Here's the complete guide to recovering your Argent wallet, if you have an encrypted recovery key or have access to your wallet on another device.
Quick reminders
- The recovery takes 48 hours. Why? This is a deliberate security layer as it gives you time to cancel any unwanted recovery attempts.
- Unlike old fashioned Ethereum wallets, you do not need a seed phrase for a recovery (a piece of paper that acts like a password).
- You don't need to pay network fee for the off-chain recovery.
- You need to have unmodified encrypted recovery key file that you can save for your wallet upfront.
How do I get the encrypted recovery key?
If you have access to your wallet currently, please proceed with saving the key as described here.
If you don't have access to your wallet and see the error Encrypted key not found, please proceed with recovery with guardians.
How to process the recovery?
- Install Argent on your phone and go through the onboarding slides
- Tap Get started
- Enter the email address you used to create your wallet and tap the arrow -> button. You can use phone instead if this is more convenient for you. Verify your email or phone number per screen instructions.
- Choose a new passcode for your wallet and confirm it. You can toggle off Use Touch/Face ID to log in to use biometric authentication or leave it on as default.
- Tap Connect to Google Drive (Android) or Start recovery (iOS). If you are on Android, you will need to also select the Google account where you saved the recovery key previously.
- If you have phone number attached to your wallet, you will be asked to verify it.
- You will see the timer and in 48 hours your wallet will be recovered.
Moving between devices
If you are changing the type of a device you are using, there are extra steps after you save the encrypted key and before you start the recovery.
Moving from Android to iOS
1. On the new device, install the Argent app and open it once, it will create an Argent folder in your iCloud Drive root directory.
2. Put the encrypted key in that folder.
3. Proceed with the recovery according to the steps above.
Moving from iOS to Android
You can put the key from your Argent folder on iCloud to your Android device or Google Drive. Upon recovery on Android device, press and hold Connect to Google Drive for 10+ seconds, then the app will allow you to manually select the key file.
Possible issues
I don't have an option to go to settings
Please update your app to the latest version
I see Encrypted key not found error
- If you are on Android, check that you have selected the correct account.
- You might have moved/edited folder or file on your Google Drive (it should be in the root folder called Argent or Argent Wallet). If the folder is there but the app doesn't detect it, press and hold on the button for 6 seconds and you should be able to navigate to the encrypted key file manually. If this also doesn't work, please tap the "Recover with guardians" option.
- After saving the key you might have recovered the wallet with guardians, which changes the key and makes the recovery key, previously saved, obsolete. In this case, please use Recover with guardians option.