Do you remember the recent cases of lost crypto wallets, or forgetting the passwords and keys, so the owners couldn’t access their savings, and finally exchange their Bitcoins for real money? In the first months of 2024, BTC’s price was pretty high, and those who bought some coins a few years ago could easily become rich – if they knew where their wallets were. There were plenty of stories about old computers, USB devices, smartphones, that are now in some trash, waiting to be recycled, together with the Bitcoins stored on them. Also, there are people who keep their wallets but don’t know the codes, so it’s difficult for them to access their money.
If you are losing your nerves right now because of that, there are a few things you can do to find and restore your wallet, but keep in mind that none of them is 100% guaranteed to work. No matter what, the crypto market is a pretty risky place, and before you take any step, you will have to learn more about the potential risks at www.comfortskillz.com, and then proceed with your activities. Losing your belongings is frustrating, and not knowing where your wallet is is a silly situation, especially if you already have some significant funds there. Sometimes it can be damaged, and accessing it can be difficult.
In this article, we will try to collect all the useful tips we found, related to this issue, and even though they might not work 100%, some of them can ease access to your funds, and lead to faster recovery.
1. Check the factory recovery tools
Sometimes, the wallets are connected to online accounts, and there is a tiny hope that the manufacturer may provide some recovery tools that you can try. One of the possible solutions is to visit a professional who owns some tools, to try to help you with this one.
2. Check all the options
If you have a hardware wallet, try to locate it by investigating every corner in your room, the bags you don’t use, pockets in your jackets, secret boxes – every possible spot in your house, so you can remember where you put it. If it’s on your computer, explore every folder. Probably you’ve put it in folders you don’t visit often, but every location is possible. If you lose your access keys, then you have a huge problem. The main suggestion is to write them down and hide the pieces of paper in different locations, so you can always have a plan B in situations like this. Check the old folders, purses, drawers, writing pads, books, literally everything and everywhere. Eventually, you will remember some details while doing that.
3. Track down your steps
It’s pretty hard to remember what you have done previously, but you can try every method that comes to your mind that you think will be helpful. Run through the old emails, check the notepad files, write all the passwords you recall, PIN codes, and every detail connected to the BTC accounts. If you have a web wallet, dive into the browsing history. If it was on your phone, you can see the app history, but you may have issues with the third-party apps. Sit down, close your eyes, and think about the details you need to know, so you can remember what you have done previously, that can be useful now.
4. Import and recover the data
Once you found your wallet (we hope you did that), you have to recover it. It’s good if you remember the access keys and PIN codes. If you don’t, then you have to work on it and find them. When you are ready, move the Bitcoins to your new wallet, or proceed using the old one.
Note: Keep in mind that these methods don’t guarantee success, but they are everything you can do. There is no magical way to recover the old or lost wallet.
What not to do to find it?
Don’t go to landfills, because they are toxic. If you are sure you have thrown it away, then it’s probably lost forever. There are tons of dangerous electronic waste and it’s surely a bad idea to try to find your device in the piles of trash. Also, don’t hire hackers to do that, because if they access it once, they will be able to do it all over again, and until you are completely aware, your BTCs are lost forever.
How to prevent losing your crypto wallet?
It’s easy to say this, but you have to be very careful and always know where it is. Probably when Bitcoin wasn’t worth much, you didn’t take enough care of the wallet, because you didn’t think it would be this profitable in a few years. But, is it possible to avoid losing it? Sure it is. And that’s the only way you can protect your crypto earnings from getting lost forever.
We must be responsible for our belongings. For example, if you invest in some other cryptocurrency right now, and you pay a little money for more coins, then you have to learn from your mistakes and remember where you put them. Choose keys that you can easily remember, but that are difficult for others to discover. Keep them in a safe place, so you can prevent losing them.
People are doing crazy things to recover their lost Bitcoin data, and we already mentioned digging into landfills and hacking their own wallets. But do you know that some of them went to hypnotherapy? There are people who are earning crazy amounts of money, helping others to remember where they put their crypto wallet. Don’t be one of them. Behave nicely to your belongings, so you don’t need to do anything.
And if you can’t find, access, or recover it, then don’t lose your time on it. It’s lost forever, and sometimes we can’t do anything against that. Move on with your life and be more responsible the next time.