Why do I see zero balance after importing my old wallet?

Written by Martin J. Maddox

Updated 2 years ago

1. Check if you have tokens in your old wallet.

Make sure you have funds in your old wallet. Use any Tezos blockchain explorer (for example, tzstat) to check this info. If you see that your account has tokens, you should follow the correct import procedure.

2. Your old wallet uses combination of a Password and Mnemonic phrase to generate a Private key.

To better understand how the import works, you need to read this short explanatory article about crypto wallets and private keys. In short, some wallets, for better protection, use a combination of a seed phrase and a password (or even email) to generate a private key. This private key is used to get access to your funds in the Tezos blockchain.

If your old wallet required a combination of a password and a seed phrase, you will need to add this info to the Temple wallet.

If you use only a Seed phrase without a password, the Temple wallet will generate a new account with the new private key that provides access to a new account. You will see that the new wallet has zero funds on it.

Solution: use the combination of a Seed phrase and a Password from your old wallet

3. You have a fundraising account from the Tezos ICO

From this article you will learn how to correctly restore your fundraising account.

4. You have multiple accounts in your old wallet.

A seed phrase is used to generate private keys for all of your accounts in the wallet. When you import your wallet via a seed phrase, you get access only to the first account from your old wallet by default. It's possible that this account doesn't have funds, and you need to add others. If you want to add others accounts, read this article.

5. Different derivation path

A derivation path is a piece of data which tells the Temple wallet how to derive a specific key within a tree of keys.

Your old wallet uses a different derivation path for creating accounts from a seed phrase. In your Temple account click "Import account" and choose Mnemonic. Enter your Seed phrase and change a default derivation path that your old wallet had. If you are trying to export account from your old Temple wallet you need to change nothing.

6. You made a mistake in your Mnemonic (Seed) phrase!

The Temple wallet generates a new account from any Mnemonic phrase, even if you used a wrong one. If you add a wrong seed phrase, Temple will generate a private key from this seed phrase and use it to get access to a new account. This account will be different from your old account and empty. You will see an empty wallet because this wallet was just created (The wallet address will be different).

Solution: Check for input mistakes in your Mnemonic phrase. To be sure that everything right:

- If you import the Temple wallet account, your seed phrase must have 12 words

- Check that you use a Temple seed phrase -not Metamask or other wallets

- check all words should be in this dictionary.

- you don't have spaces before a seed phrase and after.

An alternative solution how to check the correctness of the Mnemonic phrase is to try to use this phrase in another wallet. You can choose any external Tezos wallet, where you can import your old seed phrase and see what account you will receive - with your funds or empty. In case your account is empty - it is a high probability that your Mnemonic Phrase has a mistake. For example, you can try to use Кukai wallet.

7. Make sure to turn off Autocorrect/Autotranslators plugins

Some plug-ins in your browser may modify your text as you type it. After you have entered your seed phrase, double check that no undesirable changes were made and the phrase is exactly the same as you've written it down initially.

8. Technical issues

The Temple wallet connects to the Tezos node to sync your token balances. Sometimes, this node may be overloaded, and the Temple wallet won't be able to receive the current balance at the moment. Just wait a few minutes and reload the Temple wallet. You can always see your current balance in any Tezos explorer. Also, we had received few reports when a local internet provider blocked access to the wallet. Please, check the wallet address. If it's your old wallet address and you see a balance on tzStats it is possible with the Node or your local Internet provider.

9. Use our video tutorials

In case you plan to import your account from these wallets: Airgap, Kukai, Exodus, TezBox, Magma, Galleon, Atomic - you may use our video tutorials.

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