If you have your recovery phrase, Yoroi wallet recovery takes a few minutes: you restore the wallet on any device and your funds reappear. Locked out by a forgotten spending password, an invalid recovery phrase, a new or broken phone, or an old Byron-era wallet? The fix is below.
One quick note first. Yoroi is becoming SecondFi, (EMURGO), but nothing about recovery changes: same recovery phrase, same steps. Your wallet, assets and access stay exactly as they are; the app updates to SecondFi automatically if auto-updates are on, or manually from your app store, with no new app to download.
A rebrand like this is exactly when scammers show up. If a message, email or “support agent” says the SecondFi switch means you have to move your funds or hand over your recovery phrase, it’s fake. The real transition asks you for nothing.
What you need to recover your Yoroi wallet
Yoroi wallet recovery comes down to two things: your recovery phrase, and knowing which type of wallet you had. Sort out both and the rest is mechanical.
- Your recovery phrase. This is the list of words Yoroi showed you when you first set up the wallet. Every wallet created inside Yoroi gets a 15-word phrase. Yoroi can also restore a 24-word phrase if your wallet came from another Cardano app. It won’t accept a 12-word phrase, since those belong to other blockchains, not Cardano. The words and their order are the wallet, so keep them offline and never type them into a website.
- Your spending password is not your recovery phrase. The spending password is a short password stored only on your device, and it approves sending transactions. It never leaves your computer or phone, so no email or reset link can bring it back. Forgot it? You don’t need it to recover. You restore with the recovery phrase and set a fresh one, which is covered below.
- Which era: Byron or Shelley. Cardano changed its wallet format in 2020. Wallets made after July 29, 2020 are Shelley wallets, the standard type that supports staking. Older ones are Byron wallets. Yoroi asks which type you’re restoring, and picking the wrong one is the single most common reason a restored wallet looks empty.
Not sure which you had? You’ll try both, and that’s covered further down.
How to restore your Yoroi wallet
Restoring re-creates the wallet from your phrase and lets you set a new spending password along the way. It works on any device, which is the whole point of writing the phrase down. One safety rule matters more than any step here: only ever type your recovery phrase into the official Yoroi app. No website and no support agent ever needs it, and anything that asks for your
phrase online is a scam.
- Install Yoroi from the official source only, yoroi-wallet.com or your device’s app store. Fake wallet apps and extensions exist, so check the link before you install.
- Open Yoroi and choose Add wallet, then Restore wallet.
- Pick the phrase length that matches yours (15 or 24 words).
- Type your recovery phrase. Yoroi auto-suggests each word and shows “The recovery phrase is verified” once every word is right. It’s checked locally on your device and never uploaded.
Troubleshooting common restoration issues
Most recoveries stall on one of these. Find yours.
“Invalid recovery phrase” or a word won’t verify
If Yoroi rejects the phrase or won’t let you confirm, the words don’t form a valid Cardano phrase. The usual reasons: one word is misspelled or swapped for a similar one, two words sit in the wrong order, or it’s a 12-word phrase from a different wallet that Yoroi can’t use. Each word also has to come from the fixed Cardano wordlist, so a near-miss like “recieve” won’t pass.
If you’re sure you have the right words but the order or one entry is off, the fix is to test the likely combinations methodically until the valid one appears. Our full guide on an invalid Yoroi recovery phrase walks through the rest.
You forgot your spending password
Good news first: you can fix this yourself, and you don’t need anyone. Because the spending password lives only on your device, there’s no reset for it, but you don’t need one. Restore the wallet from your 15- or 24-word phrase and set a new password during the restore. The old password simply stops mattering.
This only works if you still have the recovery phrase. If you have the phrase but keep hitting other snags, the full guide is here: forgot your Yoroi spending password.
A new, broken or lost phone
The device doesn’t matter. Install Yoroi on any phone or computer and run the restore steps above. You don’t need the old device or any exported file; the recovery phrase is enough on its own.
The wallet restored but the balance shows zero
Two causes cover most cases. First, you restored the wrong era, a Byron phrase into a Shelley slot or the reverse; the fix is to restore again and choose the other type. Second, the phrase belongs to a wallet you’d already emptied into a newer one, so that old wallet really is at zero.
One reassurance: a zero balance on its own doesn’t mean your words are wrong. If Yoroi accepted the phrase, the phrase is at least valid. Try the other era before you assume the coins are lost.
You’ve lost the recovery phrase
This is the hard one. Without the phrase there’s no built-in way in, and any service that claims to conjure one from nothing is lying. Hunt properly before you give up.
The phrase is 15 or 24 plain words, and people store them in more places than they recall:
● A password manager, a notes app, or an email or message you sent yourself.
● A photo or screenshot in your camera roll or cloud backup.
● A paper backup: a notebook, a drawer, a safe, or the box the hardware came in.
● A second browser or phone where you once restored the same wallet.
If you have most of the words but the phrase is incomplete or out of order, there’s real hope. Because Yoroi uses BIP39, a partial or shuffled phrase can sometimes be rebuilt with dictionary and brute-force techniques.
When you do find the phrase, enter it only in the Yoroi app. Online “phrase checkers” that offer to validate or restore it for you are a common way people get robbed.
You have an older Byron-era wallet
Byron wallets still open, but they’re the old format and don’t earn staking rewards. If your restore only works as Byron, you can keep using it, or move your ADA into a new Shelley wallet you create: you send the funds from the Byron wallet to a receiving address in the new one, the same as any normal transaction. Daedalus, Cardano’s full wallet, also still opens Byron wallets if Yoroi gives you trouble.
Still locked out of your Yoroi wallet after trying this?
Crypto Recovers has been performing wallet recoveries since 2019, with more than 200 wallets restored, including rejected phrases, forgotten passwords, and phrases missing a few words. It’s No Cure No Pay: you pay only if the recovery works.
And unlike old-school services that pull the funds into their own hands and skim a fee, we never touch your money. Once access is back, you move the ADA yourself to a wallet you control. Start with a free assessment, no commitment.
