Passphrase is no longer working, empty wallet

Security
46

You can see other users’ responses above, the only way is to type the correct passphrase, if you open an empty wallet your passphrase is not correct.

47

Forgi,

thank you so much… you are correct… re entered the phrase and changed the capital letters and it went right through… pass the dunce hat please, I will wear it proudly because I earned it. LOL

thanx

Unclar

3 Likes
48

Hey! Can you please tell us which is the version of the Desktop Trezor suite you have that is working?

For Trezor devs / support: wouldn’t this prove that a bug was introduced at some point at the Trezor suite software? If so, If I were you I would deal with this situation with high priority / urgency since each customer waking up one day with an empty wallet erodes / evaporates the trust on the product very quickly. If the bug was already fixed, please let that know in this thread and clarify on which version so as to update accordingly.

49

Hi @Cirncias,

There is no bug, if you cannot access the desired wallet then you either have a different recovery seed stored in your Trezor or you use a different passphrase.

Generally, when the same recovery seed is used and the same passphrase is entered, the same wallet (with the same set of addresses) is accessed. There is no exception, the public-key cryptography ensures it generates always the same result.

There is a simple way how to verify you use the right recovery seed. Please check that the recovery seed stored in your Trezor device matches your recovery seed backup (the one you created when initialized your device for the first time). You can find instructions on how to perform this check here:
​
for Trezor Model One: https://trezor.io/learn/a/test-recovery-seed-on-trezor-model-one
for Trezor Model T: https://trezor.io/learn/a/test-recovery-seed-on-trezor-model-t
for Trezor Safe 3: https://trezor.io/learn/a/check-backup-on-trezor-safe-3

In case the recovery seed in your device matches your recovery seed backup, the only way how to access a different wallet (with different addresses) is with a different passphrase.

1 Like
50

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Trezor integration / Ronin Wallet / Axie Infinity

52

i’ve believe you’re corect. i’ve trying to downgrade the version now, i’ve searched else where on the internet, and some people did manage to make it work again just like you said. Thanks for mentioned it out for other people.

53

I have the same problem, Trezor app returns “empty wallet” but it works with metamask … How can I recover my non erc20 tokens?

54

Having the seed and the passphrase, from this it must be possible to calculate the correct key to import into another wallet that can access the tokens … Right? It should
not be possible that they are lost because of Trezour suite does not work.

55

Untrue, I get the “empty wallet” in trezors software but not in Metamask.

56

Hi @fgfkjg,

You can see the desired address with your funds in MetaMask because MetaMask creates so-called watch-only wallet after you pair it with Trezor for the first time. You are able to see the funds in this wallet, but you need the private key for the address that includes your funds if you want to manage these funds. From your description, it looks like you do not have the correct private key. You can simply try to send the funds out from your MetaMask, most likely it will not be possible because either your recovery seed stored in Trezor device is different or you use a different passphrase.

57

Here’s a possible solution that hasn’t been mentioned yet (i.e., other than wrong passphrase or wrong seed):

  1. Trezor Suite asks the user for their hidden wallet passphrase.
  2. The user hasn’t used the wallet for some years now, but they’re sure the passphrase is either “abc” or “abcd”. Spoiler: “abcd” is correct.
  3. The user types in “abc”, i.e., the incorrect passphrase.
  4. Trezor tells them: “This hidden wallet is empty. To make sure you are in the correct hidden wallet, please type the passphrase again.”
  5. The user is already pretty stressed-out because they have huge money stored in that wallet, so they don’t read this dialog properly (or they simply misunderstand it), so they take step 4. for being a simple “try again” dialog (after all, it does say “type the passphrase again”, doesn’t it?)
    Here the user introduces a mistake which can be hard to recover from: they enter “abcd”, i.e., the correct passphrase.
  6. Trezor presents them with “Hidden wallet #1” and says “Wrong passphrase”. [It was expecting the user to enter “abc” again, to create a new hidden “abc-wallet”. But the user never picked up on that distinction.]
  7. The user is now seriously confused and their process devolves into a series of further missteps and mistypes. (They try the same process again. Nothing. They start doubting their memory and proceed by trying other passwords and variations… sometimes they do retype the correct passphrase, but luck has it that they happen to type it in the wrong dialog again.)

Same problem can happen when in step 2. the user simply makes a typo which they then try to correct in step 4/5.

I believe this is an obvious UI/copy issue which is guaranteed to happen to at least some users.

To prevent this, the UI should be much more clear about what’s happening - e.g. say something along the lines of “The password you entered doesn’t match any existing wallet. [Try entering the passphrase again] / [I want to set up a new hidden wallet]”. And only after pressing the second option would the app ask for a passphrase confirmation.

3 Likes
58

I’m having the same issue as everyone. Difference for me is, I haven’t touched my wallet since end of 2017. I am sure of my 24 Word Seed, and of the Passphrase, I’ve used it many times.

I’ve done most things mentioned here, and I think a downgrade of firmware to the year I last used it, as oppose to newer versions, if there was a bug then, and was fixed, maybe if I enter the passphrase in that version it might work. But given there is some bug here with Trezor in 2017 affects my coins today, shouldn’t be the case.

59

Indeed, this could be the case with most of these problems I read here. The passphrase function of Trezor is also confusing UX and that’s why I decided to not use it, because nobody is going to guess your seed phrase, it’s already secure enough. But Trezor really needs to improve this feature to avoid all potential confusion.

60

Thank you, I have forwarded your feedback, this modal is being reworked also the larger passphrase flow will be different in the future.

1 Like
61

This is really a good idea and would prevent so much stress for everyone. After the clunky UI I even decided against using hidden wallets for this reason, because I don’t want to lose all my savings because of a user error which could have been prevented.

I really hope Trezor implements this.

1 Like