be.

This kind of mistake is very expensive, but it can also be avoided. No one should put themselves in a situation where they begin to panic when they are required to recover their bitcoins. Writing down the correct seed phrase and keeping a proper backup is very important.

[MusaMohamed]

No, I have not made this kind of mistake before. How is it even possible for me to make this kind of mistake when I will be required to re-enter my seed phrase to confirm that it is correct? Even if the seed phrase contains the same words, the words still need to be confirmed to ensure they are the exact 12 or 24 words, as the case may be.

This kind of mistake is very expensive, but it can also be avoided. No one should put themselves in a situation where they begin to panic when they are required to recover their bitcoins. Writing down the correct seed phrase and keeping a proper backup is very important.

With wallets, and backups, people must do it properly and safely. That means they have to back up their wallets, and test backups to check whether they actually backed it up accurately, and the backups are actually usable for recover wallets correctly.

This check backup step is important and is noted here.
How to back up a seed phrase?
About repeated words in a wallet seed phrase, Lopp has another article about it.
How Many Bitcoin Seed Phrases Are Only One Repeated Word?

[sunsilk]

I've only done that mistake when I didn't double check when I'm writing down. Good thing for me is that I've got other written down back up.

And that's why cross checking and double checking is important when you're writing down your seed phrase.

Because just for one mistake, your funds is gone forever and you'll have no idea what that missing word is.

[Cricktor]

I don't know why people don't do the obvious when they write down the mnemonic words backups: number each word properly. This also avoids later confusion in which direction you wrote down the words when you have multiple lines and/or rows (by line first, from left to right OR rows first, from top to bottom).

You should immediately spot when you don't have 12 or 24 words (most common number of them for standard BIP39 mnemonic recovery words).

It's not very likely that two adjacent words are the same, but not impossible. Each mnemonic word represents eleven bits of the starting random entropy (except for the last word which contains bits of a partial SHA256 checksum), so two chunks of eleven bits could be the same string of bits. Possible, but quite unlikely.

And someone else already wrote it and I find it quite puzzling, OP apparently didn't verify immediately after writing down the mnemonic recovery words, if he could successfully recover his wallet. Seriously, why no verification!? It makes no sense to skip proper verification.