Forgot your wallet password? Start with the flow.

Step 1 · Is it an exchange or custodial account?

If yes — this is a reset, not a recovery case. Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and similar platforms hold the keys; you prove identity and set a new password. Nothing on this site applies. → Exchange & custodial wallets

If no — you hold the keys yourself (a wallet file, an app on your device, a hardware wallet). Continue below.

Step 2 · Do you still have the seed phrase?

If yes — the password stops mattering. Most seed-derived wallets restore their normal seed-derived accounts from the recovery phrase. Imported private keys, JSON accounts, hardware-wallet accounts, or accounts from another phrase may need separate recovery material. → Password vs seed phrase · The 25th word

If the phrase itself is lost — that is a find-the-copy problem, not a cracking problem. Search paper, notes apps, email, photos, password managers and old backups. → The 68-place search checklist · Where old passwords hide

If you have the phrase but added an extra passphrase (the “25th/13th word”) you don’t remember — that IS a password problem and often solvable. → Seed phrase passphrase

Step 3 · Is it a wallet file or app password?

Then the encrypted wallet file is your test target. First find it — most files are found in backups, old devices, cloud storage or old emails, not lost forever. → Find your wallet file · what still works without it

Not sure it is even encrypted? An encrypted wallet can load and show public data while locked; the password is required for sending, signing or dumping keys. Check the wallet’s lock state, and identify the exact file. → Identify your wallet file · Dead device, corrupted file or missing seed? Those aren’t password problems either — the seven cases where cracking can’t help.

Find your wallet in the master list — it shows the verdict, the encryption, the tool and the mode in one row.

Step 4 · What do you remember about the password?

• Fragments, patterns, a shape (“a name + a year + a symbol”) — the strongest position; build a candidate list and the math usually follows.
• Nothing, and it was human-made — harder, but memory reconstruction (how your memory made it) plus the 68-place search checklist still wins real cases.
• It was randomly generated by a password manager — read the feasibility guide before spending a second on cracking; this is usually effectively impossible, so hunt for a stored copy.

Step 5 · Is the math on your side?

Speed × search space = time. Check your specific odds with the strength calculator, see the measured speeds, and read the ladder: possible, feasible, sensible, or impossible.

Step 6 · Forgot a hardware-wallet PIN instead?

A PIN is device-specific: after a number of wrong attempts the device wipes itself, and you restore from the seed phrase. The phrase is the real backup — the PIN alone is never enough. → Password vs seed phrase vs PIN · Back up your seed phrase

Before you try anything

Copy the wallet file read-only, write down every clue, and touch nothing until you have read the five protection moves. Recoverable cases are lost to specific mistakes — reinstalls, wipes, uploads — not by the original loss.

Sources & references

1. BTCRecover — documentation
2. hashcat — example hashes