#Tutorial. Restored your wallet but the balance is zero: what to check

If the wallet balance is zero after recovery, it does not necessarily mean your funds are gone. You may have restored a hardware wallet after a reset, set up a new device, or moved to a different model, only to open the app and find no coins or transaction history. In most cases, the app is looking at the wrong addresses or the device contains a different set of keys.

The most important thing to understand is that your coins are not stored on the device or in the app; they remain on the blockchain. Ledger Wallet (formerly Ledger Live), Trezor Suite, and other wallet apps read the blockchain using addresses derived from the seed phrase on the device. An address cannot simply “disappear”: it remains permanently linked to the corresponding keys. If the balance is missing, the app is either checking the wrong address or the device currently contains a different set of keys. Both possibilities can be checked. We use Ledger and Trezor as examples below, but the same six causes apply to any wallet that uses a seed phrase, including BitBox, Keystone, OneKey, and SafePal. Only the menu names differ.

We explain how to create and store a secure backup in our separate guide, “How to Store a Seed Phrase: 5 Safe Methods in 2026”.

The wallet balance is zero after recovery: check the address

This is the fastest way to understand what is happening. If you still have an address you previously used to receive funds — in your exchange history, a message, or a statement — look it up in a blockchain explorer: mempool.space for Bitcoin, etherscan.io for Ethereum, and so on.

• The balance is still there: your funds have not moved. The app or device is simply checking a different address. Continue with the checks below.
• The address has no balance and shows an outgoing transaction you do not recognize: this is a different situation and may indicate that the seed phrase was compromised. The checks below will not resolve it. Before drawing any conclusions, make sure the address is definitely yours and is the correct one.

Now compare the address shown in the explorer with the receiving address currently displayed by the app. If they do not match, you have opened a different wallet. The cause is almost always one of three things: the wrong seed phrase, a passphrase, or a different derivation path. We will look at each one below.

The accounts or coins have not been added to the app

This is the most common cause, and it has nothing to do with the funds themselves. Wallet apps do not always display every asset automatically. You may need to add the relevant accounts or enable the required coins manually.

Ledger Wallet

Ledger Wallet displays only the accounts you have added manually. The account list is stored locally in each installation of the app. After reinstalling Ledger Wallet or moving to a new computer or phone, you need to add the accounts again: go to Accounts → Add account, choose the coin, connect the device, and let the app scan the blockchain. This does not create a new account; it searches for existing addresses derived from the keys on the device. Ledger Sync can synchronize the account list across Ledger Wallet installations, so you do not have to repeat the process manually every time.

Trezor Suite

Trezor Suite handles coins in a similar way. If a coin is disabled in the settings, its balance will not appear at all. Reinstalling or resetting the app restores the default settings, which may leave some coins disabled. Open Settings → Crypto and make sure the coins you need are enabled.

Other apps, including BitBox App, Keystone, OneKey, and SafePal, work on the same principle. Only the menu names differ. Look for an option to add an account or enable the relevant network or coin. Until you do, the balance may not appear even though the funds are still there.

Passphrase: the main cause of “missing” balances

If you used a passphrase — often called the 25th word — with the old device, restoring only the seed phrase will open the standard wallet while the funds remain in the hidden wallet. The reverse is also true: entering a passphrase that was never used before opens a new, empty wallet.

A wallet is derived from the seed phrase and passphrase together. Changing even one character produces a completely different set of addresses. Nothing is malfunctioning; you have simply opened a different wallet. This is why Trezor Suite warns that entering a new passphrase may open an empty wallet.

What to check:

• Check whether you actually used a passphrase on the old device. If the funds were stored in the standard wallet, open it without entering anything in the passphrase field.
• Make sure every character is correct. Passphrases are case-sensitive, and every ASCII character counts, including spaces and an accidental trailing space. Trezor supports up to 50 characters; other devices may have different limits. Display the characters while typing so you can verify exactly what you enter.
• Check the keyboard layout. A common mistake is entering the passphrase with a different keyboard layout from the one originally used.
• Try your PIN as the passphrase. Trezor specifically documents cases in which users accidentally entered their PIN in the passphrase field and created a hidden wallet. If your funds unexpectedly appeared in a hidden wallet in the past, try entering your old PIN as the passphrase.

The wrong seed phrase

If you have used several wallets, devices, or backups over the years, it is easy to restore from the wrong backup. The device will still work normally; it simply contains the keys to a different, empty wallet.

How to check without resetting the device:

• Ledger: use the Recovery Check app on the device. Enter the seed phrase from your written backup directly on the device, and it will tell you whether it matches the phrase currently stored there.
• Trezor: run Check backup (dry-run recovery) in Trezor Suite. It performs the same comparison without resetting the device. If the backup does not match, the wallet was restored from a different seed phrase.
• Other devices: use a backup-check or dry-run recovery feature if one is available. Otherwise, compare the first receiving address with an old address you still have.

If you have several seed phrases and cannot remember which one belongs to the wallet, Ledger’s official advice is straightforward: restore the device with each phrase in turn, add the accounts, and check the balance. It takes time, but it works.

Derivation paths when moving a seed between wallet brands

This matters when you restore a seed phrase on a different wallet brand, for example when moving from Ledger to Tangem or from a desktop wallet to a hardware wallet. The seed phrase is the same, but different wallets may search for addresses along different derivation paths. As a result, the app may be checking the wrong branch of the key tree.

Tangem is a typical example: when importing a seed phrase, it supports only the standard BIP-44 path. If the original wallet stored the funds on a different path — for example, under another address type or an account other than the first — the balance may appear as zero. Tangem’s documented solution is to add a custom token and enter the derivation path used by the original wallet. You can find that path in the settings or documentation of the wallet you are moving from. In Trezor Suite, for example, an account’s derivation path appears under Details.

A related issue can affect wallets that generate a new address after each transaction, especially Bitcoin wallets. After an import, the app may initially show only the first address. That address may have a zero balance even though the funds are held at later addresses within the same account.

App cache and synchronization

If the receiving address shown by the app matches your old address, as verified in the first section, but the balance is still zero or incomplete, the issue is likely synchronization rather than the keys. This can happen after an outage affecting the manufacturer’s backend servers or because of a corrupted local cache.

1. Update the app to the latest version.
2. In Ledger Wallet, clear the cache: Settings → Help → Clear cache. The app will rescan the blockchain.
3. Check the manufacturer’s status page. Ledger Status Page shows whether the explorer for a particular coin is currently working. If the service is unavailable, wait for it to recover; your funds have not moved.

When to contact support

If you have completed all six checks and still cannot reconcile the results — the address holding the funds is visible on the blockchain, but no combination of seed phrase and passphrase opens it — the issue requires one-on-one troubleshooting. Contact the manufacturer’s official support team. Ledger and Trezor both provide help centers and chat support. Explain which checks you have already completed.

If you bought the device from us, contact us. We will help you troubleshoot it free of charge, go through the checks with you, and point you in the right direction. This is often easier than dealing with international support on your own.