Recovering Trezor ETH from 2017 not showing

Barbie_Dragons · October 22, 2023, 12:42pm

Hi,

I bought ETH back in 2017 and have just recovered my Trezor as I had apparently forgotten my password. However, now that the device is recovered, I see that my balance is 0.00$ That’s of course a little disturbing… Trying to understand why that is. No one has my recovery seed and I have not transferred the funds.

I seem to remember that ETH has undergone some address changes since 2017. Do I need to do something special in order to access the “old” addresses or something?

Any help is of course appreciated.

Thanks.

ffvddfed3 · October 22, 2023, 3:49pm

When you say password do you mean seed and PASSPHRASE?

You’re most likely entering an incorrect seed
Which will give you entirely new different addresses

Barbie_Dragons · October 22, 2023, 8:16pm

My apologies. I mean I had forgotten the code you set in order to access the Trezor device. Then I had to use the Seed Phrase in order to recover the Trezor.

I only have one Trezor and only one Seed Phrase? Am I misunderstanding what you mean?

Also, I have done the “check seed” inside Trezor Suite and it’s confirmed to be the right one.

My Trezor is from a time where the Trezor suite did not exist. It was called Trezor Wallet back then. Don’t know if that clarifies further.

ffvddfed3 · October 23, 2023, 12:20am

ok is it a trezor model one?

you forgot the pin code this is why you have a seed to use as recovery

i think your seed is wrong
you have recovered hence enter into the trezor a new seed(trezor will say the new seed matches because you checking it against a incorrectly entered seed

DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER BACKUPS OF THE SEED for cross checking?

radekP · October 24, 2023, 8:17am

Hi @Barbie_Dragons,

first, I would like to mention that there have been no changes in the derivation of ETH addresses since 2017. It now works exactly the same as before.

You mentioned that you have only recovery seed, do I get it right that you didn’t use a passphrase in 2017 when you generated your ETH address for the first time? If so, there are two possibilities:

You recovered the wrong recovery seed to your device as @ffvddfed3 mentioned. Is it possible that you have more recovery seed backups?
Legacy Trezor Wallet (which was used back then) did not support ETH. However, ETH was supported by Trezor in 3rd party apps MEW (MyEtherWallet) and MyCrypto. In these wallets, you have the option to choose from more ETH accounts. Simply put, if you chose the 2nd, 3rd, or Nth account back then, these will not be displayed directly in Trezor Suite. However, it is possible to access these accounts again, for example via MEW. You can find information on how to connect Trezor to MEW at https://trezor.io/learn/a/myetherwallet-and-trezor
Check if the desired ETH address with your funds can be found in the list of ETH addresses that is offered when connecting Trezor device to MEW.

ffvddfed3 · October 24, 2023, 9:01am

@Barbie_Dragons

Basically what @radekP is saying is that you wouldn’t of been able to deposit a ETH directly into your TREZOR WALLET back then
therefore you’re most likely use some third-party application like mew,my crypto ect…

So check within these applications, this is most likely where your ETH is sitting

ffvddfed3 · October 24, 2023, 9:11am

@Barbie_Dragons

Just to add, watch a video tutorials on here about the third-party applications

Be careful where you type your seed and what transaction you approve(what happens on trezors screen is what is going to occur)

GOLD RULE) if you’re going to use a past phase which will = to a hidden wallet
Cross check this pastphase several times to avoid a mistype(there is never an incorrect phrase only a misstyped phrase)I would also recommend sending a small amount on a doge to it first say $1

Barbie_Dragons · October 25, 2023, 5:58pm

Yes, it’s a model one.

Yes, I forgot the PIN code and used the one and only seed I have.

I have no other seeds. It’s the only one I’ve ever had.

Barbie_Dragons · October 25, 2023, 6:15pm

Not entirely sure what you mean. I created a PIN code for my Trezor back then. Which I have then since forgotten. The seed came with the Trezor? Does that help clarify?

How do one recover with the wrong seed if I have only one? Or does the Trezor just accept anything and creates new accounts if there’s no previous seed like this??

No, I only have this one.

Now you get me all nervous, but I’m 100% sure I have not moved the ETH. I bought the ETH from one of the earlier exchanges, want to say something with “T”, but yeah…

However, Trezor did support ETH back in 2017. Since version 1.4.0. But yeah… Something must have gone wrong somewhere… Likely on my end…

Thanks for your time guys. Much appreciated.

ffvddfed3 · October 25, 2023, 7:25pm

do you have more than 1 copy(backup)of your seed?
check it for typo

let us know how it gos

radekP · October 26, 2023, 8:19am

Not entirely sure what you mean. I created a PIN code for my Trezor back then. Which I have then since forgotten. The seed came with the Trezor? Does that help clarify?

How do one recover with the wrong seed if I have only one? Or does the Trezor just accept anything and creates new accounts if there’s no previous seed like this??

Recovery seed, PIN, and passphrase are different things. PIN is the least important. Important is recovery seed and also passphrase (if you used it back then). The recovery seed is generated after you install firmware to your Trezor device. Let’s say you have the correct recovery seed. Now it is important to remember if you also used passphrase or not (check what passphrase is in the article linked above).

It is not possible to recover funds if you do not have the correct recovery seed or passphrase (if this feature was used). If a different recovery seed is imported to Trezor or a different passphrase is entered, a different wallet with different (empty) addresses is accessed.

Now you get me all nervous, but I’m 100% sure I have not moved the ETH. I bought the ETH from one of the earlier exchanges, want to say something with “T”, but yeah…

However, Trezor did support ETH back in 2017. Since version 1.4.0. But yeah… Something must have gone wrong somewhere… Likely on my end…

Thanks for your time guys. Much appreciated.

Please, keep in mind that Trezor Wallet was an interface used to operate your Trezor device (Trezor Model One). Trezor Wallet was deprecated and replaced by Trezor Suite. As mentioned before, Trezor Wallet (the legacy interface) did not support ETH. However Trezor device (Trezor Model One) did support ETH back then, which means that 3rd party wallet MEW or MyCrypto had to be use back then (these 3rd party wallets were accessed after you clicked on “ETH” in legacy Trrezor Wallet). In these 3rd party wallets it is possible to choose from more ETH accounts (1st, 2nd, 3rd, Nth), can you remember if you chose some other than the 1st ETH account?

As mentioned before, if you chose other than 1st ETH account, you will not be able to see it in Trezo Suite and you will have to use 3rd party wallet again.

If you do not remember what account you used, please try to connect your Trezor device to MEW, select “Standard wallet” (without passphrase) and check if you can see your account in the list of ETH addresses that can be connected to MEW. Information on how to connect Trezor to MEW can be found at https://trezor.io/learn/a/myetherwallet-and-trezor

Let us know the result.